Community-sourcing project brings 200-year-old Malay poem back into circulation

Dr Mulaika Hijjas, Senior Lecturer in South East Asian Studies at SOAS University of London, launched an edition of a poem produced through community-sourcing at the Kuala Lumpur Alternative Book Fair in Malaysia.  

Syair Jaran Tamasa is a narrative poem telling the story of the love affair between a warrior and a handmaiden at the Majapahit court.  

The poem is part of a once very popular genre of traditional Malay literature, Panji stories, which are set in an imagined pre-Islamic Java and feature love, battle, magic, and palace intrigue. It survives in only two manuscripts, which were copied by a scribe named Encik Ismail in Penang in 1804, at the request of the Scottish philologist John Leyden. 

volunteers in Malaysia and Singapore took part in workshops run by Dr Hijjas to transcribe the poem from its original Jawi, the Arabic-derived script used for the Malay language before the 20th century

The two manuscripts are now held by the British Library and not likely to have been read from Leyden’s time until over two centuries later, when Dr Hijjas began the community-sourcing project. Though many Malay-speakers remain proficient in Jawi, transcribing handwriting and understanding archaic vocabulary posed challenges for participants. 

Using the online platform FromThePage, volunteers in Malaysia and Singapore took part in workshops run by Dr Hijjas to transcribe the poem from its original Jawi, the Arabic-derived script used for the Malay language before the 20th century, to roman script, which is now the standard form.  

Contributors from the project ranged from members of the Warisan Acheen Street heritage organisation in Georgetown, Penang, to patrons of the indie bookstore Tinta Budi in Kuala Lumpur, and literature enthusiasts at the Singapore National Library.  

Their dedication resulted in a working transcription of the poem, which was then edited by Dr Hijjas. Her introduction and glossary are also aimed at making the text more understandable for contemporary readers. The cover design was commissioned from Malaysian game designer and illustrator Munkao (@Munkao).  

Published by the Malaysian indie press Buku Fixi, the poem is now available to readers anew, enriching the trove of classical Malay literature. 

Photo credits: The British Library captured by Metin Ozer via Unsplash.