Sultan Mahmud Shah II

Paduka Sri Sultan Mahmud Shah II ibni al-Marhum Sultan Ibrahim Shah (original name Raja Mahmud) (1675–1699) was the 10th Sultan of Johor, Pahang and Lingga (reigned 1685 to 3 September 1699)

He was the last in line of a dynasty of the Sultanate of Johor founded by his grandfather, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah II (also known as Raja Fatimah) descended from the Sultans of Melaka (Malacca). As he was just a 10-year old boy when his father Sultan Ibrahim died on 16 February 1685, Sultan Mahmud Shah II reigned under the joint regency of his mother and the Bendahara Paduka Raja until the death of the latter on 27 July 1697.

Alexander Hamilton, an English sailor who visited Johor Lama in 1695, wrote about the king's homosexuality.

=Government=

During the reign of Sultan Mahmud, administrative affairs were conducted by the Bendahara. The central government was located at Kota Tinggi and a royal palace was constructed at Johor Lama, a town presided over by the Temenggong.

Sultan Mahmud Shah II's rule was associated with tyranny which caused domestic unrest. In 1697, the Bendahara Seri Maharaja Tun Habib Abdul Majid died and was bestowed the title of Marhum Padang Saujana (Deceased Marshal of the Field).

Sultan Mahmud was a descendant of the King of Malacca who escaped after the town fell into the hands of the Portuguese in 1511. During his childhood, he was placed on the throne by his stepmother and the Sultanate was governed by Paduka Raja (His Majesty) Tun Abdul Jamil and his family. When Sultan Mahmud grew older and took over the reins of government, the latter's central administration moved from Riau to Johor Lama. It was here that the Sultan became a despot.

=Personality traits=

In the literary work Tuhfat al-Nafis written by Raja Ali Haji of Riau, there is a story describing the temperament of Sultan Mahmud. Employing subtlety in his prose, Raja Ali Haji attributed the personality quirks of the Sultan to the fact that he was married to a peri (type of female jinn) who was so jealous that she did not allow him the opportunity to be with any human wife for long.

Nevertheless, Sultan Mahmud did have several wives but is said to have slain any of them if they had the misfortune of becoming pregnant. Perhaps this could have been the result of his fear that the birth of a son would enable rivals to depose him. After all, he himself had come to power at a young age through a palace conspiracy that led to the poisoning of his father Sultan Ibrahim by his wives.

He was eventually reputed to have inherited homosexual tendencies such as those of the people of Lot.

Alexander Hamilton, an English sailor who visited Johor Lama in 1695 wrote about the peculiarity of the Sultan's behaviour. He was fierce and bizarre. This characteristic was also confirmed by the Dutch delegate to Johor in 1699 which reported that the Sultan was too young and difficult to control. He would spend his time indulging in shameless pleasures and killing people at will. His lust was more partial towards beautiful men. Hamilton in his book A New Account of The East Indies published in Edinburgh in 1727, recounted the following tale:

"He is a great slander and takes many rich people or the sons of nobles, forcing them into his palace for such abusive service. One Moorish trader, the loader on my boat had a handsome boy. One day the king saw him and needed him to be his catamite. He threatened the boy's father that if he did not send him voluntarily, the Sultan would get him forcibly. The poor man took his son on the ship and then asked for protection from me which I promised him." It was reported that many handsome men became victims of Sultan Mahmud's lasciviousness.

=Murder of admiral's wife=

The culmination of his tyranny was to kill the wife of one of his courtiers, Megat Seri Rama. In 1699, pirates were raiding the shores of southern Johor, from Mersing to Pulau Penyengat and Riau. Laksamana (Admiral) Megat Seri Rama, also known as Laksamana Bentan after his island of origin, Bintan, was ordered to stop the menace. He left behind his beloved wife, Dang Anum, who was carrying a pregnancy close to term, while he went to quell the pirate attacks.

