Asian and African studies blog

The British Library holds a small but significant collection of Lao material, consisting of manuscripts, rare printed books, periodicals and post cards, mainly acquired after 1973. However, the oldest items in Lao language date back to the 19th century. The earliest book about Laos is in Italian and was published in 1663.


Cloister at Vat Sisaket, Vientiane. From Siam and Laos as seen by our American missionaries (Philadelphia: 1884), p. 277. British Library, 4767.bb.8

Printed material
The collection of printed material in Lao language contains over 300 monographs, most of them dating from 1950 onwards. The highlights of the collection, however, are three of the first books printed in the Lao language: John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in Tham (Dhamma) script, printed in 1896 by the Chiang Mai Presbyterian Mission Press (ORB.30/5145); the Évangile selon Saint Jean en laocien (Khampasœ̄t tām lư̄ang hǣng Yōhan) in Lāo buhān script, printed in Paris in 1906 (11103.b.19); and the Évangile de notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ selon Matthieu en laotien (Nangsư̄ khlittikhun pasœ̄t khǭng phra Yēsū Khlit tām thān Matthāi) in Lāo buhān script, printed in Song Khône, Laos, in 1916 (Siam.251). The latter appears to be the first book printed in Lao language in Laos. Book printing was introduced in Laos – at the time part of the Indochinese Union – through the efforts of missionaries with the Swiss Mission Evangélique in Song Khône, southern Laos. Together with a Buddhist monk Gabriel Contesse translated parts of the New Testament into Lao, of which the first part was printed in Lāo buhān script at a printing house in Paris in 1906. The second part was printed only after Contesse’s death in 1909 at the same printer. Finally, a press started printing material in Lāo buhān typeface at the mission in Song Khône thanks to the efforts of missionaries Fritz Audétat and Fritz Widmer.  


First page of the Lao translation of the Gospel of John, printed in 1906. British Library, 11103.b.19

The heart of the Lao book collection is formed by publications of Maha Sila Viravong’s transliterations of literary, linguistic, Buddhist and historical texts from palm leaf manuscripts, for example rare first editions of Nangsư̄ thēt rư̄ang Vētsandon Sādok (Vessantara Jātaka, 1961, YP.2006.b.518), Phongsāwadān Lāo (Lao chronicles, 1957, YP.2005.a.6082), and Nithān Nāng Tantai (Lao version of the Panchatantra, 1957-66, 14304.b.23).
 
Other rare printed works include original issues as well as microfilmed copies of historical Lao newspapers and journals, like for example Pituphūm (O.P.984, holdings 1969-71), Sīang pasāson (Or.Mic.7339, holdings 1975), Khāophāp pacham sapdā (ORB.40/986, holdings 1968), Sāt Lāo (Or.Mic.11526, holdings 1971-75), and Vannakhadisān (ORB.30/6967, holdings 1953-58).


The only two issues of Khāophāp pacham sapdā, dated 12 and 26 Feburary 1968, held at the British Library. ORB.40/986

The Library also holds approximately 2000 books about Laos and Lao culture in Western languages, as well as in Thai and Vietnamese languages. These include some rare first editions, like for example de Gerini’s original description of Laos and other parts of mainland Southeast Asia Delle missioni dei' padri della Compagnia di Gesù nella Provincia del Giappone, e particolarmente di quella di Tumkino (printed in 1663 in Rome, V 5052), Vremde geschiedenissen in de koninckrijcken Cambodia en Louwen-Lant, in Oost-Indien zedert den Iare 1635 tot den Iare 1644 aldaer voor-gevallen. Mitsgaders de Reyse der Nederlanders van Cambodia de Louse Revier op, na Wincjan  (printed in Haarlem in 1669, 566.f.20.(6.)), Henri Mouhot’s Travels in the central parts of Indo-China, Cambodia, and Laos, during the years 1858, 1859, and 1860 (published in London in 1864, 010056.f.8), and Siam and Laos as seen by our American Missionaries (published in Philadelphia in 1884, 4767.bb.8). Lao printed books and periodicals have now been fully catalogued and are searchable in the Library’s online catalogue.


Map of mainland Southeast Asia, from Siam and Laos as seen by our American Missionaries (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1884). British Library, 4767.bb.8.

Manuscripts
In addition to printed material, the Library holds 85 manuscripts which are either in Lao language or in Pali, but written in Tham script or in Lāo buhān script. The collection comprises literary, historical and Buddhist texts, most of them written on palm leaves. A small number, however, are in form of folding books made from khoi paper or from lacquered cotton. Among the highlights are a rare Lao dictionary, which is a folding book in three volumes acquired in 1839 (Add.11624), Henri Mouhot's Alphabets and inscriptions (Or.4736), and a Kammavāca manuscript in Tham (Dhamma) script dated 1805 AD (Or.11797).


Kammavāca palm leaf manuscript from Laos. It has wooden covers which are decorated with lacquer, gilt and mirror glass inlay. British Library, Or.11797

Included in the manuscripts collection are also some wooden manuscript boxes decorated with lacquer and gold, as well as a few hand-woven manuscript wrappers made from silk or cotton. Other minor languages covered in the Lao manuscripts collection include some Tai Lue and Tai Khoen manuscripts. All items in the Library’s Lao manuscripts collection have been catalogued in the online catalogue, Search our Catalogue of Archives and Manuscripts, SoCAM.

Moving image and sound recordings
In addition to printed material and manuscripts, a collection of moving image and sound recordings from Laos is available in the Library’s Sound Archive. These include recordings of traditional Lao music, natural sound recordings, as well as a small number of documentaries and feature films. Among these are numerous unpublished recordings of remote populations of Laos, Cambodia and Thailand by Tom Vater. Access to the Sound Archive is through the online catalogue Cadensa.

Endangered Archives
The British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme supports the preservation and digitisation of archival and manuscript collections in their country of origin. The Archive of Buddhist Photographs from Luang Prabang has been digitised in full through this Programme and is available here.


