Ch. 6–3: How Melaka was Founded, and Then Became Muslim

The chapter continues with a Pasai man named Tuan Jana Khatib. He comes to Singapura and walks around with two blokes, the Tuan of Bungoran and the Tuan of Selangor. When he passes by the palace, he sees the Queen looking out at him. There is a palm tree near the palace, which he magically transforms into two palm trees. The king, Paduka Seri Maharaja (whom we had met at the end of Chapter 5) notices and says, “What a punk that Tuan Jana Khatib is, showing off just to impress my wife!” So he instructs the man to be killed.

Tuan Jana Khatib is brought to the place of execution (“ke ngumbuhan”) and stabbed to death. His blood spills on the ground but his body is, perhaps magically, spirited away (“lenyap terhantar”) to Langkawi. There happens to be a cake-​seller at the execution place, and he covers a clot of Tuan Jana Khatib’s spilled blood with the lid of his pan, and this turns into a rock. (The rock apparently still exists.)

After some time, Singapura gets attacked by swordfish, which would leap upon the shore and spear anyone. They attack people in the chest, the neck or the waist; all the people die horribly. There is pande­monium, with people running and screaming “It’s the attack of the killer swordfish! Thousands of us have died!”

Paduka Seri Maharaja gets on his elephant and goes to the coast, accom­panied by his chiefs and warriors. He is gobsmacked to see the homicidal swordfish; it is a true inter­species massacre, with dead and dying people all over the beach. He orders his men to stand guard at the coast, using their shins as barricades (“berkotakan betis”) but the swordfish, so great in number, leap up and fatally stab every one of them.

Finally a boy speaks up. “This barricade of legs is useless! Who’re we kidding? Wouldn’t it be better to make a barricade of banana trunks?” When Paduka Seri Maharaja hears this, he said, “Dang! The kid’s right!” So he commands his men to build a barricade of banana trunks. When the blood-​thirsty swordfish leap to the shore again, their snouts get embedded in the banana stems. The swordfish are then stabbed to death, and the attacks soon end. We are not, however, told if the restaurants nearby had a brief spike in a certain exotic seafood:

Swordfish, or todak

Paduka Seri Maharaja returns to his palace, where his chiefs tell him: “That kid is bright. He will grow up to be even brighter.” Lest you think they want to give him a schol­arship, they continue: “Therefore, he should be killed.” The king agrees. So the boy is put to death; and the stain of his blood haunts Singapura.

After ruling for 12 and a half years, Paduka Seri Maharaja dies, and his son Seri Sultan Iskandar Syah (whom we were introduced to at the end of Chapter 5 as Raja Iskandar Zulqarnain) takes over. He marries the daughter of Tun Perpatih Tulus and gets a son named Raja Kecil Besar. (Why couldn’t they just have called him Raja Medium?) There is a palace treasurer named Sang Ranjuna Tapa, whose beautiful daughter becomes the king’s favourite mistress. But the other palace concubines are jealous of her and spread nasty rumours, saying she is a ho. Sultan Iskandar Syah is appalled and orders her to be publicly exposed (“perjenggikan”) at the end of the market. But Sang Ranjuna Tapa is humiliated at this treatment of his daughter (well, imagine how SHE’S feeling!). He pleads, “If she did wrong, just execute her; why subject her to this humiliation?” And he sends a letter to Java, saying “If the Batara of Majapahit wants to attack Singapura (to make up for the humiliation in Chapter 4), then come on over. I’ll be glad to help from the inside.”

When the Batara of Majapahit gets this letter, he’s thrilled to bits, and prepares 300 ships and other smaller vessels, with a force of (wait for it) 200,000 Javanese men. The expedition reaches Singapura, and the battle begins. After days of fighting, Sultan Iskandar Syah orders the Treasury to issue rice to the troops, but Sang Ranjuna Tapa says that the kingdom has no rice left; he thus becomes a traitor. At dawn, Sang Ranjuna Tapa opens the gates of the fort to let in the Majapahit troops, who go on a rampage. There are so many deaths, on both sides, that the blood flows like a river, flooding the seaside fort. (The blood still exists today on the Singapore plain.) Singapura is truly pwned. Sultan Iskandar Syah flees the joint; he goes to Seletar (on Singapura island) and then to Muar (in present-​day Johor). By the will of Almighty God, the house of Sang Ranjuna Tapa and his wife transforms into rock. (It still exists in the moat of Singapore.) The victorious Javanese then return to Majapahit.

