Kinship, Islam, and Raiding in Maguindanao, c. 1760–1780extension of jihad”.^54 Their large-scale raiding attacks of north Sulawesi
and Maluku in the 1770s at the time when the British were intermit-
tently present provide hints to an emerging anti-Dutch front where
Islam might have likewise played a role. These raids were organized by
Haji Umar alongside the raja muda (heir apparent) and later sultan of
Maguindanao, Kibad Syahrial, a certain Sayyid Abdullah and nakhoda
Udung.^55 Their fleet of thirty vessels attacked settlements in north
Sulawesi and Halmahera that were friendly to the Company.^56 Haji Umar
himself intended to invade not only the Company posts at Manado,
Kema, Amurang and Ternate, but also the forts of Makassar and even
Batavia^57 – an ambitious plan somehow leaked to the Company.^58
Although the later exploits of the Maguindanaos still paled from what
Haji Umar had desired, the Company retrospectively considered his
1777 expedition as the beginning of the incessant war against “piracy”.^59
Haji Umar, the Ternate-born^60 trader, royal emissary and “pirate
leader”^61 represents the zeitgeist of the late eighteenth century. Although
- Quoted in Sutherland, “Review Article: The Sulu Zone Revisited,” 150.
- It is tempting to conclude that nakhoda (ship captain) Udung was the same
person (La Udung) that was identified as one of the messengers of the Sultan of
Boné in 1775, especially because Makassar was envisioned by Haji Umar and his
allies as one of their ultimate targets. Connections with the local Bugis notables –
through Udung – were therefore necessary if it was to be realized. Rahilah Omar,
“The History of Boné A.D. 1775-1795: The Diary of Sultan Ahmad as-Salleh
Syamsuddin” (Hull: University of Hull, 2003): 56. In any case, nakhoda Udung
who participated in the 1777 attacks also served as the envoy of Maguindanao
to the Sangirese. NA, VOC 8141, Ternate 3, Copia dagregister gehouden door
den onderkoopman Hemmekam gedurende zijne commissie naar de Sangirsche
eilanden (ontvangen anno 1780), fol. 58. - A fleet of thirty vessels would have consisted of at least one thousand men. In the
retaliatory expeditions of the Company the following year, that consisted of twenty
vessels, there was a total of one thousand men (mainly rowers). ANRI Ternate inv.
14, Meeting of the Political Council of Ternate, 3 April 1778, 385. - ANRI Ternate inv. 14, Meeting of the Political Council of Ternate, 6 August 1778,
162; ANRI Ternate inv. 14, Meeting of the Political Council of Ternate, 21 May
1778, fol. 412. - Warren, The Sulu Zone, 1768–1898, 162.
- NA, VOC 7440, Extracts of the Letters from the Indies (Ambon- Timor I), no. 5.
- NA, VOC 8141, Ternate 3, Copia dagregister gehouden door den onderkoopman
Hemmekam gedurende zijne commissie naar de Sangirsche eilanden (ontvangen
anno 1780), fol. 88. - Andaya, The World of Maluku, 231.