Selesilah: book of the descent of the Rajas of Bruni
Sir Hugh Low, H.B.M.’s Resident in Perak, published this transcription and translation of the Sēlēsīlah—the genealogical chronicle of the Brunei royal dynasty—in 1880, presenting the succession of Sultans from the introduction of Islam to the reign of Sultan Omar Ali Saif II. The work combines a narrative of dynastic descent with Low’s own scholarly annotations, a detailed history of the civil war between Sultan Abdul Mubin and Sultan Muaddin, and a transcription of a historic stone tablet dated A.H. 1221 (A.D. 1804), together constituting the most comprehensive English-language account of Brunei’s early Islamic monarchy available at the time.
Summary
The Sēlēsīlah traces the Brunei royal line from Sultan Mahomed, who introduced Islam to the kingdom, through twenty-three sovereigns to the then-reigning Sultan Omar Ali Saif II. The narrative establishes that Brunei was previously a dependency of the Hindu kingdom of Menjapahit, and that the royal drum (nobat nagara) and bells (gunta alamat) were conferred upon the dynasty by the Yang di Pertuan of Johor, who invested Tuan Alah Bertatar as Sultan Mahomed and granted him five territories including Sarawak (pp. 1–2). The second sovereign, Sultan Akhmed, married a Chinese princess connected to the legendary expedition for the Dragon’s jewel at China Balu, and the third, Sultan Berkat, was an Arab Sheriff descended from Amir al-Hasan, grandson of the Prophet, who enforced Islamic law and built the Kota Batu (pp. 2–3).
The most substantial portion of the text is a detailed account of the civil war that erupted after Bendahara Abdul murdered Sultan Mahomet Ali by garotting him in the garden of his palace on the 14th Rabi al-Akhir, A.H. 1072, and seized the throne as Sultan Abdul Mubin (pp. 11–13). The rebellion was led by Pangiran Bongsu, who assumed the title Sultan Muaddin, and the war lasted approximately twelve years, involving the fortified island of Pulau Chermin, the intervention of the Batara of Soolook with five boats, and the eventual capture and execution of Abdul Mubin in the mosque on the island (pp. 14–18). Low’s annotations supplement this with genealogical cross-references, archaeological observations of tombs and the Kota Batu, and identifications with external sources such as Pigafetta’s 1521 account and the Spanish attacks of 1577 and 1580 (pp. 6–8, 24–25).
The publication concludes with a full transcription and English translation of a stone tablet engraved in Malay script by order of Sultan Mahomed Tej-Waldin in A.H. 1221, which records the genealogy as set forth by Datoh Imam Yakub from the testimony of Sultan Muaddin and Sultan Kemal-Addin, and which notably omits the usurper Abdul Mubin from the legitimate succession (pp. 32–35).
Key Findings
- The first datable event in Brunei’s Islamic history is the massacre of Sultan Mahomet Ali on the 14th Rabi al-Akhir, A.H. 1072 (c. A.D. 1661–62), from which Low calculates the introduction of Islam to approximately A.D. 1403 based on an average reign length of twenty-one years (p. 1, n. 2).
- Sultan Abdul Kahar is recorded as having forty-two sons, and the Spanish attacks on Bruni in 1577 and 1580 were instigated by the treachery of Pangiran Sri Lela, whose daughter had been seized by the licentious Bendahara Raja Sakam on her wedding day (pp. 9–10, 25).
- The civil war between Sultan Abdul Mubin at Pulau Chermin and Sultan Muaddin at Bruni lasted approximately twelve years; the royal crown from Johor and the kamanah from China were destroyed by being rammed into a cannon and fired out to sea by the defeated Abdul Mubin (p. 17).
- The historic stone tablet, dated A.H. 1221 (A.D. 1804), was commissioned by Sultan Mahomed Tej-Waldin and written by Tuan Haji Khatib Abdul Latif; it records the genealogy as heard from Sultan Muaddin and Sultan Kemal-Addin and deliberately excludes the usurper Abdul Mubin from the legitimate line (pp. 32, 35).
- Sultan Bulkeiah (Nakoda Ragam) is identified as the sovereign contemporary with Magellan’s 1521 visit, and Pigafetta’s account of a fleet returning from the conquest of Lawi on the East coast of Borneo is cited as confirming the Brunian narrative of his naval campaigns (pp. 7, 24–25).
- The Portuguese wrecked vessel at Tanjong Prangi produced a figure, Pangiran Kestani, who was given the title of the Sultan’s son and promised the recovery of Manila, but who ultimately left three guns—Si Tunggal, Si Kersla, and Si Dewa—at Ujong Sapo before departing (pp. 22–23).
Conclusion
Low’s definitive historical takeaway is that the Sēlēsīlah, while containing legendary elements in its earliest generations, provides a reliable framework for Brunei’s dynastic history from the mid-seventeenth century onward, anchored by the precisely dated massacre of A.H. 1072 and corroborated by the independent stone tablet of A.H. 1221. The work establishes that the Brunei monarchy derived its legitimacy from a triple source—pre-Islamic local rulership, the investiture of Johor, and descent from the Prophet through the Arab Sheriff—and that the civil war of the 1660s represented the most serious internal crisis in the kingdom’s history, resolved only through the decisive intervention of Soolook and the restoration of the legitimate line through Sultan Muaddin.
Context
- This publication forms part of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 5 (1880), and represents one of the earliest systematic English-language treatments of Brunei’s pre-colonial political history, drawing on manuscripts provided by Pangiran Kasuma and on Low’s own observations during his residence in Perak and visits to Brunei.
- The historic stone tablet transcribed here, standing on the tomb of Sultan Mahomed Jemal-ul-Alam in the Makam Damit at the southern foot of Bukit Panggal, was copied by Low on 1 June 1873 and constitutes a primary epigraphic source for the Brunei royal genealogy independent of the manuscript Sēlēsīlah tradition.