When Sultan Iskandar Syah reaches Muar, he takes shelter. But at night, the place becomes infested by monitor-​lizards. In the morning, the whole ground is covered with this horde of reptiles. His men kill many and throw them into the river; they also eat a few. (Did it taste like swordfish?) That night, the creatures come again in full force; and in the morning, people have to once again kill and throw them away. Later that night, more monitor-​lizards emerge. The place starts to stink up, and becomes known as Biawak Busuk (Smelly Monitor-​Lizards).

Sultan Iskandar Syah travels to another place to set up base. The fort is built during the day, but by night it becomes decayed (“buruk”); so the place until today is called Kota Buruk (Decayed Fort). He travels a few more days and stops at Naning Ujung, which he feels is a good place, and so he leaves a minister there, which is why until today the place has a minister (although presumably not the same bloke!) From there he goes to the coast, to the river Bertam. He stands under a tree while hunting, and his hunting-​dog gets its ass whupped by a white mouse-​deer. And Sultan Iskandar Syah says, “What a cool place; even the mouse-​deer have spunk! We shall start a new city here.” And his men agree to this. Sultan Iskandar Syah asks, “What is the name of this tree I’m standing under?” And one of his men replies: “The Melaka tree.” And the king says, “So this place shall be named Melaka.”

Why name it after the tree rather than the mouse-​deer? Perhaps because he could foresee that the name Kancil would be reserved, centuries later, for something else:

The Kancil

So Sultan Iskandar Syah chooses Melaka as his new royal seat, and he estab­lishes the court protocol. Four ministers would sit in the hall of audience and hold enquiries; heralds (“bentara”) would stand, 40 to a side, on the steps leading to the throne, and transmit any royal commands; and youths of good birth would act as pages (“biduanda kecil”).

Sultan Iskandar Syah had been king of Singapura for three years when it fell to the Javanese, which was what made him flee. He rules Melaka for 20 years, making his total time as leader 25 years. (Wait a minute. Shouldn’t it be 23 years? Or maybe he had spent two years roaming around dumps like Biawak Busuk and Kota Buruk). When he dies, his son Raja Kecil Besar takes over, and he carries the title Sultan Makota.

Tun Perpatih Tulus also dies, and his son takes over as Bendahara. Sultan Makota marries the Bendahara’s daughter, and they have three sons: Radin Bagus is the eldest, Raja Tengah is in the middle, and Radin Anum is the youngest. After two years on the throne, Sultan Makota dies. His place is taken over by Raja Tengah. (Doesn’t this go against the principle of primo­geniture? What is it about Radin Bagus that makes him, despite his name, lacking in excellence? We are not told. Perhaps he has a gambling addiction, or syphilis.) Raja Tengah marries the daughter of Tun Perpatih Muka Berjajar and they have a son named Raja Kecil Bambang. Raja Tengah turns out to be an excellent king, the likes of which the era had never seen. (Translation: He doesn’t put young boys to death just because they were smart.)

One night, Raja Tengah dreams that he sees clearly the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), who says, “Recite: Asyhadu an lailaha illalLah Wa asyhadu anna Muhammad ar-​RasululLahh.” Raja Tengah repeats every word. And the Prophet says to him: “Your name is now Muhammad. Tomorrow, at the time of asar, a ship from Jeddah will arrive, and a man will land on the Melaka shore. Do whatever he tells you.” Raja Tengah agrees. And then the Prophet vanishes.

In the morning, Raja Tengah wakes up and sees that his dick is now circumcised (“kalamnya sudah berkhatan”); he also finds himself saying “Asyhadu an lailaha illalLah Wa asyhadu anna Muhammad ar-​RasululLahh” repeatedly.

All the maidens (how many are with him in his bedroom, anyway?) are dumbfounded. His ministers also ask themselves, “Is our king possessed by the Devil or has he gone bonkers? Let us tell the Bendahara.” So the maidens tell the Bendahara, who comes over to the palace, who sees and hears for himself that the king can’t stop saying “Asyhadu an lailaha illalLah Wa asyhadu anna Muhammad ar-​RasululLahh.”

The Bendahara asks, “What language is he speaking?” And the king explains his dream of the Apostle of God. The Bendahara asks, “Is there proof that your dream was genuine?” And the king says the proof is his circumcised dick, although we are not told if he shows the evidence to his Bendahara. He also adds the Prophet’s words about the ship from Jeddah docking at asar. The Bendahara says that if the ship does arrive, then the dream must be taken seriously; if it doesn’t, then the dream was the work of the Devil. The king agrees; the Bendahara goes back home.

