Article

Silsilah Melayu dan Bugis dan Sakalian Raja-raja-nya. . Overbeck

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Silsilah Melayu dan Bugis dan Sakalian Raja-raja-nya. . Overbeck

Hans Overbeck’s 1926 excerpt from the Silsilah Melayu dan Bugis dan Sakalian Raja-raja-nya, originally composed by ‘Ali bin Raja Haji Ahmad Raja Haji and printed in Singapore circa 1900, presents a genealogical and narrative history of the Bugis-Malay royal houses of Riau, Johore, Kedah, Matan, Mempawah, Sambas, and Pontianak. The work traces the five Bugis princes who, as adventurers from Luwu’ in South Celebes, established dynastic rule across the Malay world between the early eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, and it frames their rise within a broader cosmology linking Bugis origins to the Queen of Sheba.

Summary

The text opens with a genealogy of the Bugis people, descending from Sitti Mēlangkaé, Queen of Luwu’, whom the author connects to Balkis (the Queen of Sheba) and Solomon (p. 340). The lineage proceeds through La Maddusalat, identified as the first Bugis to embrace Islam, and his son Upu Tenriborong Daëng Rilaka, father of the five princes who form the narrative’s central figures: Upu Daeng Parani, Daeng Manambun, Daeng Marioh, Daeng Challa, and Daeng Kamase (p. 341). The narrative then follows their exploits from Topamana in South Celebes, through a legendary cockfight at Kemboja in which the magical spur Taji Kerami defeats Raja Chulan’s invincible bird, to their arrival in the Malay world at Siantan and ultimately Riau (pp. 344–347).

The political core of the text concerns the Bugis-Malay alliance at Riau following the fall of Johore to Raja Kechi’ of Siak. The five princes, summoned by the exiled Raja Sulaiman, defeated Raja Kechi’ in A.H. 1134 and established the dual sovereignty of Yamtuan Besar (Malay) and Yamtuan Muda (Bugis), with Upu Daeng Marioh as the first Yamtuan Muda (pp. 350–356). The subsequent decades are dominated by repeated wars with Raja Kechi’, who violated a sworn oath in a mosque and was defeated at Lingga (A.H. 1139), at Pulau Bayan (A.H. 1148), and finally through his son Raja Aalam (A.H. 1150) (pp. 362–381). Upu Daeng Parani, the eldest brother, was killed at Kedah by Raja Kechi’ during a second campaign there (p. 362).

The Bornean chapters detail the establishment of Bugis rule at Matan and Mempawah. Upu Daeng Manambun married Princess Kesumba of Matan and was installed as Raja of Mempawah with the title Pangeran Emas Suria Negara, while Upu Daeng Kamase became Pangeran Mangkubumi of Sambas (pp. 350, 367). A succession dispute with the Pangeran Dipati at Pinang Sekayu was resolved through a combined Bugis military campaign, after which the Dayak chiefs of thirty villages swore a covenant of allegiance sealed by the breaking of an egg and the casting of a stone into the river (pp. 373–378).

Key Findings

  • The five Bugis princes were grandsons of La Maddusalat, the first Bugis convert to Islam, and sons of Upu Daeng Rilaka, who had served as garrison commander at Mengkasar (Makassar) before sailing west (pp. 341, 344).
  • The Taji Kerami, a fighting-cock spur made from iron found in a simpur shrub at Topamana, was deemed invincible and became part of the royal insignia of Mempawah; a badik made from the same iron became an insignia of the Yamtuan Muda of Riau (p. 344).
  • The Bugis-Malay covenant at Riau established that the Yamtuan Besar was “like the wife” (passive, receiving sustenance) while the Yamtuan Muda was “the husband” whose decisions governed all matters of state (p. 353).
  • Raja Kechi’ of Siak swore a formal oath on the Koran in a mosque not to commit treachery against Johore and Riau, promising to return all captured Johore people; he broke this oath within months and was defeated at least four times (pp. 364–366, 379–381).
  • The Bugis code of honour enumerated five rules: not to pursue a fugitive enemy unless necessary for decisive victory; not to refuse a man asking pardon; not to grudge the fallen; not to hold a weak enemy in contempt; and not to kill an ambassador (p. 364).
  • The original manuscript was written by Haji Abdullah, son of Khairu’d-din, a native of Juanah, on the 27th of Shaaban A.H. 1282 (c. 1865–66), and the printed edition appeared in Singapore A.H. 1329 (c. 1900) (pp. 339, 381).

Conclusion

Overbeck’s excerpt preserves a rare Bugis-Malay perspective on the dynastic foundations of Riau-Lingga and the Bornean sultanates, presenting the five princes not as conquerors but as bound brothers whose unity and adherence to Islamic faith secured their rise. The text’s closing shaer explicitly attributes their success to “following the right faith in the right way and to their unity and brotherly love,” and exhorts their descendants to emulate this example (p. 381).

Context

  • The original Silsilah was still available in Malay bookshops on Arab Street, Singapore, at the time of Overbeck’s visit, and was illustrated with drawings of the Riau fleet, a sea-fight, and the coronation palace (p. 340).
  • Overbeck undertook the translation at the request of Prof. Otley Beyer of the University of the Philippines, who sought Malay literature illuminating connections between the Malay kingdoms of the British and Dutch East and those of the Southern Philippines; the text proved disappointing in this specific respect but rich in other respects (p. 339).

References