Fadhillah Khan, the founder of Jayakarta

By Wisnu Pramudya

JAKARTA (JP): It was dawn on June 22, 1527. Fadhillah Khan, the young ulema who led the stunning military operation to expel the well-armed Portuguese forces from Kalapa port, now Jakarta, addressed his men.

"Let's change the name of Kalapa to Fathan Mubiina (manifest victory)," he shouted.

Some of the 1,500 men under his command, including recent Hindu converts to Islam, looked on in bewilderment at use of the Arabic name.

Fadhillah stared at one of the men. "What's Fathan Mubiina in our language?"

"Jayakarta," someone translated into Sanskrit.

"Jayakarta it is then," Fadhillah said.

Fadhillah took the name of Jayakarta from a Koranic verse: Inna fatahna laka fat-han mubiina (Sura Al Fath: 1) which means "verily, we give you a manifest victory". Allah revealed the verse to Prophet Muhammad after he peacefully took over the holy city of Mecca from the disbelievers of the Quraish tribe, who had been persecuting him and other Moslems.

The interchange is depicted in the new film Fatahillah.

After that date, now designated as the founding day of Jakarta, Fadhillah Khan ruled Jayakarta as part of the Islamic kingdom of Banten.

He was no William Wallace, the Scottish hero in Mel Gibson's Braveheart, who was raised to become a soldier. Fadhillah was brought up to be a Moslem scholar. He was born in 1490, the son of Maulana Machdar Ibrahim, an ulema in Pasai, now Aceh, and traveled and studied in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

His grandfather, Maulana Malik Ibrahim, was another early propagator of Islam in Java, according to Pangeran Arja Tjarbon in the 16th century manuscript Tjarita Purwaka Tjaruban Nagari.

These were the years when Europe was launching its military expansion and had started to encroach on Asian and African countries. The Portuguese wreaked havoc and colonized Islamic areas such as Malacca and Pasai in the northern part of Sumatra, Ternate and Tidore in Maluku, and Goa in Sulawesi.

Fadhillah was about to return from Mecca when he heard that his homeland was had been colonized by the Portuguese. He changed his plans and traveled to the Islamic kingdom of Demak on the northern coast of what is now Central Java.

The young, humble ulema was received warmly and was given the name of Ratu Bagus Pase or Wong Agung Sabrang (the great man from across the sea).

Demak was founded by Walisongo, the nine early preachers of Islam in Java. It went from strength to strength after the Hindu kingdom of Majapahit -- which spanned an area as vast as Southeast Asia today -- weakened and eventually crumbled.

The king of Demak, Sultan Trenggono, married Fadhillah to his sister, Ratu Pembayun, and Ratu Ayu, the widow of Adipati Yunus, the commander of Demak who died in the losing battle against the Portuguese in Malaka in 1513.

Leaving a trail of destruction in various other parts of the archipelago, the Portuguese turned to Java. On August 21, 1522, they persuaded the Hindu king of Pajajaran in the hinterland of western Java to agree to the establishment of a military fort and trade center in Kalapa port, the northern part of what is now Jakarta.

The agreement was important for Pajajaran, as it realized that the absence of such a port made it vulnerable, especially because thriving ports of Banten and Cirebon tended to be more loyal to Demak.

Fort

Sunan Giri Prapen, one of the Walisongo preachers, asked Sultan Trenggono to prevent the Portuguese from establishing the port in Kalapa, also known as Sunda Kelapa.

Trenggono and his military commander, Senopati Demak, understood that Demak would lose influence and face financial losses if the Portuguese-Pajajaran alliance in establishing the port succeeded. They were still reluctant because of the trauma of losing battles against the Portuguese in Malacca, Goa and other places.

Two of the other Walisongo, Sunan Kudus and Sunan Kalijaga, persuaded Sultan Trenggono to support their cause. He delegated the mission to fight the Portuguese to Fadhillah Khan.

The young ulema, in his early thirties at the time, then launched a covert military operation, garnering support and mobilizing Moslems from the islands of Madura and Sulawesi, and Cirebon and Banten on Java.

The Portuguese forces were at the time concentrated mainly in Malacca. It was from there the Portuguese sent a fleet of 10 warships full of soldiers to Java, along with another ship of Pajajaran soldiers, when news leaked of Fadhillah's mission to thwart the plan for the Kalapa port.

As soon as they entered the Sunda Strait, the Portuguese fleet showed its force by firing canons -- weapons that most of the horrified Fadhillah troops had heard of but never seen.

The Portuguese landed only to find Fadhillah troops awaiting them. They lost the ensuing battle, and some of the men fled by sailing back to Malacca.

In reward, Fadhillah was given a new name, Fatahillah, which means the glory of Allah.

Several historians view Fadhillah's victory as crucial not only in foiling Portuguese designs on the Kalapa port, but also in shielding the entire island of Java from colonial powers until the next century when the Dutch arrived.

Fadhillah moved to Cirebon in what is now West Java when he was about 60 years old. He died in 1570 at the age of 80. He was buried in Gunung Jati, alongside the grave of his father-in-law, Sunan Gunung Jati.

Fatahillah is today the name of a museum located in the north of Jakarta.

Mystery shrouds Fatahillah's and this has led to conflicting versions of his actual identity. One mainstream theory is that Fatahillah was actually Sunan Gunung Jati.

This is refuted by the Tjarita Purwaka Tjaruban Nagari manuscript, detailing the establishment of the Islamic kingdom of Cirebon, which states Fadhillah Khan was the son-in-law of Sunan Gunung Jati through Ratu Ayu.

It was Sunan Gunung Jati who ordered the rulers or minor kings of the Pajajaran sultanate, traditional supporters of Demak, to switch their allegiance to Fadhillah, according to the manuscript.

Unearthed by historian Atja, the manuscript is believed to be an authentic record and is endorsed by senior archeologists Uka Tjandrasasmita and Hasan Muarif Ambary.

Scriptwriter Misbach Yusa Biran decided to use the manuscript as the basis for screenplay of the film Fatahillah.

"This version is the one which is most in agreement with the historical artifacts of Fatahillah," Misbach said.