MS C is positively an older version than MS D, which had been written in A.D. 1886.
MS J is as comprehensive as C. The colophon says that this variant is also a copy of Datuk Kapitan Sulaiman's,
made on Monday, 8 Rajab--no year is stated--and that the owner is Encik Muhammad bin Tuan Haji Abdulfatah of Malaka. The postscript states that the additional paragraphs including the word-list was accomplished on 12 Rajab--again no year
indicated--and that the owner is the same man. The scribe was probably not Muhammad bin Abdulfatah himself, but he had
the copy made for him; he would not have referred to himself as Encik Muhammad bin Tuan Haji Abdulfatah if he were the scribe, but simply as Muhammad bin Haji Abdulfatah. This man was a Kerani Polis--a Police scribe--at the time and owned quite
In the same year he copied in Malaka the MS Maxwell 30 R^A.S. Tambo Raja for E.E. Isemonger; the MS 21039 S.O.A.S. Tajas-Salatin, and MS 36561 S.O.A.S. Salasilah Minangkabau; Ricklefs and Voorhoeve, Indonesian Manuscripts, p. 146, p. 159 and p. 161.
52 a collection of Malay MSS.
In terms of language and spelling these two MSS are very similar as is obvious in the examples below (page-numbers are of F) :
P- 19 B : ... sampailah usianya anakanda ... D : ... sampailah usianyaanakahanda ... E : ... sampailah usianya anakda ... A : ... sampailah umur anakandah ... CFIJ : ... sampailah umur anakda ... P* 2 AFI : d-b-r-y-n for De Bruyn
C J : d-b-r-y
P- 2 I : Apabila besar, apa-apa diajarkannya? F : Apabila menyasar akan berapa-berapa
diaj arkannya?
A : Apabila menyukur? Dan bagaimana mengaj ar?
CJ : Apabila menyalah akan berapa diajarkannya? In other instances they differ :
Among others : R . A . S . (A.D. Maxwell 1829) 87 R . A . S . Maxwell 58 R . A .S . Maxwell 26 R.A.S . Maxwell 97 R . A . S . Maxwell 59 R . A . S . Maxwell 63 R . A . S . Maxwell 76 R . A . S . Maxwell 81 R . A . S . Maxwell 82 R.A.S . Maxwell 23 1877)
Idah al-albab li-murid an-nikah of 1245 A.H. Collection of Poems of A.D. 1847
Sejarah Malayu of 1266 A.H. (A.D. 1850) Hikayat Nabi Mi'raj of A.D. 1852
Hikayat Serangga Bayu of A.D. 1870 Shair Ma'rifat of A . D . 1870
Hikayat~Shahi Merdan of A.D. 1870 Hikayat Maharaja 'Ali of A.D. 1870 S hair Si Lindung Delima of A.D. 1870
Surat Al --anbiyd1 VoT. Ti of 1294 A.H. (A.D. He was also scribe of Bodleian MS Malay C5 Sejarah Kedah, which he wrote in A.D. 1876 in Kampung Sungai K a l a n g , Singapura.
p. 3 ABDE : Dan lalulah sahayapun bermohon pulang ke rumah
F : Dan lalu sahaya bermohon I : Dan lalulah sahaya bermohon
C : Dan adalah lalu sahaya bermohon pulang ke rumah
J : Dan adalah lalu sahaya bermohon di rumah 53
p. 75 C : Tawanan yaitu seperti orang negeri yang alah atau perahu yang rusak yang
dapat pada orang-orang atau lari
J : Tawanan yaitu seperti orang-orang negeri yang alah atau perahu yang rusak yang dapat pada orang-orang itulah
p. 74 C : dan enam kupang berat obatnya seemas; demikianlah adanya
J : ... dan enam kupang berat obatnya seemas; demikianlah adanya. W a 'llah a^lam.
They must have been derived from a single source. This common source, according to the colophons of C and J, was a MS which belonged to Datuk Kapitan Sulaiman. The text is more comprehensive than that of A, which also claims to have been derived from Datuk Sulaiman's. It is also more comprehensive than BCD, as apart from additional paragraphs on various
subjects, it contains a list of unusual words.
53
This example and the next one are taken from the additional paragraphs. Page numbers are of C.
