The Pontianak Sultanate (

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 ...

: كسلطانن ڤونتيناك, ''Kesultanan Pontianak'') was an Islamic

state that existed on the western coast of the island of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

from the late 18th century until its disestablishment in 1950. The Sultanate was located at the mouth of the

Kapuas river The Kapuas River (or Kapoeas River) is a river in the Indonesian part of Borneo island, at the geographic center of Maritime Southeast Asia. At in length, it is the longest river in the island of Borneo and the longest river of IndonesiaMacK ...

in what is today the

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 ...

n province of

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city is Pontianak, Indonesia, Pontianak. The province has ...

, and the Sultan's residential palace was situated in what later grew to become the modern-day Indonesian city of

Pontianak Pontianak or Khuntien is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, founded first as a trading port on the island of Borneo, occupying an area of 118.31 km2 in the delta of the Kapuas River at a point where it is joined ...

History

The Pontianak Sultanate was founded in 1771 by explorers from

Hadhramaut Hadhramaut ( ar, حَضْرَمَوْتُ \ حَضْرَمُوتُ, Ḥaḍramawt / Ḥaḍramūt; Hadramautic: 𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩, ''Ḥḍrmt'') is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Sau ...

led by al-Sayyid Syarif Abdurrahman al-Kadrie, descendant of Imam

Ali al-Uraidhi ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq Ali al-Uraydi ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq, ( ar, علي العريضي بن جعفر الصادق, translit=ʿAlī al-ʿUrayḍī ibn Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq) better known simply as Ali al-Uraydi, was the son of Ja'far al-Sadiq and the brother of Isma'il, M ...

. He had two political marriages in

Kalimantan Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

, first with the daughter of Panembahan Mempawah and then with the daughter of the Sultan of Banjar. After the explorers arrived in

, they established the Kadariah Palace and received endorsement as the Sultan of Pontianak by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

in 1779. The Pontianak Sultanate had friendly relations with the

Lanfang Republic The Lanfang Republic (, Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Làn-fông Khiung-fò-koet''), also known as Lanfang Company (), was a Chinese kongsi federation and a tributary state of Qing China in Western Borneo. It was established by a Hakka Chinese named in ...

. Pontianak Sultan Syarif Muhammad Alkadrie was executed by the Japanese in the

Pontianak incident The Pontianak incident consisted of two massacres which took place in Kalimantan during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. One of them is also known as the Mandor Affair. The victims were from a wide variety of ethnic groups, and ...

along with all the other Malay Sultans of Kalimantan. Two of his sons were also beheaded by the Japanese. The last Sultan was Syarif Hamid Alkadrie, had earlier been interned by the occupying Japanese forces. He supported Federal state of RIS, with his design of ''Garuda Pancasila'' adopted as

National emblem of Indonesia The national emblem or coat of arms of Indonesia is called ''Garuda Pancasila''. The main part is the Garuda with a heraldic shield on its chest and a scroll gripped by its legs. The shield's five emblems represent '' Pancasila'', the five pri ...

. He was deposed when he was involved in a coup d'état attempt of APRA led by

Raymond Westerling Raymond Pierre Paul Westerling (31 August 1919 – 26 November 1987) was a Greek-Dutch military officer of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. He orchestrated a contraguerrilla in Sulawesi during the Indonesian National Revolution aft ...

List of Sultans of Pontianak

Family Tree

References

melayuonline.com

History

List of Sultans of Pontianak

Family Tree

References

Further reading