His absence presented an opportunity for a former palace officer, who was jealous of Megat Seri Rama, to plot against him. Dang Anum craved a piece of jackfruit taken from the royal orchard that was on its way to be presented to the Sultan. The penghulu (head of a sub-district) who was delivering the fruit to the palace sympathised with Dang Anum. He stole a piece of jackfruit and gave it to her. The Sultan, who noticed that the fruit had been cut before he could taste it, was outraged at the penghulu's action. His thoughts were also poisoned by the jealous palace officer who said that Dang Anum's deed had obviously brought shame to the Sultan, leaving him to eat the rest of the fruit after her. The Sultan summoned the woman to the palace for punishment. Desperate for her life and that of the child she bore in her womb, Dang Anum told the Sultan that the fruit she ate was for her child. The Sultan asked for proof and the woman's abdomen was split asunder. According to the fable, the child was seen with a piece of the jackfruit. The heinous murder was kept secret from all the palace's inhabitants.

=Assassination=

Admiral Megat Seri Rama returned from the battlefield at Linggi on the orders of the Sultan and was informed of the tragic death of his beloved wife at the hands of the Sultan. He was determined to seek revenge. Together with Bendahara Paduka Raja Tun Abdul Jalil and other royal officials, they resolved to depose Sultan Mahmud. According to Malay custom, a king could be dethroned if proven to be insane or apostate. They agreed in a secret meeting to kill the Sultan.

However, there was a chieftain called Orang kaya (wealthy person) Seri Bija Wangsa of the Orang Laut (Sea People) tribe who was against the plot because he did not want to rebel against the Sultan. In order to successfully execute the plan and maintain confidentiality of the important mission, Seri Bija Wangsa was killed by a supporter. This chieftain was a key figure from the Orang Laut of the Riau-Lingga Sultanate who had assisted the Admiral in the Johor-Bugis war in Linggi. The Orang Laut were furious and sought to avenge his death. Megat Seri Rama assumed the onerous duty of administering the coup. On a Friday in August 1699, when the 24-year old Sultan proceeded to the mosque for Friday prayers and was being carried up (dijulang in Malay) in a royal litter or dais/palanquin by his men, he was ambushed and stabbed to death by Megat Seri Rama. Supposedly, as he heaved his last breath before expiring, the Sultan cast a curse which forbade all people from Bintan and 7 generations of the Admiral's descendants from treading the grounds of Johor Lama in Kota Tinggi for eternity or they would vomit blood until they died. Tragically, Megat Seri Rami was also killed by the Sultan's henchmen in the altercation.

Posterity would be destined to know the Sultan better as Marhum Mangkat Di Julang (the one who died in his palanquin). The tomb of the monarch is called Sultan Mahmud Mangkat Di Julang Mausoleum and is located in Kampung Makam, Kota Tinggi. Hence, Sultan Mahmud is also known as Marhum Kota Tinggi. Laksamana Megat Seri Rama was buried at Kampung Kelantan, also in Kota Tinggi.

According to people in the southern state, there exists a descendant of Megat Seri Rama who will develop a headache and vomit blood whenever he visits the site of the Sultan's murder. With Sultan Mahmud's demise in 1699, the lineage of the rulers of Johor became severed from the descendants of the dynasty of the King of Malacca.

=Descent=

A successful claimant to the throne who initially held the title of Raja Kecil (Small King) averred that he was the son of Sultan Mahmud Shah II. The latter, in his childhood, had been evacuated, by a nobleman, from Malacca before its fall to the Portuguese to Pagar Ruyung. The daughter of the nobleman was later married off to Sultan Mahmud and bore him a son, Raja Kecil. Owing to the upheavals in the palace caused by the odd behavior of the Sultan, the nobleman rescued his grandson Raja Kecil from the environment. Raja Kecil assumed the title of Sultan Abdul Jalil Rahmat Shah upon his coronation and ruled Johor from 1718 to 1722.

=References=
 * R.O. Winstedt, A History of Johore, The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS), 1992, ISBN 9839961462.
 * Sultan Mahmud Shah II, Malay Wikipedia

=See also=
 * Singapore gay history

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.