Reinstatement of an orang hulur
This short note by W. Linehan reproduces a sealed certificate from the Engku Besar (Bendahara) of Pahang granting reinstatement to a man named Hassan, and provides an explanation of the social status of orang hulur in the Pahang court.
The document itself is a proclamation dated the eighteenth day of Muharram, year 1295 A.H., in which the Engku Besar declares that Hassan of the Kuala has ransomed himself and is released from his degraded condition (p. 185). Linehan, drawing on an explanation from Haji Abu Bakar, Malay Secretary to the Sultan of Pahang, distinguishes orang hulur from abdi (non-Muhammadan slaves) and hamba berhutang (Malay debt-serfs): orang hulur were Malays adjudged insolvent and declared by the Bendahara to have suffered loss of caste, a degradation that only the raja could impose and that required formal sanction by the Bendahara for reinstatement (p. 185). Linehan also notes that the seal on the document bears the date 1275 A.H. (1858 A.D.) and styles Ahmad as Bendahara, but that Ahmad did not become undisputed ruler of Pahang until 1863–64, and that the seal’s wording shows Ahmad no longer purporting to derive authority from Johore (p. 186).