The Rise and Fall of Malacca
Author: Salahudeen al-Andalusi (Silat Sharaf Practitioner)
Silat has been a vessel of cultural unity for the peoples of the Nusantara (primarily Indonesia and Malaysia), providing a common denominator for a politically fractious region that has endured centuries of foreign influence and invasion. And allowing it to emerge as a distinct entity. More than just a mesh of different fighting styles, it is the sum of the region’s hardships, evolving by necessity over millennia to meet the many challenges that the peoples of the Nusantara have faced.
This article will be centered around the start of the trials of colonialism faced by the Malays following the conquest of the Sultanate of Malacca. And how Pencak Silat withstood the onslaught of one of the most advanced naval forces of the day: the Portuguese Conquistadors. As most of the fighting was performed by soldiers utilizing the weapons at their disposal; as it would be, the combat technology of the Malays proved to be outdated at the time of the Portuguese arrival and the ensuing pitched battles needed to hold onto their city proved quite difficult. For the citizens of the Sultanate of Malacca and their successors, the resistance to the conquistadors proved to be as much a political, religious, and cultural struggle as one of force of arms.
An old Portuguese map of Malacca
The Sultanate of Malacca
In the 15th Century, Malacca had grown to become the prime trade hub of the region owing to her control of the Straits of Malacca, through which all trade between India and China was concentrated. The founders of Malacca were seafaring tribes loyal to the deposed Sumatran royal, Iskandar Shah (also known as Parameswara, probably a title not a name), who escaped the collapse of The Malay Buddhist Empire of Srivijaya in Sumatra, converted to Islam, then reestablished his court as the Sultanate of Malacca, slightly out of the reach of his nemesis: The Majapahit Empire, the main power in the region.
Iskandar Shah transformed Malacca (in modern day Malaysia) from a local backwater into the center of the new Malay Empire. Now with a measure of safety, the seafaring expertise of the Malaccans was quickly put to predatory use, taking advantage of its location and forcing ships to pass through the straits and stop by its port, Malacca quickly turned into a bastion for traders and pirates alike.
This created opportunities as much as it imposed travel constraints, as traders from Sumatra and the surrounding Malay settlements began to establish themselves in Malacca hoping to take advantage of the flow of trade. On the other side of the spectrum, the tariffs imposed upon traders were hardly exorbitant and great effort was put into organizing and providing infrastructure for traders. Malacca thus transformed itself into a powerhouse of trade in the region.
In these early years, the small kingdom was obliged to pay tribute to its more powerful Majapahit and Siamese neighbors, as it was facing off against a much stronger foe. It was due to the Ming Dynasty in China turning its gaze upon Southeast Asia and declaring sovereignty over all, and by extension, imposing a sort of peace that prevented the quarreling kingdoms from assimilating one another that Malacca was allowed to grow in strength, and eventually stand on its own against Siamese incursions. In truth, Malacca was a subject of the Imperial Ming Court, requiring its approval to launch attacks against its Thai neighbors. Nonetheless, the Malaccans managed to not only fend off, but conquer the state of Patani and convert its population to Islam.
Map of the Majapahit Empire which spread over most of present day Malaysia and Indonesia. In modern times Indonesia still uses the term "Nusantara" to refer to itself whereas it was used to refer to captured regions outside central Indonesia in the past.
Besides transforming the new city into a hub for trade, so too did Malacca lay the seeds for the spread of Islam through exposure and proliferation. The royalty’s reversion to Islam is an almost mythological affair; it is recorded in the Malay Annals that Kichil Besar, successor of Iskandar Shah, received a dream of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), commanding him to proffer the declaration of faith and ordering him to await the arrival of a ship from Arabia, and to listen intently when they would perform the prayer.
To the great astonishment of the court, bewildered as it was by this strange revelation their king had received, the ship he dreamt of arrived at the shores, manned by Muslim traders and preachers. They were invited to the palace at Malacca and Kichil Besar promptly converted to Islam and adopted the name Muhammad, and ordered the remainder of his court to do likewise.
Whether this account of events is completely factual or an embellished take on a pragmatic decision to attract Muslim traders; or whether Islam initially became a court religion during a period of turmoil in which Tamil Muslims installed a favored Muslim pretender, it is true that Islam became a religion of the ruling class at first, and provoked a change in customs and the manner of governance of the land. The practice of royal marriages ensured that the phenomenon of a Muslim royal class spread to Java and the Moluccas, spreading down from the royalty, to the traders and their serfs. While Malacca was not the first Muslim kingdom of Nusantara, it would become the most influential, laying the seeds for the spread of Islam far and wide in the Archipelago.
All of the above contributed to Malacca’s transformation into a wealthy Muslim kingdom, rich in exotic goods and in control of a vital passage for trade. All of which also made it a very appealing target for conquest to the Catholic Portuguese with a historic bone to pick with their aggressive Muslim neighbors to the east.
“If we were only to take Malacca out of the hands of the Muslims, Cairo and Mecca would be entirely ruined, and Venice would then be able to obtain no spice except what her merchants might buy in Portugal.”
—Report on Albuquerque’s words at Malacca.
The famous Conquistador Afonso.
First Contact
Before the arrival of Afonso de Albuquerque, the Portuguese had sent a mission under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira to attempt the diplomatic assimilation of Malacca into the sphere of the Portuguese trading empire. The expedition arrived on the 1st of August, 1509. The Indian Muslims of Malacca, accustomed to the brutality of the Portuguese towards Muslims upon the Indian Ocean and fearful of a trade war were staunch opponents of the proposal. Eventually a riot broke out, triggered by the firing of a warning shot from a Portuguese vessel, and escalating into the capture of the sailors ashore at the time. The Portuguese remaining in their vessels quickly sailed away from the now-hostile city, and Tun Mutahir, Bendahara (a title akin to minister) was largely credited by the people for delaying any conclusion until the matter settled itself in what was perceived as a triumph for the Sultanate.
