# Muzaffar Shah II of Perak

Sultan Muzaffar Shah II ibni Almarhum Raja Mahmud (Jawi: سلطان مظفر شاه ٢ ابن المرحوم رج محمود; died 1653) was the tenth Sultan of Perak reigning from 1636 to 1653. He was the first Sultan of Perak to come from a different dynasty from the first nine Sultans of Perak. His paternal grandmother, Raja Putri Putih, was the daughter of Sultan Mansur Shah II of Pahang.

## Biography

When Sultan Iskandar Muda of Aceh, attacked and defeated Pahang in 1618, Sultan Ahmad Shah II of Pahang and his son, Raja Mughal, and many Pahangese were captured and taken to Aceh. Among those who became prisoners of Aceh included a child named Raja Sulong, son of Raja Mahmud.

### Reign

Sultan Iskandar Muda died in 1636 and his son-in-law, Raja Mughal, was appointed Sultan of Aceh with the title of Sultan Iskandar Thani Alauddin Mughayat Shah. In the same year, Sultan Iskandar Thani sent his distant cousin Raja Sulong to become Sultan of Perak as Perak was still under the auspices of the Aceh Sultanate. After Raja Sulong reached Perak, he was appointed as the 10th Sultan of Perak following the death of the 9th Sultan of Perak, Salehuddin, he used the title of Sultan Muzaffar Shah II.
Sultan Muzaffar Shah II married Raja Putri Fatima Putih, the great-granddaughter of Sultan Mansur Shah I of Perak and granddaughter of Sultan Abdul Ghafur Muhiuddin Shah of Pahang. The couple later had Raja Mahmud and Raja Mansur.

#### Dutch interference

Before the Dutch defeated the Portuguese in Malacca in 1641, the Dutch came to Aceh to get permission from Sultan Iskandar Thani to buy tin in Perak. Sultan Iskandar Thani agreed to permit the Dutch. After that, the Dutch went to see Sultan Muzaffar Shah II to tell him that the permission to buy tin in the state of Perak had been granted by Sultan Iskandar Thani. Sultan Muzaffar Shah II then also permitted the Dutch company to do business and buy tin in Perak. The Dutch had built houses where they did business near the banks of the Perak River.
Dutch business in Perak went well until 1641. In 1641, Sultan Iskandar Thani died and his widow, Putri Sri Alam, who was the daughter of Sultan Iskandar Muda, was appointed as the Sultana of Aceh with the title Sultana Tajul Alam Safiatuddin Shah to replace her husband. The Aceh Sultanate declined and gradually weakened. Since then, the power and colonies of Aceh in the Malay Peninsula began to gradually weaken and were released one by one until for many years only Perak remained under Acehnese control.
In mid-1641, a Dutch merchant named Jan Dircxen Puijit came to Perak with much merchandise to trade. Jan Dircxen Puijit went in to meet with Sultan Muzaffar Shah II and presented a letter and gift from the Dutch Governor (Johan van Twist) who was in Malacca. In the letter from the Dutch Governor, there was a proposal to the Sultan of Perak regarding stopping merchants from other nations from coming to buy tin in Perak. In addition, the Dutch Governor also suggested that Perak sell tin products only to the Netherlands. Sultan Muzaffar Shah II welcomed and returned the gift brought by Jan Dircxen Puijit with a sword and a dagger and awarded him the title Seri Johan Pahlawan. Moreover, Sultan Muzaffar Shah II also gave houses to the Dutch to replace their houses that were worn out where the Dutch traded. Sultan Muzaffar Shah II also stated that he felt very honored to buy merchandise from the Netherlands on the condition that each purchase was authorized by credit.
However, the proposal given by the Dutch Governor to the Sultan of Perak to prohibit other nations from buying tin products was still pending. Muzaffar Shah II stated that the matter would be brought to a meeting with the Orang-Orang Besar of Perak first. After a long time, the Sultan of Perak continued to be urged by the Dutch Governor to prevent other nations from buying tin products in Perak, but the Sultan remained adamant about not preventing other nations from buying tin in Perak. It got to a point where the Sultan of Perak threatened to take back the house that had been given to the Dutch during the reign of Jan Dircxen Puijit.
Because the Sultan did not want to give in to the Dutch's request, the Dutch started looking for ways to block the Javanese, Chinese, and Indians from coming to trade in Perak. Several Dutch ships were prepared to blockade the Perak river basin just to prevent the entry of other nations entering Perak to trade.
The restrictions that were made by the Dutch in the Perak river basin were later protested by the Government of Perak. Furthermore, the Dutch then went to Aceh to explain their restrictions in Perak and the proposal to block other nations from buying tin in Perak. The Acehnese government then instructed the Perakian government to not prevent other nations from buying tin products in Perak. This was because the Netherlands could still buy the most tin from Perak.
In 1650, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Cornelis van der Lijn sent a representative – Joan Truijtman – to Aceh. When the Dutch representative arrived in Aceh, they forced Sultana Tajul Alam Safiatuddin Shah to make an agreement with the Dutch that allowed only the Dutch to buy tin products in Perak. Sultana Tajul Alam Safiatuddin Shah then accepted the agreement and ordered the government of Perak to obey her orders. The agreement was signed by both parties on 15 August 1650. A year later, the Dutch plant in Kuala Perak was attacked and destroyed by the Malays and many Dutch people were killed as a result of the attack. At that moment the Dutch Campaign stopped and no longer traded in Perak.

### Death

Sultan Muzaffar Shah II ruled Perak for 17 years from 1636 to 1653. He died in 1653 with the title Marhum Jalilullah and was buried in Air Mati.