Founding Accompanied by Tun Hamzah who was appointed
Bendahara for the new kingdom, Seri Akar Raja as his
Hulubalang, a
Penghulu Bendahari, a
Temenggung, and a hundred youths and a hundred maidens of noble family, Raja Muhammad proceeded to Pahang where he was installed as sultan around 1470 with the title Sultan Muhammad Shah. The boundaries of his kingdom extended from
Sedili Besar to the south up to border with
Terengganu to the north. The first Melakan ruler of Pahang, appears to have settled at Tanjung Langgar in
Pekan, the old seat of the pre-Melakan rulers. The events of this period are obscure. There is reason to believe that Raja Ahmad, the elder brother of the newly appointed Sultan of Pahang, who had also been passed over for the succession to the Melaka throne, as a consolation was installed heir to the Pahang Sultanate by his father in Melaka and proceeded to the country between the 1470 and 1475. On 17 September 1475, Sultan Muhammad Shah died and was buried at Langgar on the Pahang Tua. The inscription on his tomb gives his name, descent and the date of his death. According to the commentaries of
Afonso de Albuquerque, Sultan Mansur of Melaka had, by a daughter of the king of Pahang, a son who was poisoned. It is likely that this conjecture was in reference to Sultan Muhammad.
Early period The 17th century
Bustan al Salatin records that Muhammad was succeeded by his elder brother Raja Ahmad who took the title Sultan
Ahmad Shah. He married a daughter of Tun Hamzah and by her he had a son
Raja Mansur. The new ruler had been passed over for the succession to the Melaka throne twice, first by his younger brother Muhammad, and second by a younger half-brother
Raja Hussain, who with the title Sultan Alauddin, succeeded his father Sultan Mansur in 1477. As a result, relations between Pahang and Melaka deteriorated greatly during his reign. Shortly after his accession, he ordered the killing of Tun Telanai, the hereditary chief of neighbouring
Terengganu, as he had visited Melaka without his knowledge and paid obeisance to Sultan Alauddin. In 1488, Sultan Alauddin of Melaka died at Pagoh on the Muar River after being poisoned, it was claimed that the rulers of Pahang and Indragiri were responsible. The ruler of Inderagiri suggested that Raja Merlang, who had married Alauddin's half sister Raja Bakal and settled in Melaka, was behind the poisoning. Sultan Alauddin was succeeded by his son
Sultan Mahmud with whom his royal uncle of Pahang continued to quarrel with. The
Malay Annals tell a story of Tun Teja, a daughter of a Bendahara of Pahang who was famed for her beauty and betrothed to the Pahang Sultan. A Melakan envoy to Pahang, on his return to his country, spread the fame of Tun Teja's beauty. Sultan Mahmud, enamoured of the picture of Tun Teja that had been presented to him by his chief, promised any reward, however great, to the man who would abduct the Pahang girl and bring her to Melaka. Tun Teja was won over by the Melakan
Laksamana and was taken to Melaka. The Sultan of Pahang, enraged and humiliated, prepared to declare war on Melaka but was later calmed down by his chiefs. The insults put upon the Sultan and his inability to avenge them brought him into disgrace with his people, and made his position untenable. The events took place around 1494. The
Malay Annals records that
Abdul Jamil was the Pahang ruler concerned, but historians such as Linehan and Khoo suggested the events occurred during the reign of his uncle, Sultan Ahmad. Sultan Abdul Jamil abdicated in favour of his young son
Raja Mansur who assumed the title Sultan Mansur Shah. The new Sultan was placed under the guardianship of his uncles, sons of the first sultan. In describing Abdul Jamil's life after the abdication, the
Malay Annals noted: "his highness went upstream for so long as the royal drums could be heard; when he came to Lubuk Pelang there he resided, and the sound of the drums was no longer heard. He went into religious seclusion; he it is whom people call
Marhum Syeikh. Between 1488 and 1493, Raja Fatimah, a royal daughter of Alauddin of Melaka and a full sister of Sultan Mahmud, had married a Pahang prince. The annals state that her husband was Abdul Jamil. She died, childless, on 7 July 1495 and was buried at Pekan Lama in a graveyard known as
Ziarat Raja Raden. After Abdul Jamil's abdication, it appears that Abdul Jalil, the eldest son of the first ruler under the style of
Sultan Abdul Jalil, reigned jointly with Abdul Jamil's son,
Sultan Mansur. The prince was younger, and Jamil and his brothers seem to have exercised some measure of guardianship over him in the early years of his reign. The period saw the restoration of ties between Pahang and Melaka.
