Muhammad Shamsuddeen III

Who was Muhammad Shamsuddeen III?

Sultan Muhammad Shamsuddeen Iskander III, CMG, son of Ibrahim Nooraddeen and Kakaage Don Goma, was the Sultan of the Maldives first from 7 May 1893 and then again from 1902.

When he was 14 years, after the death of his father Sultan Ibrahim Nooraddeen, he was nominated as the Sultan only after the people expressed their dissatisfaction with the appointment of his eight-year-old half-brother as Sultan Muhammad Imaaduddeen V against the Law of Succession in the Maldive Islands. Shamsuddeen's succession to the throne was in part favoured by the fact that he was great-nephew to Muhammad Didi Ranna Baderi Kilegefanu, the prime minister to three successive Sultans, who strongly protested to the Ceylon Governor in Colombo on behalf of his discarded great-nephew.

From Malé, Shamsuddeen wrote to his great-uncle, to return and resume the post of prime minister. At this time Haajee Imaaduddeen, nephew of the late sultan Nooraddeen, who would take over the throne after 2 months, ran the country. Ibrahim Didi and some other members of the Council of Ministers encouraged Haajee Imaaduddeen to seize the throne from the young sultan as they despised Muhammad Didi's complete control over his grandnephew Sultan Shamsuddeen. However the enthronement was based on the specious plea stating a unanimous dissatisfaction by the people regarding the existing sultanate with a 'mere lad as Sultan, not able to do or undo anything himself'. By this decree Haajee Imaaduddeen was raised to the throne and named Sultan Muhammad Imaaduddeen VI, with Ibrahim Didi as his prime minister.