Hikayat Abdullah

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A page of Hikayat Abdullah, written in Jawi script in Malay, from the collection of the National Library of Singapore .

Hikayat Abdullah is the title of the autobiography published in 1849 by Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir (1795-1852), also known as Munshi Abdullah, the father of modern Malay literature. It was written between 1840 and 1843. The work is considered his main work. It is considered to be the first commercially published Malay literary text. The work is an important source for the history of Singapore in the early 19th century shortly after Stamford Raffles established its first British subsidiary . The Malacca- born Abdullah criticizes the Dutch and English colonial administrative reforms (on the history of the region, see also Sultanate of Malacca & Sultan of Johor ), but also recognizes the superiority of their administrations over the previous encrusted structures (see also educational system in Malaysia ).

The work contains, among other things, observations on Stamford Raffles , William Farquhar and John Crawfurd of the British East India Company , on Sultan Hussein Shah of the Sultanate of Johor , the missionaries and traders from America and Europe and the Chinese traders of his time.

An early English translation is by JT Thomson (1874) and is considered incomplete and imprecise. A more recent English translation is by AH Hill and was published in the Journal of the Malayan Branch Royal Asiatic Society (1955).

Quote

“To see an Englishman was like seeing a tiger, because they were so mischievous and violent […] At that time I never met an Englishman who had a white face, for all of them had 'mounted the green horse', that is to say, were drunk [...] So much so that when children cried their mothers would say, 'Be quiet, the drunken Englishman is coming,' and the children would be scared, and keep quiet. "

Editions & translations

  • Amin Sweeney (ed.), Karya Lengkap Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi, jilid 3: Hikayat Abdullah, Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia & École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2006.
  • JT Thomson (HS King, London, 1874)
  • AH Hill, Journal of the Malayan Branch Royal Asiatic Society (Volume XXVIII Part 3, June 1955)

Web links

See also

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ cf. intellasia.net: Cold, dim room sheds light on Singapore history ( Memento from July 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) ("father of modern Malay literature")
  2. ↑ For whom he worked as a translator.
  3. ↑ LF Brakel (Author), M. Balfas (Author), M. Taib Bin Osman (Author), J. Gonda (Author), B. Rangkuti (Author), B. Lumbera (Author), H. Kahler (Author) : Literatures (Asian Studies) . Brill Academic Publishers, 1997, ISBN 978-90-04-04331-2 , pp. 143 & 144. , pp. 143 f.
  4. ↑ quoted from intellasia.net: Cold, dim room sheds light on Singapore history ( Memento from July 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (his description of British sailors who docked in his hometown of Malacca (now Malaysia))
Hikayat Abdullah (alternative names of the lemma)
Hikayat Abdullah; Biography of Abdullah; Autobiography of Abdullah; Abdullah biography; Abudula zhuan 阿卜杜拉 传