List of rulers of Maluku


This is a list of rulers of Maluku from proto-historical times until the present. Maluku is an archipelago east of Sulawesi in Indonesia. The four sultanates of Ternate, Tidore, Jailolo, and Bacan were considered descendants of a legendary figure called Jafar Sadik and formed a ritual quadripartition. There were several other small kingdoms in northern part of Maluku, such as Loloda and Moro, but both had little or no influence in the region. Drawing wealth from the spice production and trade with other parts of Asia, Ternate and Tidore lorded over extensive realms which stretched from Sulawesi to Papua, while Jailolo and Bacan merely had local significance. They fell under Portuguese or Spanish influence in the sixteenth century, superseded by Dutch impact in the seventeenth century. The sultanates were subordinated to the Dutch colonial state until 1942 when the Japanese occupied Indonesia. After the outbreak of the Indonesian revolution they belonged to the Dutch-approved quasi-state East Indonesia from 1946 to 1950 when they were incorporated in the unitary Indonesian state.

Sultans of Bacan

  • Muhammad Bakir
  • Zainal Abidin
  • Yusuf
  • Alauddin I
  • Dom João
  • Dom Henrique
  • Alauddin II
  • Nurusalat
  • Muhammad Ali
  • Alauddin III
  • Dutch protectorate 1667-1942/1946
  • Musa Malikuddin
  • Kie Nasiruddin
  • Hamza Tarafan Nur
  • Muhammad Sahaddin
  • Skandar Alam
  • Muhammad Badaruddin
  • Kamarullah
  • Muhammad Hayatuddin Kornabé
  • Muhammad Sadik
  • Muhammad Usman
  • Muhammad Muhsin
  • Incorporation in Indonesian unitary state 1950
  • Muhammad Gahral
  • Muhammad Abdurrahim

Sultans of Jailolo

Legendary list

  • Darajati
  • Fataruba
  • Tarakabun
  • Niru
  • Yusuf I
  • Dias
  • Bantari
  • Sugi
  • Hasanuddin
  • Husain
  • Yusuf II
  • Doa
  • Gugu Alam
  • Syah Mardan
  • Sahunsa
  • Talabuddin

Historically documented list

  • Sultan Yusuf I
  • Kaicil Firuz Alauddin alias Tahubo
  • Sultan Tarkibun alias Katarabumi
  • Kaicili Guzarate alias Niru
  • Sultan Kodrat alias Kolano Yusuf II
  • Sultan Doa
  • Raja Jailolo
  • Kaicil Alam
  • Rule of Ternate 1656-1797
  • Muhammad Arif Bila
  • British occupation 1799-1802
  • Muhammad Asgar
  • Muhammad Hajuddin Syah
  • Muhammad Asgar
  • Dano Baba Hasan
  • Rule of Ternate 1803-1950
  • Abdulah Harjanto Sjah

