The Sultanate of Bacan (كسلطانن باچن‎) was a state in Maluku Islands, present-day Indonesia that arose with the expansion of the spice trade in late medieval times.

A third legend departs from the Arab immigrant Jafar Sadik who came to Maluku, ostensibly in 1245, and married the heavenly nymph Nurus Safa.

From this pair, four sons called Buka, Darajat, Sahajat and Mashur-ma-lamo were born, who became ancestors of the rulers of Bacan, Jailolo, Tidore, and Ternate.

From early European accounts it appears that the kings in the Maluku archipelago began to accept Islam in about the 1460s or 1470s as the result of the increasing trade in cloves, that attracted merchants from the Muslim world.

[5] The indigenous chronicles of Bacan are difficult to evaluate as their stories of persons and events do not fit with contemporary sources up to the late 16th century.

By the time, Said Muhammad Bakir alias Husin, who was one of the sons of the Arab newcomer Sidna Noh Jafar, took up residence in Makian north of Bacan, an important center for clove production.

His six brothers and sisters ended up as rulers or consorts in Misool, Waigeo, Banggai, Loloda, Ceram and Bacan Island, which thereby became tied to the dynastic network of the sultanate.

Zainal Abidin married a Ternate princess who gave birth to Bayan Sirrullah who was made sub-ruler in Makian; he later left it and instead inherited his father’s throne in Kasiruta.

The power of the sultan extended to Ceram which was economically vital due to trade in forest products, largely coming from the Papuan lands.

The ruler of Bacan at the time was married to a daughter of the pro-Portuguese Bayan Sirrullah, but had a fallout with his father-in-law who was promptly poisoned by the couple.

The new Ternatan ruler Babullah, a cousin and brother-in-law of Dom João, held a strongly Muslim and anti-Portuguese position and attacked Christianized areas of Maluku, including Bacan.

[12] Of Bacanese royalty there remained a young son of Dom João called Alauddin II (1581-c. 1609) who, although a Muslim, strove to cast off the Ternatan yoke.

On the last occasion the Spanish were entirely successful in defeating the Ternate Sultanate and rewarded Alauddin II with the islands of Kayoa, Waidoba and Bayloro.

The old residence in Kasiruta had been abandoned by the early 17th century and the palace was moved to Amassing on the south-west side of Bacan Island, close to Labuha.

In 1609 the commander Simon Jansz Hoen and Sultan Mudafar Syah I of Ternate invaded Bacan and approached the Spanish fort at Labuha.

[20] After his death, his son Muhammad Ali (1649-1655) had to sign a contract in 1653 where he agreed to extirpate the cloves in his kingdom to ensure VOC monopoly.

Bacan was then involved in the Great Ambon War where rebels from north and central Maluku allied with the Makassarese to make an end of the Dutch tyranny.

[21] His successor Alauddin III quickly made a contract with the VOC in January 1656, complemented by a more detailed contact in April 1667 that put Bacan under the thumb of the Dutch.

Dutch observers found the Bacan elite to be stout and self-assured in spite of the shrunken state of the sultanate, as they tried to uphold obsolete claims to parts of Ceram and Papua.

In 1774 the ruler Muhammad Sahadin (1741-1779) entertained friendly contacts with the British sea captain Thomas Forrest and also with the independent Sultan of Maguindanao.

[24] However, by now a rebel movement gained momentum in Maluku and Papua in the form of the Tidorese prince Nuku who persistently fought the Dutch with varying success.

His son Muhammad Hayatuddin Kornabei (1826-1860) received the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who commented on the utterly sparse population, and the desire of the sultan to attract enterprising foreigners to the mineral-rich islands.

The Bobato dalem (inner grandees) assisted at the royal court and consisted of members with the military titles mayor, kapitan and lieutenant (ngofa or kie).

They were the jogugu (first minister), hukum (magistrate) and kimelaha sapanggala (errand) who held authority over the various local chiefs, such as ambasaya and datu.

The sultan was only the headman over the ethnic Bacanese who were traditionally divided into genealogical units called soanang and paid contributions (ngasé) to the ruler.