ofthe SAME TREE

proceeds to recount the fortunes of this family while completely omitting
any further mention of the other two brothers. 88 There is, however, another
popular version of the Sejarah Melayu, a hybrid text known as the Shellabear
recension, which gives paramountcy to the prince who became ruler of
Minangkabau. In this version Sang Sapurba, the prince who becomes ruler in
Minangkabau, is depicted as the father of Sri Tri Buana, thus demonstrating the
primacy of the Minangkabau royal house over the Malayu Melaka dynasty. 89
The process of unraveling Minangkabau ethnicity from that of the
Malayu was not yet complete by the late eighteenth century, which may
explain why European observers continued to regard the Minangkabau and
the Malayu as one. William Marsden, who wrote the first detailed account of
Sumatra in a European language in 1783, explained that the name “Malayu”
referred not only to those on Sumatra but those living on the opposite coast
of the Straits of Melaka and on the numerous surrounding islands, as well as
to “every Mussulman [Muslim] speaking the Malayan as his proper language,
and either belonging to, or claiming descent from, the ancient kingdom of
Menangkabau; wherever the place of his residence may be.” 90 Later Dutch
and English commentators reinforced the view of Minangkabau as the cradle
of Malayu civilization, which then spread to the “Malay” Peninsula and elsewhere
in the archipelago. 91
While external observers continued to equate the Minangkabau with the
Malayu, a separate identity was already well on its way by the second half of the
seventeenth century. The sense of being Minangkabau was being strengthened
by the activities of the rulers of Pagaruyung and was being spread through its
royal missives and emissaries. A clue to their efficacy lies in the reputation
of Pagaruyung rulers as repositories of extraordinary sacral powers and as
mother/father figures to all Minangkabau (anak Minangkabau). 92 Such powers
were believed to be conveyed by Pagaruyung’s letters and by messengers
described as “sons” of the Pagaruyung ruler. On the west coast of Sumatra
these royal princes were able to raise armies and even pose a military threat to
communities. 93 Further afield in the upper reaches of rivers in the interior and
the downstream areas of east Sumatra such royal personages had to rely on
the credence of the Minangkabau communities for their support. The exceptional
success of such messengers in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries is testimony to the real influence exerted by the Pagaruyung court
and to its success in forming a distinctive Minangkabau identity.
100 Chapter 3
Pagaruyung Emissaries in the Ethnicization Process
In 1677 the Minangkabau settlements of Rembau, Sungai Ujong, and Naning
(then under the VOC) requested and received a ruler called Raja Ibrahim from