Thaha Syaifuddin
Hero of the revolution
Thaha Syaifuddin (Jawi: طه سيف الدین, 1816–1904) was the 20th and last Sultan of Jambi. He ascended the throne in 1855 succeeding his predecessor, Abdul Rahman Nazaruddin, and ruled until he lost the power struggle. After the demise of Sultan Zainul Abidin in 1900, Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin ascended to the throne for the second time until he died in 1904. His mother was Arab and he was fully literate, being able to read and write.
Reign
Thaha Syaifuddin became Sultan of Jambi in 1855. He was a very energetic sultan. However, he refused to renew treaties imposed on his predecessors by the Dutch, who invaded Jambi in 1858 and imposed a series of sultans who, under Dutch control, reigned over much of the sultanate until 1899. Thaha, however, continued to claim the sultanate and to rule over its less accessible parts until he was killed by Dutch soldiers in 1904.
Death
Thaha Syaifuddin was killed in 1904 by Dutch soldiers in Betung Bedarah Tebo llir, Tebo. In 1977, he was elevated to National Hero of Indonesia, the country's highest honor and also the sultan has been commemorated in the name of Sultan Thaha Airport in Jambi since 1978.
“Thaha Syaifuddin” enters the record as hero of the revolution. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Thaha, Syaifuddin and Hero can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Thaha Syaifuddin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Thaha, Syaifuddin and Hero provides the most credible route into that argument.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12521177. VIAF identifies the subject as 281661408. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1816, 1904, 1855 and 1900.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Thaha Syaifuddin”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Thaha Syaifuddin primary sources, Thaha Syaifuddin archive and Thaha research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thaha Syaifuddin”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Thaha Syaifuddin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.