ʻAbd al-Raʼūf al-Singkilī's Tarjumān al-Mustafīd : a critical study of his treatment of Juzʼ 16

Abstract

This thesis focusses upon a presentation and analysis of part of the text of Tarjumanal - Mustafid , the earliest Malay commentary on the whole Quran. Chapter One presents background in formation about the Acehnese Sultanate during the 16th and 17th centuries, the author, Abd al-Ra'uf b. Ali al-Jawi al-Fansuri al-Singkili, and his literary output. It also provides details on the surviving MSS and printed editions of this work. Chapter Two examines in detail the sources and structure of juz' 16 of this commentary, and in the process attempts to break down a long-standing misconception concerning its identity held by scholars of Islam in Southeast Asia and Europe. Chapter Three contains an examination of the language of the commentary. Details are listed relating to the ways in which the Malay used by Abd al-Ra'uf under went morphological and syntactic influence from the Arabic of the texts being translated. In addition, there is a detailed discussion of theorthography of the base manuscript used for this thesis. Ch apter Four contains an edited romanized text of commentary on the 16th part of the Qur'an, taken from the oldest extant manuscript of Tarjumanal - Mustafid . Lacunae and imperfections in the text of this MS are rectified by reference to the oldest printed edition of the commentary, itself probably based upon an early MS. Chapter Five contains a translation into English of the romanized. Malay text presented in the previous chapter. There are several appendices which provide further information on the life of cAbd al-Ra'uf and various aspects of the language of the commentary, in addition to presenting part of the text of the main work of Qur'anic exegesis in Arabic upon which Abd al-Ra'uf drew.