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Dato' Dagang Haji Mohamed Tahir
Mohamad Tahir was a Sumatran Malay chieftain of Kuala Lumpur during the Klang War (aslo known as the Selangor Civil War) during the 1860's and 70's.

Background
Since 1766 the territorial power in Selangor were in the hands of various members of the Bugis royal family. The main Bugis settlements there at the beginning were at Kuala Selangor, i.e. the mouth of the Selangor River, the town of Klang which stood some miles upstream from the mouth of the Klang River and at Kuala Linggi, at the mouth of the Linggi River. Later there were Bugis and Malay settlements at the mouths and along the Langat and Bernam rivers, and in the interior such as Ulu Langat, Ulu Selangor, Ulu Klang and the town of Kuala Lumpur which was located some miles downstream of the Klang River at its confluence with the Gombak river. The Bugis rajas ruled a predominantly Sumatran Malay population and they dealt with their subjects in several ways, in some cases by appointing local headmen ('penghulus') while in others by placing their own relations in authority.

Early Life
Mohamed Tahir was born Nonggok (later changed to Haji Mohamed Tahir after his pilgrimage to Mecca) circa 1804 to Haji Mahmood Bin Sanusi and his wife, most likely in Kuala Lumpur. Mahmood, probably born around the mid of the 18th century (mid 1700's) in Batu Bara, Sumatra, may have migrated to Selangor during or just after Raja Lumu (later Sultan Salehuddin) arrived in Selangor who was soon installed as Sultan by Sultan Mahmud of Perak in 1766. According to family elders after him, his paternal grandfather Sanusi (Mahmood's father) was the son of one Panglima (high ranking Malay nobility) Malim Kundur (born circa 1680) in a coastal village on the North-Eastern part of Sumatra known as Batu Bara (also spelt Batu Bhara and Batoo Barra). Not far to the north of Batu Bara is the coastal township of Deli (earlier spelt as 'Delhi' and the present city of Medan; Batu Batu may have been a part of Deli due to their closeness to each other), and to the south Asahan (earlier spelt 'Asarhan'), both named after the rivers endentsnear where they stood. Batu Bara may not appear in most modern maps, but early British maps and charts do show its location on the North-Eastern coast of Sumatra.(Marsden, 'A History of Sumatra', Oxford University Press, accompanying map of Sumatra).

The Story of Panglima Malim Kundur
It is very probable that Panglima Malim Kundur and his ancestors about two to three generations before him were originally from Malacca and were followers of Sultan Mahmud, the last Sultan of Malacca after her fall to the Portuguese, who after fleeing from the Portuguese had wandered in exile from Pahang to Bentan (also Bintan or Bintang island off the Singapore Strait), finally arrived in Kampar, Sumatra where he died in 1528. Kampar (which is immediately to the south of Siak and Rokan and north of Indragiri were all former vassals of the Malacca Kingdom), from where Raja Muzaffar, the elder son of Sultan Mahmud but of a different and earlier(?) wife, left for Perak to become the first Sultan of Perak, as Sultan Muzaffar Shah. Many of Raja Muzaffar's followers may have stopped at Batu Bara on their way to Perak accompanying him (Raja Muzaffar), or simply had migrated there to settle down permanently and to be far away and safe from Portuguese threat. The Batu Bara river (Pagar Ruyong) which stood at the mouth of this river of the same name and the district or township of Deli, is about 400 km (250 miles) to the North-West of Siak, and are located along the route of Raja Muzaffar's and his followers's early emigrtion from Kampar to Perak. It may also have been the trading place or place of transit and shelter for traders, seafarers or even pirates of Bugis or other Malay origin found around the waters of the Malacca Strait. Hence, Panglima Malim Kundur and Haji Mohamed Tahir, may have been of Minangkabau, Malacca-Johore Malay, Bugis or of a mixture of these Malay sub-ethnic groups.

