AISYAH RAIS - Re-Memory: Nusantara Story (i)

Re-Memory: Nusantara Story

part 1 - Malay Manuscripts

2022

Exploring my identity as a Malay woman who has the opportunity to look into some of the early and rare manuscripts of the Malay world in the British Library, this project is based on the memory of my mother and female ancestors who were the storytellers of the family, passing down similar narratives to those present in the manuscripts.

In the second part of this work, I embody the women of the Malay world in the 18th-19th, enacting their mood and persona, honouring the memory of my female ancestors.

Hikayat Carang Kulina The Romance of Carang Kulina (18th - early 19th c.)

A Panji story, said to be translated from Javanese into Malay.

Purchased from John Crawfurd in 1842.

John Crawfurd (1783-1868) was a Scottish physician who joined the East India Company in 1803. In 1808 he arrived in Penang, where he began his studies of Malay, and in 1811 he accompanied Lord Minto and Thomas Stamford Raffles on the British invasion of Java, where he served as Resident of Yogyakarta until the British withdrawal in 1816. He later became the second Resident of Singapore from 1823 to 1826, and also led diplomatic missions to Siam, Indochina and Burma.

source: British Library, Add 12383

Malay manuscript scroll

Three metres long scroll of prayers and mystical drawings in Malay in Jawi script circa 19th century.

Contains magical symbols such as the pentagram and the sign of Fatima.

This manuscript was sent to Dr Russell Jones by Dr Jan Knappert in Holland, in 1995; it had been given to Knappert by Dr Peter Joosting from Voorburg, a colleague from Leiden University, from the collection of his father who had been an Orientalist and collector of Orientalia.

source: British Library, Or 16875

Collections of Malay manuscripts

Syair Jaran Tamasa The Lay of Jaran Tamasa (1806) (MSS Malay D.6, MSS Malay B.9)

A poem tells the love between Jaran Tamasa and Ken Lamlam Arsa, set at the court of Majapahit in Java.

Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah The story of Muhammad Hanafiah (1805) (MSS Malay D.5)

The story of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyyah – a son of the caliph ‘Alī by a captive from the tribe of the Banū Ḥanīfah, and half-brother to the Prophet’s grandsons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn – was composed in Persian by an anonymous author in the fourteenth century, and very soon after that translated into Malay, probably around the court of Pasai in north Sumatra.

Hikayat Chekel Waneng Pati The Romance of Chekel Waneng Pati (19th c.) Or 11365

Set around the Javanese kingdoms of Kuripan and Daha, the stories tell of Prince Panji’s search for his beloved, Princess Candra Kirana, and his many adventures.

Hikayat Isma Yatim The Story of Isma Yatim (19th c.) (MSS Malay C.4)

The story of a young writer who becomes a trusted advisor to the king.

Hikayat Mesa Taman Sira Panji Jayeng Kusuma The Story of Mesa Taman Sira Panji Jayeng Kusuma (18th- early 19th c.) (Add 12387)

A Javanese Panji story ends with syair (a poem).

Hikayat Bayan Budiman The Malay Tale of The Wise Parrot (1808) (MSS Malay B.7)

An old work of Malay literature, probably composed in the 15th century or earlier. It is based on a Persian original, the Tuti-nama, and is the earliest example in Malay of a framed narrative: a literary work comprising a compilation of individual stories. And like the 'Thousand and One Nights’, in the 'Tale of the Wise Parrot', the stories are designed to help the protagonists avoid a nasty fate.

Hikayat Pelanduk Jenaka Tale of The Wily Mousedeer (1804/05) (MSS Malay B.2, MSS Malay B.10)

A story of the mousedeer tricks the other animals into thinking that he has magic powers, and holds court from an ant-hill.

Syair Perahu The poem of the boat (18th c.) (MSS Malay A.2)

Sufi poem written in Malay in rencong script. This Sufi poem comparing the mystical path to a voyage in a boat, based on the system of the ‘seven grades of being’ (wahdat al-wujud), was formerly attributed to the Sumatran mystic Hamzah Fansuri.

source: British Library

Re-Memory: Nusantara Story as a video installation during Work In Progress exhibition in London Gallery West, University of Westminster, London (2022)

Re-Memory: Nusantara Story was exhibited during Consider This exhibition in Ambika P3 Gallery, London (2022)

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