Abu al-Mafakhir of Banten
Sultan Abu al-Mafakhir Mahmud Abdulkadiror better known asPangeran Ratu(died 1651) was the ruler ofBantenin NorthwestJava,Indonesia,and was the first ruler anywhere on the island of Java to take the title ofsultan,which he took in 1638, under the Arabic name Abu al-Mafakhir Mahmud Abdulkadir. This set a precedent forSultan Agung of Mataramsoon afterwards to take the title himself.[1]
Pangeran Ratu reigned during a prosperous trading time, from which his empire gained considerable wealth; however it was also a period of increasing European influence in Western Java. In 1603, the first permanent trading post of theDutch East India Company(VOC) was established inBanten,[2]and in 1602 the English were also given a trading post there.[3]Jayakarta (modernJakarta) was then a vassal of Banten, which both the English and Dutch sought for its natural harbor. Bantenese forces held the territory from both, until the VOC underJan Pieterszoon Coenburned down the town and drove the Bantenese out, and renamed it Batavia.[4]
From 1633 to 1639, another war was fought with the Dutch, which ended with a vague ceasefire commitment. A treaty in 1645 clarified the situation, which held until the reign of Pangeran Ratu's successor,Ageng.[5]
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References[edit]
- M.C. Ricklefs.A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300,2nd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.