A man of Tamil Muslim ancestry, Mutahir was known to favor his close relatives and kin, bring them up to positions in the royal palace, which caused great resentment among the nobility. Growing weary of the ever-increasing influence of the Bendahara of the Sultan of Malacca, Mahmud Shah brought up old grievances to justify the execution of Tun Mutahir and all his relatives, save for his daughter, Fatimah, whom he took as a wife.
The Portuguese response was swift and uncompromising. In 1511, Alfonso de Albuquerque, Viceroy of the Indies, arrived from Goa, from which he had rallied and commandeered a number of outbound vessels to avenge the capture of Sequeira. The expedition lead by Albuquerque had set out from Portugal with three overarching goals: to disrupt the trade routes of the Venetians and Ottomans in the Indian Ocean, to spread Christianity and to take the riches flowing into the Ottoman Caliphate for themselves. Theirs was a simple, yet risky strategy; to follow the fabled Silk Road and control critical passages along its path. Before their arrival in Malacca, the Portuguese had already conquered Hormuz in 1507 and Goa in 1510. The latter’s ruling class fled the fall of the city and took refuge in Malacca, and served as a foil to the initial Portuguese negotiations, warning that the Portuguese were not to be trusted.
Albuquerque demanded the release of the remaining prisoners, to which the Sultan responded with vagaries and evasive words, unwilling to give up on the security provided by having hostages and attempting to buy time to fortify his city and recall the fleet. For his part, the Viceroy took this time to arrange for the cooperation of the Javanese and Hindu leaders upon the conquest of Malacca, and guaranteeing safe passage for the merchants who might be of use after his victory. In secrecy, he reached out to his personal contacts from within the city who informed him of the division and turmoil of the rulers. A more forceful approach to the blockade was taken, apprehending ships and launching probing attacks.
The Malaccans responded with releasing a hostage, and thus prompted Albuquerque to ask for a more taxing reparation: 300.000 cruzados and authorization to build a fortress wherever he wished. This was too much for Mahmud Shah to relinquish on, and with a half-hearted suggestion of friendship, the offer was refused.
A traditional Portuguese battleship armed with Conquistadores, muskets, and most importantly...heavy canon, which proved too much for most of their opponents in Southeast Asia.
The Capture
Content with the assurances he had received from his diplomatic efforts and all too happy to conquer the city and sack its riches, Albuquerque ordered his men to make for the shore, under the cover of cannon fire from the fleet. The Portuguese landed in two groups east and west of the city’s bridge. The army of the Sultanate was composed of local warriors as well as Turkish and Persian mercenaries, bearing poisoned arrows, archaic guns and cannons. The royalty of Malacca and Pahang, all nobles with limited knowledge of military affairs, took to riding a division of elephants into battle.
For all their courage, there was little in the Malaccan arsenal that could truly affect the armor-clad Portuguese invaders. The rudimentary gunnery employed by the defenders could do little to penetrate their cuirass. An attempted charge by the elephants was met with a pike formation that caused the beasts to frighten and run amok. The Malays were facing an enemy they had no previous experience fighting against, and a battle-hardened, disciplined one at that.
In spite of their superiority in arms and armor, the Portuguese were not invincible. Their steel armor was a terrible garment to endure in the tropical heat of the day, and as a sea-borne army there were constant issues with replenishing rations. The city thus held out against the conquistador’s assaults for a month, all the while on the losing end of artillery exchanges and unable to recover lost ground.
The Portuguese eventually maintained control of the bridge and overran the walls of the city, following with a methodical clearing of gun emplacements and burning down buildings that offered resistance. The pikes proved as effective in street clearance as in breaking elephant charges earlier in the siege, and just as terrifying to the defenders. Seeing his forces crumble with little resistance, Mahmud Shah opted to surrender the city and depart for exile with what remained of his army.
The populations Albuquerque had coaxed into collaborating with his conquest, for the most part Chinese, Hindu and Pagans, were spared the pillaging of the city. Many exotic weapons were found, ornate guns and exquisite arms left behind by the defenders. The valuables looted were no less impressive, with each soldier receiving the equivalent of four years of a count’s annual income.
The Aftermath
Mahmud Shah may have suffered a grievous defeat, but he was not going to make the Portuguese stay in his fallen Sultanate any easier. Regrouping in the island of Bintan, he would establish a fortified position and harassed the foreigners with raids and blockades until 1526, when the Portuguese finally caught up with him and raised his fortress to the ground. Prince Allaudin Shah, on the other hand, would go on to found the Sultanate of Johor, to the east of Malacca.
The new Sultanate would support the remnants of Malacca’s forces against the Portuguese, and on occasion allow itself a union of circumstance with them against the Sultanate of Aceh. The conquered Malacca became a part of the regional rivalries and endless political drama of the Nusantara.
News of the fall of Malacca would reach the ears of the Ming court, and the response was brutal on all accounts; the envoys present were executed in most cruel ways and the Chinese would go on to treat the Portuguese as pirates to slaughter and persecute. For a time, it would seem as though the Ming Dynasty was committed to halting the Portuguese advancement eastwards, demanding the restoration of their tributary. The Javanese and Malays became the primary trade partners of China, who embargoed Portuguese Malacca and forbade traders from engaging in commerce there.
For their part, the Portuguese had limited success in controlling the trade passing through the Straits of Malacca, as traders simply opted to sail through other routes and thus forced the Portuguese to launch further expeditions into the sultanates. A century later, the Dutch would become a serious thorn on the side of the Portuguese and overtake most of their gains in the Archipelago, eventually taking their place as the principal colonial power operating in the region.