Ahmad Tajuddin

Ahmad Tajuddin Akhazul Khairi Waddien (1913–1950) was the 27th Sultan of Brunei, reigning from 1924 until his death. The eldest surviving son of Muhammad Jamalul Alam II, he came to the throne aged eleven under a regency council, was installed in 1931 and crowned in 1940. He pressed for the sultanate to have more financial and political autonomy in a way that was innovative for his day, and his support for a political confederation of northern Borneo under the sultanate foreshadowed the process that ended with Brunei's independence in 1984. He was succeeded by his younger brother Omar Ali Saifuddien III. ^{1 2}

He was born at Istana Pekan in Brunei Town to Sultan Muhammad Jamalul Alam II and his royal consort Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Fatimah; before his accession he was known as Pengiran Muda Besar Ahmad Tajuddin. The birth year is debated: the Malay, Arabic and Urdu articles and Wikidata give 22 August 1913, while the English article's lead and infobox give 22 August 1912 — though its own note records Bruneian research papers giving 1913 and the historian Bob Reece giving 2 September 1913. The museum's record follows 1913 and keeps the readings in its note. He received his early education in the palace, then English instruction from a specially assigned British teacher, and sailed for England in 1932. His father died of malaria on 11 September 1924 and he succeeded the same day, aged eleven; a regency council of two Pengiran Bendahara governed until 19 September 1931. He was crowned on 17 March 1940. ^{2 1 3}

Oil was discovered at Seria in 1929, early in the reign, and in the same year he opened the Brunei General Hospital; in 1927 he had opened the Brunei–Tutong road. In 1940, as a demonstration of his dedication to furthering Islamic education in Brunei, an Islamic school was opened in Brunei Town with his support. His relations with the British Residency were strained: he was disregarded by Malcolm MacDonald, the Commissioner-General for Southeast Asia, and frequently ignored and mishandled by others, among them his political adviser Gerard MacBryan, even as he pressed for a new political confederation governed by the sultanate over northern Borneo. ^{1 2}

Japan occupied Brunei on 16 December 1941. He remained sultan, but his authority was limited to Bruneian custom and Islamic affairs, the Japanese continuing to recognise him as head of the Islamic religion and the royal customs while he co-operated. Allied forces landed in 1945 and Brunei passed under a British Military Administration; full governing authority was handed back to him on 6 July 1946. In 1946 the Brunei national anthem, "Allah Peliharakan Sultan", was composed. He approved the flying of the flag of Barisan Pemuda (BARIP), the youth front founded in April 1946, on its first anniversary in 1947 — read by the British as a secret endorsement of an organisation spreading revolutionary ideas in the Indonesian vein. In 1949 he celebrated the silver jubilee of his accession and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. ^{2 1}

Travelling to England in 1950, he fell ill during a stop in Singapore, was taken to the Singapore General Hospital, and died there of renal failure. The day is debated: the English, Malay and Arabic articles give 4 June 1950, while the Urdu article and Wikidata give 3 June, and the English article's narrative has him die the day after reaching the hospital, with the funeral on 4 June. His body was brought home by way of Labuan and lay in state at the Lapau; the Malay article dates his burial at the Royal Mausoleum in Bandar Brunei to 5 June 1950. A few days before his death he had directed that his daughter Pengiran Anak Puteri Noor Ehsani should succeed him, but a conference after his death resolved unanimously on his younger brother, Pengiran Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien, since Bruneian custom did not allow a princess to succeed where a brother of the late sultan stood in line. ^{2 1 4 3}

His faith is recorded as unknown, and the case is flagged. A school reading exists in one infobox family: the English article's infobox religion field links Sunni Islam, displayed as "Islam", and Wikidata's religion value is Sunni Islam — the structured echo of the same reading. The Malay article's infobox gives Islam in general; the Arabic and Urdu articles name no religion; no text names a school. His patronage of an Islamic school and his recognition by the Japanese administration as head of the Islamic religion in Brunei are patronage and office, not a personal school. One infobox family short of the two-source bar, the Sunni reading stands in the record's note, unresolved. ^{1 3 2}

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