What is Jementah Civil War?

Information about Jementah Civil War

This article is part of
the History of Malaysia series.

Prehistoric Malaysia (60,000–2,000 BCE)
Gangga Negara (2nd–11th century CE)
Langkasuka (2nd–14th century)
Pan Pan (3rd–5th century)
Srivijaya (3rd–14th century)
Kedah Sultanate (1136–present)
Malacca Sultanate (1402–1511)
Portuguese Malacca (1511 - 1641)
Dutch Malacca (1641 - 1824)
Sulu Sultanate (1450–1899)
Johor Sultanate (1528–current)
Jementah Civil War (1879)
White Rajahs (1841–1946)
British Malaya (1874–1946)
Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824
Burney Treaty (1826)
Straits Settlements (1826–1946)
Larut War (1861–1874)
Klang War (1867–1874)
Pangkor Treaty of 1874
Federated Malay States (1895–1946)
Unfederated Malay States (19th century–1946)
Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909
Battle of Penang (1914)
North Borneo (1882–1963)
Mat Salleh Rebellion (1896–1900)
World War II (1941–1945)
Battle of Malaya (1941–42)
Parit Sulong Massacre (1942)
Battle of Muar (1942)
Battle of Singapore (1942)
Syburi (1942–1945)
Battle of North Borneo (1945)
Sandakan Death Marches (1945)
Malayan Union (1946–1948)
Federation of Malaya (1948–1963)
Malayan Emergency (1948–1960)
Circumstances prior to the Emergency(1945-1948)
Bukit Kepong Incident (1950)
Independence Day (1957)
Federation of Malaysia (1963–present)
Operation Coldstore (1963)
Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation (1962–1966)
Brunei Revolt (1962–1966)
Singapore in Malaysia (1963–1965)
1964 Race Riots (1964)
Communist Insurgency War (1967-1989)
May 13 Incident (1969)
New Economic Policy (1971–1990)
Operation Lalang (1987)
1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis (1987–88)
Asian financial crisis (1997–98)
edit this box


Jementah Civil War happened in 1879 in Jementah, Sultanate of Johor when Tengku Alam, the heir of Sultan Ali of Muar refused to give the district of Muar under temporary administration of Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor. The final result of the civil war became a factor of the opening of the town of Muar.

Before Sultan Abu Bakar became the ruler of Johor, Johor was ruled by Temenggong Ibrahim which was more favored than Sultan Ali. To settle the problems of administration, Sultan Ali was given the district of Muar while Temenggong Ibrahim ruled the remaining districts in Johor.

The war was triggered on 25 October 1879 because Sultan Ali crowned his 11-year-old son named Tengku Mahmood as his successor after his death, resulting Tengku Alam's fury and envy. He also felt unsatisfied when Colonel Archibald Anson put the district of Muar under Sultan Abu Bakar's temporary administration.

He began his moves by asking his cousins Tengku Nong and Tengku Mat to spread false informations to the residents of Muar district to be on his side. He also gathered some powerful warriors for the battle.

Tengku Alam and his followers launched the first blow of the war by attacking Jementah on 25 October 1879 and won the battle. As a result, the headman of Jementah sent reports to the ruler of Johor and Sultan Abu Bakar responded by sending a powerful army of soldiers lead by his cousin, Ungku Ahmad. Ungku Ahmad was a great tactician which contributed to the victory of Johor side sooner.

Dato' Mohammed Salleh bin Perang which also known as Dato' Bentara Luar was sent to the battlefield by the government on 2 December 1879 to rendezvous with the government army. As a strategy, he split the Johor government army into four teams to fight enemies easier. Each team contained about 100 soldiers.

During the middle of December 1879, the government army conquered more enemy strongholds and finally gained total victory on 30 December 1879 after a surprise attack on the enemy's final stronghold at dawn. Since then, the original District of Muar which included Segamat was re-occupied by the government of Johor.

The aftermath of war

The most notable event happened as a result of Johor government's victory in Jementah Civil War is the opening of the town of Muar by Sultan Abu Bakar. Besides of this event, the soldiers from both sides who later resided in the areas of Jementah and Segamat opened the residencies (mukim) of Pogoh, as well as some villages there.

References and external link

  • YM Ungku Mohd. Zaman bin Tahir (1996). Segamat: Sejarah dan Mitosnya. Al-Kafilah Enterprise.
  • Perang Jementah - the complete explanation of Jementah Civil War in Malay
The history of Malaysia is a relatively recent offshoot of the history of the wider Malay-Indonesian world. Culturally and linguistically, there was until recent times little to distinguish the territories which now constitute Malaysia from the lands of the Malay
..... Read more.
Prehistoric Malaysia may be traced back as far as 200,000 years ago from stone tools found at Kota Tampan, an archaeological site in Lenggong Perak. The earliest human skeleton, Perak Man, dating back 11,000 years and Perak Woman aged 8,000 years, were also discovered in Lenggong.
..... Read more.
Common Era, also known as Current Era or Christian Era, abbreviated CE, [1][2][3][4] is a designation for the period of time beginning with year 1 of the Gregorian calendar.
..... Read more.
Gangga Negara is believed to be a lost Hindu Malay kingdom mentioned in the Malay Annals that covered present day Beruas, Dinding and Manjung in the state of Perak, Malaysia with Raja Gangga Shah Johan as one of its kings.
..... Read more.
Common Era, also known as Current Era or Christian Era, abbreviated CE, [1][2][3][4] is a designation for the period of time beginning with year 1 of the Gregorian calendar.
..... Read more.
Langkasuka (-langkha Sanskrit for "resplendent land" -sukkha of "bliss") was an ancient Hindu Malay kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula. Another possible source of its name could be the combination of (-langkha
..... Read more.
For the distress call, see .


