Marhum was, according to late tradition, the eighteenth King or ''Kolano'' of
Ternate
Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the we ...
in the
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...
. He supposedly ruled between 1465 and 1486, being the first king to adopt Islam. His name merely means "The Late", "The Deceased", and he is probably the same person as King
Gapi Baguna II, mentioned in several other chronicles and king lists. His son
Zainal Abidin became the first Sultan of Ternate.
François Valentijn's account
The only authors to give substantial information about Marhum are Europeans, namely the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
botanist
Georg Rumphius (1678), and the
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
cleric
François Valentijn
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King o ...
in his comprehensive work ''Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien'' (1724–1726). Rumphius and Valentijn drew from now lost manuscripts and traditions from
North Maluku
North Maluku ( id, Maluku Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the south. ...
. According to Rumphius's account, Marhum was the first ruler of Ternate and was of either
Javanese or
Butonese descent. On the contrary, Valentijn says that he was the son and successor of the seventeenth King Gapi Baguna II (r. 1432-1465). His island kingdom was one of the four realms that traditionally existed in North Maluku, the others being
Tidore
Tidore ( id, Kota Tidore Kepulauan, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island ...
,
Bacan
The Bacan Islands, formerly also known as the Bachans, Bachians, and Batchians, are a group of islands in the Moluccas in Indonesia. They are mountainous and forested, lying south of Ternate and southwest of Halmahera. The islands are administe ...
and
Jailolo
Jailolo is a volcanic complex on a peninsula ( Jailolo Bay), west of Halmahera island. It has lava flows on the eastern flank, small caldera at the west and south-west of the mountain, hot springs along the north-west coast of the caldera. Small ...
. Jailolo, which was based on
Halmahera
Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island.
Hal ...
, was as yet the most powerful of the four, and waged war against Marhum during his time.
The reign of Marhum saw significant economic changes in the region.
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
,
Javanese and
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
traders arrived in increasing numbers to the islands in eastern
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
to purchase spices. The
Banda Islands
The Banda Islands ( id, Kepulauan Banda) are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and constitute an administrative district (''kecamatan'') within the Central M ...
in southern Maluku became an important trading entrepot, and a few Ternatan ships went there with cargoes of
cloves
Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring or fragrance in consumer products, s ...
which grew abundantly on their island. This attracted the foreign merchants to proceed from Banda to Ternate to take in spices. At this time the clove trees were not purposefully planted, and the locals obtained the stalks by cutting down the branches rather than climbing the trees to pick the stalks, as was later the case.
Among the visiting merchants was a Javanese Muslim called Hussein, or Dato Maulana Hussein, who was also a preacher. The Ternatans were as yet unacquainted with reading and writing, and were stunned when Hussein and his boys were able to read out words from the letters of the
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
. Hussein told the bystanders that these were holy letters that no-one may read without knowing God and his Prophet. In that way the first tenets of Islam entered North Malukan society. Marhum was also converted, though his knowledge of the creed was rather rudimentary. According to Rumphius as well as Valentijn, he was a simple figure and far from a strong ruler.
It was his son and successor Zainal Abidin who began to introduce certain Islamic institutions, at least among the elite of the kingdom, and to expand the political network of Ternate.
Identity
Several texts, such as Rijali's ''Hikayat Tanah Hitu'' (written before 1657 and later adjusted in c. 1700), ''Hikayat Ternate'', and Naïdah's chronicle, state that Gapi Baguna II was the actual father of Sultan Zainal Abidin, although Valentijn makes him the father of Marhum. This Gapi Baguna is sometimes said to have followed his son Zainal Abidin on a journey to
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
to learn more about Islam, but to have died on the return journey. It has therefore been assumed that one historical figure has been split into two. Whatever the case, European accounts from the 16th century say that Islam had been introduced in North Maluku in about the 1460s or 1470s, which provides some support for the conversion stories.
[C.F. van Fraassen (1987), Vol. I, p. 32.]
See also
*
List of rulers of Maluku
This is a list of rulers of Maluku from proto-historical times until the present. The four sultanates of Ternate, Tidore, Jailolo and Bacan were considered descendants of a legendary figure called Jafar Sadik and formed a ritual quadripartition. ...
*
Pre-Islamic rulers of Ternate The pre-Islamic rulers of Ternate lorded over the leading spice-producing kingdom in the Maluku Islands in present-day Indonesia. They are known from several partly different historical traditions. One version commences with Cico, a chief of the co ...
*
Spice trade
References
Further reading
* Andaya, Leonard Y. (1993) ''The world of Maluku''. Honolulu: Hawai'i University Press.
* Ridjali (2004) ''Historie van Hitu. Een Ambonsche geschiedenis uit de zeventiende eeuw''. Utrecht: Landelijk Steunpunt Educatie Molukkers.
{{end
Ternate Sultanate
People from Maluku Islands
15th-century Indonesian people