Stefan Eklöf Amirell

The blessings and perils of female rule: New perspectives on the reigning queens of Patani, c. 1584–1718

Only in a handful of cases in world history has female rule been seen by contemporary observers as desirable and been sustained for long periods of time. Drawing on European, Malay and Chinese sources, this article investigates the reasons for the institutionalisation of female rule in the Malay sultanate of Patani (presently in southern Thailand) for most of the period between c. 1584 and 1711. It is concluded that the results of previous research, in which the Patani queens are characterised as powerless front figures and/or promiscuous, have insufficient support in the contemporary sources. Furthermore, the problems of female rule for dynastic stability are discussed comparatively. Finally, the decline of female rule in Patani after the mid-seventeenth century is explained with reference to the larger political, economic and military changes in maritime Southeast Asia at the time.

Progressive Nationalism and Female Rule in Post-colonial South and Southeast Asia

Abstract Several South and Southeast Asian countries have elected popular female political leaders since independence. Most of the women are either daughters or widows of popular male nationalist politicians and the key to understanding the phenomenon is the special character of nationalism as it emerged in the regions in the late colonial period. At a theoretical level, the rise of female leaders in Bangladesh, Burma, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand can best be understood as a consequence of the maternalist qualities of nationalism, including visions of peaceful national integration, social and economic justice and gender equality in the political and civic sphere. The dichotomy, which has obvious gender connotations, between this popular, progressive nationalism and the official, conservative nationalism propagated by later authoritarian regimes provided favorable conditions for the rise of female political leaders who claimed to represent the maternalism associated with their dead fathers or husbands and with the original nationalist projects.

Pirates and pearls: Jikiri and the challenge to maritime security and American sovereignty in the Sulu Archipelago, 1907–1909:

In 1908–1909, maritime commerce, fishing and traffic in the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines almost came to a standstill due to a surge in piracy and coastal raids that challenged US colonial rule in the area. The leader of the outlaws was a renegade subject of the Sultan of Sulu, a Samal named Jikiri. Together with his followers, Jikiri was responsible for the murders of at least 40 people in numerous raids on small trading vessels, pearl fishers, coastal settlements and towns throughout the archipelago. In spite of the concerted efforts of the US Army, the Philippine Constabulary and private bounty hunters, Jikiri was able to avoid defeat for more than one and half years, before he was eventually killed in July 1909. His decision to take to piracy was triggered by the failure of the US authorities to pay compensation for the loss of the traditional claims that many families in the Sulu Archipelago had to the pearl beds of the region, as stipulated by a law on pearl fishing adopted in 1904. The law was in several respects disadvantageous to the native population of Sulu and this – together with the high-handed behaviour of the local officers in charge of the Sulu district from 1906 – fuelled widespread discontent with colonial rule and led several of the leading headmen of Sulu covertly to sympathize with, and protect, Jikiri and his followers. This sponsorship combined with the general reluctance of the population to cooperate with the US military explains why Jikiri was able to defy the vastly superior US forces for so long. American officers at the time tended to attribute the depredations to the allegedly piratical nature of the Sulus, but this article argues that the so-called ‘decay theory’, first proposed by Raffles a century earlier, is a more appropriate explanation of this surge in piracy.

Female Rule in the Indian Ocean World (1300-1900)

An outstanding feature of the early modern Indian Ocean World is the large number of women who exercised formal sovereign political power. Based on a systematic survey of 277 queens regnant in the Indian Ocean World from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, this article discusses four possible explanations for the relative frequency of female rule: religion, trade, political stability, and gender relations. It concludes that the spread of world religions, particularly Islam, entailed a decrease in the acceptance of female rule in large parts of the region, although its influence varied, and, in sharp contrast to the Middle East, many Muslim polities in the Indian Ocean World were at one time or another during the period under study led by a woman. The notion that women rulers were preferred because of their commercial skills and ability to promote peaceful, open, and trade-friendly policies is rejected as a causal explanation because of its weak support in contemporary sources. The relative frequency of female rule in the Indian Ocean World can instead be explained on a general level by a combination of the desire for political and dynastic stability and the matrifocal orientation of many societies along the Indian Ocean rim. However, as in Europe during the same period, female rule tended mainly to be adopted as a last resort, and female royal power tended, apart from a few exceptions, to be weak and short-lived.

Introduction: Persistent Piracy in World History

Maritime piracy is at present a subject of great public and research interest. In the West, and increasingly in other parts of the world as well, popular interest mainly focuses on the historical and cultural aspects of the phenomenon — that is, piracy as a fantasy or entertain- ment. Meanwhile, the activities of contemporary pirates — in areas such as the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Guinea, the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea — attract not only the interest of the general public and the media worldwide but are also a matter of great concern for the international community and the shipping and insurance industries. Like in most real, as opposed to fictional, cases of piracy in history, there is nothing romantic about the ravages of modern pirates.

Persistent Piracy : Historical Perspectives on Maritime Violence and State Formation

Abstract in Undetermined Warfare and legitimate violence have long been seen as key elements in state formation. Persistent Piracy brings into the picture the long missing component of maritime violence – and shows it to be of vital importance to the formation and, on occasion, disintegration, of states. Spanning from the Caribbean to East Asia and covering almost 3,000 years of history, from Classical Antiquity to the eve of the twenty-first century, the book is an important contribution to the history of state formation as well as the history of violence at sea. The book has contributions by leading authorities in the field of piracy studies and history more generally: Philip de Souza, Neil Price, Wolfgang Kaiser, Guillame Calafat, James K. Chin, Robert J. Antony, David J. Starkey, Matthew McCarthy, James Francis Warren and Stig Jarle Hansen. (Less)