Reigning from 1657 to 1687, he left Tidore's old alliance with the Spanish Empire and made treaties with the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which now became hegemonic in Maluku for the next century.

Since Tidore produced large amounts of cloves and was formally a vassal under the King of Spain the monopoly was still imperfect, and a VOC-Tidore war in 1653-1654 was inconclusive.

Now the Governor of Ternate, Simon Cos, and the Ternatan Sultan Mandar Syah brought forward Golofino as candidate, assisting his party with munitions and soldiers.

This included the jojau (first minister) who supposedly colluded with the Spanish to get rid of Saifuddin, and the kapita laut (sea lord) who was accused of witchcraft.

The Spanish captain-general left a note to the VOC governor where he asserted that King Charles II of Spain still kept "dominion and overlordship" over Maluku, though this turned out to be a vain gesture.

Under Tidore were places at or adjacent to Halmahera, namely Toniu, Kayassa, Yodi, Sasi, Maidi, Waunua, Goroa, Toia, Weda, Maba, Saffora, and Morotai, as well as the lands of the Papuans, "or all their islands".

This was complemented by another treaty in 1667 that reaffirmed the close alliance with the VOC and granted the Tidorese the exclusive rights to sail to the waters of Papua.

Among the valuable items brought from the far east of Saifuddin's realm were decorous sea-shells, large pearls, ambergris and birds of paradise, all of which had a European market.

[13] Papuan raiders were widely feared in eastern Indonesia, and seem to have acted with the understanding Sultan Tidore, beyond the control of the VOC.

He also made repeated suggestions to the Dutch authorities to reinstall the long-vanished Jailolo Sultanate in order to revert to the traditional quadripartition of Maluku.

[16] Moreover, Saifuddin sided with the VOC when Sultan Sibori Amsterdam launched an anti-Dutch rebellion in 1679–1681, and assisted the Europeans with soldiers and ships to crush the uprising.

[17] While the defeated Ternate had to sign a treaty that transformed it into a formal vassal (leen), Tidore preserved its independence under Dutch protection for another century, strengthened by the economic redistribution system with Halmahera and Papua.