Ibrahim Ismail

People Living

إبراهيم إسماعيل

Sultan of Johor since 2010 and King of Malaysia (Yang di-Pertuan Agong) since January 2024. Born at Johor Bahru in 1958, the eldest son of Sultan Iskandar, he was crown prince for three decades and regent of Johor while his father was king; elected by the Conference of Rulers in October 2023 as the seventeenth Agong, he is noted for his advocacy of religious moderation and for restoring Johor's Friday–Saturday weekend.

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At a glance

Roles
sultan
Region
Southeast Asia
Identifiers
Wikidata

Life in time

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Place in the story

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    Summary

    Sultan Ibrahim (born 1958) is the Sultan of Johor and, since 31 January 2024, the seventeenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia. The eldest son of Sultan Iskandar, he was crown prince of Johor for three decades and regent while his father was king, succeeded in Johor in 2010, and was elected king by the Conference of Rulers in October 2023. He is noted for his advocacy of religious moderation, for restoring Johor's Friday–Saturday weekend, and for a hands-on public style that includes founding an annual royal motorcycle tour. 1 2

    Early life and education

    Tunku Ibrahim Ismail was born on 22 November 1958 at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital, Johor Bahru, during the reign of his great-grandfather Sultan Ibrahim. He was the third child and eldest son of Sultan Iskandar by his first wife, Josephine Ruby Trevorrow, an Englishwoman from Torquay who took the name Khalsom binti Abdullah on her marriage. He completed his secondary education at Trinity Grammar School in Sydney, then received basic military training at the Army Training Centre in Kota Tinggi and further training at Fort Benning and Fort Bragg in the United States. 1 3

    Crown prince and regent

    Ibrahim was named Crown Prince of Johor on 3 July 1981, when his father acceded to the throne, and served as regent of Johor from 1984 to 1989 while Sultan Iskandar was Yang di-Pertuan Agong. In 1982 he married Raja Zarith Sofiah; they have six children. His years as crown prince were not without controversy: the English article records that in the 1980s he was convicted of a fatal shooting in a nightclub and quickly pardoned, and that assault allegations against him were aired in the press during the furore over royal misconduct that followed the 1992 Gomez incident and led to constitutional amendments ending royal immunity from prosecution. 1

    Sultan of Johor

    Sultan Iskandar died on 22 January 2010, and Ibrahim was installed as Sultan of Johor the following morning; his coronation followed on 23 March 2015. In 2011 he drove the last train out of Singapore's Tanjong Pagar station, which his grandfather had opened in 1923, and in 2012 he declared Muar the state's royal capital. On his birthday in November 2013 he decreed that Johor would return to a Friday–Saturday weekend from 2014, so that Muslims could attend Friday prayers more easily, and in 2016 he banned vaping in the state. He has spoken for religious moderation and against what he calls the creeping Arabisation of Malaysian Muslim culture, and he has defended his extensive business interests, saying that he must earn a living like ordinary Malaysians. An enthusiast for polo and motorcycles, he founded the Kembara Mahkota Johor annual motorcycle tour. 1 4

    King of Malaysia

    On 27 October 2023 the Conference of Rulers elected Sultan Ibrahim as the seventeenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong for a five-year term. He was sworn in and took possession of the Istana Negara on 31 January 2024, and his ceremonial installation was held at the palace on 20 July 2024. His filiation is recorded in this record's data note only, his father Sultan Iskandar having no record in this collection; and no source read for this record names a religious school for Sultan Ibrahim — his headship of Islam in Johor is an office of his throne — so this record records none. 1 2

    Sources

    • The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
    • Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.

    Sources

    1. Ibrahim Ismail — English Wikipedia
    2. Ibrahim Ismail — Wikidata Q2657043
    3. Ibrahim Ismail — Arabic Wikipedia
    4. Ibrahim Ismail — Urdu Wikipedia
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Ibrahim Ismail”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ibrahim-ismail/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-06.

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