Malay Manuscripts Research Articles

Illumination and Calligraphy in Malay Letters

Malay manuscripts contain all kinds of knowledge. The manuscripts not only tell stories, they also depict various knowledge within the minds of past generations. In this paper discuss elements of illumination and the use of calligraphy in Malay letters on past Malay letters. The research is limited on Malay letters in social letters in the period 1521-1899. Malay society in the olden days practiced very fine arts as shown in the Malay letters through illumination and through the use of various types and designs of calligraphy. They used the world of nature to express their feelings. This paper will reveal that the traditional Malay society was not impoverished of art, that they had the highest aesthetic value in art, even beyond comparison with the present.

PENDATAAN DAN DIGITALISASI NASKAH KUNO MELAYU DI KABUPATEN KAMPAR

Manuscript is a cultural heritage of ancestors in the past. In the manuscripts there are many sources of information and knowledge of the community that were developing at that time. One of which was Malay manuscripts. Currently, the existence of Malay manuscripts is widely spread and recorded in various regions, both inside and outside the country. However, there are still many Malay manuscripts that are still owned by individuals, becoming private collections, such as Malay manuscripts in the Kampar region. These manuscripts are still unrecorded and in vulnerable conditions with damage and even lost or sold. Judging from these realities, actions are needed to save the manuscripts, such as collecting and digitalizating. By so, eventhough saving the manuscripts physically is hard, but we can get the contents of the text. Thus, the research on the physical obejct will be studied using a codicological approach, and the text content will be analyzed philologically.

Traditional Malay Black Ink: An Analysis of Its Recipes and Characteristics

Historically, the use and produce of Malay traditional ink were closely associated with the palaces and pondoks (Islamic religious school) where the early Malay manuscripts were traced. These Malay manuscripts can be traced dated back to the 16th century and the fact that those manuscripts have survived until today proves the durability and permanency of the traditional ink. Unfortunately, the documentation and description of such an indigenous ink making are scarce from the literature. Therefore, this work is dedicated to uncovering the legacy of Malay traditional ink recipe through several approaches, namely, analyse the recipe through historical literature and inspecting the characteristics of ink’s and its behaviour on existing early manuscript through microscopic analysis. The black ink was produced traditionally using natural resources that were available within a particular locality and applied on papers from foreign origin, either occidental or oriental. Ingredients used are varied which consists three important elements; colouring agent, adhesive and additives. The colouring agent determines the black ink’s pigment. As for the adhesive, its function is to ensure that the ink adheres well to the paper fibre, provide fluidity to the ink flow and improve the permanency and durability of the ink. Finally, the additives were often added to complement the roles of additives. Besides, they also serve to neutralize the odour of the solution and to shorten the ink drying time. The Malay manuscripts were examined under microscopic analyses revealed the characteristic qualities that prove the stability and permenancy of this traditional ink have prolonged the age of the manuscripts.

Aksara Arab-Melayu di Nusantara dan Sumbangsihnya dalam Pengembangan Khazanah Intelektual

Literacy is a tool of communication which could help people to know the natural surroundings without any real experience, but they could know the events of the past. As a relic, the literacy cannot be ignored. For example, the literacy of Arabic-Malay is a tool to write Malay language for the people who live in the archipelago. With the help of the Arab-Malay literacy, Moslem sholars, kiais, and teachers are able to produce real works that characterizes the traditional writing of citizens. The works of the past people implemented in Arabic-Malay and Malay are called Malay manuscripts. The number of Malay manuscripts is innumerable and has been saved by 28 countries in the world. The Malay manuscripts will not contribute to society nowadays if they are not read and the people do not understand their contents. Therefore, it is important to do a research for the existence of the Arab-Malay literacy in the archipelago. Moreover, the deep research is needed to know its role to read the Malay manuscripts which are ones of the intellectual treasures of the archipelago till the manuscripts can be understood by the people now. It is very necessary to do because the Arab-Malay literacy as a part of the archipelago culture has been forgotten for a long time. In studying the Arabic-Malay literacy existence and its role, the writer prefers using literatures. It means that this article focuses on library research because the analysis is directed to the books and writings related to the discussion.

