SELESILAH 



(BOOK OF THE DESCENT) 



OF THE 



EAJAS OF BEUNI. 



BY 



Hugh Low, H. B. M.'s Resident, Perak. 



This is the history of the Eajas who have sat upon the throne 

 of Bruni( 1 ) — Bar ul Saldm (city of peace) — according to their 

 generations, to whom descended the nohat nagdra (royal drum) 

 and gunta aldmat (the bells, an emblem) from Johor — Kemal ul 

 Mefcam (the royal place): they also received the nobat nagdra 

 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 Kafir (gentile) and a 

 dependency of Men japahit, ( 3 ) butatthetime of thedeathof theBatara 



(1) The name of this kingdom and city is always written "Bruni" by the 

 Natives, but it is called indifferently " Bruni" and "Brunei." 



(2) 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, Crawturd 

 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. 



(3) The Hindu kingdom of Menjapahit was destroyed by the Mahomedans 

 in a. d. 1473, Bruni is mentioned in the history of Java as one of the countries 

 conquered byApAYAMlNGRAT, the General of Angka Wijaya, the last king. 