Postcard of a cattle caravan in Laos, printed around 1910. From an Album of postcards from Siam, Burma, Indochina. British Library, ORB.30/6309

Jana Igunma
Henry Ginsburg Curator for Thai, Lao and Cambodian 

Codes of law (undang-undang) and legal digests (risalah) are amongst our most valuable indigenous historical sources on the Malay world, for the rules designed to regulate life provide us with a wealth of information on the societies in which the texts were composed: expected standards of behaviour, and – as well illustrated by the list of transgressions to be legislated against – what commonly went wrong. 

A Dutch judge and six Javanese officials witnessing the execution and mutilation of four criminals, Java, 1807. Two of the prisoners, dressed in white, are tied to posts while the executioners make ready to despatch them with a keris (dagger). On the left one criminal lies dead, while in the centre foreground another Javanese offender is being trussed up and apparently made ready to have his limbs cut off, a punishment commonly inflicted on counterfeiters. Raffles collection, WD 2977.

The oldest surviving Malay manuscript, written in the Malay language in Indic 'Kawi' script on tree-bark paper which has been carbon-dated to the 14th century, is a pre-Islamic code of laws from the kingdom of Darmasraya in Kerinci, in the highlands of central Sumatra (Kozok 2006). With the arrival of Islam changes were swiftly effected to legal structures in the newly Muslim states of the archipelago. The most famous set of laws in Malay, the Undang-undang Melaka, was codified in the kingdom of Melaka during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Syah (r.1424-44) and completed under Sultan Muzaffar Syah (r.1445-58) (Liaw 1976: 38). Manuscripts of the Undang-undang Melaka are often hybrid compilations containing a number of different parts, most commonly the Undang-undang Melaka proper, relating to the law of the land, and the Undang-undang laut, on maritime law. Over fifty manuscripts are known, many containing local variants of the code from Aceh, Kedah, Patani and Johor.

 
Undang-undang Melaka, the code of laws of the Malay kingdom of Melaka, an early 19th century manuscript containing the Acehnese variant of the text. British Library, Add. 12395, ff. 2v-3r.

The first foreign scholar to pay serious attention to Malay legal texts was Thomas Stamford Raffles. Soon after his arrival in Penang in 1805 he began to collect copies of Malay laws, and an English version of the Undang-undang laut was included in his paper ‘On the Malayu Nation, with a Translation of its Maritime Institutions’ read to the Royal Asiatic Society in Bengal, and later published in Asiatic Researches (Vol.12, 1818, pp. 102-159). The Undang-undang Melaka was the subject of a doctoral dissertation by Liaw Yock Fang (1976), and was re-published in his updated study following the discovery of a 17th-century manuscript in the Vatican Library, which turned out to be the earliest and most important representative of the text (Liaw 2003).

Among the Malay manuscripts in the British Library which have been digitised are five legal texts, including two copies of the Undang-undang Melaka, both from the collection of John Crawfurd.  Add. 12395 (source ‘F’ in the study by Liaw 1976), contains a copy of the Acehnese version of the Undang-undang Melaka and the Undang-undang laut. The second manuscript, Add. 12397 (Liaw’s source ‘G’), contains core versions of both the Undang-undang Melaka and the Undang-undang laut, and was copied in Singapore. This manuscript is very precisely dated: it was commenced on 14 Jumadilawal 1236 (17 February 1821) (f.1v) and completed on 10 Syawal 1236 (Wednesday 11 July 1821) (f.92v), a span of nearly four months. A third manuscript of the Undang-undang Melaka, from the India Office collection (MSS Malay D.10), only contains headings of the pasals or articles.

Undang-undang Melaka, called here al-risālah hukum al-qānūn fī balad al-Malāka, copied in Singapore in 1821. British Library, Add. 12397, f. 1v.

Undang-undang Melaka, containing titles of sections only; that shown above is on the wages payable for carrying and felling wood (pasal pada menyatakan hukum upahan naik kayu dan menebang kayu). This page appears to be in the hand of Raffles's scribe Ibrahim, and may therefore have been written in Penang in early 19th century. British Library, MSS Malay D.10, f. 2r.

Another recently digitised manuscript (MSS Malay D.12) contains a copy of the Undang-undang Aceh, a code of laws from Aceh, said to have been composed in the reign of Sultan Jamalul Alam of Aceh (r.1703-26), on 1 Muharam 1120  (23 March 1708). The badly-damaged and now heavily-restored manuscript itself was copied by Haji Muhammad bin Abdullah in 1873.

Opening pages of the Undang-undang Aceh. Begins (after blessings): maka adalah Haji Muhammad anak Bintan  (or Banten? b.n.t.n) menurunkan undang negeri Aceh masa itu Raja Syah Sultan Jamalul Alam kepada hijrat nabi sanat 1120 tahun kepada tahun Muharam [sic] sehari bulan Muharam bahwa dewasa ini adapun ini surat namanya undang2 Aceh diturunkan oleh Tuan Haji Muhammad. The date is written as ‘1160’ but it is not uncommon in Arabic-script manuscripts for numerals occasionally to be written in reversed form, and in this case the ‘6’ should be read 'in negative' as ‘2’. British Library, MSS Malay D.12, ff. 1v-2r.

Colophon to the Undang-undang Aceh, dated 5 Rabiulawal 1290 (3 May 1873): Tamatlah undang2 Aceh kepada hijrat nabi sanat 1290 tahun kepada lima hari bulan Rabiulawal kepada hari yaum ... yang empunya surat ini tuan Haji Muhammad ibn Abdullah tamat al-kalam wal-salam bi-al-khayr wa-al-salam. Sekarang suda lamanya tengah tiga ratus tahun. British Library, MSS Malay D.12, f. 18v (detail).

Finally, one of the oldest Malay manuscripts in the British Library, from the collections of Sir Hans Sloane and thus present at the founding of the British Museum in 1753, is an Undang-undang manuscript (Sloane 2393) containing a code of Muslim criminal law (Mohd. Jajuli 1986).

Opening pages of the Undang-undang, an early Malay legal text, probably 18th century. The unusual horizonal format suggests that this undated MS was written at a time when the standard writing material was just changing from palm leaf to paper. British Library, Sloane 2393, ff. 19v-20r.

Further reading:

Uli Kozok, Kitab undang-undang Tanjung Tanah: naskah Melayu yang tertua.  Alih aksara Hassan Djafar, Ninie Susanti Y, dan Waruno Mahdi; alih bahasa Achadiati Ikram ... [et al].  Jakarta: Yayasan Naskah Nusantara, 2006.

