Samudra Pasai, Malacca and Bani (Muslim) Champa. The sultanate was the first Muslim state in Java, and once dominated most of the northern coast of Java and southern Sumatra.[3]
Although it lasted only a little more than a century, the sultanate played an important role in the
establishment of Islam in Indonesia
, especially on Java and neighboring areas.
Etymology
The origin of Demak was the settlement named Glagah Wangi. According to tradition, the first person that Raden Patah encountered in Glagah Wangi was a woman named Nyai Lembah, from
Rawa Pening
. Nyai Lembah invited Raden Patah to settle in Glagah Wangi, which later was renamed as Demak Bintara.
There are several suggestions on the origin of the name Demak. According to
Indonesian historian
Demak, Tuban, and Ampel; thus Islam began to gain a foothold on the northern coast of Java.[5]
Demak's origins are uncertain although it was apparently founded in the last quarter of the 15th century by a Muslim known as Raden Patah (from the Arabic name Fatah, also called "Pate Rodin" in Portuguese records, and "Jin Bun" in Chinese records). There is evidence that he had Chinese ancestry and perhaps was named Cek Ko-po.[6]
According to tradition,
Wali Songo or "the nine saints". At that time Glagah Wangi was a small fiefdom belonging to Majapahit. It was the only Majapahit fiefdom with a Muslim ruler.[7] Then the name was changed to Demak, and it grew further by the establishment of a madrasa Islamic school and pesantren boarding school.[2]
: 13
Raden Patah
The foundation of Demak is traditionally attributed to Raden Patah (r. 1475–1518), a Javanese noble related to Majapahit royalty. At least one account stated that he was the son of Kertabhumi, who reigned as king Brawijaya V of Majapahit (1468–1478).
According to tradition, Raden Patah was the son of Majapahit King Kertabhumi with his concubine, a Chinese princess who resided in the Majapahit palace. She was supposedly given away when unknowingly pregnant with the king's child to be betrothed to the regent of the vassal state of Palembang. There Raden Patah was born in 1448 with the name Raden Hasan. After coming of age, he went to Ampel Denta in Java (now Surabaya) to learn from Sunan Ampel, a prominent ulama. Sunan Ampel betrothed him to his daughter, Nyai Ageng Malaka. Subsequently, in the 1470s, Sunan Ampel sent him to establish a new settlement in Glagah Wangi, Central Java. Through Sunan Ampel's recommendation, Raden Hasan was appointed as the regent of Glagah Wangi by King Kertabhumi of Majapahit, with the title Adipati Bintara.[2]: 16
Dates for the end of the Majapahit Empire range from 1478, traditionally described in the sinengkalan or chandrasengkala (
Daha
, since Demak rulers were descendants of Kertabhumi.
In response to the collapse of Kertabhumi of Trowulan and the rise of Girindrawardhana of Daha in 1478, Demak decided it was no longer obliged to send tribute to the Majapahit central court and declared its independence. At that time Demak was temporarily led by Sunan Giri (Prabu Satmoto). Three years later the Islamic kingdom of Demak was established under the chronogram Geni mati siniram janmi, which corresponds to 1403 Saka or 1481 CE.[2]: 13 Raden Hasan was crowned by members of Wali Songo under the new regnal name of Sultan Syah Alam Akbar Al-Fattah; thus in Javanese he was popularly known as Raden Patah.[2]: 17
A Chinese chronicle in a temple in Semarang states that Raden Patah founded the town of Demak in a marshy area to the north of Semarang. After the collapse of Majapahit, its various dependencies and vassals broke free, including northern Javanese port towns like Demak.[12]
Demak Great Mosque, built by Sultan Al-Fattah in the late 15th century with a traditional Javanese tajug stacked pyramidal roof
As the sign of his new reign, Raden Patah built a new Grand Mosque as the center of Islamic teaching. He appointed members of Wali Songo as advisors within his new government: Sunan Kudus as qadi (great judge of religious law), Sunan Giri as mufti, and Sunan Kalijaga as imam and advisor.[2]: 17
Demak managed to gain
Suma Oriental: "[S]hould de Albuquerque make peace with the Lord of Demak, all of Java will almost be forced to make peace with him... The Lord of Demak stood for all of Java".[14]
Apart from Javanese city-states, Raden Patah also gained overlordship of the ports of Jambi and Palembang in eastern Sumatra, which produced commodities such as lign-aloes and gold.[14] As most of its power was based on trade and control of coastal cities, Demak can be considered a thalassocracy.
