The Sadjarah Malajoe — Malay Sejarah Melayu, English Malay Annals — is the principal Malay chronicle of the Malacca Sultanate and its Johorese successor, traditionally ascribed to the bendahara of Johor, and the principal Malay-language source for the early history of Sumatra’s east coast — including the Sjahroe’n Noewi episode of Awi Ditjoe’s capture of the radja of Samudra, the rivalry of Tandjoengpoera-Aroe and Pasej-Samudra, and the Atjehnese conquest of Aroe of 1539. It is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, pervaded by bedekte taal — the veiled-language register that hides the older Hindu-Buddhist geography of the Atjehnese sphere beneath the surface of the chronicle.
The Sjahroe’n Noewi episode
In chapter VIII of the Sadjarah Malajoe — the episode on which De Roo de la Faille’s chapter Over Sjahroe’n Noewi chiefly draws — the great kingdom of Sjahroe’n Noewi sends its hoeloebalang Awi Ditjoe (with 4,000 fighters in a hundred vessels) to capture the radja of Samudra. The episode — Awi Ditjoe’s ruse of the chests, the capture, the “tending chickens” humiliation, and the recovery of the sultan by Sidi Ali Ghiyat oed’dir — is, in De Roo de la Faille’s reading, the bedekte taal record of the long Tandjoengpoera-Aroe–Pasej rivalry.
The Siam connection
In chapter XII, the Sadjarah Malajoe records that “of old Sjahroe’n Noewi was the name of the negeri Siam, to which all the radjas below the wind were tributary” — a notice that De Roo de la Faille reads as confirmation of the Siamese overlordship of the Tandjoengpoera-Aroe complex in the fourteenth century. The padoeka Boeboennja of the chronicle — “his foot-soled of Boeboen” — De Roo de la Faille identifies with the kampong Boeboen of Anderson’s 1825 mission, at the river-mouth of Tandjoengpoera in the bay of Aroe.
Other Aceh-relevant material
The Sadjarah Malajoe also records the rank of Aroe on a level with Pasej and Malacca — a “realm that stretched from Tamijang to Siak” — and its reduction to “poverty and piracy” after the Atjehnese conquest. It is the principal Malay source for the Putri Hijau legend, the Djawaka tradition, and the bunga mas tribute to Siam.
Significance
For AcehWiki, the Sadjarah Malajoe is the principal Malay chronicle source for the early history of Sumatra’s east coast — the source on which De Roo de la Faille draws for the Sjahroe’n Noewi episode, the Aroe-Pasej-Malacca triangle, and the bedekte taal reading of the chronicle register. Its recognition as a bedekte taal text, rather than a plain ethnographic record, is the methodological precondition for any reading of the chronicle geography of Atjeh and the east-coast Sumatran polities.
Account from Over Maleise Literatuur (1947) — Sadjarah Malajoe
In Hooykaas’s survey of Malay literature, the Sadjarah Malajoe is “het belangrijkste van deze gehele categorie en een der kostelijkste werken van de Maleise letteren” (the most important of this whole category and one of the most precious works of Malay literature). Hooykaas devotes the entire first appendix of his survey — some ninety pages — to a running Toelichting tot de Sadjarah Malajoe (Commentary on the Sadjarah Malajoe), in which he gives a chapter-by-chapter annotation, an Inhoudsopgave (Contents Overview), and a genealogy of “De Vorsten van Malakka en Djohor” (The Rulers of Malacca and Johor).
Author and Date
The author of the Sadjarah Malajoe, in Hooykaas’s reading, is the Bendahara — “de hoogste ambtenaar en het best op de hoogte met politiek en hof” (the highest official and the best informed about politics and court). The work was commissioned by Radja ‘Abdoellāh, the younger brother of the reigning Sultan Alā’uddīn Ri’āyat Shāh III, on the Mawlid festival of Sunday 13 Rabīʿ I 1021 AH — that is, 13 May 1612 — at Batoe Sawar. The completed work — 34 stories — was finished after the Bendahara’s return from Atjeh in 1614, with later stories (35-38) added to cover the 1615 Atjehnese attack on Batoe Sawar.
The Atjehnese Interruption
The composition of the Sadjarah Malajoe was repeatedly interrupted by the 1613 Atjehnese attack on Batoe Sawar: “Het schrijven heeft niet ongestoord zijn gang kunnen gaan; een Atjehse vloot verscheen in 1613 onverwachts, die zich meester wist te maken van niemand minder dan de vorst ‘Alā’ oed-Din Ri’āyat Sjāh III, Radja ‘Abdoellāh en de meeste rijksgroten, waaronder de Bēndahara” (The writing was not able to proceed undisturbed; an Atjehnese fleet appeared unexpectedly in 1613, which managed to seize no less than the Sultan Alā’uddīn Ri’āyat Shāh III, Radja ‘Abdoellah, and most of the great men of the realm, including the Bendahara). The captives were taken to Atjeh, where the Bendahara would — in Hooykaas’s reading — have become acquainted with the Tādj us-Salāṭīn of 1607, the Atjehnese “mirror for princes” that served as the model for the Bendahara’s own “Geslachtslijst der Soeltanen” (Genealogy of the Sultans).
The Diplomatic Silence
The Sadjarah Malajoe’s account of the 1615 catastrophe is, in Hooykaas’s reading, “diplomatiek” (diplomatic) — the work stops just before the 1615 attack, “bejammerd alleen in gekuiste termen, dat de Sultan zo veranderziek was om weer hogerop een nieuwe kota te gaan stichten” (lamenting only in chastened terms that the Sultan was so changeable as to go and found a new kota higher up). Only the Inleiding (Introduction) makes a “zwakke toespeling” (weak allusion) to the catastrophe, by speaking of the “Marhoem jang mangkat di Atjeh, Soeltan Alaoedin Ritajat Sjah” (the late [sultan] who died in Atjeh, Sultan Alā’uddīn Ri’āyat Shāh) — that is, the Sultan who had been carried off to Atjeh in 1613 and died there.
The Tjampa-Atjeh Connection
Hooykaas’s Toelichting also notes the connection between Atjeh and Tjampa recorded in the Sadjarah Malajoe: in chapter XXI, “van de twee koningszoons vlucht één naar Atjeh en grondvest daar het vorstelijk geslacht” (of the two royal sons, one flees to Atjeh and founds the royal dynasty there). Hooykaas observes: “Tjams en Atjehs vertonen sterke samenhang” (Cham and Atjehnese show strong connection) — a connection also noted in the Hikajat Sultan Atjeh Marhoem, which Hooykaas describes as “niet Maleis-sprekend gebied, maar is in taal verwant met het Achter-Indische Tjampa” (not Malay-speaking territory, but is in language related to the mainland-Indian Cham).
Source: Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947), chapter 11 (“Geschiedschrijving in het Maleis”), pp. 96-98; Toelichting tot de Sadjarah Malajoe, pp. 201-276.
See Also
- Sjahroe’n Noewi
- Awi Ditjoe
- Sidi Ali Ghiyat oed’dir
- Tandjoengpoera
- Aroe
- Pasej-Samodra
- Atjeh-Aroe War (1539)
- Puteri Idjo
- Sadjarah Banten
- Babad Tanah Djawi
- Bedekte taal
- Wangsallan
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
- Bendahara Sri Lanang
- Batoe Sawar
- Tādj oes-Salatina
- Hikajat Sultan Atjeh Marhoem
- Over Maleise Literatuur (1947)
- 1612
- 1615
- Dr. C. Hooykaas
Sources
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Over Sjahroe’n Noewi”, pp. 24-31. Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947).