What's In A Name? Malay Seals As Onomastic Sources
(Apa Ada pada Nama? Cap Mohor Melayu sebagai Sumber Onomastik)
Abstract
Most studies of Malay names to date have been based on ethnographic and literary sources. This article presents a new dataset for Malay onomastics, namely Islamic seals from Southeast Asia, inscribed in Arabic script and dating from the late 16th to early 20th century, over half of which bear a personal name. A high proportion of these seals are of sovereigns, and Malay seals are thus an exceptionally valuable primary source for regnal names. Yet while in Malay texts and chronicles the use of personal names is generally avoided in favour of kinship terms, relational names, titles and descriptive epithets, Malay seals are almost invariably inscribed with standard Arabic-Islamic personal names. This feature should be interpreted in the context of the image of self which the sealholder wished to project to the outside world, in which his or her Islamic identity, and membership of the universal ummah, was of prime importance.
Keywords: Malay names, onomastic, Malay seals, regnal names, Islamic names
References
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Sweeney, P. L. Amin. (1968). Silsilah Raja-raja Berunai. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 41 (2), 1-82.
Talens, Johan. (1993). Ritual power: the installation of a king in Banten, West Java, in 1691. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 149 (2), 333-55.
Wilkinson, R. J. (1925). Papers on Malay subjects. Life and customs. Part I. The incidents of Malay life. Kuala Lumpur: Government of the F.M.S.
Abu Hanifah (ed.). (1992). Sirata l-mustaqim. [By Nuruddin al-Raniri]. Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
Ahmat Adam. (2016). Antara sejarah dan mitos: Sejarah Melayu dan Hang Tuah dalam historiografi Malaysia. Petaling Jaya: SIRD.
Alfian, T. Ibrahim. (1986). Mata uang emas kerajaan-kerajaan di Aceh. [Banda Aceh]: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. (Seri penerbitan Museum Negeri Aceh; 16).
Colombijn, F. (1989). Foreign influence on the state of Banten, 1596-1682. Indonesia Circle, November, 50, 19-30.
EI2 'Ism'. (1960- Ism. Encyclopaedia of Islam, [Ed.]; v. 4, pp. 179-82. (2nd ed.) Leiden: Brill.
Feener, R. Michael and Laffan, Michael F. (2005). Sufi scents across the Indian Oceean: Yemeni hagiography and the earliest history of Southeast Asian Islam. Archipel, 70:185-208.
Finestone, Jeffrey & Shaharil Talib. (2002). The royal families of South-East Asia. Petaling Jaya: Shahidera.
Gallop, Annabel Teh. (2002). Malay seal inscriptions: a study in Islamic epigraphy from Southeast Asia. [Ph.D. thesis]. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Gallop, Annabel Teh . (2015). Royal Minangkabau seals: disseminating authority in Malay borderlands. Indonesia and the Malay world, 43 (126), 270-297.
Gallop, Annabel Teh . (2018). Malay seals from the Islamic world of Southeast Asia: content, form, context, catalogue. Singapore: NUS Press in association with the British Library (forthcoming).
Gallop, Annabel Teh and Arps, Bernard. (1991). Golden letters: writing traditions of Indonesia. Surat emas: budaya tulis di Indonesia. London: British Library.
Gallop, Annabel Teh and Porter, Venetia. (2012). Lasting impressions: seals from the Islamic world. Annabel Teh Gallop and Venetia Porter, with contributions from Heba Nayel Barakat … [et al]. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, in association with the British Library and the British Museum.
Hooker, Virginia Matheson (ed.). (1998). Tuhfat al-nafis. Karangan Raja Ali Haji, dikaji dan diperkenalkan oleh Virginia Matheson Hooker. Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan & Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Ibrahim bin Datuk Muda. (1924). Bahawa inilah kitab kumpulan nama Melayu, iaitu menghimpunkan segala nama dan gelaran, timang-timangan dan rawah-rawahan yang terpakai pada orang-orang Melayu di sebelah sini. Singapore: Education Dept., S.S. & F.M.S.
Linehan, W. (1973). A history of Pahang. (Previously published as Vol.14, Pt.2, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, May 1936.) [Facsimile reprint of the 1936 ed.] Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (MBRAS Reprints; 2).
Loeb, Edwin M. (1990). Sumatra: its history and people. With an additional chapter by Robert Heine-Geldern. [Facsimile reprint of the 1935 ed.] Singapore: Oxford University Press.
Mak, Lau-fong. (2004). Naming and collective memory in the Malay Muslim world. Taiwan journal of anthropology, 2 (2), 81-114.
Marsden, William. (1986). The history of Sumatra. With an introduction by John Bastin. (3rd ed.) [Facsimile reprint of the 1811 ed.] Singapore: Oxford University Press.
Matheson, Virginia and Andaya, Barbara Watson (eds.). (1982). The Precious Gift (Tuhfat al-Nafis). Raja Ali Haji ibn Ahmad. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
Ménage, V. L. (1965). Seven Ottoman documents from the reign of Mehemmed II. Documents from Islamic chanceries, ed. S.M. Stern; pp. 81-118. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer.
Mohd. Zulkifli Hj. Abdul Aziz. (1992). Gelaran orang Melayu Perak. Kuala Lumpur: Persatuan Muzium Malaysia.
Mukhtar bin Abdul Aziz Syihabuddin. (1988). Himpunan nama-nama pilihan Islam: Mengandungi lebih 1,600 nama pilihan. Kuala Lumpur: Syarikat Binyahya.
Mulyadi, S. W. R. and Salahuddin, H. S. Maryam R. (1990). Katalogus naskah Melayu Bima. [Bima]: Yayasan Museum Kebudayaan 'Samparaja' Bima.
Philips, C. H. (ed.). (1951). Handbook of Oriental history. London: Royal Historical Society. (Guides and handbooks; no.6).
Rabino di Borgomale, H. L. (1973). Coins, medals and seals of the Shahs of Iran, 1500-1941. [Facsimile reprint of the 1945 ed.] Dallas: International Numismatic Press.
Ricklefs, M. C. (1998). Islamising Java: the long shadow of Sultan Agung. Archipel, 56, 469-82.
Roff, William R. (1973). Bibliography of Malay and Arabic periodicals published in the Straits Settlements and Peninsular Malay states 1876-1941. London: Oxford University Press.
Roff, William R. (2007). Onomastics, and taxonomies of belonging in the Malay Muslim world. Journal of Islamic Studies, 18 (3), 386-405.
Schimkoreit, Renate. (1982). Regesten publizierter safawidischer Herrscherurkunden: Erlasse und Staatsschreiben der frühen Neuzeit Irans. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen; Band 68).
Schimmel, Annemarie. (1989). Islamic names. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Sweeney, P. L. Amin. (1968). Silsilah Raja-raja Berunai. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 41 (2), 1-82.
Talens, Johan. (1993). Ritual power: the installation of a king in Banten, West Java, in 1691. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 149 (2), 333-55.
Wilkinson, R. J. (1925). Papers on Malay subjects. Life and customs. Part I. The incidents of Malay life. Kuala Lumpur: Government of the F.M.S.
Published
2018-06-01
How to Cite
GALLOP, Annabel Teh.
What's In A Name? Malay Seals As Onomastic Sources.
Malay Literature, [S.l.], v. 31, n. 1, p. 1-28, june 2018.
ISSN 2682-8030.
Available at: <https://jurnal.dbp.my/index.php/MalayLiterature/article/view/3506>. Date accessed: 16 dec. 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.37052/ml.31(1)no1.
Section
Articles
