G. W. J. Drewes — Professor Gerardus Willebrordus Joannes Drewes — was a Dutch orientalist and Malay scholar at Leiden, whose 1955 article in BKI 111 — cited by Voorhoeve in the introduction to his 1955 edition of Raniri’s two Malay treatises — threw new light on the heredity and origin of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī. Drewes is also acknowledged by Voorhoeve for the identification of the term Śrāwaka — used by Raniri in the *Tibjān* for one of the pre-Muslim religions — as Sanskrit for Buddhist.
The identification of Raniri’s father-city
Voorhoeve’s introduction to the 1955 edition records that Drewes’s 1955 article in BKI 111 “recently threw new light on the heredity of the author; there can now be no doubt that his father-city was Ranir near Surat in Gujarat.” This identification — which placed Raniri’s family origin at the town of Ranir near Surat in Gujarat, rather than at the various other places that had been proposed — was the precondition for the modern understanding of Raniri’s Gujarati-Ḥadramī background, and for the account of his family, his spiritual genealogy, and his connection with the Rifāʿiyya that Voorhoeve gives in the introduction to his edition.
The identification of Śrāwaka
In the apparatus criticus to the *Tibjān* (ad p. 27 r. 1), Voorhoeve records Drewes’s identification of the term Śrāwaka — used by Raniri for one of the pre-Muslim religions — as Sanskrit for Buddhist. The term, transmitted through the Arabic Srāwaka and the Malay Srāwaka, is a Sanskrit word (śrāvaka, “hearer,” “disciple”) that in Buddhist usage designates the lay disciple of the Buddha. Its identification by Drewes is the principal clue to Raniri’s account of the religions of India in the Tibjān.
Significance
Drewes’s contributions to the study of Raniri — the identification of Ranir as Raniri’s father-city, and the identification of Śrāwaka as Sanskrit for Buddhist — are among the principal advances in the modern study of Raniri before the 1955 edition of Voorhoeve. The first established the Gujarati-Ḥadramī background of Raniri that is the basis of the modern understanding of his career; the second established the Indian substrate of his account of the pre-Muslim religions in the *Tibjān*.
See Also
Source
G. W. J. Drewes, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 111 (1955), cited by Voorhoeve for the identification of Ranir as Raniri’s father-city.
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §1 (“De auteur”), p. 5, note (1); and apparatus criticus ad p. 27 r. 1.
G. W. J. Drewes — Professor Gerardus Willebrordus Joannes Drewes — was a Dutch orientalist and Malay scholar at Leiden, whose 1955 article in BKI 111 — cited by Voorhoeve in the introduction to his 1955 edition of Raniri’s two Malay treatises — threw new light on the heredity and origin of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī. Drewes is also acknowledged by Voorhoeve for the identification of the term Śrāwaka — used by Raniri in the *Tibjān* for one of the pre-Muslim religions — as Sanskrit for Buddhist.
The identification of Raniri’s father-city
Voorhoeve’s introduction to the 1955 edition records that Drewes’s 1955 article in BKI 111 “recently threw new light on the heredity of the author; there can now be no doubt that his father-city was Ranir near Surat in Gujarat.” This identification — which placed Raniri’s family origin at the town of Ranir near Surat in Gujarat, rather than at the various other places that had been proposed — was the precondition for the modern understanding of Raniri’s Gujarati-Ḥadramī background, and for the account of his family, his spiritual genealogy, and his connection with the Rifāʿiyya that Voorhoeve gives in the introduction to his edition.
The identification of Śrāwaka
In the apparatus criticus to the *Tibjān* (ad p. 27 r. 1), Voorhoeve records Drewes’s identification of the term Śrāwaka — used by Raniri for one of the pre-Muslim religions — as Sanskrit for Buddhist. The term, transmitted through the Arabic Srāwaka and the Malay Srāwaka, is a Sanskrit word (śrāvaka, “hearer,” “disciple”) that in Buddhist usage designates the lay disciple of the Buddha. Its identification by Drewes is the principal clue to Raniri’s account of the religions of India in the Tibjān.
Significance
Drewes’s contributions to the study of Raniri — the identification of Ranir as Raniri’s father-city, and the identification of Śrāwaka as Sanskrit for Buddhist — are among the principal advances in the modern study of Raniri before the 1955 edition of Voorhoeve. The first established the Gujarati-Ḥadramī background of Raniri that is the basis of the modern understanding of his career; the second established the Indian substrate of his account of the pre-Muslim religions in the *Tibjān*.
See Also
Source
G. W. J. Drewes, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 111 (1955), cited by Voorhoeve for the identification of Ranir as Raniri’s father-city.
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §1 (“De auteur”), p. 5, note (1); and apparatus criticus ad p. 27 r. 1.