Co-opting the Rival Ca(n)non the Turkish Episode of Hikayat Hang Tuah
Abstract
Among specimens of traditional Malay literary polemics, or rather, "wars of books", we find an interesting group of texts of the mid or late seventeenth century, which narrate how an Acehnese embassy was dispatched to Ottoman Turkey to obtain "large cannons". Remarkably, alongside literary pieces composed in Aceh, this group also includes the Turkish episode of Hikayat Hang Tuah (HHT), the epic created in Johor which describes the epoch of the Malaccan sultanate. However, HHT is a double-layered work in which Malacca not infrequently stands for Johor, whose relations with Aceh were more often than not hostile. HHT's author covertly polemicizes against Acehnese literary works, striving to prove that Malacca (read Johor) allegedly established diplomatic relations with the Ottomans earlier than Aceh. HHT also attempts to show that its mission to Istanbul was much more successful than Aceh's and that it completed the recognition of Malacca/Johor across the entire political space from China to Turkey. Yet, the political and literary agendas of HHT's author differ radically. In the former, the forces of repulsion hold sway, which leads HHT to depict the triumph of Johor in its rivalry with Aceh. In the latter, on the contrary, the forces of attraction dominate. For this reason the Turkish episode in HHT borrows the plot of Acehnese works, constructs its portrayals of Istanbul from a mosaic of Acehnese sources, and resorts to the grand Acehnese literary style of the "gold-and-jewel" variety.
Keywords: traditional Malay literature, Hikayat Hang Tuah, Malacca, Johor, Aceh, Turkey, Istanbul, the Ottomans, Acehnese embassy, political agenda, palimpsest, war of books, gold-and-jewel style
References
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Braginsky, V., "Russians, Circassians and … the Discovery of Laser Weapons: The Story of the War between Sultan Istanbul and the Russian Czar Alexander" in Indonesia Circle 70: 193-217, 1996.
Braginsky, V., 2004. The Heritage of Traditional Malay Literature; An Historical Survey of Genres, Writings and Literary Views. Leiden: KITLV Press.
Braginsky, V., "Structure, Date and Sources of Hikayat Aceh Revisited: The Problem of Mughal-Malay Literary Ties" in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 162-4: 441-67, 2006.
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Casale, G., 2005, '"His Majesty's Servant Lutfi': The Career of a Previously Unknown Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Envoy to Sumatra Based on an Account of His Travels from the Topkapi Palace Archives" in Turcica 37:43-81, 2005.
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Cowan, H.K.J., 1937. De Hikajat Malem Dagang. Atjehsh Heldendicht, Text en Toelichting. Leiden: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde.
Drewes, G.W.J. (ed., transl.), 1979. Hikayat Potjut Muhamat: An Acehnese Epic. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. (KITLV. Bibliotheca Indonesica 19.)
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Harun, R. & T.R. Ghani, 1985. Adat Aceh. Jakarta: Proyek Penerbitan Buku Sastra Indonesia dan Daerah.
Harun Mat Piah, Ismail Hamid, Siti Hawa Salleh, Abu Hassan Sham, Abdul Rahman Kaeh & Jamilah Haji Ahmad, 2002. Traditional Malay Literature. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Hikajat Hang Toeah, 1948. Djil. II. Djakarta: Balai Poestaka
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Imran, Teuku Abdullah, 1988. Hikayat Meukuta Alam. Suntingan, Teks dan Terjemahan Beserta Telaah Struktur dan Resepsi. Jakarta: Intermasa. (ILDEP Series.)
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Iskandar 1966. Bustanu's Salatin. Bab II. Fasal 13. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
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Iskandar, Teuku, 1995. Kesusasteraan Klasik Melayu Sepanjang Abad. Brunei: Jabatan Kesusasteraan Melayu, Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
Iskandar, Teuku (ed.), 2001. Hikayat Aceh. Ketua Editor Hassan Ahmad. Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan. (Projek Karya Agung.)