There was an account of a Minangkabau trader by the name of Nakhoda Malim who took Raja Kechil from Kota Tinggi to Pagar Ruyong in Sumatra in 1707 (Raja Kechil was about 7 yrs old then) after being entrusted by the Laksamana of Johore there.(MBRAS Reprint No. 6, Second Reprint, 'History of Johore', R.O. Winstedt, Chap. VI, p. 63, para. (i)). Raja Kechil was apparently (according to legend) the posthumous son of Sultan Mahmud II of Johore by his Minangkabau wife Che' Mi, who managed to escape from being murdered by Megat Sri Rama, with the connivance of Bendahara Sri Maharaja Tun Habib Abdul Majid's sons. Megat Sri Rama and his chiefs had earlier killed Sultan Mahmud and all his (Sultan Mahmud's) pregnant wives in revenge for the murder of his wife by the Sultan. (MBRAS Reprint No. 2, 'History of Pahang', W. Linehan, Chap. V, p. 45, para. (i); MBRAS Reprint No. 6, Second Reprint, R.O. Winstedt, 'History of Johore', Chap. VI, p. 59, para (i)). Raja Kechil later had his headquarters and throne at Siak and made attempts to recapture the Johore throne. His (Raja Kechil's) son Raja Alam may have also made Siak his headquarters and had some suzerainty or influence over the surrounding areas, including Batu Bara. There were accounts in the 'Tuhfat Al Nafis' or 'The Malay Annals', as mentioned by R.O. Winstedt in his 'History of Johore' of Johore-Riau Kingdom's campaigns in Batu Bara. (MBRAS Reprint No. 6,, Second Reprint, R.O. Winstedt, 'History of Johore', Chap. VI, p. 64), and that in August 1756 the Dutch sent a fleet to Batu Bara to fight against Raja Alam (MBRAS Reprint No. 6, , Second Reprint, R.O. Winstedt, 'History of Johore', Chap. VII, p. 70). This Nakhoda Malim may be that Panglima Malim Kundur or his near relative living at Pagar Ruyong/Batu Bara or thereabouts, and as shown in the early British maps, Pagar Ruyong sits at the mouth of Sungai Batu Bara, and that he (Panglima Malim Kundur) may be of Minangkabau origin and was a trader, or in Malay 'pedagang' which originates from the word 'dagang' meaning 'to trade' and hence the title 'Dato' Dagang'.

From Batu Bara, Malim Kundur sailed to Kampar, Siak, Linggi, Klang, Manjong and other settlements along the East coast of Sumatra and the West Coast of the Malayan peninsular including the islands of Riau (a.k.a. Daik) and Linggga, Johore Lama and Kota Tinggi, to trade and at the same time transport goods and people. His descendents must have followed his footsteps also to trade around this region of the Malacca Strait, and eventually Mohamad Tahir's father, Mahmood may have left Batu Bara for Selangor as followers of Bugis royalties, or to trade there on a more permanent basis, especially around the mouth of the Klang river and its interior some distance upstream.

As Dato Dagang Of Kuala Lumpur
In each of the townships of Kuala Selangor, Kuala Langat and Kuala Lumpur, a Dato' Dagang ('chief of foeigners' or synonymously 'chief of traders'), was placed in charge of the foreign Malay population. In Kuala Selangor there was a Dato' Dagang Nakhoda Allang, in Kuala Langat a Dato' Dagang Abu Said and in Kuala Lumpur (and of Klang) the Dato' Dagang was Haji Mohamed Tahir, who was appointed probably since at least 1865.(Emily Sadka, 'The Protected Malay States' 1874- 1895, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, University of Malaya Press, 1968, p. 14f). He may have assumed the title of Dato' Dagang succeeding his elder brother Mohamed Akib after his death. He (Mohamed Akib) was shot and killed while fighting for Raja Mahadi against Raja Abdullah at the fort in Klang (now known as Raja Mahadi fort). The body of Mohamed Akib together with a few slained Sumatran Malays were buried within the walls of the fort, and their graves still remain there to this day. During the Klang War together with his elder brother, he at first fought against Raja Abdullah, but later gave his considerable force of Rawas and Mandailings in support of Tengku Zia'u'd-din (also known as Tengku Kudin) and Raja ismail (son of Raja Abdullah) firstly to capture Klang from Raja Mahadi (also spelt as 'Mahdi') in 1870 and eventually was instrumental in Tengku Zia'u'd-din's victory over Raja Mahdi and his allies with the help of Sumatran and Pahang Malays, several groups of Chinese tin miners and the British in the middle of 1876.

