Bintan–Pagaruyung–Melaka: Reconstructing Civilizational Networks and the Formation of Political Legitimacy in the Malay Sultanate in the Early Fifteenth Century

This paper reassesses the relationship among Bintan, Pagaruyung and Melaka as a civilizational network in the formation of Malay power from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. In contrast to a linear reading that assumes the three centres formed a uniform political chain, this study adopts a qualitative historical approach through document analysis, source criticism and historiographical triangulation. The analytical corpus comprises the Sejarah Melayu/Sulalat al-Salatin tradition, studies of RAS Raffles Malay 18, modern historiography on Melaka and fifteenth-century maritime networks, and scholarship concerning Minangkabau–Pagaruyung and Bintan. Thematic analysis groups the evidence into four themes: maritime and trading networks; elite and territorial mobility; political legitimacy and genealogy; and Islamisation and symbols of power. The findings indicate that the strongest evidence concerns Melaka as an entrepôt and centre of government connected to various Asian ports, while Bintan occupied an important position within the Melaka–Johor maritime-political sphere. In the case of Pagaruyung, its relationship with the Malay world was significant, but direct evidence for a strong institutional influence on the formation of Melaka in the early fifteenth century is more limited and must be distinguished from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century evidence. The paper therefore proposes a layered network model that differentiates trade, mobility, genealogy and legitimacy according to the strength and chronology of the evidence. This approach produces a more cautious reconstruction and reduces the risks of presentism and anachronism in Malay historiography.