ENRIQUE DE MALUCO

Who was Enrique de Malacca? And who was Jorge, the other Malay interpreter in the Magellan Expedition?

Do you know that he was called originally by Ferdinand Magellan as Enrique de Maluco not Enrique de Malacca? It means Enrique of the Moluccas. Magellan stated that Enrique was really a native of Taprobana, which was the ancient name of Borneo that had the same meaning with its other local name Kalimantan, particularly the western part which was also called in the early 16th century as Samudera (different from Sumatra).

Enrique was a Muslim prince of the region the ancients called the Far End which included Borneo, Mindanao, Sulu Archipelago, the Riau Archipelago, the Sunda Archipelago, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, the Papuan Islands and probably Australia. 

Enrique was the 18-year old Kaicili Latu, the young prince of Ternate, son of Sultan Bayan Sirrullah, who was sent as an envoy to Malacca by his father in 1512, stayed there for six months but only returned after the death of his father at the age of 27. There was a Portuguese report about a certain young prince from the Sunda islands named as "Samiao" (read as Samian or Samyang) who was sent accordingly by the Sundanese king to Malacca in 1512 to seek help from the Portuguese over a conflict in the kingdom. He was said to be Ratu Sang Hyang or Surawisesa, the crown prince of the Pajajaran kingdom. If Kaicili Latu and Ratu Sang Hyang were one and the same person then Ternate and Pajajaran must have the same rulers. It was said in local history that Sultan Zainal Abidin of Ternate, grandfather of Enrique, had also brought and married a high-born Muslim woman, probably a princess, from Java.

Enrique de Maluco was also called as Dom Enrique by the Portuguese. He was appointed bendahara of Malacca in 1574 under the Portuguese and later he was appointed knight of the Military Order of Christ as a reward of his services during the revolt in Ternate against the Portuguese in 1570 and the siege of Malacca by the Chinese in 1573. He died in the Moluccas in 1581 but it was not clear whether he died a Christian or a Muslim since there were reports that most of the Christian rulers in the Moluccas were converted back to Islam either voluntarily or by force.

But who was Jorge, the other Malay interpreter? The Malay interpreter named Jorge in the Magellan expedition was Sultan Zeinal Abidin, the great grandfather of Enrique. He was the first ruler in Moluccas who used the honorific sultan instead of kolano. At a very young age he studied Islam in a madrasah in Java. He was described as a Cupid which defined him as charming and strikingly handsome, a valiant warrior who had mastered the pencak silat and the princely arts of sword-fighting and archery, and a pious scholar who had mastered literature, music and arts. He was called by his friends as "Sultan Bualawa" (Sultan of Cloves). He was named as Raja Samaluku or "ruler of the Moluccas", as Laksamana Hang Tuah of Malacca and as Badang of Singapore in the Malay Annals.

Accordingly he went to Java in 1511 after the fall of Malacca. But his ship was intercepted and captured by three marauding Portuguese ships captained by Ferdinand Magellan, Francisco Serrano and Duarte Barbosa near Samudra-Pasai. 

When asked by the Portuguese about his identity and purpose of coming to the area, Tidore Wonge introduced himself as Zainal, which appeared in Portuguese records as "Geinal", and told the Portuguese that he was dethroned and wanted to seek help from Majapahit in Java and the Portuguese in Malacca. 

But in reality he had just arrived from China and attended the wedding of Sultan Mansur Shah of Pahang with the daughter of Sultan Mahmud Shah of Malacca prior to the attack of the Portuguese led by Albuquerque. He was both the Bandung (variant of Badang, meaning the Hercules equivalent to his other herculean titles Cek Ko Po and Ciri Leliatu), the captain of the Malaccan champions who valiantly fought against the Portuguese and the Laksamana. As the Malaccan forces were defeated, Sultan Mahmud Shah ordered him to go and asked for reenforcement from Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Banten, Cirebon, the Riau archipelago, the Sulu archipelago, Mindanao, Borneo, Sulawesi and the Moluccas. But on his way he was captured.

