Article

Sultan Abu Bakar’s visit to the Italian king and to the Pope

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Sultan Abu Bakar’s visit to the Italian king and to the Pope

Candilio and Bressan (2000) reconstruct Sultan Abu Bakar of Johore’s 1885 visit to Italy, in which the Johore ruler secured audiences with both King Umberto I and Pope Leo XIII during a transit stop en route to London. Drawing on Italian diplomatic, Vatican, and missionary archives, the article argues that this visit was a calculated diplomatic manoeuvre designed to bolster Abu Bakar’s claim to sovereign status ahead of his audience with Queen Victoria, where he ultimately obtained the coveted title of Sultan.

Summary

The article situates Abu Bakar’s 1885 visit within a broader context of Italian naval and diplomatic engagement with Southeast Asia following the 1861 unification of Italy. The authors trace a series of Italian naval visits to Malayan waters from the 1860s through the 1870s, establishing that the first official contact between a Malay ruler and an Italian representative occurred in 1871, and that a personal friendship developed between Abu Bakar and the Duke of Genoa during the latter’s 1879 circumnavigation. This prior relationship proved instrumental in securing the 1885 audiences, as the Duke was a cousin of King Umberto I.

The core of the article examines the diplomatic mechanics of the two audiences. The audience with the King was arranged on extremely short notice through the Italian Foreign Ministry, with correspondence between Abu Bakar’s secretary Abdul Rahman and Minister Mancini revealing the hurried negotiations. The audience with the Pope raised more complex questions, given the unsettled relationship between the Vatican and the Italian state after 1870, and the precedent set by the Siamese ambassador’s private meeting with the Pope the previous year. The Congregation de Propaganda Fide’s recommendation for the audience was grounded in Abu Bakar’s documented support for the Catholic mission in Johore, including the granting of land for a church in 1882.

The authors also explore the diplomatic significance of the visit from Abu Bakar’s perspective. The use of sovereign language in his secretary’s correspondence, the desire to be received by both the King and the Pope before proceeding to London, and the subsequent celebration in Johore all point to a ruler actively constructing an international sovereign identity. The article closes with an anecdote from Abdul Rahman’s 1894 recollection of a Vatican map that marked only “Pontian Besar” on the Malay Peninsula, underscoring the limited European geographical knowledge of the region at the time.

Key Findings

  • The first Italian vessel in Malay waters was the corvette Magenta, which called at Singapore from 15 to 25 May 1866; the first official contact between a Malay ruler and an Italian representative occurred in January 1871 when Captain Racchia called on the Maharaja of Johore (pp. 43–44).
  • The Governolo conducted an expedition to Mount Kinabalu in April 1873, reaching an altitude of 2,800 metres before being turned back by weather (p. 44).
  • Both audiences with King Umberto I and Pope Leo XIII took place on 24 April 1885; the King’s audience was at the Quirinale Palace and the Pope’s in the Throne Hall, with three Apostolic Vicars and the Rector of the Scottish College serving as interpreters (pp. 46–50).
  • The Congregation de Propaganda Fide issued its recommendation for the Papal audience on 22 April 1885, citing Abu Bakar’s support for the Catholic mission and his donation of land for a church in Johore, which was officially opened on 29 May 1883 (pp. 48–49).
  • The Osservatore Romano reported the Papal audience on 25 April 1885, describing Abu Bakar as an “independent Sovereign living in the Malacca Peninsula” and noting that the Pope expressed appreciation for the churches he had built or intended to build (p. 50).
  • Bishop Gasnier’s letter of 18 May 1885 records that the news of the Papal audience was celebrated in Johore with a toast, and that Father Saleilles “was announcing everywhere that the King had gone to see his Great Priest in Rome” (p. 52).

Conclusion

Candilio and Bressan demonstrate that Abu Bakar’s 1885 Italian visit was a strategically successful episode in his broader project of establishing international recognition of his sovereignty. By securing audiences with both the Italian King and the Pope before his London audience, Abu Bakar created a diplomatic record that reinforced his claim to sovereign rank, culminating in Queen Victoria’s grant of the title of Sultan. The article reveals a ruler who was acutely aware of the symbolic power of being received by European sovereigns and who leveraged personal relationships and religious patronage to advance his political position on the international stage.

Context

  • The study draws on the Archives of the Diplomatic Institute of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (File ref b. 1520), the Vatican Archives (including the Osservatore Romano and Congregation de Propaganda Fide records), and the Archives des Missions Etrangeres de Paris (unpublished letters of Bishop Gasnier, 1885) (pp. 45, 48, 52).
  • The article contributes to the historiography of Italian-Malay relations and the Vatican’s diplomatic engagement with non-Christian rulers, filling a gap in the literature on Abu Bakar’s foreign policy by documenting an episode previously unexamined in English-language scholarship.

References