Liaw Yock Fang, Undang-undang Melaka: the Laws of Melaka.  The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976. (Bibliotheca Indonesica; 13).

Liaw Yock Fang. Undang-undang Melaka dan Undang-undang laut.  Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan, 2003.

Mohamad Jajuli Rahman, The Undang-undang: a mid-eighteenth century Malay law text (BL Sloane MS 2393): transcription and translation. Canterbury: University of Kent, Centre of South-east Asian studies, 1986.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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Ibrahim: portrait of a Malay scribe

A Malay spur to valour: the Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah

The wily Malay mousedeer

The world of scholarship has been revolutionised by numerous digitisation programmes undertaken in libraries throughout the world. Now, instead of having to travel thousands of miles for expensive and extensive visits to cities where unique historical sources are housed, it is ever more possible to make a detailed study of a manuscript from one’s own home, in any country, via the internet. Digitisation programmes are usually shaped both by the interests of patrons and the strengths of an institution’s collections, and among the exciting projects to digitise material from the Asian and African collections of the British Library are those of Malay manuscripts in collaboration with the National Library of Singapore supported by William and Judith Bollinger, Thai manuscripts funded by the Royal Thai government, Persian manuscripts in partnership with the Iran Heritage Foundation, and Hebrew manuscripts with the Polonsky Foundation. However, with the emphasis on large projects, it is not always easy to prioritise the digitisation of other important manuscripts from smaller language groups, or from regions for which funding proves difficult to source.

Note in the Bugis language and script, from the diary of the king of Bone, south Sulawesi, 1775. British Library, Add. 12354, f. 2r (detail).

The Southeast Asia section of the British Library is fortunate in that a legacy from the estate of the late Henry D. Ginsburg (1940-2007), who was for over thirty years the Library’s curator for Thai, Lao and Cambodian collections, has enabled the digitisation of a small number of significant manuscripts, some representing writing traditions rarely accessible on the internet. In 2013, seven of the most important illuminated and illustrated manuscripts in Vietnamese, Burmese and Javanese were digitised. In 2014 we completed the digitisation of a further 15 manuscripts from Southeast Asia, in Vietnamese, Burmese, Shan, Khamti, Lao, Thai, Bugis, Javanese and Arabic, which this month have been made accessible through the Digitised Manuscripts website.

Artistically, the highlights are probably six Burmese folding book (parabaik) manuscripts, all lavishly and exquisitely illustrated. Three of the manuscripts depict scenes from the Life of the Buddha (Or. 4762, Or. 5757 and Or. 14197) while the other three contain Jataka stories (Or. 13538, Or. 4542A and Or. 4542B, and MSS Burmese 202).


The Jātaka stories about the previous lives of the Gautama Buddha are preserved in all branches of Buddhism. These stories show how he gradually acquired greater strength and moral stature as his soul passed from one incarnation to the other. Shown above is a scene from the Latukika Jataka. The Bodhisatta, the leader of the elephants (gilded) protects the offspring of a quail who had laid her eggs in the feeding ground of the elephants. British Library, Or. 13538, ff. 20-22.

Also in folding book format is a lavishly decorated Buddhist manuscript, Buddhānussati, in Shan language (Or. 12040), a copy of Tamrā phichai songkhrām in Thai language (Or. 15760), and a rare Lao dictionary in three volumes from the 19th century (Add. 11624).


This Shan folding book (pap tup), dated 1885, with the title Buddhānussati contains a text on recollections of the Buddha, explaining mindfulness with the Buddha’s virtues as objects. The embossed gilded covers are studded with multi-coloured mirror glass for ornate floral decoration. British Library, Or.12040, front cover.

Folio 16 of the Tamrā phichai songkhrām, explaining various appearances of sun and how to interpret them. This Thai divination manual for the prediction of wars, conflicts and natural disasters also contains explanations of the shapes of clouds, the moon and planets. British Library, Or.15760, folio 16.

Another rarity that has been digitised in this project is a bound and scrolled paper book (pap kin) in Khamti Shan script, Kuasala Ainmakan (Or. 3494). The book, dated 1860, is sewn in a blue cotton wrapper with a white and pink braided cotton string. It contains the Mahāsupina Jātaka about the dreams of King Pasenadi, the King of Kosala.  

From the Vietnamese collection was selected ‘The Northwards Embassy by land and water’, a rare pictorial manuscript map, Bắc Sứ Thủy Lục Địa Đô (Or. 14907), illustrating the journey from Hanoi to Beijing in 1880. This manuscript is currently on display in the exhibition ‘Geo/Graphic: celebrating maps and their stories’, at the National Library of Singapore (16 January – 19 July 2015).


Tai Ping City , located by Gu Fang Mountain. The city was well fortified with a fortress and could be dated back to the Ming dynasty.British Library, Or. 14907, f. 11r.

Two very different Javanese manuscripts were digitised. The first, Serat Jaya Lengkara Wulang (MSS Jav 24), contains ethical teachings of the royal house of Yogyakarta, with many fine examples of illumination. The other manuscript (Sloane 2645) is a work on Islamic law, Mukhtasar Ba Fadl or Muqaddimat al-Hadrami, here going under the title Masa'il al-ta'lim, written in Arabic with interlinear translation and marginal commentary in Javanese in Arabic (Pegon) script. The manuscript, which is dated 1623, is from the founding collections of Sir Hans Sloane, and may be one of the earliest dated examples of a Javanese manuscript in Pegon script, and written on Javanese paper dluwang) made from the bark of the mulberry tree.

Illuminated architectural section heading from a Javanese manuscript, Serat Jaya Lengkara Wulang, Yoygyakarta, 1803. British Library, MSS Jav. 24, f. 22v.

Start of a new chapter (bab) in Masa'il al-ta'lim, in Arabic with interlinear translation in Javanese, 1623. British Library, Sloane 2645, f. 34r (detail).

The final manuscript, also from Indonesia, is in the Bugis language and script (Add. 12354). This is the personal diary of Sultan Ahmad al-Salih Syamsuddin of Bone, in south Sulawesi, covering the years 1775-1795, and written in his own hand. The diary contains a wealth of detail on the social, political, economic and cultural life of Sulawesi in the late 18th century.