This Zainal Abidin in disguise who was later given a Christian name Jorge was Hang Tuah of Malacca. He was the Raja Tua of Brunei with the regnal name of Sultan Sulayman of Brunei and Cakrabuana Abdullah Sulaiman; the original Ciri Leliatu or Kolano ma-Dehe in the region or emperor of the Far End; the Cek Ko Po of Demak and the Serapo of the Dayaks. His son-in-law, Pati Unus, was the one popularized by Antonio Pigafetta as "Cilapulapu" while "Zula" being mentioned was his son Bayan Sirrullah, the Sultan of Ternate and Mindanao, and the 9-year old boy, son of "Zula", who was sent as an envoy to Magellan in 1521, a day before the so-called Battle of Matan, was Abu Hayat, which was shortened to Boheyat. 

Abu Hayat was brave as a lion when he relayed the message of Bayan Sirrullah to Magellan. Hence his father was also called as Abu Lais which meant "father of a lion". In Islamic belief, the lion was referred to Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. Abu Hayat was only an address (kunya) which meant "father of life" and not really his personal name (ism). It represented his character or role as a liberator from oppression. Abu Hayat could be an Arabic equivalent to the Sanskrit royal title Maha Moksa which was used during the Majapahit era which meant "Liberator of Restricted Life". Its equivalent in Chinese was Ma-ho-mo-sa which when translated into Arabic would become Mahmud Shah or Prince Muhammad. But he was considered as a lion, denoting Ali. Thus, his personal name must be Ali bin Muhammad.

So it meant that Bayan Sirrullah or Abu Lais' proper name was Muhammad. Hence, Bayan Sirrullah must be one and the same with Sultan Muhammad Kabungsuwan of Maguindanao who married the Maranao princess, Putri Angin Tabo, or Tuniña, the lost twin sister of Layla Manjanay, daughter of Zeinal Abidin, the Tidore Wonge. Therefore, Bayan Sirrullah was Trenggana and Nakhoda Ismail or Enrique was his eldest son named Raden Mukmin or Sunan Prawata in Demak or Si Letong or Tutong ("Dodong" or beloved prince) from Mindanao (Melanau or Maranaw) who settled in Sarawak and married a Dusun lady in Lung Bawan. Mukmin must be a phonetical variant or corruption of Mothmin from a famous Basque character in Seville, Spain named Mothmin al-Akra or "Jimeno the strong". Jimeno was a variant of Spanish Simon and Portuguese Samião. He was known in Mindanao for his titles as Sultan Maka-alang and Sri Pada (local variant Saripada). Sri Pada is derived from Sankrit which means "descendant of Adam" denoting that Mindanao is the lost Eden, the birthplace of Adam who is allured as tall, dark (brown) and handsome.

The Portuguese, most probably Magellan, promised Jorge to be reinstated in exchange of his service. Magellan must had believed this deceit by heart which was corroborated by the young pilot Nakhoda Ismael, the Kaicili Latu (crown prince) of Ternate who was given a Christian name Enrique. Or perhaps, Magellan really knew that what was meant of the throne being usurped was referring to Malacca and that he really promised Zeinal to help him gain it back once he get the approval of the Spanish king to provide him a new fleet in Moluccas by way of the Pacific Ocean which might had been suggested by Zeinal himself being knowledgeable about the roundness of the world. 

This Nakhoda Ismael was reported by Albuquerque as a pilot who had his own navigational map, could read and write, and could understand several foreign languages. He was the one who guided Ferdinand Magelland and Francisco Serrano to the Moluccas in 1512. 

Serrano stayed in Ternate after he was shipwrecked in the Sulu Archipelago and invited by Sultan Bayan Sirrullah. It was obvious that Magellan took Enrique and Jorge on his way back to Portugal for a mutual agreement over their interest in the region but unknowingly he had succumbed to the dubious plan of the Laksamana, that was using him as an instrument to topple down the Portuguese in Malacca.

Who is really fit to be called the first circumnavigator of the globe? Actually there are four best candidates -- Enrique de Maluco, Ferdinand Magellan, Duarte Barbosa and another Malay interpreter named as Jorge.