Growth
Egnazio Danti
(1573) showing Dema on the center north coast of Iava Magiore (Java)
Raden Patah's son, or possibly his brother, led Demak's brief domination in Java. He was known as Trenggana, and later Javanese traditions say he gave himself the title Sultan. It appears that Trenggana had two reigns—c. 1505–;1518 and c. 1521–1546—between which his brother in law,
Between 1513 and 1518 Demak waged war against Patih Udara of Daha, the successor state of Majapahit located in today's Kediri. The main Demak army led by Raden Patah and Sunan Kudus marched overland through Madiun, while the Demak fleet led by Pati Unus took the sea route through Sedayu. Demak managed to consolidate its power by defeating Daha in 1518, because it was more accepted as the legitimate successor of Majapahit, since Raden Patah claimed direct descent from King Kertabhumi, who had died during the Girindrawardana invasion of Trowulan in 1478. Raden Patah died soon after this victory, also in 1518.[2]: 18
Pati Unus
Raden Patah was succeeded by his brother-in-law Pati Unus or Adipati Yunus (r. 1518–1521),[6] referred to by Tomé Pires in Suma Oriental as "Pate Onus" or "Pate Unus", brother in-law of "Pate Rodim". Before ascending the throne of Demak, he ruled Jepara, a vassal state to the north of Demak. Pati Unus ruled under the regnal name Sultan Syah Alam Akbar II.[2]: 19
In two expeditions, with approximately 100 ships in 1513 and with 375 in 1521, Pati Unus led fleets from the Javanese coastal cities to seize the port of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula from the control of the Portuguese. The Javanese ports turned against the Portuguese for a number of reasons, the main one being opposition to Portuguese insistence on a monopoly of the spice trade. The Portuguese repelled both attacks, and the destruction of so many ships proved devastating to the Javanese ports, whose trading activity subsequently greatly declined.[14]
Pati Unus was killed in the 1521 expedition, and was later remembered as Pangeran Sabrang Lor or "the Prince who crossed to the North" (the Java Sea to the Malay peninsula).
Sultan Trenggana
The greatest extent of Demak Sultanate during Trenggana's reign
Pati Unus died childless, leading to the Demak succession crisis. The throne was contested between his brothers, the older Raden Kikin and the younger Raden
Wali Songo
) and became the third and greatest ruler of Demak.
During Trenggana's reign a young man named
Pasai had been captured by the infidel Portuguese. He became a renowned general of Demak. Tradition has it that Trenggana was much impressed by Fatahillah's imposing figure and charisma and his knowledge of Islam, and gave him his daughter, the widow of Pati Unus, as his wife.[2]
: 21
After learning of the 1522
Sultanate of Banten as a vassal state under Hasanudin, son of Gunungjati, whom he also gave his sister's hand in marriage, creating a new dynasty.[15]
: 18
He appointed his daughter Ratna Kencana (popularly known as
Pajang
and gave another daughter's hand in marriage to Jaka Tingkir.
Trenggana oversaw the spread of Demak's influence to the east and west. He conquered the
Islamized
at the time.
His campaign ended when he sought to conquer the Hindu principality of
Mukmin (r. 1546–1549) ascended the throne as the fourth Sultan of Demak. However, with the help of his teacher Sunan Kudus, Arya Penangsang of Jipang sent an assassin to kill Prawata and his wife using the same kris that Mukmin had used to kill his father.[2]: 24
Arya Penangsang
Arya Penangsang (r. 1549–1568) ascended to the throne of Demak in 1549 after assassinating his cousin Sunan Prawata. Arya Penangsang was a valiant but vicious man who never hesitated to use brutal force to achieve his goals. Feeling threatened, Prawata's son Arya Pengiri sought refuge in his aunt's realm in Kalinyamat, Jepara.
