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Sultan Hairun Jamilu (Jawi script: ; c. 1522 – 28 February 1570) was the 6th Muslim ruler of Ternate in Maluku Islands, reigning from 1535 to 1570. During his long reign, he had a shifting relation to the Portuguese who had a stronghold in Ternate and tried to dominate the spice trade in the region. This ended with his assassination at the hands of a Portuguese soldier in 1570.
Hairun was the son of a former Sultan, Bayan Sirrullah (d. 1521) by a Javanese people lady.C.F. van Fraassen (1987), Ternate, de Molukken en de Indonesische Archipel. Leiden: Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, Vol. II, p. 16. He had a uterine sister who was married into the Tidore royal family and became the mother of a sultan.Francisco Colin & Pablo Pastells (1900) Labor evangelica, ministerios apostolicos de los obreros de la Compañia de Iesvs, fvndacion, y progressos de su provincia en las islas Filipinas, Vol. III. Barcelona: Henrich y Compañia, p. 54.[1] Hairun's mother was a practitioner of pre-Islamic rites and did not live at the royal court. When the Portuguese soldiers came to pick up Hairun for enthronement, she violently resisted them, realizing that her son would only become a Portuguese puppet. In the ensuing tumult she died by falling from a window. Nevertheless, Hairun was installed in the end and accepted European tutelage.Willard A. Hanna & Des Alwi (1990) Turbulent times past in Ternate and Tidore. Banda Naira: Yayasan Warisan dan Budaya Banda Naira, p. 54-6. However, another half-brother of Hairun, Dayal, had been deposed some years previously and fled to the rival Sultanate Tidore, based on an island in the vicinity. There he was supported by his maternal uncle, Sultan Mir, who refused to surrender Dayal. An anti-Portuguese alliance was forged between Tidore, Bacan, Jailolo and dissatisfied Ternatans. In retaliation, a Portuguese army invaded Tidore in 1536, and Dayal was mortally wounded during the fighting.Leonard Andaya (1993), p. 124.
Hairun, who had already been shipped away to his exile, actually visited Goa where he was received with great honour. The Goan authorities reinstalled him as Ternatan ruler and he returned in 1546. There he had the opportunity to see the well-known Jesuits Francis Xavier who undertook extensive missionary work in Maluku and other parts of Asia. In fact Christianity made significant inroads in Halmahera, Menado, Siau Island, etc.Leonard Andaya (1993), p. 125-7. The relations between Xavier and Hairun, who spoke Portuguese and dressed in European fashion, were cordial and friendly. Xavier thought that the Sultan had little regard for the Prophet and hoped for his conversion.Georg Schurhammer (1980), p. 198.[4] This was however vain hope, and the attitude of Hairun turned increasingly Islamic and resentful of Christianity as time went by.
The main long-standing rival of Ternate was, however, Tidore. The two kingdoms coexisted in an ambivalent way, as Ternate rulers regularly married Sultans' daughters from Tidore in spite of numerous petty wars between the two. A rift appeared between Hairun and the Portuguese in 1557 since the latter confiscated the clove harvest from Makian and imprisoned the Sultan for security reasons. The enraged Ternatan chiefs now allied with the Sultan of Tidore and attacked the positions of the Portuguese, who could barely hold their own. Eventually they found reason to release Hairun and arrived to an agreement. He and his son Baab signed a letter of vassalage which is the oldest preserved letter with seals in Indonesia.Annabel Teh Gallop (2019) Malay seals from the Islamic world of Southeast Asia. Singapore: NUS Press, Nos 1836-1837. The Tidorese ruler Kaicili Gava, however, had used the crisis to take over certain territories in Maluku which had previously been Ternatan dependencies. In a twist of events, Portuguese and Ternatan forces encircled Tolo in Halmahera and defeated the Tidorese in 1560. Gava was forced to submit, but was soon murdered by the Ternate ruler on a state visit.P.A. Tiele (1879-1887) "De Europëers in den Maleischen Archipel", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 25-36, Part IV:1, p. 399-400; Bartholomew Leonardo de Argensola (1708), The discovery and conquest of the Molucco and Philippine Islands. London, p. 97-8.[5]
Hairun's growing opposition to the Portuguese eventually cost him his life. His dwindling reputation among the Europeans can be seen in contemporary letters which denounced him as a debauched, tyrannical oath-breaker. A reconciliation between Hairun and the Portuguese captain Diogo Lopes de Mesquita was arranged in 1570, but it ended on a bad note.Willard A. Hanna & Des Alwi (1990), 86. Some days later, on 28 February, the Sultan was urgently summoned by Mesquita to appear in the Portuguese castle to discuss an important issue. When Hairun arrived, he was only allowed inside without his bodyguards. When he was about to depart from the meeting, Mesquita's nephew Martim Afonso Pimentel approached him near the gate and stabbed him with his poignard, exclaiming "Though the galleons have withdrawn to India, there are still Portuguese around here!". The Sultan fell down dying while professing his sincerity vis-à-vis the Portuguese.P.A. Tiele (1877-1887), Part IV:5, p. 442.
The assassination quickly proved to be a huge blunder for the Portuguese. A general uproar followed, led by his capable son Babullah (Kaicili Baab) who was now hailed as the new Sultan. The Portuguese fort was besieged and the garrison forced to capitulate in 1575, inaugurating the golden age of Ternate's power.Leonard Andaya (1993), p. 132-3.
His known children were:
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