ABSTRACT
Malay tradition, according to Wilkinson, recognizes three periods: in the first there were four States only—Sungai Ujong, Klang, Jelebu and Johol. As with all the Malay States, there is much that is uncertain about the details of their origin and the exact elements that formed their primitive population. The movement, which began soon after the conquest of Malacca by the Portuguese in 1511, is in many ways the most important thing in Malay Peninsular history, after the waves had come to Singapore and Malacca during the fourteenth century. Sufficient to say that though the Malays were Muhammadans, they had a legal system far more humane than either the Malay raja code or the traditional Muslim law, and that, they were matriarchal in principle. Like other Malay States, it was the home of various small Malay communities, each with its raja and only subject to the central power when the Sultan or Bendahara was strong enough to make his authority felt.
