Journey To The East

THE JOURNEY TO THE BORNEO, MINDANAO AND SULU

Another story I gathered, there were six of them and two of them were women that had sailed from Johor, Peninsular Malaysia including the father or the older person.
In the past Old Johor includes Malacca and Singapore Island. The older person could be Shariff Ali, the third Sultan of Brunei and his first wife. The other lady could be the lost child of Shariff Ali and the granddaughter of Sultan Iskandar Zulkarnain of Johor/Malacca who was given the gold ring.

Sharif Ali Zainal Abedin

SHARIFF ALI ZAINAL ABEDIN

The vintas of Shariff Ali Zainal Abedin landed in Johor or stayed back in Johor and married the daughter of Sultan Iskandar Zulkarnain, the Sultan Of Malacca, who was an Indian by origin in the nama of Parameswara, a merchant from Sumatra before he converted to Islam and took up the name of Iskandar Zulkarnain, by the name of Putri Jusul Asikien.

Their children were;
Shariff Bonggo,
Shariff Alawi,
Shariff Mangenta
Shariff Kabunan, while the last child disappeared but Sultan Zulkarnain of Johor/Malacca had given a gold ring studded with 7 carats of diamond to the mid-wife for the lost child (daughter).

What could be the reason for the loss of the last child, other than the will of God? She could have been given away for adoption as she would not be carrying the name and title of Shariff. Only men carried the title of Shariff. Why did Sultan Zulkarnain then gave the gold ring studded with 7 diamonds to the mid-wife for the child if she had vanished?

Some stories claimed that she was put in a box and drifted like the story of Prophet Moses in the Bible and Koran but was taken by someone, who was a respected or important person at that time, could be a price or a scholar.

The history of Meriam Ratu Hijau in Medan, Sumatera had caught my imagination. Could she be the lost daughter of Shariff Ali Zainal Abedin because history tells us that her influence spread very far including the Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatera.

Here Comes The Shariff

Shariff is the title given to a person in the past who were considered knowledgeable and normally they were the descendants of the Arab from Mecca or Taif and their descendants hence carry the same title, but only for the male person.

There were so many stories about the Shariff in this part of the region and people were so proud about these Shariff that they called them the respected ones as these people did not want glamour or titles because they were originally traders as well as missionaries, but they were lucky to have been married to the daughters of Sultan. This had happened in Johor, Brunei, Sulu and other provinces. They came at the height of the propogation of the Muslim religion in the early 14th Century. They were said to have possessed certain powers and miracle like walking on the water or the sea.