Pan Pan is a lost small Hindu Kingdom believed to have existed around 3rd-7th Century CE., somewhere in Kelantan or Terengganu, Malaysia. Little is known about this kingdom.
..... Read more.
Srivijaya, Sriwijaya, Shri Bhoja, Sri Boja or Shri Vijaya (200s-1300s[1]) was an ancient Malay[2] kingdom on the island of Sumatra which influenced much of the Malay Archipelago.
..... Read more.
Sultanate of Kedah was one of the earliest sultanates in Southeast Asia. The 9th ruler of Kedah Phra Ong Mahawangsa, a Hindu Rajah, converted to Islam and changed his name to Sultan Mudzafar Shah, he ruled the northern region of Malay Peninsula from 1136 to 1179.
..... Read more.
The Sultanate of Malacca was founded by Parameswara in 1409 when he married princess of Pasai. Centered in the modern town of Malacca, the sultanate stretched from southern Thailand in the north to Sumatra in the southwest.
..... Read more.
Malacca was named after the Myrobalans, fruit-bearing treess along the banks of a river called Airlele (Ayer Leleh). The Airlele river was said to originate from Buquet China (Present day Bukit Cina). Eredia cited that the city was founded by Permicuri (i.
..... Read more.
Dutch Malacca (1641 - 1824) was the longest period of Malacca under foreign control. The Dutch ruled for almost 183 years with intermittent British occupation during the Napoleonic Wars.
..... Read more.
Sultanate of Sulu was a Muslim state that ruled over many of the islands of the Sulu Sea, in the southern Philippines. The sultanate was founded in 1450, but other sources place the date earlier.
..... Read more.
Sultanate of Johor (or sometimes Johor-Riau or Johor-Riau-Lingga) was founded by Malaccan Sultan Mahmud Shah's son, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah in 1528. Johor was part of the Malaccan Sultanate before the Portuguese conquered Malacca's capital in 1511.
..... Read more.
The White Rajahs refer to a dynasty that founded and ruled the Kingdom of Sarawak from 1841 to 1946. A Rajah (or Raja) is a king or princely ruler in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The coaling station of Brooketon in Brunei was named after the Brooke family.
..... Read more.
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula that were colonized by the British from the 18th and the 19th until the 20th century. Before the formation of Malayan Union in 1946, the colonies were not placed under a single unified administration.
..... Read more.
The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, also known as the Treaty of London (one of several), was a treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in London on March 17, 1824.
..... Read more.
The Burney Treaty was a treaty signed between Siam and the British in 1826. It acknowledged Siamese claim over the four northern Malay states of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu.
..... Read more.
Straits Settlements were a collection of territories of the British East India Company in Southeast Asia, which were given collective administration in 1826 as a crown colony, as distinct from the native princely states, some of which later formed the Federated Malay States.
..... Read more.
Larut War was a series of four wars started in July 1861 and ended with the signing of the Pangkor Treaty of 1874. The conflict was fought among local Malay chieftains and Chinese secret societies over the control of mining areas in Perak.
..... Read more.
The Klang War or Selangor Civil War took place in the Malay state of Selangor and was fought between Raja Abdullah bin Raja Jaafar, the administrator of Klang and Raja Mahadi bin Raja Sulaiman from 1867 to 1874.
..... Read more.
The Pangkor Treaty of 1874 was a treaty signed between the British and the Sultan of Perak. Signed on January 20, 1874 on the island of Pangkor off Perak, the treaty is significant in history of the Malay states as it signalled official British involvement in the policies
..... Read more.
This article is not to be confused with the Unfederated Malay States.


The Federated Malay States (FMS) was a federation of four states on the Malay Peninsula - Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang - established by the British
..... Read more.
:This article should not be confused with the Federated Malay States.


The Unfederated Malay States were five Malay states, namely:
  • Johor
  • Kedah
  • Kelantan
  • Perlis
  • Terengganu

..... Read more.
The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 or Bangkok Treaty of 1909 was a treaty between the United Kingdom and Thailand signed on March 101909 in Bangkok.[1]
..... Read more.
The Battle of Penang occurred on 28 October 1914, during World War I. It was a naval action in the Strait of Malacca, in which the German cruiser SMS Emden sank two Allied warships.
This article is part of
the History of Malaysia series.
..... Read more.
North Borneo was an independent state and British protectorate under the sovereign British North Borneo Company from 1882-1946, and subsequently a crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1946-1963. It is located on the northeastern end of the island of Borneo.
..... Read more.
Mat Salleh Rebellion was a series of major disturbances in North Borneo, now Malaysian state of Sabah, from 1894 to 1900. It was instigated by Datu Muhammad Salleh, or better known as Mat Salleh.
..... Read more.
Japanese occupation.

Malaya

Further information: Battle of Malaya

Military response

During the occupation a guerilla resistance force battled the Japanese from the jungles of Malaya.
..... Read more.
Battle of Malaya was a campaign fought by Allied and Japanese forces in Malaya, from December 8 1941 to January 31 1942 during the Second World War. The campaign was dominated by land battles between British Commonwealth army units, and the Imperial Japanese Army.
..... Read more.