As the Dato' Dagang, Haji Mohamed Tahir was priviledged to a tax of $1 on each 'bhara' (about 3 'pikuls'- 1 'pikul' equals 100 catties) of tin exported from the district (with a separate tax payable to the Sultan and his Viceroy). In early 1875 Sultan Abdul Samad formally accepted a British 'Advisor' (later 'Resident'), by the name of J.G. Davidson, formerly a lawyer in Singapore, and put Selangor under British protectorate. This was mainly due to British concerns over rampant piracies along the Malacca Strait and other disturbances and general lawlessness in the interior of Selangor (which the Sultan himself wished to resolve) which disrupted British trading interests in the region. In 1877, Selangor then already under British administration (W.B. Douglas as British Resident), like the many other Dato Dagangs and local Malay chiefs in Selangor, his right to that tax was commuted for annual pensions of varying amounts, his being $2,400 per annum. His giving up of his right to that tax in lieu of the annual pension may have largely influenced his decision not to remain in Kuala Lumpur and to start his new ventures in agriculture in the Klang and Kuala Langat districts.

Move To Klang
In the 1880's he moved to Klang and became a pioneer coffee planter and a contractor in the Klang and Kuala Langat districts. He began his venture in agriculture particularly in the planting of Liberian coffee in 1884, and in 1887 he obtained an advance of $4000(in Klang) and $1000(in Kuala Langat) from the British Government and being the owner of 95 acres of land held on customary tenure, and 700 acres under lease or agreement, commenced planting of indigo, areca nut palms (later replaced with coffee due to its drop in demand and price), fruit trees (durians and mangosteens) and coconuts. Whilst being the leader of the Sumatran Batu Bara Malays, Rawas and Mandailings, he also pioneered into employing Javanese labour, who with extraordinary energy drained his land and planted large portions with coffee (in what was is now Kampong Jawa, named after the Javanese pioneers), while the remainder was divided into blocks averaging from three to five acres which he sub-let at 50 cents an acre per annum for coffee planting to Chinese and foreign Malays. Despite problems and eventual failure to his venture in coffee planting as erroneously predicted by the Europeans, due to the low lying and wet conditions of most of his land, this did not prove to be so, and his coffee plants continued to grow to as old as seven years and yielded good harvests. As a result of his success in coffee planting in Klang, more applications of land to the Government for coffee planting were submitted by Europeans, Chinese (mostly from Kuala Lumpur) and natives, and the quit rent for land in the district doubled from 25 cents to 50 cents an acre per annum for coffee estates. In 1894, Haji Mohamed Tahir's cultivated land was the fifth largest in the dictrict after Jeang Eng Hin's tapioca estate located near the Klang-Kuala Lumpur road, and of the 2,786 acres of land under cultivation in the Klang district, 507 acres belonged to Haji Mohamed Tahir.

Final Years And Death
He was a member of the Klang District Sanitary Board together with Raja Hasan (younger brother of Raja Ismail of Klang War fame), and member of the Klang Board of Visting Justices together with Penghulu Mohit (Sheikh Abdul Mohit Bin Baktal). He retained his office of Dato' Dagang until his death in 1894, probably at the age of ninety. ('The Selangor Goverment Gazette', No. 30; 29 December, 1893, Notifications No. 568, p.833 & 569, p.834 ). Many of his descendents still live in Kampong Jawa in Klang.