Middle period In 1500, the ruler of the
Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom, known in Malay tradition as Ligor, invaded Pahang through Kelantan and the Tembeling with a large army, on the instructions of the King of
Ayutthaya. The common threat made the people of Pahang ignore their squabbles with Melaka. Sultan Mahmud sent a Melakan army, under
Bendahara Seri Maharaja to help Pahang. Among the leaders of the expedition were Laksamana Khoja Hassan and the
Hulubalang Sang Setia, Sang Naya, Sang Guna, Sang Jaya Pikrama, and Tun Biajid. The forts at
Pekan were strengthened and the people mobilized. There was delay in completing the main fortification called the 'Fort of Pahang', also known as
Kota Biram, which stood on the site of the modern Sultan Abu Bakar Museum, but it ended up being completed before the invasion. The people composed a song, the first line of which ran: "the fort of Pahang, the flames devour". The invaders made only a half-hearted attempt on Pahang, and were soon put to fight with severe losses. They were forced to return by the route which they had come. This was the last Siamese invasion of Pahang. In 1511, the capital of Melaka was attacked and conquered by the
Portuguese Empire, prompting a retreat of Sultan Mahmud's court to Pahang by the
Penarikan route. There, he was welcomed by Abdul Jalil. The deposed ruler stayed a year in the country during which time he married one of his daughters, whose mother was a
Kelantanese princess, to
Sultan Mansur. Between 1511 and 1512, while Mahmud was in Pahang, Sultan Abdul Jalil died and was buried at Pekan in
Ziarat Raja Raden. In the inscription on his tomb, his name given as Abdul Jalil and the date of his death is 917
AH. It is recorded in
de Albuquerque's commentaries, that
Sultan Mahmud died of grief in Pahang. The Portuguese must have mistaken Abdul Jamil, who died exactly at the date, for Sultan Mahmud. After Abdul Jalil's death Sultan Mansur was the sole ruler. He was killed by all of his
hulubalang between 1512 and 1519, for committing adultery with a widow of his father. Mansur was succeeded by his first cousin,
Raja Mahmud, another son of
Muhammad Shah, who may be the prince who is described as "the son of the original ruler of Pahang" (
anak Raja Pahang raja yang asal) in the
Malay Annals. The new Sultan's first royal wife was his first cousin, Raja Olah. After his accession to the throne, he married a second wife, Raja Khadija, one of the daughters of his cousin
Marhum Kampar, around 1519. This marriage, which took place at
Bintan was designed to strengthen Marhum Kampar position in his fight against the Portuguese. Mahmud was installed sultan by his new father-in-law. However, Pahang, for an unknown reason, forged an unusual relations with Portuguese during Sultan Mahmud's reign. According to
Os Portugueses em Africa, America e Oceania, in 1518,
Duarte Coelho visited Pahang and stated that the Sultan of Pahang agreed to pay a cup of gold as an annual tribute to Portugal. This act was thought to be a sign friendship shown by the sultanate, but was regarded by the Portuguese as a sign submission.