Jelani Harun (ed.), 2004. Bustan al-Salatin (Bab Pertama dan Kedua) Karangan Nuruddin ar-Raniri (Siri Warisan Sastera Klasik). Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Jelani Harun, 2008. Bustan al-Salatin Bab Ketiga; Kisah Raja-Raja Yang Adil. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Kassim Ahmad (ed.), 1968. Hikayat Hang Tuah. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Koster, G.L., 2007, "Enemies or Relatives: Images of the Portuguese in Hikayat Hang Tuah". V. Braginsky and B. Murtagh (eds.). The Portrayal of Foreignersin Indonesian and Malay Literatures: Essays of the Ethnic 'Other'. Lewiston,Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, p. 207-62.
Kratz, E.-U., 1974. "Bustan-Copy and the Johor Histories. Paper". The Sixth International Conference on Asian History, International Association of Historians of Asia (I.A.H.A). Yogyakarta, 26-30 August.
Lewis, B., 1968. Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Lombard, D., 1967. Le Sultanat d'Atjeh au Temps d'Iskandar Muda 1607-1636. Paris: L'École Française d'Extrême Orient.
Lybyer, A.H., 1913. The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificient. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Harvard Historical Studies 18).
Maier, H., 2004. We are Playing Relatives: A Survey of Malay Writing. Leiden: KITLV Press. (KITLV. Verhandelingen 215.)
Mayes, S., 1956. An Organ for the Sultan. London: Putnam.
Mordtmann, J.H., 1971."Ibrahim Khan" in The encyclopaedia of Islam. New edition, vol. III. Leiden: Brill, London: Luzac, p. 307.
Mulyadi, S.W.R. & V.I. Braginsky (eds.), 2007. Hikayat Inderaputera. Ketua Editor Hassan Ahmad. Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan. (Projek Karya Agung.)
Necipoğlu, G., 1997, "The Suburban Landscape of Sixteenth-Century Istanbul as a Mirror of Classical Ottoman Garden Culture" in A. Petruccioli (ed.), Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design. Leiden: Brill, pp. 32-71.
Parnickel, B.B., 1962, "Johorskaya Redaktsiya 'Povesti o Hang Tuahe"' (The Johor Recension of the "Tale of Hang Tuah") in Narody Azii i Afriki (Peoples of Asia and Africa) 1: 147-55.
Roorda van Eysinga (ed.), pp., 1827. Tadj oes-Salatin. De Kroon Aller Koningen. Batavia: Lands Drukkerij.
Sabil, T. Mohamad (transl.), 1932. Hikajat Soeltan Atjeh Marhum (Soeltan Iskandar Moeda). Batavia: Balai Poestaka.
Sher Banu A.L. Khan, "Ties that Unbind; the Abortive Aceh-VOC Alliance for the Conquest of Malacca 1640-1641" in Indonesia and the Malay World 38-111, July: 303-21, 2010.
Situmorang, T.D., & A. Teeuw (eds), 1958. Sedjarah Melaju Menurut Terbitan Abdullah. Djakarta: Djambatan.
Snouck Hurgronje, C. 1906. The Achehnese. Translated by A.W.S. O'Sullivan, vol. I-II. Leiden: Brill.
Sutrisno, Sulastin, 1983. Hikayat Hang Tuah: Analisa Struktur dan Fungsi. Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press.
Temple, R.C. (ed.), 1907. The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia vol. I. Travels in Europe 1608-1628. Cambridge: The University Press. (The Hakluyt Society, Second series 17.)
Tiele, P.A., "De Europeërs in den Maleischen Archipel" in Bijdragen tot de Taal, Land- en Volkenkunde 28:1, pp. 408-82, 1880.
Wilkinson, R.J., 1932. A Malay-English Dictionary (Romanised), vol. I-II. Mytilene: Salavopoulos and Kinderlis.
Winstedt, R.O., 1938, "The Malay Annals or Sejarah Melayu" in Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 16:3, pp. 1-225.
Andaya, L., 1978. The Kingdom of Johor 1641-1728. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
Austin, M. (introd., transl.), 2001. Domenico's Istanbul. Ed. by G. Lewis. Wiltshire: Gibb Memorial Trust.
Boxer, C.R., 1964, "The Achinese Attack on Malacca in 1629, as Described in Contemporary Portuguese Sources". J. Bastin dan R. Roolvink (eds.), Malayan and Indonesian Studies. Essays Presented to Sir Richard Winstedt on his 85th Birthday. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 105-121.
Braginsky, V., "Hikayat Hang Tuah, Malay Epic and Muslim Mirror; Some Considerations on its Date, Meaning and Structure" in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 146-4: 399-412, 1990.