Entries for the first few days of August 1781, in the Bugis diary of Sultan Ahmad al-Salih. British Library, Add. 12354, f. 52r (detail).

Annabel Teh Gallop, San San May, Jana Igunma, Sud Chonchirdsin

Southeast Asia section curators

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Many cultures celebrate an animal who, while not the largest or strongest, outwits all around him. In Europe this is Reynard the fox; in the Malay world of Southeast Asia it is Sang Kancil the mousedeer (pelanduk). Malay folklore is full of accounts of how the mousedeer gets the better of the other animals by his intellect and trickery. But in addition to oral tales and childens’ stories there is also a written epic in Malay, the Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka or 'Tale of the Wily Mousedeer', probably dating from the 15th or 16th century, which is a highly sophisticated literary composition.   

Sumatran mousedeer. Drawing by a Chinese artist in Bengkulu, between 1784 and 1808, reproduced in William Marsden, A history of Sumatra, 3rd edition (London, 1811). British Library, NHD 1/8.

In the Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka, the mousedeer tricks the other animals into thinking that he has magic powers, and holds court from an ant-hill. He uses these 'powers' to make peace between the goats and the tigers and to gain their allegiance, and then by his cunning gets the better of the lion, elephant and crocodile. Finally the mousedeer sees off his enemies the monkeys, and becomes the ruler of the jungle. This satire on power has been characterised by Ian Proudfoot: ‘It is subversive; it is cynical. It attacks authority rather than bolstering it … Its premise is that royal power rests on false consciousness. It demonstrates how a gullible public can be made to think they need an authority figure through a combination of religious fraud and false security fears’ (Proudfoot 2001: 70-71).

There are three Malay manuscripts of the Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka in the British Library which have now been digitised, all originating from Penang or Kedah around 1805. MSS Malay B.2, from the collection of John Leyden, is dated 1219 AH (1804/5 AD), and was published by Klinkert in 1893. The second copy (MSS Malay D.5) is undated, but comprises the second work in a volume containing four different tales, and is in the same hand as the first item, Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah, which was copied by Mahmud ibn Husain on 14 Syaaban 1220 (7 November 1805). 

Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka, dated 1219 AH (1804/5 AD). British Library, MSS Malay B.2, ff. 1v-2r.

Colophon of Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka, undated but in a volume together with copies of Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah and Hikayat Syahi Mardan, both of which are in the same hand and dated 1220 (1805/6). British Library, MSS Malay D.5, f. 169v.

The third copy of Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka is again in a composite volume (MSS Malay B.10), and was copied in 1805 by a scribe who describes himself as seorang fakir Ahmad Keling, ‘a humble mendicant, Ahmad, of south Indian origin’. By means of a particular decorative flourish on the initial word, al-kisah, the writer can be identified as Ahmad Rijaluddin bin Hakim Long Fakir Kandu, author of the Hikayat Perintah Negeri Benggala (Add. 12386), and brother of Ibrahim, Raffles’s chief scribe, from a prominent Chulia (south Indian) family in Penang.

First page of Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka, 'This is a tale from olden days': Al-kisah ini hikayat daripada orang dahulu kala. MSS Malay B.10, f. 2r.

Colophon of Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka, copied by Ahmad Keling on 22 Rejab 1220 (16 October 1805): diperbuat surat ini pada dua likur hari bulan Rejab hari Arba' pada sanat 1220 tahun, tahun wau, wa-katibuhu seorang fakir Ahmad Keling tamat. MSS Malay B.10, f.38r (detail).

The final letter of the word al-kisah is the Arabic letter tā’ marbūṭa, which in Malay manuscripts is often adorned with a decorative knot. Significantly, the Malay name of this letter is either ta marbuta or ta bersimpul, ‘knotted ta’. Artistic variations can include multiple-looped knots, double-headed loops, and concave or convex headed loops to these knots. Knotted ta marbuta is found in manuscripts from all over the archipelago, with some of the most complex versions found in the surah headings in Qur’an manuscripts from Java (Gallop 2005: 203-9). And yet however elaborate the embellishments of the knot, they are generally conducted along a horizontal plane. In the manuscript of Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka, however, the 5-looped double-headed ta marbuta is extended vertically. This form of the letter has only ever been seen in one other Malay manuscript: the Hikayat Perintah negeri Benggala; moreover, both texts are set in double-ruled frames in a slightly acidic brown-black ink which has begun to eat into the paper. All these factors leave little doubt that ‘Ahmad Keling’ is indeed Ahmad Rijaluddin.

 
Vertically extended knotted ta marbuta of al-kisah in (left) Hikayat Perintah Negeri Benggala (Add. 12386, f.2v) and (right) Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka (MSS Malay B.10, f.2r).  

The heading for the penultimate chapter in a Qur'an manuscript from Java, Sūrat al-Falaq, with examples of knotted ta marbuta on the words Sūrat and Makiyyah, and on final ta of ayat. The final example has six loops, double headed on the bottom and concave headed at the top. British Library, Add. 12343, f.189r.

Further reading:

A.T. Gallop, Beautifying Jawi: between calligraphy and palaeography.  Malay images, ed. Asmah Haji Omar.  Tanjung Malim: Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 2005; pp.194-233.

Ian Proudfoot, A 'Chinese' mousedeer goes to Paris. Archipel, 2001, 61:69-97.

R.O. Winstedt, A history of classical Malay literature.  Revised, edited and introduced by Y.A.Talib.  Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1991; ‘Beast fables’, pp.7-13.

 Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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The story of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyyah – a son of the caliph ‘Alī by a captive from the tribe of the Banū Ḥanīfah, and half-brother to the Prophet’s grandsons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn – was composed in Persian by an anonymous author in the fourteenth century, and very soon after that translated into Malay, probably around the court of Pasai in north Sumatra. In this tale the otherwise marginal figure of the historical Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyyah is transformed into a quintessential Islamic hero, emerging victorious after numerous battles.   

Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah, with decorated initial frames, copied by Muhammad Kasim on 29 Jumadilakhir 1220 (25 August 1805), probably in Penang. British Library, MSS Malay B.6, ff.1v-2r.

