The bureaucratization of Islam runs deep in Malaysian society and traces its history way back to the Pangkor Treaty of 1874,after which a Majlis Agama Islam dan Adat Istiadat Melayu (council of Islamic Religion and Malay Customs), was established in the various Malay states to oversee Islamic and Malay affairs, supposedly under the jurisdiction of the sultans. The Majlis,in turn,supervised a Jabatan Hal-Ehwal Agama Islam (Department of Islamic Religious Affairs). In time, the Majlis,by monopolizing the right to issue fatwa (legal edict) and tauliah (letter of authority) to qualified religious teachers, and by having its members drawn from a sultan's list of favoured ulama and disproportionately from the aristocratic classes, the Majlis personified a novel alliance between a nascent religious establishment and a traditional elite linked to colonial officialdom. In its early existence, the Majlis was willing to accommodate pondok graduates with acknowledged expertise in fields of Islamic knowledge, but later, as madrasahs proliferated, recruitment for Majlis affiliated employment became restricted to the circle of ulama that possessed paper qualifications certified by the religious authorities.