SĚLĚSÎLAH (BOOK OF THE DESCENT) OF THE RAJAS OF BRUNI.
by Hugh Low, H.B.M.'s Resident, Perak.
This is the history of the Rajas who have sat upon the throne of Bruni[1]—Dar ul Salâm (city of peace)—according to their generations, to whom descended the nobat nagâra (royal drum) and gunta alâmat (the bells, an emblem) from Johor—Kemal ul Mekam (the royal place): they also received the nobat nagâra from the country of Menangkabau, that is to say, Andalas and Saguntang.
The first[2] who held the sovereignty in the city of Bruni, and who introduced the Mahomedan religion and observed the institutions of the prophet Mahomed, on whom be peace, was the Paduka Sri Sultan Mahomed. (See Note I.)
Before his time the country of Bruni was Kâfir (gentile) and a dependency of Mĕnjaphait,[3] but at the time of the death of the Batâra
- ↑ The name of this kingdom and city is always written "Bruni" by the Natives, but it is called indifferently "Bruni" and "Brunei."
- ↑ The first date in Bruni history which can be trusted is A. H. 1072, being that of the death of Sultan Mahomet Ali, who was the twelfth Mahomedan Sultan. From the establishment of Johor in 1512 to the year 1810, Crawfurd says, fourteen Princes reigned, giving an average of twenty-one years to each reign a similar average for each Sultan of Bruni would make the religion of Islam to have been introduced, and the dynasty to have been established, about the year 1403, but it was probably somewhat earlier, as several of the Sultans of this period appear to have had long reigns.
- ↑ The Hindu kingdom of Mĕnjapahit was destroyed by the Mahomedans in A. D. 1473, Bruni is mentioned in the history of Java as one of the countries conquered by Adaya Mingrat, the General of Angka Wijaya, the last king.