Prawata's younger sister
Boyolali
), to avenge her husband's death by killing Arya Penangsang.
Arya Penangsang soon faced heavy opposition from his vassals for his harshness, and was dethroned by a coalition of vassals led by Hadiwijaya. In 1568, Hadiwijaya sent his adopted son and also his son in-law
Sutawijaya, who would later become the first ruler of the Mataram
dynasty, to kill Penangsang.
In 1568, after Penangsang was killed, Hadiwijaya assumed the role of sovereign. However, instead of ruling from Demak, he moved all of Demak's regalia, heirlooms, and sacred artifacts to Pajang. He appointed Prawata's son Sunan Pangiri as adipati of Demak. The relationship between the two states was now reversed: Pajang became the suzerain kingdom, while Demak became its vassal. Thus the Demak Sultanate ended with the foundation of the short-lived Kingdom of Pajang.[2]: 24
Family tree
The following is a version of the royal house of Demak. It must be noted that the relations between various members of this house are assumed mostly from Javanese traditions, oral or written in babads or other forms of writings not conforming to modern historiography.
Demak and nearby ports, with approximate coastline when Muria and Java were still separated
Demak derived its income from trade, importing
Malacca.[17] Demak's prominence grew with that of Malacca, and was also enhanced by Raden Patah's claim of direct descent from Majapahit royalty and his marriage ties with neighboring city-states.[16]
Religion
Before the emergence of Demak, the northern coast of Java was the seat of many Muslim communities, both foreign merchants and local Javanese. The Islamization process gained momentum from the decline of the Hindu-Buddhist
Wali Songo, the nine Muslim ulama who proselytized Islam among the then strongly Hindu-Buddhist population of Java. As an early Islamic polity, the Demak Great Mosque was built in Demak and still stands today, it is widely believed to be the oldest still-existing mosque in Indonesia.[19] The surrounding maqam (tombs) of Wali saints and Demak sultans here continue to draw ziyarat
pilgrimage among Muslims in the region.
Legends
Later
Babads provide varying accounts of the origins and expansion of Demak, but all describe it as the direct successor of Majapahit, not mentioning the possibility that by the time of its final conquest, Majapahit no longer ruled the area. The first "Sultan" of Demak, Raden Patah, is portrayed as the son of Majapahit's last king by a Chinese princess who was exiled from the court before Patah's birth;[6] according to tradition, she first served as a concubine to Kertabhumi (Brawijaya V) in Trowulan, and when already pregnant with the king's son, was sent as a gift to marry the regent of Palembang.[2]
: 16
Although these legends explain little about the actual events, they suggest that the dynastic continuity survived the Islamization of Java, or alternatively that the rulers of Demak reinforced their rule on Java by claiming descent from the Majapahit dynasty as a source of political legitimation. Demak was more likely a coastal settlement established as a result of Zheng He's Chinese expedition in the first half of the 15th century, ruled by non-Javanese foreigners, Chinese Muslims, possibly also attracting Arabs and Malay Muslim traders, which grew in power and supplanted the old kingdom.[citation needed]
^"Hasil Proyek Penelitian Bahan-bahan Sejarah Islam di Jawa Tengah bagian Utara". Lembaga Riset Dan Survei IAIN Walisongo Jawa Tengah (in Indonesian). 1974.
![Coinage of Raden Patah, possibly minted around 15th to 16th century, The coin is displayed at Sumatran Numismatic Museum in Medan. Obverse: سلطان دمق فقرن الفـَـاتح (Sultan Demak Pangeran al-Fatih (Raden Patah)), Reverse: محمد صل وسلم عليه (the Shalawat); both written in the perso-arabic script.[1] of Demak](/File:MUS_Koin_Sultan_Pangeran_Raden_Fatah.png)