Rulers of Ternate

Pre-Sultanate rulers

Sultan

The first known Kolano of Ternate to convert to Islam was Marhum. According to François Valentijn's account, Marhum was the son and successor of the seventeenth King Gapi Baguna II, a pre-Islamic ruler of Ternate. His island kingdom was one of the four realms that traditionally existed in North Maluku, the others being Tidore, Bacan, and Jailolo. Reports were told by Javanese traders who came to the island, that native Ternateans were able to read out words from the letters of the Qur'an, it proves that the first tenets of Islam had entered North Molluccan society.
The first ruler of Ternate to adopt the title of Sultan was Zainal Abidin of Ternate, His life is only described in sources dating from the 16th century or later. According to the versions of François Valentijn's account, Zainal Abidin was the son of Marhum, meanwhile according to Malay Annals like the Hikayat Tanah Hitu by Rijali described that Zainal Abidin was the first Ternate ruler to convert to Islam. Many Muslim Javanese traders frequented Ternate at the time and incited the king to learn more about the new creed, to establish an Islamic governance for his kingdom. In c. 1495, he traveled with his companion Hussein to study Islam in Giri on Java's north coast, where Sunan Giri kept a well-known madrasa. While there, he won renown as Sultan Bualawa, or Sultan of Cloves. According to the Hikayat Tanah Hitu, Zainal Abidin stopped in Bima in Sumbawa on his way back to Maluku. He and his crew got into trouble with the local king and a fight took place where a Bimanese wounded Zainal Abidin with his spear. The bodyguards of the ruler brought him back to the ship, though he died on board. The account of François Valentijn, on the contrary, insists that he survived the battle and made it back to Ternate. On his return, he replaced the royal title Kolano with Sultan, and it may have been now that he adopted the Islamic name Zainal Abidin. He brought back a mubaligh from Java named Tuhubahahul to propagate the Islamic faith and created a Bobato to assist in all matters relating to the rule of Islamic law across the Sultanate.
The second ruler of Ternate to claim the title of Sultan was Bayan Sirrullah. He ruled from around 1500 to 1521 and saw the arrival of Portuguese to the Islands of Maluku. Bayan Sirrullah, also known as Abu Lais, was the eldest son of the first sultan of Ternate, Zainal Abidin. Islam had been accepted by the local elites of North Maluku in the second half of the 15th century, as a consequence of the importance of Muslim traders in the archipelago.
Under the reign of Baabullah of Ternate, Ternate saw its golden age after Baabullah's victory in defeating the Portuguese. He was commonly known as the Ruler of 72 Islands in eastern Indonesia, including most of the Maluku Islands, Sangihe and parts of Sulawesi, with influences as far as Solor, East Sumbawa, Mindanao, and the Papuan Islands. His reign inaugurated a period of free trade in the spices and forest products that gave Maluku a significant role in Asian commerce.
The last Sultan who ruled Ternate according to the old institutions was Muhammad Usman Syah. Muhammad Usman succeeded to the throne in February 1902 after the death of his father in 1900, and a brief reign by his brother. He was arrested and dethroned by the Dutch colonial authorities on 23 September 1915 because of his opposition to the increasing colonial interference in his kingdom and the subsequent minor uprising in Jailolo in September 1914, whereby the controleur G.K.B. Agerbeek and Lieutenant C.F. Ouwerling were murdered. The Dutch colonial government later enthroned an honorary sultan of Ternate, Muhammad Jabir in 1929, The sultanate was de facto abolished under the government of Indonesia around 1949 to 1950.
;List of sultans

Kings and sultans of Tidore

The title of Sultan was first claimed by the former Kolano of Tidore, Ciri Leliatu known later as Sultan Jamaluddin. According to the Malay chronicle of Hikayat Ternate, Ciri Leliatu was the son of Matagena, a Malay lord who expelled his predecessor Kolano Sele and acquired kingship over the island. According to even later sources, he was descended from a line of Muslim qadis and thus started a new royal lineage, and eventually died in Gotowasi village in Halmahera. He is nevertheless counted among the pre-Islamic rulers. Matagena's son was Ciri Leliatu, also called Ciriliyati, who succeeded to the Kolano-ship in the late 15th century. An Arab called Syekh Mansur came to Tidore and converted him to Islam, whereby he received the Islamic name Sultan Jamaluddin. The eldest son of the king was named after the preacher, and later succeeded his father as Sultan al-Mansur. Al-Mansur was, according to later historical tradition, the son of the first Muslim ruler of Tidore, Ciri Leliatu. He was named after Syekh Mansur, an Arab who persuaded his father to convert to Islam. As he later told Spanish visitors, his father had been killed during a journey to Buru Island, which was normally a dependency of the rivalling Sultanate of Ternate. According to European sources, Islam was accepted by the North Malukan elite in about the 1460s-1470s. Ciri Leliatu's son Sultan al-Mansur ruled when the Portuguese first visited Maluku in 1512, and met the remnants of the Magellan expedition in 1521.
Under the reign of Sultan Saifuddin, the Sultanate of Tidore was an ally of the Dutch East India Company, it was until the nineteenth Sultan of Tidore, Nuku Muhammad Amiruddin attacked the VOC in 1780.
The last sultan of Tidore was Zainal Abidin Syah who reigned from 1947 to 1967. During his reign, the anti-feudalist movements led to the abolition of old monarchical institutions in 1949.
;List of rulers