Sovereign Women in a Muslim Kingdom by Sher Banu A.L. Khan

Author:Sher Banu A.L. Khan [Khan, Sher Banu A.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789813250055
Publisher: NUS Press

Administration of Law and Justice under the Sultanahs

Such caprice and cruelty were not reported during the reigns of the female rulers. Ironically, their penalties, checked by moral and religious values, were deemed as soft or weak. When Maharaja Sri Maharaja was accused of taking Safiatuddin’s royal lands, the sultanah admonished him at court, where he had to sit with his hands folded on top of his head and beg for forgiveness for hours. This humiliation was as effective a deterrent as any as he refrained from troubling the sultanah any further. After attending an audience day on 12 July 1642, Pieter Sourij described her as merciful. He related that on that day, many criminal and civil cases were discussed; one delinquent was brought before the sultanah but someone pleaded for him to be spared. Pieter Sourij believed this was owing to her nature as a woman, and the delinquent was pardoned.40 In another case, a member of the congregation at a mosque opposed the penghulu kawal, an official at court in charge of policing. He was supposed to receive a death sentence, but thanks to appeals from many Indian Muslim traders requesting his pardon, the perpetrator’s life was spared. However, as he had committed the grave crime of beating the penghulu kawal in a mosque, his left hand was amputated.41

Another characteristic feature of justice under Sultanah Safiatuddin was the greater institutionalisation of Islamic practice. She called upon the relevant courts to administer cases rather than to mete out punishment based on the ruler’s personal whim and caprice. For example, a Muslim captain from Bengal by the name of Mirs Mamoet was accused of having sexual intercourse with the daughter of a certain Sayyid Sierip. While the case was still being investigated, Sayyid Sierip killed Mirs Mamoet because he had refused to marry his daughter. A fellow Bengali merchant requested that the sultanah execute Sierip and his daughter. The sultanah instead referred this to the relevant courts and adjudicators. The laksamana and the Lebai Kita Kali eventually settled the case as it involved a murder (to be tried at the criminal court) and a sexual liaison (under the jurisdiction of the religious court). The verdict was death for both father and daughter; however, the sultanah had the right to hear the final appeal. She saved the father from the death sentence, but the daughter was sentenced to strangling for fornication.42

Under the sultanah, the punishment for adultery was consistent—either flogging or strangling, which was in accordance with the law of the land. In one case, Sultanah Safiatuddin ordered the Lebai Kita Kali to investigate and try the case of a man who wanted her to punish his wife for committing adultery while he was working on a fort. The punishment meted out in this case was similar to another case where both the adulterer and adulteress were punished by flogging. Thomas Best reported that during Iskandar Muda’s reign, a man who committed adultery was put to death (he does not mention how) and his corpse was left lying near the gate of the palace to be eaten by dogs.

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