The Hadramaut Saiyids of Perak and Siak, 



By P. 0. Winstedt. 



On pp. 2-5 of Law Part II, The Ninety-Nine Laws of Perak, 

 in Papers on Malay Subjects, published by the F. M. S. Govt., Mr. 

 R. J. Wilkinson pointed out the great influence a certain Sayid 

 family exercised on the history of Perak in the XVIIItli century. 

 The family acquired the highest state offices, those of Orang Kaya 

 Besar and of Manteri, and one of its members acted even as Benda- 

 hara. Scions of this Sayid house were sought for eagerly in 

 marriage and married into the families of all the greater Perak 

 chiefs. One married the sister of Sultan Iskandar, — Marhum 

 Kahar (whose reign is described in the Misa* Melayu) and was the 

 father of a Perak Sultan. Another married a daughter of the raja 

 of Siak and from their union were descended the rulers of Siak. 

 Several were accounted saints. 



How came this family to win such prestige and power? 



Their genealogical tree copied by a former mufti of Perak, 

 Eaja Haji Yahva who in his youth gave Sir William Maxwell some 

 Perak royal genealogies (-7. R. A. 8., 8. B. XIV, p. 305) explains 

 the matter. They were of the great house of Ahmad bin Esa al- 

 Mohajir, the founder of the Sayid house of Hadramaut. which con- 

 siders its nobility better established than that of all the other des- 

 cendants of the Prophet's daughter, and refuses the hands of its 

 daughters, even its half-caste daughters to Sherifs and Sayids come 

 from other places. Van den Berg's " Hadramaut and the Arab 

 colonies in the Indian Archipelago " gives the following particulars 

 of this family: I quote from Sealy's translation (Bombay, 1887). 



" The founder of the Sayids of Hadramaut is a certain Ah- 

 mad bin Isa, surnamed al-Mohajir who, according to tradition, 

 established himself in the country about ten centuries ago. He 



was a native of Bassora His genealogy is as follows : bin 



Esa bin Muhammad an-Xakib bin Ali al-Oraidthi bin Ja'far as- 

 Sadik bin Muhammad al-Bakir bin Ali ZainuT-abidin bin al- 

 Husain. To distinguish themselves from other Sayids those of 

 Hadramaut call themselves al-Alawiyin descendants of 'Alawi, 

 grandson 6f Ahmad bin Esa. Seven generations after Ahmad bin 

 Esa the genealogical tree of the Sayids branches off with the two 

 sons of Muhammad surnamed Sahib a'r-Kobat. After this division, 

 we see the genealogical tree of the Sayid divide itself more and more 

 into separate families. I will give the names of the families so far 

 as they exist in our days and their descent is generally acknowledged 

 authentic : — 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 79. 



