Formation During the reign of
Wikramawardhana of
Majapahit, during the period from 1405 to 1433, a series of
Ming armadas
naval expeditions led by
Zheng He, a
Muslim Chinese admiral, arrived in Java. This Chinese expedition supported the establishment of the Muslim state of
Malacca in the first half of the 15th century, later assisted by the establishment of Muslim Chinese, Arab and Malay communities in northern ports of Java such as
Semarang,
Demak,
Tuban, and
Ampel; thus Islam began to gain a foothold on the northern coast of Java. According to later Javanese tradition,
Sunan Ampel ordered Raden Patah to establish an Islamic learning center in the Glagah Wangi village in coastal Central Java. Soon the village grew to become the center for
dawah activities among distinguished Islamic proselytizers, traditionally known as
Wali Songo or "the nine saints". At that time Glagah Wangi was a small fiefdom belonging to
Majapahit. It was the only Majapahit fiefdom with a Muslim ruler. Then the name was changed to Demak, and it grew further by the establishment of a
madrasa Islamic school and
pesantren boarding school. , built by Sultan Al-Fattah in the late 15th century with a traditional Javanese
tajug stacked pyramidal roof As the sign of his new reign, Raden Patah built a new
Grand Mosque as the center of Islamic teaching. He appointed members of Wali Songo as advisors within his new government: Sunan Kudus as
qadi (great judge of religious law), Sunan Giri as
mufti, and
Sunan Kalijaga as
imam and advisor. The supremacy of Raden Patah was expressed by
Tomé Pires in
Suma Oriental: "[S]hould
de Albuquerque make peace with the Lord of Demak, all of Java will almost be forced to make peace with him... The Lord of Demak stood for all of Java". Apart from Javanese city-states, Raden Patah also gained overlordship of the ports of
Jambi and
Palembang in eastern Sumatra, which produced commodities such as
lign-aloes and
gold. Between 1513 and 1518 Demak waged war against Patih Udara of
Daha, the successor state of Majapahit located in today's
Kediri. The main Demak army led by Raden Patah and Sunan Kudus marched overland through Madiun, while the Demak fleet led by
Pati Unus took the sea route through Sedayu. Demak managed to consolidate its power by defeating Daha in 1518, because it was more accepted as the legitimate successor of Majapahit, since Raden Patah claimed direct descent from King Kertabhumi, who had died during the Girindrawardana invasion of Trowulan in 1478. Raden Patah died soon after this victory, also in 1518. He appointed his daughter Ratna Kencana (popularly known as
Ratu Kalinyamat) and her husband
Sultan Hadlirin to rule Kalinyamat and Jepara. He also appointed
Jaka Tingkir as Adipati (Duke) of
Pajang and gave another daughter's hand in marriage to Jaka Tingkir. Trenggana oversaw the spread of Demak's influence to the east and west. He conquered the
Hindu-based resistance in
Central Java and during his second campaign, conquered the last
Javanese Hindu-Buddhist state, the largely defunct remnants of Majapahit;
Tuban, an old Majapahit port mentioned in Chinese sources from the 11th century, was conquered in about 1527. During his reign Demak was able to subdue other major ports and its reach extended into some inland areas of
East Java that are not thought to have been
Islamized at the time. His campaign ended when he sought to conquer the Hindu principality of
Pasuruan in East Java and was killed in 1546. According to tradition, he was assassinated by a ten-year-old Duke of Surabaya, who stabbed with a kris while serving him
betel nut.
Decline Sunan Mukmin The death of the strong and able Trenggana in 1546 triggered a
blood feud and
civil war between Prince
Arya Penangsang, Adipati of the vassal state of , who was the son of the assassinated Sekar Seda Lepen (Raden Kikin), and Trenggana's son Prince Mukmin or Sunan Prawata, who had committed the murder. According to the
Babad Demak chronicle, several influential figures of Wali Songo supported different candidates for the succession. Sunan Giri supported Prince Mukmin, while
Sunan Kudus supported Arya Penangsang, since he belonged to the line of the eldest male son of the Demak dynasty. On the other hand, Sunan Kalijaga proposed Hadiwijaya, popularly known as Joko Tingkir, who was the adipati of
Pajang and also a son in-law of Trenggana. Mukmin (r. 1546–1549) ascended the throne as the fourth Sultan of Demak. However, with the help of his teacher Sunan Kudus, Arya Penangsang of Jipang sent an assassin to kill Prawata and his wife using the same
kris that Mukmin had used to kill his father.
Arya Penangsang Arya Penangsang (r. 1549–1568) ascended to the throne of Demak in 1549 after assassinating his cousin Sunan Prawata. Arya Penangsang was a valiant but vicious man who never hesitated to use brutal force to achieve his goals. Feeling threatened, Prawata's son Arya Pengiri sought refuge in his aunt's realm in Kalinyamat, Jepara. Prawata's younger sister
Ratu Kalinyamat sought justice from Penangsang's teacher Sunan Kudus, but he declined her request, deeming Penangsang's revenge justified since Prawata had assassinated Penangsang's father, Raden Kikin (Sekar Seda ing Lepen). On their way home from Kudus to Kalinyamat, Ratu Kalinyamat and her husband,
Sultan Hadlirin, were attacked by Penangsang's men. Hadlirin was killed and Ratu Kalinyamat barely survived. She urged her brother in-law, Hadiwijaya (popularly known as
Jaka Tingkir), Adipati of Pajang (now
Boyolali), to avenge her husband's death by killing Arya Penangsang. Arya Penangsang soon faced heavy opposition from his vassals for his harshness, and was dethroned by a coalition of vassals led by Hadiwijaya. In 1568, Hadiwijaya sent his adopted son and also his son in-law
Sutawijaya, who would later become the first ruler of the
Mataram dynasty, to kill Penangsang. In 1568, after Penangsang was killed, Hadiwijaya assumed the role of sovereign. However, instead of ruling from Demak, he moved all of Demak's
regalia, heirlooms, and sacred artifacts to Pajang. He appointed Prawata's son Sunan Pangiri as adipati of Demak. The relationship between the two states was now reversed: Pajang became the suzerain kingdom, while Demak became its vassal. Thus the Demak Sultanate ended with the foundation of the short-lived
Kingdom of Pajang. == Family tree ==