Manuel de Faria e Sousa relates that until 1522 the Sultan of Pahang had sided with the Portuguese, but seeing that the tide of fortune had turned against them, he, too became their enemy. Ignorant of this change, de Albuquerque sent three ships to Pekan for provisions, where two of his captains and thirty men were killed. The third made his escape but was killed with all his men at Java. Simon Abreu and his crew were also killed on another occasion. Valentyn further records that in 1522 several Portuguese who had landed at Pahang, in ignorance that the sultan there was son-in-law to the Sultan of Johor, were killed, many others were compelled to embrace Islam, while those who refused to do so were tied to the mouth of cannons and blown to pieces. In 1523, the Sultan of Johor again attacked Melaka with the ruler of Pahang as his ally, and gained a victory over the Portuguese in the
Muar River. The Laksamana attacked the shipping in the roads of Melaka, burnt one vessel and captured two others. During the battle,
Martim Afonso de Sousa arrived to assist, relieved the city, and pursued the Laksamana into Muar. He proceeded to Pahang, destroyed all the vessels in the river and killed over six hundreds people in retaliation for the assistance given by their ruler to the Sultan of Johor. Some were carried into slavery. A detailed account of Portuguese operations in Pahang during 1522 and 1523 is given by
Fernão Lopes de Castanheda. In 1525,
Pedro Mascarenhas attacked Sultan of Johor's
Bintan, Pahang sent a fleet with two thousand men to help the defenders. The force arrived at the mouth of the river on the day on which the bridge was destroyed. He despatched a vessel with Francisco Vasconcellos and others to attack the Pahang force which began to retreat. Sultan Mahmud of Pahang appears to have ruled in Pahang all through these events. His namesake of Melaka-Bintan,
Marhum Kampar died in 1528, and was succeeded by a son, the fifteen year old
Alauddin Shah II. The young ruler visited Pahang around 1529 and married a relative of the Pahang ruler. Sultan Mahmud of Pahang died about 1530, and left two sons
Raja Muzaffar and
Raja Zainal, with the former succeeding him as Sultan Muzaffar Shah. In 1540,
Fernão Mendes Pinto gave an account of his voyage with a Portuguese merchant vessel in Pahang. During their stay in Pekan, the reigning sultan was killed and a mob attacked their resident and seized their goods which amounted fifty thousand
ducats in gold and precious stones alone. The Portuguese escaped and proceeded to Pattani. They made representations to the King of Pattani, and he gave them permission to attack Pahang boats in the
Kelantan River– then a province of Pattani– to recover goods up to the value what had been lost. The Portuguese took the king at his word, fitted out an expedition, and proceeded to the Kelantan River where they attacked and captured three junks owned by Pahang merchants, killing seventy four people, with a loss of only three of their men. The sultan, who, according to Pinto, was killed in 1540 appears to have been Sultan Muzaffar. He was succeeded by his younger brother Raja Zainal, who assumed the title
Sultan Zainal Abidin Shah. Pahang formed part of the force of three hundred sailed-ships and eight thousand men which assembled in the Johor River for a reprisal attack on Pattani, but later negotiations settled the dispute. In 1550, Pahang sent a fleet to help Johor and Perak in the siege of Melaka but the Portuguese warships harassed the harbours of Pahang so that the attackers had to retreat to defend their own capital. Sultan Zainal Abidin died around 1555 and was succeeded by his eldest royal son,
Mansur Shah II, who around the time of his accession married his first cousin, Purti Fatimah, a daughter of Sultan
Alauddin Riayat Shah II of Johor (who died at Aceh in 1564). By her, he had a daughter Putri Putih also popularly known as Putri Kecil Besar, and a son, Raja Suboh. There is no further record on the fate of his son, but the daughter would become an ancestor of the future ruling families of Aceh and Perak. Mansur II was killed around 1560 in a war against Javanese Hindus in southern Pahang and was succeeded by his brother Raja Jamal who took the title Sultan
Abdul Jamal Shah. During his reign, Raja Biajid and Raja Kasab –sons of Sultan Khoja Ahmad of Siak– came to Pahang. Raja Kasab married Putri Putih, a daughter of Mansur II. Raja Kasab's children by Putri Putih were Raja Mahmud, and five daughters, the youngest of which was Putri Bongsu Chandra Dewi. Raja Mahmud was the father of Raja Sulong who ultimately became Muzaffar Shah II of Perak. Abdul Jamal was murdered in 1560 and was succeeded by his half-brother Raja Kadir who came to the throne with the title of Sultan
Abdul Kadir Alauddin Shah. During his reign, Pahang had a brief period of cordial relations with the Portuguese. In 1586, Abdul Kadir sent a block of gold bearing quartz as a present to the Portuguese Governor of Malacca. According to the Portuguese, gold was still commonly mined in quarries across Pahang and sold in great quantity in Melaka. However, this relationship with Portuguese was discontinued by
Ahmad II, Abdul Kadir's only son by a royal wife, who was a boy when he died in 1590. According to the
Bustan al Salatin, Ahmad II reigned for only a year as he was too young to govern the country and was then replaced by his eldest half-brother, Abdul Ghafur, who had been born to a commoner. Abdul Ghafur who took the title of Sultan
Abdul Ghafur Muhiuddin Shah had married in 1584,
Ratu Ungu, a sister of
Ratu Hijau, the Queen of Pattani. He also formed marriage connections with
sultans of Brunei. The Perak Annals relate that he also betrothed his eldest son to a grand daughter of Sultan of Perak. During his reign, Sultan Abdul Ghafur attacked the Portuguese and simultaneously challenged the Dutch presence in the
Strait of Malacca. Nevertheless, in 1607, Pahang not only tolerated the Dutch, but even cooperated with them in an attempt to oust the Portuguese.
