Malacca Sarawak Negeri Sembilan Perak Pahang Sabah Kelantan Terengganu Syarif Masahor bin Syarif Hassan (1800, Bruneian Empire - February 1890, Colony of Singapore)[1], also written as Sharif Masahor, was a Malay rebel of Hadhrami descent[2] in Sarikei in the Raj of Sarawak.
Charles Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak at that time, suspected that Syarif Masahor was the mastermind behind this rebellion.
Charles Brooke also suspected that Syarif himself had killed several of those involved in the murder of Charles Fox and Henry Steele to get rid of witnesses of the incident, to pave the way for the bigger plan of eliminating of white people from Sarawak or Syarif was simply disappointed that his followers performed the impulsive killings, thus exposing his plan prematurely.
During this attack, officers Charles Fox and Henry Steele were killed by Melanau people led by Sawing and Sakalai.
This frightened the Brooke government following the rebellion by the Bau Chinese in 1857, and the massacre of Europeans in SE Borneo in May 1859, at the start of the Banjarmasin War.
George Edwardes then went to Mukah on an armed steamer named Victoria and ordered Charles to stop the invasion.
[3] In early 1860, Masahor ordered Temenggung Hayim Jalil from Brunei to go to Pontianak for a meeting with Abdul Gapur.
In the battle that ensued, the Sarawak forces gained the upper hand when Charles Brooke succeeded in ambushing and destroying all Masahor's ships.
[citation needed] The Brooke government later wrote a petition to Britain to remove Edwardes from his post as British Consul in Brunei.
[3] Even after the loss of Syarif Masahor, Datu Patinggi Abdul Gapur continued his resistance against the Brooke occupation of Sarawak through Pontianak.
However, they in the same time did not give any support to James Brooke, as Syarif Masahor was claimed to be of holy lineage, descended from the Islamic prophet Muhammad himself.
Malays, Melanaus and Dayaks from areas outside Kuching (largely Kanowit) rallied behind Syarif Masahor.