Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Who was the Sultan Muzafar Shah of Kedah?

It is said that the first Kedahan ruler to convert to Islam was Phra Ong Mahawangsa. Phra Ong Chao is actually a title of a lesser class of the Thai princes or princesses. Mahawangsa is taken from the historical poem from the Pali language, Mahavamsa. Mahavamsa is considered to be an important text of the Theravada Buddhism tradition. Mahavamsa is not a religious text but a chronicle of ancient kings of Sri Lanka. Theravada Buddhism until today is the official religion of Thailand. Pali is the official language of Buddhist canonical texts. It is believed to be originated from Maghada, modern-day Bihar in India.

Why he has a Siamese title? Was it fashionable at that time for Kedahan rulers to have a Siamese title like the Malay rulers today who bear the Arabic titles of Sultan? Or was he, Phra Ong Mahawangsa was a ruler originated from Siam.

When he was converted to Islam, he adopted the name Sultan Muzzafar Shah. Shah is Persian for king while Muzzafar is a favourite Indian Muslim name. He must be converted by the Indian Muslims. He could also be converted by the Persians as well. The Muslim invader to northern India was known as Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi who invaded India a century earlier. He was a Central Asian Turk but it was common for the Muslim Central Asian Turks to adopt Persian names and lifestyle then. But Kedahans or any Muslim Malay in the Malay Archipelago are from the Shafie madhab (school of thought) which convince me that he was converted either by the Southern Indian Muslims or the Yemenites.

Not much is known about the languages used in the Old Kedah kingdom and the Langkasuka kingdom. Did they speak an Indo-Chinese language which is related to modern Thai? Or they spoke a dialect of Malay?

Anyway it is common if we observe the history through times in any place in the world that the ruling class of a nation to come from another ethnicity. For example, the House of Windsor in England was originated from Germany, Catherine the Great of Russia is actually a German and not a Russian, some kings of England were Normans from France and not at all Anglo-Saxons (Medieval English).

Monday, October 06, 2008

Sultan Muzafar Shah, direct descendant of Parameswara?

It always come across to my mind that Raja Kassim or Sultan Muzafar Shah of Malacca was not the descendant of Parameswara. The history of Malacca was written much later. In fact it was written during the Johor-Riau Sultanate.

The link between Parameswara and Sultan Muzafar Shah was only done to validate Sultan Muzafar Shah as the rightful ruler of the Malacca Sultanate and the Johor-Riau Sultanate, which is the continuation of the former. This is my speculation of course but it is not impossible. There is a great possibility that Sultan Muzafar Shah had no blood connection to the ruling Malacca Sultanate before the usurpation. He must linked himself to Parameswara in order to justify his royal lineage to the Sri Wijaya empire.

Probably he was just an Indian trader who was just managing the Malacca jetty (Pangkalan Melaka, not a port!). Some of the stories of the Malacca Sultanate was taken from Indian/Ceylonese folklore. The story of Puteri Gunung Ledang (The Princess from Mount Ledang) is taken from the myth of Durga or another Hindu goddess. The story of the mousedeer was taken from a Ceylonese folklore. Probably the story of Hang Tuah, Hang Nadim etc. was taken from the adventures of Hindu gods or Hindu epic.

Kacapuri? Or Casa something ... ????


The picture above is the replica of Kacapuri gate of Fort of Kuala Kedah. The one below is the facade of a church in Goa, India. The Kacapuri gate must have been inspired by the Portuguese architectural buildings in India. The restoration works of the Fort was done in 1780s, much later after the Portuguese left Malacca. Or was it our friend Francis who got the building plan from the East India Company? I heard that the Portuguese was aiding the Sultan of Kedah in building the fort somewhere in the 17th. century to protect Kedah from the Achehnese. Probably the Project Manager of the refurbishment project was trying to restore the gate to its original architectural design?

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Sunday, October 05, 2008

Mat Isa Cabai Idup

When I was a child, a relative of my mother will visit us from time to time. I was asked to refer to him as Tok Long Mat Isa. Tok Long derives from the phrase datuk sulung (Malay, lit. eldest grandfather). Yes, he is my great-uncle, a cousin of my grandfather.

Mat Isa in his younger days was trying his luck as a vegetable hawker. He will move around selling vegetables in his bicycle. He will cried, "Kangkung! Kangkung!" (lit. watercress) to attract the attention of his potential customers but the naughty children will reply, "Kangkang!Kangkang!" (lit. spread your legs apart). So the business was not that good.