The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah became popular throughout the Malay world, with its stature as a spur to valour cemented by an iconic episode in the most famous Malay chronicle. The Sulalat al-Salatin, popularly known as the Sejarah Melayu or ‘Malay Annals’, was composed sometime in the sixteenth century to record for posterity the glory of the great kingdom of Melaka, before its defeat by Portuguese forces under Afonso d’Albuquerque in 1511. In the Sejarah Melayu, the night before the Portuguese attack, the young knights of Melaka sent a message to the sultan requesting the recitation of the Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah. The sultan tests their resolve by offering instead a tale of a lesser hero, the Hikayat Amir Hamzah. The nobles reply that as long as the sultan’s courage matches that of Muhammad Hanafiah, they will match that of his generals, whereupon the sultan accedes to their request. The full episode from the Sejarah Melayu is reproduced below, in C.C. Brown’s translation:

‘That night the war-chiefs and the young nobles were waiting in the hall of audience, and the young nobles said, “Why do we sit here idly? It would be well for us to read a tale of war that we may profit from it.” And Tun Muhammad Unta said, “That is very true, sir. Let us ask the Raja to give us the Story of Muhammad Hanafiah.” Then the young nobles said to Tun Aria, “Go, sir, and take this message to the Ruler, that all of us crave from his the Story of Muhammad Hanafiah, in the hope that we may obtain profit from it, for the Franks [i.e. Portuguese] are attacking tomorrrow.” Tun Aria accordingly went into the palace and presented himself before Sultan Ahmad, to whom he addressed the young nobles’ request. And Sultan Ahmad gave him the Story of Hamzah saying, “We would give you the Story of Muhammad Hanafiah did we not fear that the bravery of the gentlemen of our court falls short of the bravery of Muhammad Hanafiah! But it may be that their bravery is such as was the bravery of Hamzah and that is why we give you the Story of Hamzah.” Tun Aria then left the palace bearing the Story of Hamzah and he told the young nobles what Sultan Ahmad had said. At first they were silent, but presently Tun Isak Berakah replied to Tun Aria, “Represent humbly to the Ruler that he has spoken amiss. If he will be as Muhammad Hanafiah, we will be as war-chief Bania’ [i.e. of Beniar, the headquarters of the historical Muhammad al-Hannafiyyah]: if his bravery is that of Muhammad Hanafiah, ours will be that of war-chief Bania.” And when Tun Aria took this message from Tun Isak Berakah to Sultan Ahmad, the king smiled and gave them the story of Muhammad Hanafiah instead.’ (Brown 1970: 162-3).  

In fact, neither of the two manuscripts of the Sejarah Melayu in the British Library include this episode. Or. 14734, copied in Melaka in 1873, omits any mention of the nobles' request for Hikayat Muhammad Hanfiah on f.174v, perhaps part of a late tendency to erase any possible Shi'i tinges from Malay literature. In Or. 16214, copied in Singapore around 1832, the chapter on the Portuguese attack is missing.

Final page of Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah, copied by Mahmud ibn Husain on 14 Syaaban 1220 (7 November 1805): tamatlah Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah anakda cucuda nabi s.a.w. pada sanat 1220 tahun2 wau pada empat belas haribulan Syaaban pada malam Arba' wa-katibuhu Mahmud ibn Husain. British Library, MSS Malay D.5, f.80r.  

The Malay Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah was the subject of a detailed study by Lode Brakel (1975), who traced thirty manuscripts, including three in the British Library, which have now all been digitised. Two, from the John Leyden collection, were both copied in Penang or Kedah in 1805 (MSS Malay B.6 and MSS Malay D.5, Brakel’s source ‘F’). A third manuscript, from the collection of John Crawfurd (Add. 12377, Brakel’s source ‘G’), may have been acquired in Java but the use of the titles Teuku and Teungku sugggest a link with Aceh. The tale is also known in Acehnese, Bugis, Javanese, Makasarese, Madurese, Minangkabau and Sundanese versions.

Final pages of Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah, copied by Teungku Kecik and owned by Teuku Itam: tamat wa-katibuhu Teungku Kecik menyurat dia Teuku (t.a.’.k.w) Itam empunya {empunya} surat ini tamat. British Library, Add.12377, ff. 185v-186r.

Brakel also documented two manuscripts of the Persian original, one – at the time thought to be unique – in the British Library (Add. 8149), and another in St. Petersburg. By comparing the Malay manuscripts with Add. 8149 (a copy from Murshidabad in Bengal, written in 1721), Brakel was able to show that the Malay text was a direct translation from the Persian original, in some cases even preserving the order of words (Brakel 1975: 12-13).

Opening page of the Persian Hikāyat Muḥammad Ḥanafiyyah, following on from a tale of Ḥasan and Ḥusayn, Murshidabad, 1721. British Library, Add. 8149, ff. 28v-29r.

Further reading:

L.F. Brakel, The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah: a medieval Muslim-Malay romance.  The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975. (Bibliotheca Indonesica; 12).

L.F. Brakel, The story of Muhammad Hanafiyyah: a medieval Muslim romance.  Translated from the Malay by L.F. Brakel.  The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1977. (Bibliotheca Indonesica; 16).

C.C. Brown, Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals.  An annotated translation by C.C.Brown, with a new introduction by R.Roolvink.  Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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Ibrahim: portrait of a Malay scribe

Thanks to a chance encounter with a Scottish artist in Calcutta in 1810, we are in possession of a rare portrait of one of the Malay scribes responsible for copying a number of Malay manuscripts now held in the British Library. Ibrahim, who was born in Kedah in 1780, was the younger son of Hakim Long Fakir Kandu, a prominent merchant from the south Indian Chulia community. Ibrahim and his older brother Ahmad both worked in Penang as scribes for the British – Ahmad for the merchant Robert Scott, while Ibrahim was employed by Thomas Stamford Raffles. In 1810 Ahmad visited Bengal in the company of Scott, and recorded his impressions in the Hikayat perintah negeri Benggala (Add.12386). By great coincidence, that same year Ibrahim too sailed to Calcutta with his employer, Raffles. At a gathering at Government House on 15 September 1810, Ibrahim caught the eye of Maria Graham: ‘The most singular figure of this motley group was a Malay moonshi, whom Dr Leyden had brought to the assembly’, and her portrait of Ibrahim adorns the frontispiece to her Journal of a Residence in India (1812).  Ibrahim, aged thirty, is portrayed sitting cross-legged wearing a head covering, jacket, shirt and sarong, all made of checked Indian pelikat trade-cloth, with a large pending or almond-shaped belt buckle, holding an octagonal silver tobacco box and with his his keris (dagger) beside him.