Braginsky, V., "Russians, Circassians and … the Discovery of Laser Weapons: The Story of the War between Sultan Istanbul and the Russian Czar Alexander" in Indonesia Circle 70: 193-217, 1996.
Braginsky, V., 2004. The Heritage of Traditional Malay Literature; An Historical Survey of Genres, Writings and Literary Views. Leiden: KITLV Press.
Braginsky, V., "Structure, Date and Sources of Hikayat Aceh Revisited: The Problem of Mughal-Malay Literary Ties" in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 162-4: 441-67, 2006.
Braginsky, V., 2007. "Pengenalan II. Hikayat Inderaputera: Dongeng Indah dan Perbendaharaan Rahsia". S.W.R., Mulyadi & V.I. Braginsky (eds.), 2007. Hikayat Inderaputera. Ketua Editor Hassan Ahmad. Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan. (Projek Karya Agung.)
Braginsky, V., "Light, Sound and Fragrance: the Impact of Sufism on the Aesthetics of Traditional Malay Literature" in Malay literature 24:1, pp. 51-69, 2011.
Casale, G., 2005, '"His Majesty's Servant Lutfi': The Career of a Previously Unknown Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Envoy to Sumatra Based on an Account of His Travels from the Topkapi Palace Archives" in Turcica 37:43-81, 2005.
Chambert-Loir, H., "L'Espace Politique dans la Hikayat Hang Tuah" in R. Ptak (ed.). South China and Maritime Asia Vol. 1, pp. 41-61, 1994. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Cowan, H.K.J., 1937. De Hikajat Malem Dagang. Atjehsh Heldendicht, Text en Toelichting. Leiden: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde.
Drewes, G.W.J. (ed., transl.), 1979. Hikayat Potjut Muhamat: An Acehnese Epic. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. (KITLV. Bibliotheca Indonesica 19.)
Gallop, A.T., 2011. "Gold, Silver and Lapis Lazuli; Royal Letters from Aceh in the Seventeenth Century". R.M. Feener, P. Daly and A. Reid (eds.). Mapping the Acehnese Past. Leiden: KITLV Press. (KITLV. Verhandelingen 268.)
Hammer, R.J. von (transl., introd.), 1834. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa in the Seventeenth Century by Evliya Efendi, vol. I. (pt. 1). London: Parbury, Allen and Co.
Hammer, R.J. von (transl., introd.), 1846. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa in the Seventeenth Century by Evliya Efendi. Vol. I, pt. 2. London: Parbury, Allen and Co.
Harun, R. & T.R. Ghani, 1985. Adat Aceh. Jakarta: Proyek Penerbitan Buku Sastra Indonesia dan Daerah.
Harun Mat Piah, Ismail Hamid, Siti Hawa Salleh, Abu Hassan Sham, Abdul Rahman Kaeh & Jamilah Haji Ahmad, 2002. Traditional Malay Literature. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Hikajat Hang Toeah, 1948. Djil. II. Djakarta: Balai Poestaka
Imber, C., 2009. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. 2nd edition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Imran, Teuku Abdullah, 1988. Hikayat Meukuta Alam. Suntingan, Teks dan Terjemahan Beserta Telaah Struktur dan Resepsi. Jakarta: Intermasa. (ILDEP Series.)
Inalcik, H., 1978, "Istanbul". The encyclopaedia of Islam. New edition. Vol. IV. Leiden: Brill, pp. 224-48.
Iskandar 1966. Bustanu's Salatin. Bab II. Fasal 13. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Iskandar, Teuku, "Some Historical Sources Used by the Author of Hikayat Hang Tuah" in Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 38:2, pp. 15-47, 1970.
Iskandar, Teuku, 1995. Kesusasteraan Klasik Melayu Sepanjang Abad. Brunei: Jabatan Kesusasteraan Melayu, Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
Iskandar, Teuku (ed.), 2001. Hikayat Aceh. Ketua Editor Hassan Ahmad. Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan. (Projek Karya Agung.)
