The Civil War in Kelantan in 1839

PUSTAKAAN RUJOK [ )l 2. ~: 'y _-, 'Y The Civil War in Kelantan in 1839 , Monographs of the Mdaysim Branch Royal Asiatic Society II THE CIVIL WAR IN KELANTAN IN 1839 h4 CYRIL SKINNER Printed for the MBRAS by Malaysia hiders Limited Singai>ore Copyright MBRAS 1966 Edited for the Council of the Society by Wang Gungwu, M.A., Ph.D. CONTENTS Page Foreword . _ . _ . _ vii Part 1: The H&storical Background of the Letters Chapter I The Northern Malay States in the 1830’s . 1 Chapter IT Kelantan in the late 1830’s . 8 Chapter III Kelantan during the period covered by the letters . 23 Chapter IV Epilngnc . 68 Pnrt 2: The Letters 1. Facsimile Beproductions of the Letters , . 71 2. Transliteration of the Letters . 99 3. Spelling of the Letters . 144 4. Style of the Letters . I . _ . 152 5. System of Dating Used in the Letters . 156 6. Bibliographic Details of the Letters . 157 Appendices A. Index of Persons and Places mentioned in the Letters . 160 B, Transliteration of Siamese Names mentioned in the Letters . 166 Bibliography . a 169 Maps 1. Siam and the Malay Peninsula . a . 175 2. Kelantan and the States to the North-West . + 175 3. Kelantan . +s - + 176 V FOREWORD “The early history of Kclantan is lost in obscurity” wrote Graham in I9OS.l Some thirty years later Ankcr Rentse attempted to dispel some of this obscurity, but was nevertheless constrained to agree that “the early history of Kelantan is still unknown and very few records arc available”.2 Until recently few people would have quarrellcd with these findings, except perhaps to observe that the ‘early history of Kelantan’ apparently extended well into the 19th century. It was therefore with considerable interest that I learned of the existence, in the Wachirayan National Library in Bangkok, of a collection of letters written by various Kelantan chiefs during a civil war that took place in the state in the year 1839. The letters, edited and translated, are presented here with the emphasis on their value as historical documents, although some attempt has also been made to comment on various features of philological interest. Indeed, in trying to cover both historical and philological aspects, I bavc probably fallen between two stools, producing something which is too historical for philologists, but too phjlological for historians. Any such lack of balance will be due cntjrelmy to myself, and in no way to any of the people named below, to all of whom I am indebted for the heap they gave me. Listed in purely alphabetical order these pillars are: Hj. Ali bin Hi. Taib, Mr. H. S. Broadhead, Mr. Kachorn Sukhabanij, Dato’ Nik Fadzil bin Dato’ Nik Mahmud, El. H. Prince Prcm Purachitra, Mr. W. Roff, Hj. Mubin Sheppard, Mr. Suphachai Sirisuwangkura, Mr. Suwit Ismail, Mr. E. H. S. Simmonds, Khun Tri Amatyakul, Dr Md. Zaki Radawi. I am grateful too for the assistance given me by the following institutions: The University of Malaya (who helped finance the visit to Bangkok), the Wachirayan National Library in Bangkok and Monash University, Victoria (Australia). And finally, it is a plcasure to acknowledge the contribution made by those who typed out the many drafts of the present work, viz.: Mrs. J. Storer and Mrs. H. Wernas. CYRJL SKINNER. Bangkok - Kuala Lumpur - Mona&. 1. Graham: KEL, p. 38. 2. Rcntse: KEL, p. 42. vii Part One. The Historical Background of the Letters CHAPTER I THE NORTHERN MALAY STATES IN THE 1830’s A modern political map is an indifferent aid to understanding the history of Malaya. The thick black line separating the Federation from Thailand, the solid boundary lines separating one Malay state from another, create the im- pression of territorial states with well-defined frontiers, a concept with which the Peninsula is not yet entirely familiar. It is true that the boundaries along the coastal plains are now reasonably well-defined, but inland - as the communist revolt of 1948 showed - neither state nor national boundaries have counted for very much. For most of Malaya’s history, the Malay ‘state’ was, typically, centred around a small port-town, a settlement located so as to control the arca’s most important waterway, from which, area, town and state all took their name. l The settlement need not be particularly large, a circle of some 5-10 miles’ radius would provide sufficient rice-fields, fishing harbours and coconut trees to cover basic food needs. Out- side of this area, ‘upstream’, there would probably be little direct supervision by the Kuler, except for an occasional foray in strength, for his control of the area’s main waterway enabled him to levy such tolls as he thought fit upon any produce from the interior worth exporting (e.g. tin and gold). Such imports as there wcrc would usually provide the ruling oligarchy with a further source of revenue in the form of port dues and customs duties (as well as the traditional presents and douceurs), and if times were really hard there was always the chance of a little piracy.” George Earl, who visited the East coast states in the 1830’s describes one such ‘town-state’ as consisting of “a large group of huts composed of wood and 1. Of the nine states in the Federation, all, except one, derive their name from a river. The exception is a confederation of nine states (Negeri Sembilan). 