Audiences and an artist

ABSTRACTBuilding on Amin Sweeney’s study of Authors and audiences in traditional Malay literature (1980), this article sets out to investigate the artists who created illuminated Malay literary manuscripts, and the audiences for whose visual delight they were produced, through a focus on paratexts in the volumes: scribal or authorial notes or annotations, and ornamental and other graphic details. While distinctive regional artistic schools associated with Qur’an and other Islamic books from Southeast Asia have been identified in locations such as Aceh and the east coast of the Malay peninsula, most illuminated Malay literary manuscripts were produced in the burgeoning urban centres of Penang, Melaka, Singapore and Batavia, areas without a strong tradition of religious book production. The very different artistic profiles of these two broad groupings of manuscripts may therefore be linked with their contrasting physical and social locales. A detailed study of two illuminated manuscripts from Perlis then reveals, for the first time, the name of a Malay manuscript artist – Encik Muhammad, son of Raja Indera Wangsa – and casts valuable light on the mechanics of book production in the northern Malay peninsula in the early 19th century.

The wheel diagram in the Malay divinatory technique of the Faal Qur’an

ABSTRACTThis article aims to explore how diagrams can help us understand the production and usage of Malay manuscripts during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It will investigate this through a case study of a divinatory technique known in Malay as Faal Qur’an. This procedure employs a wheel diagram which contains Qur’anic verses or surah titles for divination, and demonstrates the close relationship between texts and graphic representations that can be found within the Malay manuscript tradition. Furthermore, the act of using the diagrams to find the predictions provides a further facet to the usage of manuscripts, as apart from containing texts to be read or recited, here the manuscripts themselves also function as instruments to be employed for practical purposes.

Marks of many hands

ABSTRACTAnnotation is a paratextual element of Malay manuscripts that has been little studied. This preliminary investigation draws on recently digitised material to survey the varieties of annotation in both literary and kitab manuscripts, highlighting the significant differences between the two manuscript corpora. The main categories of annotation in literary manuscripts include ownership marks, doodling and probatio pennae, warnings about the contents of the texts, pictorial annotation, and, rarest of all, readers’ responses to the text. However, annotation is found in far greater quantities in kitab manuscripts, suggesting that the surau or similar religious establishment was the more definitively literate milieu – in spite of the central importance of oral instruction and of personal relationships between teacher and student. Annotation in kitab manuscripts consists mainly of scholarly glosses, including cross-references to other works or authorities, and translation into Malay, along with notes taken down by a student while being instructed by a teacher, and occasional more personal comments. The article concludes with a case study of annotation in a kitab compendium from the collection of Surau Syeikh Abdurrahman in Lima Puluh Kota, West Sumatra. Digitised as part of an Endangered Archives Programme project, the manuscript is heavily annotated in a number of hands. The earlier annotation, including scholarly references, translation glosses and ‘lecture notes’, is typical of kitab manuscripts and of Islamic manuscripts more generally. The most recent annotation, dating to the 1990s, reveals an apparent collapse in that pedagogic tradition, most likely related to the controversies of Minangkabau Sufism that occured over the manuscript’s life.

Shi'ism in South East Asia: 'Alid Piety and Sectarian Constructions ed. by Chiara Formichi and R. Michael Feener