Jelani Harun (ed.), 2004. Bustan al-Salatin (Bab Pertama dan Kedua) Karangan Nuruddin ar-Raniri (Siri Warisan Sastera Klasik). Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Jelani Harun, 2008. Bustan al-Salatin Bab Ketiga; Kisah Raja-Raja Yang Adil. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Kassim Ahmad (ed.), 1968. Hikayat Hang Tuah. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Koster, G.L., 2007, "Enemies or Relatives: Images of the Portuguese in Hikayat Hang Tuah". V. Braginsky and B. Murtagh (eds.). The Portrayal of Foreignersin Indonesian and Malay Literatures: Essays of the Ethnic 'Other'. Lewiston,Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, p. 207-62.
Kratz, E.-U., 1974. "Bustan-Copy and the Johor Histories. Paper". The Sixth International Conference on Asian History, International Association of Historians of Asia (I.A.H.A). Yogyakarta, 26-30 August.
Lewis, B., 1968. Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Lombard, D., 1967. Le Sultanat d'Atjeh au Temps d'Iskandar Muda 1607-1636. Paris: L'École Française d'Extrême Orient.
Lybyer, A.H., 1913. The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificient. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Harvard Historical Studies 18).
Maier, H., 2004. We are Playing Relatives: A Survey of Malay Writing. Leiden: KITLV Press. (KITLV. Verhandelingen 215.)
Mayes, S., 1956. An Organ for the Sultan. London: Putnam.
Mordtmann, J.H., 1971."Ibrahim Khan" in The encyclopaedia of Islam. New edition, vol. III. Leiden: Brill, London: Luzac, p. 307.
Mulyadi, S.W.R. & V.I. Braginsky (eds.), 2007. Hikayat Inderaputera. Ketua Editor Hassan Ahmad. Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan. (Projek Karya Agung.)
Necipoğlu, G., 1997, "The Suburban Landscape of Sixteenth-Century Istanbul as a Mirror of Classical Ottoman Garden Culture" in A. Petruccioli (ed.), Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design. Leiden: Brill, pp. 32-71.
Parnickel, B.B., 1962, "Johorskaya Redaktsiya 'Povesti o Hang Tuahe"' (The Johor Recension of the "Tale of Hang Tuah") in Narody Azii i Afriki (Peoples of Asia and Africa) 1: 147-55.
Roorda van Eysinga (ed.), pp., 1827. Tadj oes-Salatin. De Kroon Aller Koningen. Batavia: Lands Drukkerij.
Sabil, T. Mohamad (transl.), 1932. Hikajat Soeltan Atjeh Marhum (Soeltan Iskandar Moeda). Batavia: Balai Poestaka.
Sher Banu A.L. Khan, "Ties that Unbind; the Abortive Aceh-VOC Alliance for the Conquest of Malacca 1640-1641" in Indonesia and the Malay World 38-111, July: 303-21, 2010.
Situmorang, T.D., & A. Teeuw (eds), 1958. Sedjarah Melaju Menurut Terbitan Abdullah. Djakarta: Djambatan.
Snouck Hurgronje, C. 1906. The Achehnese. Translated by A.W.S. O'Sullivan, vol. I-II. Leiden: Brill.
Sutrisno, Sulastin, 1983. Hikayat Hang Tuah: Analisa Struktur dan Fungsi. Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press.
Temple, R.C. (ed.), 1907. The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia vol. I. Travels in Europe 1608-1628. Cambridge: The University Press. (The Hakluyt Society, Second series 17.)
Tiele, P.A., "De Europeërs in den Maleischen Archipel" in Bijdragen tot de Taal, Land- en Volkenkunde 28:1, pp. 408-82, 1880.
Wilkinson, R.J., 1932. A Malay-English Dictionary (Romanised), vol. I-II. Mytilene: Salavopoulos and Kinderlis.
Winstedt, R.O., 1938, "The Malay Annals or Sejarah Melayu" in Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 16:3, pp. 1-225.
Published
2012-12-08
How to Cite
BRAGINSKY, Vladimir.
Co-opting the Rival Ca(n)non the Turkish Episode of Hikayat Hang Tuah.
Malay Literature, [S.l.], v. 25, n. 2, p. 229-260, dec. 2012.
ISSN 2682-8030.
Available at: <https://jurnal.dbp.my/index.php/MalayLiterature/article/view/5348>. Date accessed: 24 dec. 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.37052/ml.25(2)no5.
Section
Archive