Sure enough, that late afternoon a ship from Jeddah docks. A makhdum named Sayyid Abdul Aziz disembarks and prays on the beach. Everyone there finds this strange, and asks: “What’s the meaning of this bending up and down?” A raucous crowd gathers around him. News of the commotion reaches the palace, and so the king gets on his elephant, accom­panied by his chiefs. The king sees the makhdum praying and he’s reminded of his dream, and so he tells the Bendahara and all the chiefs: “It’s like my dream come true.”

The king makes his elephant kneel to pick up the makhdum and bring him back to the palace. And then the king and everyone in the court converts to Islam. And the king commands everyone in the city to become Muslim, too. The king takes Islamic lessons from Sayyid Abdul Aziz, and he also changes his name to Sultan Muhammad Syah.

Sultan Muhammad Syah estab­lishes the ceremonials of the court. I am afraid the next five pages of the manuscript are exceedingly boring because they merely set out various taboos and rituals associated with royal pomp. Among them: the prohibition against commoners using the colour yellow; and the sorts of verandahs, pillars, boats, umbrellas and jewelry that are also available only to royalty. Any commoner who dares to use, say, white umbrellas would be punished by death. Similarly, there are rules about how a commoner should fold his sarong when in the palace; how many drums to use when receiving letters from other kingdoms (depending on how important those kingdoms are); how to install foreign envoys (and whether they should be brought by elephant or horse); how the king travels to the mosque for terawih prayers during Ramadhan; and so on, seemingly ad infinitum, all to do with protocol and hierarchy. This section is so tedious that even the manuscript writer acknow­ledges it: “Banyak lagi lain dari itu, jikalau dikatakan semuanya, nescaya bigung hati orang menengar ia (There’s a lot more, and if they were all described they would bewilder the listener).” I was so glad it was over that I exclaimed: “Asyhadu an lailaha illalLah Wa asyhadu anna Muhammad ar-​RasululLahh!”

Anyway, Sultan Muhammad Syah proves himself to be a jolly good king despite his weird fetish for the colour yellow and so on. Melaka’s territory goes as far as Beruas (Perak) and Terengganu. Word of Melaka’s glory spreads and everyone is impressed that its king is descendant from Iskandar Zulqarnain (whom we met, of course, in Chapter 1). Kings from other countries come to visit, and Sultan Muhammad Syah treats them right by giving them fabulous robes as well as lots of gold and silver. Lucky for some, eh?

Aug 23, 2010 – 7:11 AM | By Amir Muhammad | Posted in Blog Post | Comments (1,232)

Previous Chapters

  • CH 15–2: How Kampar Got Steamrolled by Melaka
  • CH. 15–1: How a Melakan Warrior Had to Wait Before Kicking Haru Asses
  • Ch. 14–5: Why the Bendahara Mentions Royal Horniness on His Deathbed
  • Ch. 14–4: How Melaka Delivered a Smackdown to Pahang
  • Ch. 14–3: How the Sultan of Melaka Turned into a Kick-​ass Vigilante
  • Ch. 14–2: How a Grandmother From Hell is Stopped from Committing Regicide
  • Ch 14–1: How the People of Campa Ended Up in Melaka
  • Ch. 13: How the Pasai King’s Uppity Words Lost Him a Valuable Ally
  • Ch. 12–3: How the Sultan of Melaka Got Cock-​Blocked
  • Ch 12–2: How The Pasai Philosopher Answers (or Not) a Riddle from Melaka
  • Ch. 12–1: Why the Horny Prince of Mengkasar Goes on a Destructive Spree
  • Ch. 11: How a Game of Sepak Raga Turned Deadly
  • Ch. 10: How the Raja of China Cured His Skin Problem
  • Ch. 9–5: How the Sultan of Melaka Got His Elephant Back
  • Ch. 9–4: How the Raja of China’s Daughter Came to Melaka
  • Ch. 9–3: How Hang Tuah Killed Hang Kasturi
  • Ch. 9–2: How the Melakans Responded to the King of Majapahit’s Practical Jokes
  • Ch. 9–1: How the Queen of Majapahit Chose Her Husband
  • Ch. 8–2: How Melaka Became Siam’s BFF
  • Ch. 8–1: How the Siamese Were Fooled
  • Ch. 7: Why The Bendahara of Melaka Committed Suicide
  • Ch. 6–3: How Melaka was Founded, and Then Became Muslim
  • Ch. 6–2: How a King’s Horniness Got Him into Trouble with His Brother
  • Ch. 6–1: How Islam Came to the Malay World
  • Ch. 5: How Eating Vomit Can Make You A Superman
  • Ch. 4: How Singapura Repaid Majapahit’s Insult
  • Ch. 3: How Singapore Got Its Name
  • Ch. 2: How China Saved Itself
  • Ch. 1: Alexander?

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