Reviewed by: Shi'ism in South East Asia: 'Alid Piety and Sectarian Constructions ed. by Chiara Formichi and R. Michael Feener Majid Daneshgar Majid Daneshgar, Michael Feener, Chiara Formichit, Shi'ism, 'Alid, South East Asian religion, Shia Islam, Islamic magic chiara formichi and r. michael feener, eds. Shi'ism in South East Asia: 'Alid Piety and Sectarian Constructions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. xvi + 397. There have been many academic studies examining the history and literature of minorities (e.g., Shi'is) in South East Asia, most recently the present work, produced by Chiara Formichi and Michael Feener, a collection of essays originating in a workshop held in the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore in 2010. This book would have much to offer a reader approaching it through the lens of Southeast Asian Studies; nevertheless, given the context of this review I decided to highlight its references to Islamic rituals. [End Page 404] The book is divided into four parts. Part One deals with the historical foundations of Shi'ism in Southeast Asia. It includes a comprehensive chapter by Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti that addresses the evolution of Shi'i devotional literature in light of the religious and political conditions of the Middle East and South East Asia. Part Two is dedicated to literary legacies. For instance, 'Alīb. Abī Ṭālib is known as the scribe of the Messenger of Islam in "the earliest surviving Javanese manuscript of Samud narrative dating from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century" (53). As Ronit Ricci explains, 'Alī is portrayed in this manuscript as the faithful representative of Muhammad, who is fully knowledgeable. Ricci also shows that Javanese works display 'Alī as a great warrior who was able to defeat non-Muslims, including the Jewish people. Wendy Mukherjee introduces the theme of the piety (taqwa) and morality (akhlaq) of Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, in Malay texts. A Malay folk prose narrative called Hikayat Ali Kawin or "The Story of 'Alī's Marriage" provides local young brides with ethical lessons. In an Acehnese text regarding Muhammad's admonitions, and thoroughly in contrast to Middle Eastern sources, the so-called sinless Fatima (the wife of 'Alī) is replaced with the one who is accused of a major sin, adultery. Muhammad is then shown instructing his daughter on how to obey her husband. For instance: "The woman who perishes in childbirth dies a martyr's death. There is no salvation for a woman who is unfaithful to her husband; hell is her portion" (75). This is despite the fact that upon translating and interpreting some Western and South Asian religious and mystical literature dealing with Muhammad and his household (ahl al-bayt), Malays added additional fictional/imaginary elements to the body of literature. They produced both concise and lengthy folk prose narratives and treatises focusing, for example, on 'Alī (Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law as well as the first imam of Shi'a) and Fatima, whose acts, according to Shi'ism, are errorless. Malay stories also suggest that one may easily manage one's life through learning about supernatural and magical qualities (khawass) found in the Malay version of holy figures' instructions (e.g. ahl al-bayt and Sufis). Following Edwin Wieringa, who had stated that "other texts in which 'Ali and Fātimah appear, seem to be of a more obscure nature, dealing with magic and eroticism/mysticism,"1 some chapters of this volume pay particular attention to such themes. [End Page 405] On this subject, Faried F. Saenong tries to demystify the role of 'Alid's family in Southeast Asian sexual arts. He outlines different stages of intercourse in Bugis manuscripts in which "'Alī and Fātima appear in a magic formula that is supposed to be uttered by the wife, in which 'Alī and Fātima are referred to as exemplary practitioners of foreplay" (107). Furthermore, there are several pre-twentieth-century Malay manuscripts with particular references to sensual pleasure (ladzat) and the sensation of orgasm (panas) discussed by Teren Sevea. Part Three revolves around modern Southeast Asia. For example, the chapter by R. Michael Feener argues the development and reception of an old [religious] feast...

Farouk Yahya. Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts

Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts Farouk Yahya Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015, xxvii+349p., 308 illus., 2 mapsA fully developed scholarly source for illustrated manuscripts dealing with humans, life, future, beliefs, death, and so on, is much needed by arts, religious, cultural, and ethnical studies scholars. Globally speaking, studies on history of divination, talismans, and amulets suggest that there is a connection between magic and medicine notes in eastern and western parts of world. However, access to a comprehensive collection of Eastern illustrated manuscripts including magic, divination, medicine, and sorcery notes is implausible. There is also a dearth of studies related to such collections in Arab countries and particularly in Persia.Farouk Yahya considered about 96 published and non-published manuscripts in MalayIndonesian chiefly since late eighteenth century in an attempt to fill a part of this blank space. Yahya's book thus encourages other Asian scholars to produce similar works about their cultural heritage. He draws our attention to fictional characters, popular customs, and local knowledge of magic, divination, and medicine of a region where people used to have great respect for magic and magicians. This book is divided into two parts and eight chapters.The first part comprises an Introduction and Background, whereby author simultaneously considers three approaches in his study, including (a) a general survey of manuscripts, (b) an analysis of a particular illustration and note on magic/divination, and (c) an assessment of a specific manuscript. Some Malay manuscripts are unknown and sometimes undated. Apart from destructive influence of Southeast Asian climates in wrecking colophons, I recollect a discus- sion I had with colleagues in Malaysia a couple of years ago regarding many local manuscripts, particularly dealing with Islamic teachings, rituals, and customs, which are anonymous because they were written for sake of God and not for fame. The first datable (and illustrated) manuscript considered by Farouk Yahya is from 1775 and latest is from 1933, although there are a few sixteenth and early seventeenth-century manuscripts in European collections (refer to chapter three of book).The author promptly highlights importance of his study to art studies. He also provides readers with hints of whether pre-Islamic and ancient paintings are manifested in Archipelago. To offer some insight into application of divinatory and magic notes occasionally written incompletely in manuscripts, Yahya also conducted interviews with four male practitioners. It is certain that through use of various methodologies this study addresses different scientific disciplines.The next section of part one starts with the Malay spirit world that helps readers comprehend how various foreign fictional and supernatural elements have entered Malay magic and divination works. This section sheds light on thought that as long as language of a community is filled with loaned terms, its cultural heritage is to some/large extent impressed.Subsequently, Yahya provides additional information about tools applied by a Malay magician, which are divided into four groups: (a) oral tradition written in manuscripts, such as supplications and incantations; (b) particular objects such as keris (dragger) and magic-medicinal bowl (mangkuk penawar); (c) goods and materials including water, candles, lime, eggs, betel leaves, toasted rice, etc.; and (d) effigies of humans and animals. Although magicians in other Asian and Muslim communities apply many of these tools, it seems there is no comprehensive prescription of ingredients in materials. For instance, I observed a religious quasi-Sufi Persian practitioner who wrote some Arabic and Persian notes using liquid saffron, a plant growing extensively in Iran, inside a bowl. …

