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VII. THE LINGGA LETTERS
- Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
- Chapter
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VII. THE LINGGA LETTERS T he following letters from Lingga—the two letters sent by the chiefs of Sultan Mahmud’s court, the letter from Tunku Pangeran of Siak, and another written by the syahbandar of Lingga, all addressed to Raffles—are of historical importance, for they shed some light on the date of the death of Sultan Mahmud Ri’ayat Syah of Lingga, a matter that has intrigued many students of the Johor-Riau kingdom. The first two Lingga letters dated 5 and 6 January 1811 were sent when the Sultan of Lingga was said to be seriously ill. Although they are not part of the Aviemore collection of Raffles Malay letters, they have, nonetheless, been included here because they are related to the other Lingga letters in the discussion to determine the date of Sultan Mahmud’s death. Sultan Mahmud Ri’ayat Syah was the last Sultan of Johor, Pahang and its tributaries, and his death caused a controversy in the succession issue which Raffles exploited in order to acquire the island of Singapore for the British East India Company. Upon his arrival in Malacca on 4 December 1810, Raffles wrote letters to the sultans of Palembang and Lingga. In the case of the latter, Raffles dispatched John Scott and Tunku Pangeran alias Sayid Zain to Lingga in the cutter Arethusa to deliver two letters to Sultan Mahmud Syah. Scott and Sayid Zain left Malacca on 24 December 1810 and arrived at the mouth of the Lingga River on 28 December.1 Although they were supposed to be in Lingga for no more than four days, they only managed to deliver one of the letters around 3 or 4 January 1811, for a reply from the Lingga court (purportedly from Sultan Mahmud) was dated 5 January, while another reply from another Lingga chief, Syed Muhammad Zain al-Kudsi, was dated 6 January. John Scott and Tunku Pangeran left Lingga on 8 January 1811 without meeting the Sultan despite their instructions to do so. In his letter to Raffles, Tunku Pangeran mentioned that the chiefs had told him that the Sultan of Lingga was ill, and so he and John Scott were unable to meet Sultan Mahmud Syah.2 It was not until three months later—i.e. after the visit of 120 1 MSS. Eur. F. 148/4, p. 107. 2 According to John Scott, Sultan Mahmud had been ‘for sometime unwell’. See Scott’s letter to Raffles dated 16 January 1811. Ibid., p. 107 (b). Sultan Mahmud Tunku Pangeran and John Scott—that Raffles received a message from Lingga, and that too from the syahbandar, a chief of the Lingga court, and not from the Sultan himself. Interestingly, in the second Lingga letter the syahbandar mentioned that he had not forwarded the requests for the supply of boats to the reigning raja of the time, i.e. Sultan Abdul Rahman Syah. According to one of the manuscripts of the Tuhfat al-Nafis, Sultan Mahmud Syah died at dawn on Monday night (i.e. Tuesday morning), 18 Dzulhijjah 1226 AH [3 January 1812]. Five manuscripts of the Tuhfat al-Nafis have been discovered. While two of these give 18 Dzulhijjah as the date for the death of Sultan Mahmud Syah, only one provides the specific year of 1226 AH. Another manuscript gives the date of the Sultan’s death as 12 Dzulhijjah, which led many writers to assume that he died on 12 Dzulhijjah 1226 Hegira [28 December 1811]. But all the manuscripts seem to be in agreement that Sultan Mahmud of Lingga died on Monday night at the time of the subuh (dawn) prayers.3 However, Winstedt’s statement in his History of Johore that Sultan Mahmud died on 12 January 18124 has led many historians and Malay literature scholars to regard 1812 as the correct date. So far, however, there is no written evidence to show the exact date of Mahmud’s death.5 The syahbandar of Lingga’s letter dated 6 Rabi’ul-akhir 1226 [30 April 1811] is clear proof that the Sultan of Lingga was by then no longer Mahmud, but his son Abdul Rahman. Also, based on Tunku Pangeran’s letter of 12 Dzulhijjah 1225 [8 January 1811], which stated that Sultan Mahmud was very ill when he and John Scott went to the palace on or before 9 Dzulhijjah, and that he would be leaving Lingga on Monday, which was not 13 Dzulhijjah, but rather 12 Dzulhijjah [8 January],6 it...