Portrait of Ibrahim in 1810, from Maria Graham, Journal of a Residence in India (Edinburgh, 1812). British Library, V8668, frontispiece.

Raffles had arrived in Penang in September 1805, having studied Malay on the voyage out from England. Probably acting on the advice of his intellectual mentor (and convalescent house guest) John Leyden, around January 1806 Raffles gathered a team of six scribes to copy Malay books for him. Among the Malay manuscripts which have recently been digitised are at least four volumes bearing Ibrahim’s name as scribe. Three specify that they were copied for Raffles, but were evidently presented to Leyden, for they came to the India Office Library in Leyden’s estate in 1824. 

The earliest of the manuscripts to mention Raffles's name is a copy of Hikayat Parang Puting (MSS Malay D.3), concerning the adventures of Budak Miskin, son of the princess of Langkam Jaya, one of a few Malay works which according to Braginsky (2004: 72) may best preserve the primordial pre-Islamic 'monomyth' of the sacral cosmic marriage of the male and female principles.

Decorated title page of Hikayat Parang Puting, with an outline of the contents, set within rectangular borders filled with floral and foliate motifs: Inilah cetera orang dahulu kala diceterakan oleh orang yang empunya cetera hikayat Parang Puting anak dewa laksana dewa dari kayangan terlalu indah perkataan maka ia berperang dengan naga di dalam laut dengan sabab tuan puteri hendak diambil naga itu inilah ceteranya. British Library, MSS Malay D.3, f.1r.

Colophon, dated 29 Syawal 1220 (20 January 1806): pada sanat 1220 tahun2 wau pada sembilan likur hari bulan Syawal pada hari Selasa ditamatkan surat Hikayat Parang Puting Tuan Mister Raffles empunya surat ini wa-katibuhu Ibrahim. British Library, MSS Malay D.3, f.63v (detail).

Later that same year, Ibrahim also copied the Hikayat Mesa Tandraman (MSS Malay C.3) for Raffles. Described as a Javanese story, it tells of two divine brothers Sang Dermadewa and Dewa Kisna Indra. The latter became a hermit on the mountain Puspagiri and the former became king of Kuripan.

The colophon, dated 6 Rejab 1221 (19 September 1806), states that the owner was Mister Raffles and the scribes were Ibrahim and Ismail: pada sanat 1221 tahun2 dal akhir pada enam hari bulan Rejab kepada hari Jumaat waktu pukul empat ditamatkan hikayat ini adapun yang empunya hikayat Tuan Mister Raffles wa-katibuhu wa-syahidahu Ibrahim yang menyuratnya dengan Ismail. British Library, MSS Malay C.3, f.164r (detail).

The third manuscript, Hikayat Isma Yatim (MSS Malay C.5), is a well-known story which may have been a personal favourite of Malay scribes because the hero, for once, is not a prince but a writer.

The colophon of Hikayat Isma Yatim giving the date of completion as 29 Jumadilakhir 1222 (3 September 1807), and naming the owner as Mister Raffles and the scribe as Ibrahim: maka ditamatkan hikayat ini kepada malam Arba' waktu pukul dua belas kepada sanat 1222 tahun2 alif pada sembilan likur hari bulan Jumadilakhir adapun hikayat ini tuan Mister Raffles yang empunya dia wa-katibuhu Ibrahim tamat. British Library, MSS Malay C.5, f.108r (detail).

The fourth manuscript is a copy of the Syair Silambari (MSS Malay B.3), also called the Syair Sinyor Kosta, concerning the conflict between a Portuguese and a Chinese in Melaka over a woman. Written 11 days earlier than Hikayat Parang Puting, it may also have been comissioned by Raffles.

The opening pages of Syair Silambari, decorated with floral borders in pen and ink, outlined in red.
British Library, MSS Malay B.3, ff.22v-23r.

The closing lines of Syair Silambari state that the manuscript was completed by Ibrahim on 18 Syawal 1220 (9 January 1806): sanat 1220 tahun tahun wau pada dualapan belas hari bulan Syawal kepada hari Arb'a bahwa pada ketika itu ditamatkan kitab Silambari namanya kisah Feringgi ambil bini Cina di dalam negeri Melaka jadi perang besar dengan Wilanda adapun yang empunya surat ini wa-katibuhu Ibrahim. British Library, MSS Malay B.3, f.36r (detail).

Following on immediately from the copy of Syair Silambari, on the reverse of the same sheet of paper and hence also certainly written by Ibrahim, is another poem in the form of a love letter to a lady, entitled Syair surat kirim kepada perempuan, which may be Ibrahim’s own literary creation.

Opening pages of Syair surat kirim kepada perempuan, also copied by Ibrahim in 1806. British Library, MSS Malay B.3, ff.36v-37r.

As can be seen from the images above, Ibrahim’s handwriting is very distinctive: his hand is small, neat, round, and upright, without a discernible slope to left or right.  Certain letters which are particularly characteristic are concave/convex tail of conjoined final nga/'ain, and the almost parallel shape of the ‘head’ of the letter-form jim/ca/ha/kha in its isolated position, as seen in the detail below.

The words 'siraja helang' from Syair surat kirim kepada perempuan, showing Ibrahim's characteristic 'parallel-headed' letter jim, and the concave-convex tail of nga. British Library, MSS Malay B.3, f.45r (detail).

On the basis of the handwriting, it is possible to identify a few more manuscripts in the British Library that may have been (at least partially) copied by Ibrahim, such as a copy of the last chapters of the Hikayat Hang Tuah (MSS Malay B.1) shown below.  In addition Ibrahim is known to have copied two MSS of the Sejarah Melayu now in the Raffles collection in the Royal Asiatic Society (Raffles Malay 35, dated January 1808, and Raffles Malay 39, dated March 1812). 

