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Riau-Lingga Sultanate

Created in 1824 when the Anglo-Dutch Treaty split the old Johor-Riau sultanate along the Strait, leaving the islands south of Singapore as the Riau-Lingga Sultanate under Dutch suzerainty. Its court at Penyengat became a celebrated centre of Malay letters before the Dutch abolished the sultanate in 1911.

Dissolved by Dutch intervention in 1911 when the last sultan, Abdul Rahman II, refused Dutch terms and went into exile.

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Further reading

• The Precious Gift (Tuhfat al-Nafis) Raja Ali Haji (trans. Virginia Matheson & Barbara Watson Andaya) · 1982

  The Penyengat court chronicle; primary source for the Riau-Lingga/Bugis Yang di-Pertuan Muda milieu.

Sources

• Wikipedia, 'Riau-Lingga Sultanate' (intro fetched via API) + Wikidata Q3503553 (P571=1819, P576=1911)
• John Crawfurd, 'A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands & Adjacent Countries' (1856), s.v. JOHOR, p. 192: 'It suited the policy of the English and Dutch governments to take, each, one of the rivals as its protege, and hence the cession of Singapore to the first, and of Rhio to the last.'
• Crawfurd 1856, s.v. JOHOR, p. 192: 'the protege of the English claiming sovereignty over the forests north of the Straits of Singapore, and he of the Dutch, those to the south of it, as laid down by the convention of London of 1824.'
• Crawfurd 1856, s.v. RHIO-LINGGA ARCHIPELAGO, p. 367: 'Dutch writers have divided this Archipelago into two parts, a northern and a southern, distinguishing each by the name of its largest island, namely, Bintang for the first, and Lingga for the last.' (Bintang group: Batam, Galang, Bulang, Chumbul, Sugi, Durian, Karimun, Sagupong; southern group: Lingga and Singkep)