2. cf. Tengku Umar, who after an unsuccessful attempt to gain the throne of Trengganu, a . lalu (kc) Kcmaman make tetaplah di Kemaman itu scrta mcngcrjakan rompak orang yang berniaga rnenchari kehidupannya didalam ta’lok da’Dah Trcngganu itu maka h(u)ruharalnh did&m laut2 Trengganu itu serta banyaklah hamba Allah ta’ala ang terbunoh clengan mazlum ya’ani dcngan aniaya . ” (went to Kcmaman, where ii e stayed,‘, plundering those who sought to earn thoir living by trading in Trengganu and its tributary districts. There was no peace to be had in Trengganu waters and many of God’s creatures met with a violent end, the victims of oppression), Ali: TUR, p. 257. The subject of these remarks, returnccl to Trengganu in 1839 and carried out a successful coup, reigning over the stat<: until his (loath in 1878. The Civil War in Kelantan thatch, heaped together without any order or regularity. The part inhabited by the few Chinese who were not driven away by the tyranny of the former Sultan, can boast of some appearance of regularity, the houses and shops form- ing a small street, but the Malay hahitations arc all detached from each other. The dwellings of the Sultan, and of two or three of the principal pangerms or nobles, are built of more substantial materials than the rest, indeed the former may be called a fort, for it is surrounded with a paggar, or bamboo fence, and is defended by several long brass ZeZ~hs.“~ In the town itself and its vicinity, authority would be exercised by, or through the recogniscd head of the local dynasty (the ‘Yang di-Pertuan’ - He who is made Master), exercised, that is, in as far as this individual could control the nominally subordinate members of the dynasty. As Earl says: . “The government must be pronounced aristocratical, for although the Sultan is nominally the chief authority, the whole power is vested in the pangsruns, or lords. The Sultan and the pangeruns form a sort of commercial company, and monopolize the whole of the foreign trade, the people not heing permitted to purchase a single gnnton of rice that has not passed through their hands.“4 The state Earl was writing about was Trengganu, but his remarks would apply, almost word for word, to Kclantan, and in fact to most of the Peninsula Malay states at the times Looked at through 20th century eyes, the statement may seem a little sur- prising, but the eco,nomic predominance of the West coast Malay states over their East coast fellows, dates only from the end of the 19th century and is largely the result of British intervention. For most of the century, however, although the British-controlled ports of Singapore, Penang and Malacca did provide the West coast with thriving trading ccntres, the Malay states adjoin- ing them were little if at all, bettor off economically, than the East coast states.” Indeed, for the century or so preceding British intervention a better classification of the Malay states would be not East and West, but South and North, a classification based upon the fact that during this time, the main centres of power lay outsiclc the Peninsula; to the South, the Dutch and to the North, the Siamese. During the 18th century, the Dutch, with little competition from the British, formed, despite their internal weaknesses, a comparatively stable power-force 3. Earl; EAS, p. 184. Lelo(h)s are Swivel-guns. 4. ibid., p, 185. Canton.is, of course ‘gantang’, a ‘gallon’ measureequivalent to about 8 lb. 5. As Earl says “The inhabitants of Tringanu are genuine Mala s and a description of the town and its inhabitants would, wilh a few topographical a Y’teratlons, answer equally well for all the independent Malay states on the Peninsula.” (ibid., p. 184.). 6. For the importance of the Eas,t Coast trade with Singapore, of Wong: TRA, especially p. 79-80. 2 The North,ern Malay States in the 1830’s in the area, over which they thus exercised a good deal of influence. Neverthe- less, in the area to the North of the Peninsula which lay outside the effective range of their bases (at Malacca, Batavia and in Sumatra), they were not able to do much more - even if they had wished - than establish occasional trading posts.

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