I do not know when that he decided to travel with his bicycle from one place to another visiting his relatives. Probably if he is still alive now, he can have his own reality tv series. He was based in Kerpan somewhere near Jerlun, Kedah. So he will ride his bicycle to Perlis, Alor Setar, Sungai Petani and so on. If he wanted to go to further cities, he will go by train. He will have some arrangement with the railway station master to place his bicycle in the train coach. Once he arrived in the city, he will ride his bicycle again. His bicycle was his best friend. It was the big old-fashioned bicycle. When I recall of Tok Long Mat Isa, he was a rare specie. Nobody will have such an idea at that time to move from one place to another place in a bicycle.

He was a jovial person. He always joke. His jokes were childish. One of his favourite joke is to borrow my pyjamas. How can an old man borrow a pyjama of a girl? He was so amused with his own joke. Due to his humorous nature, he was nicknamed Mat Isa Cabai Idup. Cabai hidup means fresh chillies in Malay. I heard that when people asked him what does alif, ya and mim (Jawi alphabets, derived from Arabic scripts) stands for. The answer should be 'ayam' (chicken), probably to test his literacy but he will reply 'cabai hidup' (fresh chillies). That was how he got the nickname 'cabai idup'.

But there was also the mystic side of him. I remember my superstitious grandmother asked him to prepare some 'rajah' (a kind of talisman) to chase away evil spirits. So he took a few pieces of copper sheet and wrote some doa (prayer) or Koranic verses on them. My grandmother will place the copper sheets in every corner of our house.

Was he a dervish or faqeer? Was that his soul-searching quest? Was he an ascetic? Only God knows.

He used to come to our house during Ramadan. But later he never visited us again. My mother got some news later that he had passed away. Such a simple man but such an extraordinary life. A character that I will never forget.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Tok Haji Derani

Haji Abdul Rani bin Haji Hassan is my maternal grandfather. When I was small I have 2 grandfathers, one is my step-grandfather, Hassan and the other one is my maternal grandfather Tok Haji Derani. I have never seen my paternal grandfather. He died in 1950s, long before I was born.

Haji Abdul Rani was born in Jitra, Kedah in the early 20th. century to Haji Hassan bin Md. Arif and Hajah Ramlah binti Abdul Wahab. He died in the year 2000. Haji Abdul Rani was more oriental in appearance rather than Middle Eastern though he claimed to have a direct lineage to a Hadhrami Arab (Yemenite). He was skinny and yellow, easily mistaken for an old Chinese man. His father, Haji Hassan was a Boundary Officer and his mother, Ramlah was a homemaker. His paternal grandfather Md. Arif bin Abdullah was a religious man from Kota Kuala Muda in Kedah. His paternal grandmother whose name my grandfather cannot recall, came from Permatang Janggus off Penaga in Penang State. Nothing is known about Abdullah. He could be an Arab or half Arab but Abdullah's father, Nafa' al-Jazar was a Yemenite. From his name, there is an indication that he was a butcher or came from a family of butchers. I do not know how the Yemenites acquire their second name.

My grandfather married three times. My grandmother was his first wife. My grandmother, Maimunah binti Abdul Hamid, came from Kuala Kedah. His third wife is my step-grandmother, Che Mah binti Awang Kechik was from Bukit Selambau, Kedah. My step-grandmother is a kampung (village) woman who is strong and independent. She became a widow at a very young age. She left her kampung and moved to Sungai Petani in order to look for a better life. Her life was difficult then. Determined to change her destiny, she agreed to marry my grandfather who was much senior than her. The matchmaker told my step-grandmother that my grandfather was a rich man. Much to her disappointment, my grandfather was far from being rich but needed to support himself as a petition writer.

My step-grandmother has a great impact on me. My biological grandmother died when I was 11. My step-grandmother has taught me certain values that I would not be able to learn from my parents. She is very particular about cleanliness and an organised lady. When I was younger she used to make Malay-style 'roti canai'. In the olden days, the preparation of roti canai is not as what you can see in the mamak stalls. They used a big tray to flatten and stretch the dough. Unfortunately it is a dying art. Her roti canai was flaky and crispy. Her fish curry was also unusual.

I rarely see my step-grandmother now. As you grow older, your needs and life philosophy have changed. People who used to be close to you have now become distant. I think now she is busy with her grandchildren and religious activities. I heard from her son-in-law that she is quite weak now not as physically strong as she used to be.

According to my grandfather, my step-grandmother reminded him a lot of his mother, Hajah Ramlah. Both of the women are skinny and hardworking. Time was never wasted. Hajah Ramlah binti Abdul Wahab was born to Abdul Wahab, an Arabian and Hawa, a lady from Pumpong, Kedah. Abdul Wahab came to the Malay Archipelago as a boy with his father from Arabia. I do not know from which part of Arabia that he came from. If I am not mistaken he grew up in Sumatra and moved to Malaya when he was a young adult. First he married a woman from Bukit Mertajam, Penang and then he moved to Alor Setar. He was famous for his Koran recital and zanji (religious hymns). The Sultan of Kedah then heard of his talent and summoned him to Alor Setar. In Alor Setar, he met Hawa, a lady of Indonesian ancestry. I do not know much about her background. But Hajah Ramlah is said to be very good in identifying the plants for medicinal purposes and making frankincence. If she is still alive now, she might fit to become a botanist. I suspect that they might have Javanese background since making jamu is part of every Javanese's life.