Malay Medicinal Practices and Prophetic Foods for Treating the Four Types of Illnesses Most Commonly Found in the Bottom Billion Population of the World: A Systematic Review of Malay Manuscripts Found in Malaysia

Malay Medicinal Practices and Prophetic Foods for Treating the Four Types of Illnesses Most Commonly Found in the Bottom Billion Population of the World: A Systematic Review of Malay Manuscripts Found in Malaysia

KAJIAN STILISTIKA DALAM TEKS AL-MUTAWASSIMĪN SEBAGAI BAHAN PEMBELAJARAN MATA KULIAH WAJIB STILISTIKA

This article discusses stylistic in Al-Mutawassimīn text, a Malay text manuscript. This study used qualitative descriptive design. The manuscript was evaluated its stylistics aspects and its characteristics were elaborated. The findings of analysis indicate that characteristics stylistic Al-Mutawassimīn text use a style of a hallmark of a genre of religious literature. The styles of genre were identified thorugh vocabulary, phrases, syntax, rhetoric or language means rhetorical and figurative language. Stylistics of Al-Mutawassimin are five kinds: (1) kinds of vocabulary are Indonesian, Arabic, Java, and some phrases in Arabic; (2) syntactics are in the form of the use of the conjunction "and" and "then"; (3) rhetoric means consist of polisindeton, (4) euphemism and litotes are used; and (5) figurative languages such as simile are present.

Malay Garden Concept from the Traditional Malay Landscape Design

This study discusses the characteristics of traditional Malay landscape as the main elements for the development of the Malay garden concept using the old Malay manuscripts as well as site observation to the Malay villages along Peninsular Malaysia. The inherited landscape design concept can offer as a guideline to landscape architects and municipal administration to conserve the integrity and the authenticity of the traditional Malay garden design and the strength of these characters will extensively use in developing the concept of landscape design in Malaysia due to the increasing awareness of design and the quality of life.

Alih Wahana pada Kitab Patahulrahman Upaya Mendekatkan Sebuah Teks pada Masyarakatnya Kita

This article discusses about the Jawa manuscripts of Kitab Patahul-rahman as an adaptation from the Malay Manuscripts of Fath al-Rahmān. The issues that will be covered in this article are how the process of adaptation happens and what are other elements that complete the adaptation itself. Based on the problems mentioned above, therefore, the purpose of this article is to explain the forms of adaptation occurred in text Kitab Patahurahman and illustrate the elements that complete the adaptation, comparing them to the elements in the text Fath al-Rahmān which is the source of the adaptation. The method that will be used in this research is qualitative descriptive. This research will also use codicology and textology approach as main approaches. With these twoapproaches, this reseach utilities the forms of local texts as tembang the media of adaptation. Another this to add, we can see the use of these local elements on the text that goes together with the process of adaptation. These local elements are used purposefully to develop main ideas into another possible forms, introduce works in forms that are comprehensible enough for the readers, and to make theworks closer to the people who read them.

The divinatory role of the Qurʾan in the Malay World

ABSTRACTDivination by the Qurʾan among Muslims dates back hundreds of years. Apart from the Middle East, it became popular among Malay Muslims as well. This article considers the divinatory role of the Qurʾan in the Malay world in general and a Malay manuscript preserved at the National Library of Malaysia, which concerns the divination of the Qurʾan in particular. Types of divination as well as the content of the manuscript along with its application and meanings are thoroughly examined. To scrutinise the nature of Malay divination, additional materials from the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Malaysia, are applied. This article thus shows one form of religio-cultural transmissions from the Middle East to the Malay world.

A linguistic kaleidoscope of the Malay letter The case of the eighteenth century offici

The Malay letters make up the largest category of documents among the Malay manuscripts preserved at Leiden University Library, the Netherlands. The corpus represents the scope of the territories under Dutch East Indies authority during the colonial era. In fact, they are authentic documents which denote not only political contact between the local kingdoms in the Archipelago (Nusantara) with the Dutch East Indies government in Batavia during colonial times but also constitute an important source for the study of the historical development of the Malay language. This essay looks at the language characters of such letters which came from the court of Buton in Southeast Sulawesi. It aims to sketch the linguistic variety of the classical Malay language represented in its eighteenth century letter-writing tradition. Having specific diction and features that confirm local influences, the language of the letters shows distinctiveness in terms of phonology, morphology and syntax.

A JAWI SOURCEBOOK FOR THE STUDY OF MALAY PALAEOGRAPHY AND ORTHOGRAPHY

This special issue of Indonesia and the Malay World was compiled by friends and colleagues as a tribute to Professor E. Ulrich Kratz's three decades of teaching Jawi and traditional Malay literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and to mark his 70th birthday on 14 October 2014. Reflecting Ulrich's deep interest in Malay manuscript texts and letters over many years (see the list of publications compiled by Helen Cordell in this issue), this Festschrift takes the rather unusual form of a compilation of reproductions of Malay manuscripts in Jawi script, accompanied by commentaries on the handwriting and spelling. Nearly all the manuscripts are dated or firmly dateable, and come from known locations. The hope is that this issue will be useful as a sourcebook for the study of the development of Jawi script, and in particular its palaeography and orthography, over the course of nearly three and a half centuries. The manuscripts presented date from the end of the 16th century to the early 20th century, and originate from all corners of the Malay world, from Aceh to Aru and from Melaka to Mindanao, as well as from Malay communities in Sri Lanka and Mecca.

The Sanskrit Colophon of the Tanjung Tanah Codex and Its Malay Gloss as Illuminated by Balinese and South Asian Parallels

This article highlights a parallel between a verse-quarter of the Sanskrit colophon of the Tanjung Tanah codex, the oldest Malay manuscript known so far, and the opening verse of the Bhuvanakośa, a Sanskrit-Old Javanese text from Bali. On the basis of the parallel, and of the Malay gloss, I suggest an alternative reconstruction of the verse-quarter to that proposed by Arlo Griffiths (2010). Having traced the parallel back to identical verse-quarters from South Asian texts, and building on the recent discussion by Hunter (in Kozok forthcoming), I advance the view that premodern textual materials from Sumatra and Bali, although originating from distant geographical areas, stemmed from a common, supralocal Indic tradition.

Identity of Malay Garden Design to be Promoted as the Cultural Tourism Product in Malaysia

This study introduces the concept of Malay garden design in the eyes of tourists, particularly from the inside and outside the country. The objectives are to explain the relationship between cultural tourism and cultural landscape and how to produce the concept of landscape design as a new tourism product to become tourist attractions in Malaysia by using the old Malay manuscripts and an observation to the old houses of the Malay community in Peninsular Malaysia. Finally, researchers are ready to offer ideas to the planning and development of new tourism products based on local culture especially the Malays culture.

MENYINGKAP ILMU PERUBATAN MELAYU TRADISIONAL MENERUSI BEBERAPA MANUSKRIP TERPILIH

Large numbers of manuscripts on Malay traditional medicine in the Malay Archipelago are located in Malaysia as well as in few European libraries. This situation demonstrates that the Malay traditional medicine has been both practised and documented to be used as guidelines for the next generation. These medical manuscripts reflect the Malay’s knowledge and expertise in identifying types of diseases, remedies, and its subsequent treatments on diseases that affect the natives. This article discusses Malay traditional medicine based on selected Malay manuscripts, including that of medicinal and historical accounts that included medical services by Malay medical practitioners. Aspects that will be focused upon are historical account of Malay medicines pre- and post-Islam, medical services by Malay medical practitioners, types of diseases, medicines and methods of treatment in treating diseases.

Asian and Islamic crossings: Malay writing in nineteenth-century Sri Lanka

This essay explores how a small diasporic Muslim community in the colonial era – known today as the Sri Lankan Malays – maintained its culture through the preservation of language, the transmission of literary and religious texts, the cultivation of genres and of a script. Beginning in the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth, the Dutch United East India Company (VOC) used the island of Ceylon as a site of banishment for those considered rebels in the regions under Company control in the Indonesian archipelago. Criminals from these territories were also sent to Ceylon, as were native troops who served in the Dutch army, and others employed in various capacities. After their takeover of the island in 1796, the British too brought to Ceylon colonial subjects from the archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, primarily to serve in their military. I examine issues of cultural encounter and religious developments through an analysis of a Malay manuscript written in Colombo in the early years of the nineteenth century. I emphasize the referencing of titles and names as well as the text’s multilingual character. Through this discussion I question the notion of distinctly defined centres and margins as they pertain to the Sri Lankan Malays – situated physically and figuratively between the Malay and Arab worlds – and suggest that crossroads, connections and movement are more appropriate conceptual categories for considering their case.