Zainal Abidin of Ternate

Zainal Abidin
Sultan of Ternate
Reign	1486–1500
Successor	Bayanullah
Father	Marhum Gapi Baguna II
Religion	Sunni Islam

Zainal Abidin (born Gapi Buta) was the eighteenth ruler of the Sultanate of Ternate in modern day Indonesia. He was the first ruler of Ternate to use the title Sultan rather than Kolano, or king, and enacted a number of changes to government, based on Islamic law, transforming Ternate into an Islamic kingdom.

Gapi Buta was the son of Kolano Marhum Gapi Baguna II, the seventeenth king of Ternate. His father, the first recorded convert to Islam, provided him with an Islamic education, under the guidance of a merchant cleric named Maulana Hussein Datu.

As soon as he was appointed ruler, Gapi Buta started Ternate on the journey to become an Islamic kingdom.

In 1494, he traveled to Java to study Islam further, possibly under Sunan Giri. While there, he was famous as Sultan Bualawa, or Sultan of Cloves. He was well respected, known as a valiant warrior and pious scholar, and developed friendships which developed into strong alliances. One story told of his time there is that he stood up to a crazed killer on the rampage while others fled, beheading him with a single stroke.

On his return, he replaced the royal title Kolano with Sultan and took the Islamic name Zainal Abidin. He brought back a mubaligh from Java named Tuhubahanui to propagate the Islamic faith and created a Bobato to assist in all matters relating to the rule of Islamic law across the Sultanate.

Zainal Abidin negotiating treaties of friendship with rulers from Makassar and Ambon. These had long lasting impacts. The friendship pact with Pati Puti (or Pati Tuban), one of the rulers from Ambon, that he concluded formed the basis for a later claim made by Ternate to the Bura, Seram, Ambon, Lease and Banda islands.

Zainal Abidin had two wives and six children, including Kaicil Leliatur who succeeded him as the second Sultan, Bayanullah.

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