Paper short abstract:

The Portuguese interference in Ternatan affairs produced an internal crisis from which sultan Hairun emerged as a great leader promoting resistance against the missionary activities in Moro and Ambon. Formally allies, Ternate and the Portuguese increasingly diverged, producing contrasting views

Paper long abstract:

From the outset, the Ternatan expectancies regarding the Portuguese have been frustrated by attempts to impose a sort of protectorate under European rule. Weak young sultans and puppet regents were followed by the charismatic sultan Hairun, who imposed his authority after a fairly weak ascending to power. His ability to comply with the Portuguese requirements gave him time and opportunity to actively promote resistance in the peripheral areas of his realm against Portuguese interests. He restrained Christian conversions by the recalcitrant inhabitants of Moro and also limited the Jesuit activities in the Ambon-Lease area from the early 1550s onwards. He never assumed his role in the setbacks suffered by the Portuguese in the Maluku Islands, preferring to resort to third parties agents, namely to appoint governors from royal blood and to instruct Ambonese policies, such as Hitu, to hinder the Portuguese and the Christian influences in that area. Simultaneously, he was quite acquainted to the Eurasian community in Ternate, maintaining friendly relations with several prominent casados, to whom he was also a relative as some of them were married to women of his kin.

All those constraints produced rather ambiguous and contrasting views regarding the state of affairs in Maluku and the reasons of its fast degradation. The figure of sultan Hairun, in particular, appears manifold evaluated in these assessments. He is said to be either the best Moslem friend of the Portuguese or the most disloyal, perfidious and treacherous ruler.