Article

Batu Tarsilah: the genealogical tablet of the Sultans of Brunei. Pengiran M. Shariffuddin and Abdul Latif bin Haji Ibrahim

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Batu Tarsilah: the genealogical tablet of the Sultans of Brunei. Pengiran M. Shariffuddin and Abdul Latif bin Haji Ibrahim

Pengiran M. Shariffuddin and Abdul Latif bin Haji Ibrahim published this revision of the Batu Tarsilah in 1974, addressing a century-old dating error in the transcription of the genealogical tablet of the Sultans of Brunei. Their central thesis is that Hugh Low’s 1880 conversion of the tablet’s Hijri date to a Gregorian year was a guess that propagated through subsequent authorities, and that careful calendrical computation corrects both the tablet’s date and the death date of Sultan Mohammad Jamalul Alam recorded on his tombstone.

Summary

The article undertakes a philological and epigraphic re-examination of the Batu Tarsilah, a sandstone tablet inscribed in Jawi script that records the succession of Brunei’s sultans from the founding era through Sultan Mohammad Jamalul Alam. Low’s original transcription, published in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1880, contained spelling errors attributable to the absence of a standardised Romanisation system at the time, as well as omissions of words and a critical misreading of the date. Sweeney’s 1968 re-editing in the JMBRAS perpetuated the dating error without correction. Shariffuddin and Ibrahim present a full re-transcription, marking Low’s readings in brackets and his omissions in italics, and then focus their analytical energy on the calendrical problem rather than on the English translation.

The core argument proceeds in two stages. First, they demonstrate that the tablet’s closing date—2 Zulhijjah, A.H. 1221, Arba’ (Wednesday)—was wrongly rendered by Low as A.D. 1804. Applying Freeman-Grenville’s method of converting Hijri to Gregorian dates, they show the date falls in early February 1807, and they adopt Prof. Syed Naguib Al-Attas’s refined computation of 8 February 1807, which accounts for the six-hour offset between Islamic and Christian day boundaries and reconciles the weekday discrepancy. Second, they turn to the tombstone of Sultan Mohammad Jamalul Alam, which Low had read as A.H. 1210 (1798). The authors argue that Low omitted the word sembilan (nine), and that the correct reading is A.H. 1219, yielding a death date of 6 Sha’ban, A.H. 1219 = 10 November 1804 (Friday). This is corroborated by the known accession date of 15 Muharram 1219 (27 April 1804) and the traditional reign length of six to nine months, whereas Low’s 1210 date would create an impossible succession sequence with his father’s accession.

The tablet itself also reveals a political lacuna: it omits Sultan Abdul Mubin, the thirteenth sultan, who overthrew and executed Sultan Mohammad Ali. The authors note this silence without elaboration, but it underscores that the tablet was a product of a particular political moment—commissioned by Sultan Mohammad Tajuddin as a dynastic legitimising document rather than a neutral chronicle.

Key Findings

  • The tablet is carved in soft porous sandstone, measuring approximately 4 feet high by 3½ feet wide by 6 inches thick, set on a base about 4 feet high and 20 feet square (p. 87).
  • The tablet’s closing date is 2 Zulhijjah, A.H. 1221, Arba’ (Wednesday); Low erroneously converted this to A.D. 1804, whereas the correct Gregorian equivalent is 8 February 1807 (Al-Attas) or 10 February 1807 (Freeman-Grenville) (pp. 90–91).
  • Sultan Mohammad Tajuddin, who commissioned the tablet, died in A.H. 1221 = A.D. 1807; his tombstone bears only the year, not the full date (p. 92).
  • Sultan Mohammad Jamalul Alam’s tombstone reads 6 Sha’ban, A.H. 1219, Jumaat (Friday) = 10 November 1804, correcting Low’s erroneous A.H. 1210 = 18 February 1798 (pp. 94–95).
  • Sultan Mohammad Jamalul Alam ascended the throne on 15 Muharram 1219 = 27 April 1804, giving a reign of approximately six to seven months, consistent with traditional accounts (p. 95).
  • The tablet omits Sultan Abdul Mubin (13th Sultan), who overthrew and ordered the execution of Sultan Mohammad Ali, the father-in-law of Sultan Mohiddin (p. 91, n. 10).

Conclusion

Shariffuddin and Ibrahim establish that the Batu Tarsilah is a politically motivated dynastic document commissioned by Sultan Mohammad Tajuddin in the final years of his reign (d. 1807), and that the single most consequential error in its scholarly reception—Low’s off-by-three-years dating—stems from a casual guess rather than calendrical computation. Their correction of both the tablet’s date and the death date of Sultan Mohammad Jamalul Alam resolves a succession puzzle that had persisted in Brunei’s official records for over ninety years, and demonstrates that the tablet’s omissions (notably Abdul Mubin) reflect the political interests of its patron rather than any gap in the historical record.

Context

  • The study draws on the physical inscriptions themselves (the Batu Tarsilah and two associated tombstones in the Royal Grave Yard, Brunei), Low’s 1880 transcription in the JSBRAS, Sweeney’s 1968 re-editing in the JMBRAS, and correspondence with Prof. Syed Naguib Al-Attas on Islamic-Gregorian calendrical conversion (pp. 87–95).
  • Historiographically, the article corrects a foundational dating error that had been reproduced in the Brunei Annual Reports (1960–1966) and in Sweeney’s earlier work, and it introduces a methodological precedent for verifying Jawi-inscribed dates through astronomical computation rather than accepting earlier transcriptions at face value.

References