Faletahan — more properly Sjech Noeroe’d din Ibrahim ibn Maulana Israil, later titled Sunan Gunung Jati (Javanese Sunan Goenoeng Djati) — was a Paseier, born at Pasej on the north coast of Sumatra, who left his father-city in 1521 when the Portuguese took it, travelled to Mecca for two or three years of Islamic study, returned briefly to Pasej, and then crossed to Java where, around 1523–1524, he married a sister of the king of Japara — the king whom De Roo de la Faille identifies with Pati Oenoes / Raden Sahid — and founded the Cirebonese branch of the Demak sultanate’s wali sanga. His migration is the principal documented movement of a north-Sumatran religious figure into the Javanese Islamic establishment in the early sixteenth century, and a key link in the Pasej–Atjeh–Java triangle.
Departure from Pasej (1521)
In the chapter Over Soenan Kalidjaga, De Roo de la Faille — citing Dr Hoesein Djajadiningrat’s Critische Beschouwing van de Sadjarah Banten — records Faletahan as “a Paseier by birth [who] left his father-city in 1521 when the Portuguese entered there. He went to Mecca and devoted himself for two or three years to the study of his faith, Islam. Then he returned to his birthplace, but left it again soon after”. The year 1521 is the date of the fall of Pasej to the Portuguese — the political event that broke the Pasej-Samudra sultanate and opened the way for the Atjehnese sultanate’s absorption of the north Sumatran coast.
Migration to Java (c. 1523-1524)
“He came to Japara”, De Roo de la Faille continues, citing Hoesein, “(of which the year is to be set at 1523 or 1524)”. There, “with his religious teaching he reaped much success, so much so that he was given a sister of the king of the land as wife”. The king in question, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, can be no other than Pati Oenoes — the Javanese commander of the 1513 attack on Malacca, then king of Japara — whom De Roo de la Faille further identifies with Raden Sahid / Soenan Kalidjaga of the Babad Tanah Djawi. Faletahan’s marriage, on this reading, was the dynastic link by which a north-Sumatran Paseier entered the Javanese Islamic establishment.
Foundation of Cirebon
Faletahan’s later career — his move to Tjarabon, his settlement at the river “Kali Djaga”, his adoption of the title Sunan Gunung Jati, and his eventual rule over Cheribon — is the founding act of the Cirebonese sultanate. In 1527, with the help of his brother-in-law the king of Demak, he seized Hindu-Javanese Soenda Kalapa — the event that made Pate Unus “king of Sunda”. He is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, the principal conduit by which the Pasej Islamic tradition — itself a product of the long Pasej-Atjeh connection — entered the Javanese wali sanga.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Faletahan matters as the principal documented human link between the Pasej religious establishment of north Sumatra — the same establishment that produced Abdurra’uf of Singkel and the Atjehnese sultanate’s religious class — and the Javanese Islamic world of the early sixteenth century. His departure from Pasej in 1521 coincides with the Atjehnese sultanate’s absorption of the north Sumatran coast; his migration to Java, with the Javanese wali tradition’s incorporation of a Paseier. He is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, the historical kernel of the Sadjarah Banten’s story of “the Moor Faletahan from Pase”.
See Also
- Pasej-Samodra
- Pati Oenoes
- Soenan Kalidjaga
- Demak
- Cirebon
- Japara
- Aceh Sultanate
- Hoesein Djajadiningrat
- Sadjarah Banten
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Over Soenan Kalidjaga”, pp. 46-47, citing Dr Hoesein Djajadiningrat, Critische Beschouwing van de Sadjarah Banten (1913), p. 110.
Faletahan — more properly Sjech Noeroe’d din Ibrahim ibn Maulana Israil, later titled Sunan Gunung Jati (Javanese Sunan Goenoeng Djati) — was a Paseier, born at Pasej on the north coast of Sumatra, who left his father-city in 1521 when the Portuguese took it, travelled to Mecca for two or three years of Islamic study, returned briefly to Pasej, and then crossed to Java where, around 1523–1524, he married a sister of the king of Japara — the king whom De Roo de la Faille identifies with Pati Oenoes / Raden Sahid — and founded the Cirebonese branch of the Demak sultanate’s wali sanga. His migration is the principal documented movement of a north-Sumatran religious figure into the Javanese Islamic establishment in the early sixteenth century, and a key link in the Pasej–Atjeh–Java triangle.
Departure from Pasej (1521)
In the chapter Over Soenan Kalidjaga, De Roo de la Faille — citing Dr Hoesein Djajadiningrat’s Critische Beschouwing van de Sadjarah Banten — records Faletahan as “a Paseier by birth [who] left his father-city in 1521 when the Portuguese entered there. He went to Mecca and devoted himself for two or three years to the study of his faith, Islam. Then he returned to his birthplace, but left it again soon after”. The year 1521 is the date of the fall of Pasej to the Portuguese — the political event that broke the Pasej-Samudra sultanate and opened the way for the Atjehnese sultanate’s absorption of the north Sumatran coast.
Migration to Java (c. 1523-1524)
“He came to Japara”, De Roo de la Faille continues, citing Hoesein, “(of which the year is to be set at 1523 or 1524)”. There, “with his religious teaching he reaped much success, so much so that he was given a sister of the king of the land as wife”. The king in question, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, can be no other than Pati Oenoes — the Javanese commander of the 1513 attack on Malacca, then king of Japara — whom De Roo de la Faille further identifies with Raden Sahid / Soenan Kalidjaga of the Babad Tanah Djawi. Faletahan’s marriage, on this reading, was the dynastic link by which a north-Sumatran Paseier entered the Javanese Islamic establishment.
Foundation of Cirebon
Faletahan’s later career — his move to Tjarabon, his settlement at the river “Kali Djaga”, his adoption of the title Sunan Gunung Jati, and his eventual rule over Cheribon — is the founding act of the Cirebonese sultanate. In 1527, with the help of his brother-in-law the king of Demak, he seized Hindu-Javanese Soenda Kalapa — the event that made Pate Unus “king of Sunda”. He is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, the principal conduit by which the Pasej Islamic tradition — itself a product of the long Pasej-Atjeh connection — entered the Javanese wali sanga.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Faletahan matters as the principal documented human link between the Pasej religious establishment of north Sumatra — the same establishment that produced Abdurra’uf of Singkel and the Atjehnese sultanate’s religious class — and the Javanese Islamic world of the early sixteenth century. His departure from Pasej in 1521 coincides with the Atjehnese sultanate’s absorption of the north Sumatran coast; his migration to Java, with the Javanese wali tradition’s incorporation of a Paseier. He is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, the historical kernel of the Sadjarah Banten’s story of “the Moor Faletahan from Pase”.
See Also
- Pasej-Samodra
- Pati Oenoes
- Soenan Kalidjaga
- Demak
- Cirebon
- Japara
- Aceh Sultanate
- Hoesein Djajadiningrat
- Sadjarah Banten
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Over Soenan Kalidjaga”, pp. 46-47, citing Dr Hoesein Djajadiningrat, Critische Beschouwing van de Sadjarah Banten (1913), p. 110.