Ibrahim's distinctive letter jim can be seen in the word raja at the start of the top line on the right hand page, and his nga in the word yang on the bottom line of the left hand page, in this MS of Hikayat Hang Tuah. British Library, MSS Malay B.1, ff.139v-140r.

Further reading:

Ahmad Rijaluddin’s Hikayat Perintah Negeri Benggala. Edited and translated by C. Skinner.  The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982. (Bibliotheca Indonesica; 22).

V.I. Braginsky, The heritage of traditional Malay literature: a historical survey of genres, writings and literary views.  Leiden: KITLV, 2004.

A merry senhor in the Malay world: four texts of the Syair Sinyor Kosta, ed. A. Teeuw, R. Dumas, Muhammad Haji Salleh, R. Tol and M.J. van Yperen. Leiden: KITLV, 2004. Vol.1, pp. 15-20, 193-200 (contains a full transliteration of Syair Silambari).

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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Malay manuscripts on Bugis history

In my last post, I discussed the Bugis diary of Sultan Ahmad al-Salih Syamsuddin of Bone (r.1775-1812) in south Sulawesi (Add. 12354), which has just been digitised. As well as documenting the day-to-day activities at the court, royal Bugis and Makassarese diaries were designed with blank pages between each year, which could be used for notes on important events and copies of letters and treaties, as well as songs and poems, and drawings and designs.


A decorative calligraphic heading (kepala surat) to be positioned at the top of a letter, in the form of a ship made out of the pious Arabic phrase, Qawluh al-haqq wa-kalamuh al-sidq, ‘His Word is The Truth and His Speech Veracity’, drawn on a blank page in Ahmad al-Salih’s diary. British Library, Add. 12354, f. 118v.

Ahmad al-Salih’s diary is one of a number of official diaries from the court of Bone acquired by John Crawfurd, who led the British expedition against Bone in 1814. During his twenty years of service in the East India Company, stationed in Penang, Java and Singapore, Crawfurd built up an important collection of Malay, Javanese and Bugis manuscripts, which he sold to the British Museum in 1842, and which are now held in the British Library. Crawfurd used his manuscripts extensively to support his research on the history and culture of the Malay world, leading to numerous publications including the three-volume History of the Indian archipelago (1820) and A grammar and dictionary of the Malay language (1852). Crawfurd could read and speak Malay and Javanese, but not Bugis.  Soon after acquiring manuscripts from the royal library of Bone, he appears to have commissioned Malay translations of some of the most important historical notes, documents and letters recorded in the Bugis diaries. Among the Malay manuscripts in the British Library which have recently been digitised are three volumes of Malay translations of Bugis documents from Crawfurd’s collection, mostly dating from around 1814.

The first manuscript, Add. 12396, contains translations in a locally-tinged Malay of Makassarese and Bugis texts, covering the early histories of the kingdoms of Gowa and Bone in the 17th century (ff. 1v-23v).  The volume also contains miscellaneous notes on Arung Palakka and the countries defeated by him (f. 23r), and a copy of the momentous treaty of Bungaya of 1667, marking the defeat of Makassar by combined Dutch and Bugis forces from Bone under Arung Palakka. Other contents include juridical regulations, and sayings and teachings of former rulers of Wajo, Tallo' and Bone.

A list of the kings of Bone, some with indications of the number of years of their reigns, apparently made during the reign of Matinroe riRompegading (Ahmad al-Salih Syamsuddin), who died in 1812. British Library, Add. 12396, f. 25r (detail).

A second volume, Add. 12389, contains translations from Bugis diaries from the court of Bone between the years 1759-1775, 1804-1811, and 1805-1807, and from the notes and letters written on the blank pages left between years in the diaries. Topics covered include meetings of high court officials and representatives of other Sulawesi states; envoys of the Dutch authorities to the court of Bone (f. 40r); the ceremony of the investiture of the ruler or Arumpone (f.42v); and records of dreams (f. 56r). Notable in the diary of Sultan Ahmad al-Salih were reports from visitors and returned pilgrims about the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and in this volume too is recorded, probably early in 1806, news of the Wahhabi takeover of the Hijaz.


Malay translations of notes from Bugis diaries from the court of Bone. On the right hand page is a note on a visit of an honoured guest from Mecca named Ibrahim Zayn al-‘Abidin, a descendant of the famous Sufi scholar Ahmad al-Qushashi (d.1660), who tells of the Wahhabite actions in Mecca and Medina in demolishing venerated tombs save only for that of the Prophet himself (Maka datang Syaikh Madinah Ahmad Kusasi yang punya cucu dan Ibrahim Zainal Abidin namanya … itu pula yang khabarkan dari Abdul Wahab merusakkan Makkah dan Madinah … maka dirubu(h)kan semuanya kubur dari Makka dan Madina tinggal kuburnya Nabi Muhammad yang tiada dirubuh …). Although this diary entry is undated it probably occurred in early 1806 as it follows a report of flooding on 22 December 1805 following 17 days of heavy rain (f. 57r). British Library, Add. 12389, ff. 58v-59r.

 A third manuscript, Add. 12399, contains fragments of Malay hikayat, mostly religious stories on ‘Alī, Fāṭima and the mi’rāj of the Prophet, as well as translations of letters from Bugis and Makssarese, dating from 1813 to 1814.


Copies of letters translated into Malay from Bugis. That on the left hand page is addressed affectionately to an elder female (Bahwa peluk cium kepada nenenda …) and is dated 18 January 1814.  British Library, Add. 12399, ff. 54v-55r.

Further reading

Rahilah Omar, The history of Bone AD 1775-1795: the diary of Sultan Ahmad as-Salleh Syamsuddin. [Ph.D. thesis].  University of Hull, 2003. [Available for download from the British Library ETHOS site.]

M.C.Ricklefs & P.Voorhoeve, Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain: a catalogue of manuscripts in Indonesian languages in British public collections.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

John Crawfurd and Malay studies. Blog post, 27 May 2014.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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The Bugis diary of the Sultan of Boné

John Crawfurd and Malay studies - Asian and African studies blog

The official diaries maintained in the Bugis and Makassarese courts of south Sulawesi constitute a uniquely rich source of data for the history of Indonesia, for no other Muslim kingdoms in Southeast Asia are known to have instituted such a meticulous practice of record keeping. The diary tradition appears to have begun in the early seventeenth century, coinciding with the Islamisation of the states, but was also strongly influenced by intellectual contact with Europeans, principally the Portuguese, for the diaries are predominantly ordered by the Christian calendar.