Late period In 1607, the
Dutch Empire began their trade mission to Pahang led by the merchant Abraham van den Broeck. On 7 November 1607, a Dutch warship with Admiral
Cornelis Matelief de Jonge onboard dropped anchor at
Kuala Pahang. Earlier in 1606, Matelief, in an attempt to establish the Dutch power in the Strait of Malacca, was defeated twice by the Portuguese in the
First Siege of Malacca and the
Battle of Cape Rachado. Matelief, who had come to solicit the assistance of Pahang against the Portuguese, had an audience with the Sultan. The ruler emphasized the importance of alliance between Johor and neighbouring states, and added that he would try to provide two thousand men in order to bring the war to a successful conclusion. At the Sultan's request, Matelief sent him a gunner to test a cannon piece that was being cast for
Raja Bongsu of Johor. The people of Pahang also manufactured cannons which were better than those of
Java but inferior to those of the Portuguese. Matelief requested the Sultan to send two vessels to the Straits of Sabon to join the Johor vessels already there as soon as possible, and to despatch two more vessels to Penang waters to strengthen the Kedah and Achinese fleets to cut the off the Portuguese food supplies. Abdul Ghafur tried to reforge the Johor-Pahang alliance to assist the Dutch. However, a quarrel which erupted between him and
Alauddin Riayat Shah III, resulted in Johor declaring war on Pahang. In September 1612, the Johor army overran the suburbs of Pekan, which caused many deaths in the city. Pahang defeated Johor in 1613 with the aid of the
Sultan of Brunei. Abdul Ghafur's son,
Alauddin Riayat Shah ascended to the throne in 1614. He was replaced a year later by a relative,
Raja Bujang who was installed with the support of the Portuguese following a pact between the Portuguese and the Sultan of Johor. Raja Bujang's appointment was not accepted by Aceh, which was at war with the Portuguese. Aceh launched attacks on Pahang which forced Raja Bujang to flee to Lingga in 1617. Pahang entered a nominal
dynastic union with Johor in 1623, when Johor's Abdullah Ma'ayat Shah died and Raja Bujang emerged as the new ruler of Johor-Pahang, installed as Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah Riayat Shah III. From 1629 to 1635, Pahang, operating independently from Sultan Abdul Jalil III appeared determined to oust the Acehnese, allying itself with the Dutch and Portuguese whenever it was convenient to do so. In 1637, the appointment of
Iskandar Thani to the throne of Aceh, led to the signing of a peace treaty between Pahang and Aceh at Bulang Island in the Riau-Lingga islands. In 1648, Abdul Jalil III attacked Pahang in an attempt to reassert his position as Ruler of Johor-Pahang. Aceh eventually abandoned its claim over Pahang in 1641 – the same year
Portuguese Malacca fell to the Dutch. With the decline of Aceh, Johor-Pahang gradually extended its suzerainty over the Riau-Lingga islands, creating the
Johor-Pahang Empire. ==Administration==