Apart from my grandfather, she had several children who died in their infancy except for Zainab, Md. Zain, Hajah Puteh and Shaari. Zainab died when she was a teenager. Shaari is a son begotten from her first marriage.

My grandfather was a talented person but he was born at the wrong time. He could play musical instruments and was a 'qualified' (in traditional term) martial art practitioner. He learnt the art of silat. In fact the late Tan Sri Mubin Sheppard, a Malaysian historian of British birth approached him for some information on the Malay martial art of silat. When he was younger he joined the bangsawan (Malay stage show of the early and mid-20th century) orchestra as a flutist. But his involvement in the bangsawan was short-lived as the idea of him becoming a musician was opposed by his authoritarian father.

None of us inherit his talents either as a martial art practitioner or a musician. He could also speak fluent Hokkien and Arabic. He used to tell me about a period of time where he spent his years in Mecca to accompany his father. In Mecca he befriended a man by the name of Ahmad Badawi who later has a son that become the Prime Minister of Malaysia. He always referred to this friend of his simply as "Bedui". There were many adventures that they shared together in Mecca. Ahmad Badawi came back to Malaya and later became a respectable man. He was involved in politics. According to my grandfather, Bedui was a very handsome man. He got many admirers, among them is a girl of Arab-Turkish parentage who was very pretty. But Bedui was destined to marry the late Datin Kailan binti Haji Hassan, whom I managed to meet by chance a few times. She came to a legal firm I used to work for as a client.

My grandfather died of old age. Probably he was 90 when he died. He always claim to be older than his age. There were a lot of stories I got from my grandfather, mostly stories from the pre- and post-War era. My late grandfather was a man of adventures.

Friday, October 03, 2008

The Lord of the Lords

I am a descendant of Dato' Seri Maharaja Khan-i-Khanan of Kedah. "Khan-i-Khanan" is a Persian term, meaning the "Lord of the Lords", a title awarded specifically in the Mughal empire to experts in their respective fields. The title must have been adopted by the Kedah kingdom 300 years ago not in the the similar context of the Mughal but specifically for the head of judiciary which will be equivalent to modern day Lord President.

According to my late aunt, our first Indian ancestor was called Ibrahim. In fact I had come across articles about Maula Ibrahim or Ibrahim Shah who had played an active role in Kedah politics in the 18th. century which coincide with the coming of Francis Light, the founder of colonial Penang. It is also believed that Maula Ibrahim or the Khan-i-Khanan was one of the negotiators representing the Sultan of Kedah in the lease of Penang deal with Francis Light.

Maula Ibrahim is said to be the nephew of the then Chief Qadi, Dato' Seri Maharaja Kadhi, Hafez Sab an Indian subject. When the Sultan of Kedah summoned the Kadhi to restore and refurbish the damaged Fort of Kuala Kedah, the Kadhi sought the assistance of his nephew, Maula Ibrahim to recruit labourers from India.

As Ibrahim was building a good rapport with the Kedahan royalty, he was married off to Tunku Jahara, a Malay woman of royal blood. The descendants of Ibrahim was granted by the Sultan of Kedah, a vast piece of land in Kubang Pasu district which presently known as Kampung Pulau Timbul.

According to my late aunt, the Maharaja Kadhi was buried in Tanjung Pauh near Jitra. Now the grave has become a pilgrimage site for certain quarters of the Indian Muslims. According to some sources, the Maharaja Kadhi hailed from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, India. Legend has it that the Sultan Muhammad Jiwa of Kedah before becoming the ruler of the state had befriended the Kadhi and had toured India together. It was said that the Sultan was impressed with the irrigation system in India. Thanjavur today is known as the "Rice Bowl of Tamil Nadu". The place that Sultan Muhammad Jiwa visited as a young man in India must have been Thanjavur. Maula Ibrahim being the nephew of the Maharaja Kadhi must have come from Thanjavur as well. Maula Ibrahim was said to be responsible for the legislation of law regulating the mercantile and maritime activities in Kedah back then, before the intervention of British rule in Kedah. Some scholars are of the opinion that the law was inspired by the Mughal law of India.

The ability of Ibrahim being a foreigner to mingle around with the Sultan and the Kedahan royal circle was remarkable. His encounter with Francis Light may suggest that he was a polyglot.