Bugis diary of Sultan Ahmad al-Salih of Bone, showing the entries for January and February 1789. British Library, Add. 12354, ff. 105v-106r.

The British Library holds eleven volumes of court diaries in Bugis, all from the kingdom of Bone (see Ricklefs & Voorhoeve 1977: 27-35).  The earliest (MSS Bugis 1), covering the dates 1660 to 1696, is that of Arung Palakka, the 16th ruler who engineered the spectacular rise of Bone in the 17th century by allying himself with the Dutch to defeat the kingdom of Makassar in 1669.  Other diaries, some kept by senior court officials, cover the periods 1714 through to 1809, albeit with some gaps.  One of the most important Bugis diaries in the British Library, Add. 12354, has just been digitised. This is the diary of Ahmad al-Salih Syamsuddin, who ruled as the 22nd sultan of Bone from 1775 until his death in July 1812. An adherent of the Khalwatiyya Sufi brotherhood, Ahmad al-Salih was renowned for his religious learning, and was the patron of an exceptionally fine illuminated Qur’an manuscript (Gallop 2010). He began writing the diary in his own hand on 1 January 1775, and continued until the end of 1795. His diary was recently the subject of a doctoral dissertation by Rahilah Omar (2003), and the comments below are largely based on Rahilah’s pioneering study.


Detail from an ornamental calligraphic design, found on a spare page at the end of Sultan Ahmad al-Salih’s diary. British Library, Add. 12354, f. 201v (detail).

Sultan Ahmad al-Salih’s diary was prepared according to the standard format for official Bugis diaries. Large folio-sized sheets of high-quality European, usually Dutch, paper were bound in volumes, with one page allocated to each calendar month of the year. At the top of the page was written in red ink on the right the year in the Christian era in ‘European’ numerals, and on the left the Portuguese name of the month in the adapted form of the Arabic script called Jawi. In the middle, in black ink, was inscribed the equivalent month, not according to the Hijrah era as might be expected, but according to the Ottoman ‘Rumi’ solar calendar.  Each Friday (Jumaat) is highlighted in red, with an elaborate knotted final letter, ta marbuta. One line was allocated for each day of the month, also written in European numerals. Following the end of one year, and the start of a new one, two pages were left blank. These pages could be filled with notes or copies of letters or other important documents, or sometimes doodles and interesting examples of designs.


The first entry in Sultan Ahmad al-Salih's diary: on 1 January 1775 he wrote, in Bugis and Arabic, ‘I started writing this diary. God's blessing. There is no god but God, Muhammad is His Messenger.’  At top left in red is the month Janir (from the Portuguese Janeiro); in the middle is the Ottoman month Kānūn al-thānī; on on the right is the year in the Christian Gregorian era, hir 1775. British Library, Add. 12354, f. 6v (detail).

Daily entries in the diary are written in the Bugis language, and in the Bugis script of Indic origin, but with occasional conventional pious phrases in Arabic, such as baraka Allah, ‘God’s blessing’. As Bugis script is written from left to right while Arabic is written from right to left, a certain amount of planning was needed on the part of the writer to estimate exactly how much room to leave in order to fit in a phrase in Arabic.  Some pages have lines left blank on days when no entry was made. On particularly busy days, entries could easily stretch to more than a line, and extra text was fitted in by making judicious right-angled turns wherever spaced allowed, resulting in labyrinthine patterns across the page.


Sultan Ahmad al-Salih noted on a spare page in his diary the milestones of his personal life: at the top, his marriage to I Tenripada on 3 November 1774, followed by the dates of the births of six of his children, starting with Siti Fatimah at 7 a.m. on Monday 27 Syaaban 1189, equivalent to 23 October 1775. British Library, Add. 12354, f. 184v (detail).

Apart from major political events, in his diary Ahmad al-Salih also comments on the wide range of economic activities in Bone, from wet-rice cultivation to fish-farming, with information on taxes levied on land and river tolls, and the role of slavery. Hobbies and pastimes such as horse riding, sailing on the river, cock fighting and literary pursuits are all noted. Religious festivals are described, and a steady stream of people come to request permission from the sultan to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca (and in 2013 Ahmad al-Salih's diary was selected for display in the British Museum exhibition, Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam). There is information on an exceptionally varied number of subjects, from bride prices to infant mortality. Over the twenty years covered in the diary Ahmad al-Salih documents 89 births in court circles, including 11 deaths and the reasons for these, whether premature delivery or stillbirth (Rahilah 2003: 206). Rahilah has commented that the sultan's remarks are generally factual and he rarely makes personal comments. Nonetheless, amongst the births he describes, only in the case of his own wife does he depict the agony of a woman in labour, noting on 16 December 1794, 'Puang Batara Tungkeq screamed as she suffers [a terrible] stomach pain'. Luckily, the delivery of the baby went well, and the sultan expressed his gratitude and fondness with a gift: 'After 2.00 [p.m.] Puang Batara Tungkeq gave birth to a baby boy ... I gave her two jemma [court maids] as a sign of good wishes for her health' (Rahilah 2003: 205). This is just one of the wealth  of details contained in Sultan Ahmad al-Salih's diary on all aspects of life – political, diplomatic, religious, economic, social and cultural – in Bone in the late 18th century, as uncovered in Rahilah Omar's study.

Further reading

Rahilah Omar, The history of Bone AD 1775-1795: the diary of Sultan Ahmad as-Salleh Syamsuddin. [Ph.D. thesis].  University of Hull, 2003. [Available for download from the British Library ETHOS site.]

M.C.Ricklefs & P.Voorhoeve, Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain: a catalogue of manuscripts in Indonesian languages in British public collections.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Annabel Teh Gallop, The Boné Qur’an from South Sulawesi.  Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Arts of the book and calligraphy, ed. Margaret S. Graves and Benoît Junod.  Istanbul: Aga Khan Trust for Culture and Sakip Sabanci University & Museum, 2010, pp.162-173.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia