The year of the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pulo Ai — one of the islands of the Banda group — on Monday 3 Rabīʿ I 1023, that is, 14 April 1614. The eruption is recorded in a note on f. 1v of Leiden Cod. Or. 1255, a Moluccan manuscript of the *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* with interlinear Malay translation, written on paper bearing the watermark of Thann in Alsace (in use from 1612). This manuscript, which Voorhoeve identifies as Raniri’s source for the second part of his *Tibjān*, is one of the oldest witnesses to the diffusion of Malay religious prose in the Indonesian archipelago before Raniri’s arrival in Acheh.
Places
Events
Other
Account from Over Maleise Literatuur (1947) — 1614
In Hooykaas’s survey of Malay literature, the year 1614 is the year of the Bendahara’s return from Atjeh — the year in which the Bendahara of Johor, captured in the 1613 Atjehnese attack on Batoe Sawar and taken to Atjeh, was released and returned to Johor to complete the Sadjarah Malajoe.
The Bendahara’s Return from Atjeh
The Bendahara’s return from Atjeh in 1614 was part of the broader Atjehnese-Johor reconciliation that followed the 1613 attack. Radja ‘Abdoellāh — the younger brother of the late Sultan Alā’uddīn Ri’āyat Shāh III — had married a sister of Sultan Iskandar Muda in Atjeh, was pardoned, and was returned to Batoe Sawar as the new Sultan of Johor — a vassal of Atjeh. The Bendahara was returned with him.
The Completion of the Sadjarah Malajoe
After the Bendahara’s return in 1614, the new sultan “doet de Bēndahara weten dat hij prijs stelt op de voltooiing van zijn opdracht; deze krijgt het omvangrijk werk van 34 verhalen af” (lets the Bendahara know that he values the completion of his commission; the latter completes the extensive work of 34 stories). The Sadjarah Malajoe — 34 stories — was thus completed in 1614, after the Bendahara’s return from Atjeh, and reflects the experience of the 1613 captivity.
The Atjehnese Literary Influence
The Bendahara’s return from Atjeh in 1614 also marks the moment at which the Atjehnese literary influence — particularly the Tādj us-Salāṭīn of 1607 — entered the Malay chronicle tradition. The Bendahara’s “Geslachtslijst der Soeltanen” (Genealogy of the Sultans) — the working title of the Sadjarah Malajoe — was, in Hooykaas’s reading, modelled on the Tādj’s example. The 1614 completion of the Sadjarah Malajoe thus marks the moment at which the Atjehnese and Malay chronicle traditions converged.
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, Inleiding van de schrijver, pp. 203-205.
See Also
- Pulo Ai
- Ma’rifat al-madhahib
- Tibjan fi ma’rifat al-adyan
- Raniri
- P. Voorhoeve
- Acheh
- Bendahara Sri Lanang
- Sadjarah Malajoe
- Tādj oes-Salatina
- Sultan Iskandar Muda
- Batoe Sawar
- Over Maleise Literatuur (1947)
- Dr. C. Hooykaas
- 1612
- 1613
Sources
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. The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906. Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947).