There is another peculiar feature which needs further investigation : the Kapitan Melayu whom Governor De Bruyn
ordered to make a record of Malay court customs refers to himself in C and J as "sahaya, Datuk Kapitan Mahbub" and not as in I as "Datuk Zainuddin". I have not been successful in gaining
information on the names Zainuddin and Mahbub, whether they are names of the same person and how the name Mahbub suddenly
occurred in variants supposed to be copies (of a copy) of 54
Kapitan Sulaiman's. Voorhoeve suggested that these two names quite probably belong to one person whose full name and
title was Datuk Kapitan Mahbub Zainuddin or rather Datuk
Kapitan Zainuddin Mahbub, at the time commonly known as Datuk Zainuddin. This idea is not too far-fetched; Syeikh Nuruddin Mchammad Ibn Ali Hamid ar-Raniri is commonly referred to as
55 Nuruddin.
From the above analysis it seems that someone copied Kapitan Sulaiman's MS and upon inquiry was told that "sahaya" in the exordium was Kapitan Mahbub (Zainuddin). At a later date he combined copying this variant and DBE's common source; then added a glossary to his work. This became the source of C J .
54
Correspondence, December 1978. 55
P. Voorhoeve, "Van en Over Nuruddin ar-Raniri", BKI, 1951, p. 356.
2.7 Conclusion
We may summarise our findings on the inter-relationship of the MSS, the origin of the text and the age of the MSS as follows :
1) In 1779 the Governor of Malaka, De Bruyn, ordered Kapitan Melayu Datuk Zainuddin Mahbub to make an account of Malay court customs. He had to see Mr. Gerci who would translate these notes into Dutch to be sent to Holland on request of the son of a Dutch notable.
Not being well-versed in Malay court ceremonial, he thought it wise to see a mosque official in Telangkira named
Abdulmuhit, whom he considered as a reliable source of information.
The Kapitan kept the Malay records on court ceremonial to which he added an exordium stating the origin of these notes, and referring to himself as "sahaya". This work will be
referred to as 0 (stands for Original).
2) Someone unnamed copied this work, changing the "sahaya" in the exordium explicitly into Kapitan Melayu Datuk Zainuddin, so as to acknowledge the writer of the original. This
copy, MS I, was completed on Sunday, 10 Dulhija at the time of forenoon prayers.
3) When Farquhar was Resident and Commandant of Malaka, he ordered someone unnamed to make him a copy of 0. This was completed on 7 July 1817 (MS F ) .
4) Of MS F there is a copy in the library of the University of Leiden (MS G ) .
5) When Datuk Sulaiman took the office of Kapitan Melayu, he inherited these notes of Zainuddin (0=S). On 19 November 1819 someone unnamed copied the notes now in Sulaiman's hands ((MS #), and Abdullah in turn made a copy of this which he finished in Singapura on 28 June 1837 (MS A ) . 6) Someone else copied S, leaving out the exordium as he was
only interested in the ceremonies. To this he later added several paragraphs devoted to various subjects,some of which appear to lack an organic relationship either to each other or to the text (MS jzf) .
From this among others B, D, E emerged.
7) Apart from the lack of a postscript in B, B and E are almost identical. Yet following the discussion on the
relation between B and E on pp. 45-48, it is very likely that E has been derived from B.
8) As is mentioned in the postscript, the scribe of E was Encik Mamat Syamam. This copy was acquired by Hervey in
n r
1873 in Singapura.
9) D is a more recent copy of MS $zf . Muhammad Sa'idi bin Midin of Malaka completed this work in 1886.
Ricklefs and Voorhoeve, Indonesian Manuscripts, p. 165.
10) At the time of Sulaiman, someone else also copied S, clarifying in the exordium that "sahaya" was Datuk
Kapitan Mahbub as Sulaiman told him. At a later time he must have come across 0. Concluding that these two MSS must have emerged from a single source, he made a
comprehensive copy by adding to his copy the additional paragraphs found in 0. Moreover he added to it a number of Malay words (MS 0) .
11) Encik Muhammad bin Tuan Haji Abdulfatah from Malaka had a copy made of 0. The main text, the part on court
ceremonial, was finished on Monday, 8 Rajab--no year stated--and the whole work was completed four days later at nine o'clock (MS J ) . This MS came in the possession of W .E . Maxwell.
12) Abdulrahman bin Mustafa, also from Malaka, made his copy of 0, finishing the main text on 16 May 1873.
The postscript says that he completed the whole text on Thursday, 1 Rabiulakhir probably of the same year. This copy was later bought by L.E. Isemonger (MS C ) .
The following stemma shows the inter-relationship of the MSS of the Adat Raja-raja Melayu consulted.
The stemma showing the inter-relationship of the MSS :