Djohor

Properties2
tagsplace, kingdom, malay-peninsula, sultanate, atjeh, malaka, portuguese, precolonial, 16th-century, 17th-century, hooykaas, batoe-sawar, 1613-attack, 1615-attack, second-exodus, sacred-site, foreign-land, foreign, malay-state, comparative, sawah, malay-world, malay, east-indies, capital, djohor, source, dutch, colonial
aliasesJohor, Johore, Johor-Riau, Sultanate of Johor, Djohor Lama, Johor Lama, Batoesawer, Johor Hooykaas account, Jho, Johor Sultanate, Batoe Sawar, Batu Sawar, Batoesawar, Batoe Sawar capital, Batoe Sawar Johor, Batu Sawar (Djohor capital), Batoesawer (Djohor), Batu Sawar Padang

10 min read

Djohor — the Malay Muslim sultanate on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, successor state of the sultanate of Malaka after the Portuguese conquest of 1511, and the chief Malay rival of both the Portuguese at Malaka and the sultan of Atjeh — was the Dutch Republic’s chief Malay ally in the early seventeenth century, the strategic partner in the Matelieff campaign of 1606 and the Verhoeff expedition of 1608, and the principal Malay counterpart to the Dutch in the early Dutch-Indies relationship. Djohor is the principal Malay place in Van der Woude’s chapter “Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” in his Van der Woude (1948).

The founding of the sultanate (1511-1528)

The sultanate of Djohor was founded by the deposed sultan of Malaka, Mahmud Shah, who after the Portuguese conquest of August 1511 retired to Bintang and later (c. 1528) to the Djohor river. The sultanate’s claim to recover Malaka from the Portuguese defined its strategic posture for the next century and a half, and the contest with the Portuguese — punctuated by truces, blockades, and punitive expeditions — was the principal strategic fact of the western Malay-Indonesian archipelago until the Dutch-Djohor conquest of Malaka in 1641. The sultanate’s contest with Atjeh — for the wingewest of Aru and for the commercial primacy of the Strait of Malaka — was the secondary strategic fact, and the two contests together defined the framework within which the sultan of Atjeh’s European policy would unfold.

The Dutch-Djohor alliance (1602-1613)

The Dutch-Djohor alliance was inaugurated by Jacob van Heemskerck’s 3 April 1603 treaty with the sultan of Djohor — concluded after Heemskerck’s capture of the Portuguese galley at the mouth of the river — and confirmed by the first and second Matelieff accords of 17 May and 23 September 1606. The alliance was the principal Dutch-Malay military partnership of the early VOC period, and the framework within which the Matelieff campaign of 1606 and the Verhoeff expedition of 1608 were conducted.

The alliance’s strategic basis was the sultan of Djohor’s desire to recover Malaka from the Portuguese and the Dutch desire to break the Portuguese commercial position in the Strait of Malaka. The sultan provided local knowledge, a forward base at the river of Djohor, and a fleet of galleys; the Dutch provided capital ships, cannon, and the European military technology that the Malays lacked. The alliance’s weakness was the Dutch inability to maintain a fleet in the Strait of Malaka in force: the sultan of Djohor, deserted by the Dutch after the Matelieff campaign of 1606, opened peace negotiations with the Portuguese in 1609 and concluded a separate peace in 1610.

The Batoesawer capital

The sultanate’s capital was at Batoesawer on the Djohor river — the place where Heemskerck left the factor Jacob Buys in April 1603, where Verhoeff left two ships in February 1609, and where the Achehnese attack of 7 May 1613 destroyed the city and carried off the Dutch factor Jacques Obelaer and twenty-one of his men to Atjeh. The city’s destruction marked the effective end of the Dutch-Djohor military alliance and the strategic turn southward to Jacatra and the eventual founding of Batavia in 1619.

The Atjeh-Djohor rivalry

The sultan of Atjeh’s hostility to Djohor was the principal Malay-Malay strategic fact of the early-modern period. The two sultanates — both Muslim, both claiming the commercial primacy of the Strait of Malaka — contested the wingewest of Aru and the commercial loyalty of the pepper ports of the Sumatran coast. The 1587 peace between Atjeh and the Portuguese, by which Aru was transferred to Djohor, defined the strategic framework of the rivalry; the Achehnese attack of 1613 was the principal military expression of it. The Dutch, allied with Djohor against the Portuguese, were drawn into the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry against their will: the Achehnese attack of 1613 put the Dutch factor at Batoesawer in the line of fire and forced the Dutch to choose between their alliance with Djohor and their commercial relationship with Atjeh.

Significance

Djohor is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the principal Malay place of the early Dutch-Indies relationship and the principal Malay ally of the VOC in the early seventeenth century. The Dutch-Djohor alliance of 1603-1613 was the principal Dutch-Malay military partnership of the early VOC period, and the framework within which the Matelieff campaign of 1606 and the Verhoeff expedition of 1608 were conducted. The sultanate’s contest with Atjeh — for the wingewest of Aru and for the commercial primacy of the Strait of Malaka — defined the framework within which the sultan of Atjeh’s European policy would unfold, and the Achehnese attack of 1613 was the principal military expression of the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry. The sultanate’s separate peace with the Portuguese in 1610 — and the Achehnese attack of 1613 — marked the effective end of the Dutch-Djohor military alliance and the strategic turn southward to Jacatra and the eventual founding of Batavia in 1619.

Account from Over Maleise Literatuur (1947) — Djohor

In Hooykaas’s survey of Malay literature, the sultanate of Johor is the principal Malay place caught up in the Iskandar Muda wars, and the place whose 1612 commissioning of the Sadjarah Malajoe and 1613/1615 Atjehnese catastrophes frame the composition-history of the principal Malay chronicle.

Batoe Sawar as the Capital

The capital of Johor in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was Batoe Sawar — founded upstream by Sultan Moezaffar Sjah II (c. 1564-1580) “om beter buiten bereik te zijn van Atjehse en Portugese schepen” (to be better out of reach of Atjehnese and Portuguese ships). The move upstream was the response of the Johor sultans to the twin threats of the Atjehnese and the Portuguese, who could both reach the lower reaches of the Johor River with their seagoing fleets. The capital thus, from its foundation, existed under the shadow of the Atjehnese threat.

The 1613 Atjehnese Attack and Captivity

The 1613 Atjehnese attack on Batoe Sawar — sent by Sultan Iskandar Muda — was the principal military event of the Batoe Sawar period. Hooykaas records: “een Atjehse vloot verscheen in 1613 onverwachts, die zich meester wist te maken van niemand minder dan de vorst ‘Alā’ oed-Din Ri’ājat Sjāh III, Radja ‘Abdoellāh en de meeste rijksgroten, waaronder de Bēndahara. Ze worden naar Atjeh overgebracht, waar de Soeltān gehouden wordt en spoedig sterft” (an Atjehnese fleet appeared unexpectedly in 1613, which managed to seize no less than the Sultan Alā’uddīn Ri’āyat Shāh III, Radja ‘Abdoellah, and most of the great men of the realm, including the Bendahara. They are taken to Atjeh, where the Sultan is held and soon dies).

The captives were taken to Atjeh, where Radja ‘Abdoellāh — the younger brother who had commissioned the Sadjarah Malajoe in 1612 — married a sister of Sultan Iskandar Muda, was pardoned, and was returned to Batoe Sawar as a vassal sultan of Atjeh. The new sultan then asked the Bendahara — also returned from Atjeh — to complete the Sadjarah Malajoe, which he did in 1614.

The 1615 Atjehnese Attack and the Second Exodus

The 1615 Atjehnese attack — also sent by Iskandar Muda — found the Johor court warned, and the Sultan fled before the Atjehnese fleet arrived. The city, however, was destroyed “ten tweeden male door de Atjehers” (for the second time by the Atjehnese) — as thoroughly as Djohor Lama had been destroyed by the Portuguese on 15 August 1587. The 1615 attack drove the Johor court into the “Tweede Exodus naar Bintan en elders” (Second Exodus to Bintan and elsewhere) — a long exile that would last from the autumn of 1615 to April 1641, when the Dutch-Johor conquest of Malacca finally allowed the court to return.

The Sultan — Abdoellah Masajat Sjah, the former Radja ‘Abdoellāh — “gevlucht naar Bintan, blijft als een opgejaagd hert zwermen” (fled to Bintan, remains wandering like a hunted deer). In 1618 he established himself on Lingga, but in early 1623 he was again driven out by an Atjehnese fleet, and died around May 1623 on Great-Tambēlan. “Zó droevig eindigde de auctor intellectualis der SM” (Thus sadly ended the auctor intellectualis of the SM) — the man who had commissioned the Sadjarah Malajoe in 1612.

The Atjehnese Naval Power

The 1613 and 1615 attacks on Batoe Sawar illustrate, in Hooykaas’s reading, the Atjehnese naval power that dominated the Strait of Malacca in the early seventeenth century. The Atjehnese fleet could appear “onverwachts” (unexpectedly) at Batoe Sawar, could “zich meester weten te maken” (manage to seize) the Sultan and the Bendahara, and could destroy the city “ten tweeden male” (for the second time) with the same thoroughness as the Portuguese had destroyed Djohor Lama in 1587. The Atjehnese naval dominance of the Strait of Malacca under Iskandar Muda was the strategic fact that framed the composition-history of the Sadjarah Malajoe.

Source: Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947), chapter 11 (“Geschiedschrijving in het Maleis”), pp. 96-98; appendix III (“De Vorsten van Malakka en Djohor”), pp. 273-276.

See Also

Sources

Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V “Voorgangers, Hollanders en mededingers tot 1614. Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” (pp. 108-140). Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947). The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906. Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781. Coen: Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandschen Handel in Indië (1598—1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. de Boer Jr., 1948), pp. 122, 131‑132. De geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Korps Mariniers van 1665‑1945, OCR text, pp. 81‑82. Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947), chapter 11 (“Geschiedschrijving in het Maleis”), pp. 96-98; appendix III (“De Vorsten van Malakka en Djohor”), pp. 273-276. Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V “Voorgangers, Hollanders en mededingers tot 1614. Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” (pp. 125-133).

Graph View

Backlinks