Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra81821920roya).pdf/16

 the Sharif of Mecca went to India to remind the Great Mogul of tithes due to the Holy City: and they learnt for the first time from Indian friends that Acheen was a Muhammadan kingdom and it was likely they could collect funds in Sumatra! [One may add as another instance of Malay ignorance lines like Serban Kashmiri warna hijau, Buatan Arab di-negeri Makkah.]

(5) The Malay alphabet is not Arabic but Perso-Hindustani,

(6) Many early books were translated from the Persian or oftener from Indian versions of Persian originals. [E.g. the ''Ht. Iskandar Dzu'l-Karnain, the Bustanu's-Salatin, the Taju's-Salatin, Ht. Muhammad Hanafiah, Ht. Amir Hamza, the Ht. Bayan Budiman''. Shaikh Nuru'd-din of Gujerat translated the first two (Journal 77, page 174 and Bustanu's-Salatin Vol. II, page 26 Singapore 1900); and Brandes and van Ronkel have discussed the origin of the two last. But there is much more to be done in this line of research. There is no evidence of direct Persian influence on the Malays: it came through Indian channels.]

(7) Malay religious literature, discussed in Vol. II of Snouck Hurgronje's 'The Achinese,' is often repulsive to Arab ideas, and is infected with that popular pantheism which India borrowed from Persia. [The charms collected by Skeat in his "Malay Magic" often exhibit this popular pantheism.]

(8) The first Arabs proper came from the Hadthramaut (vide Journal 77, page 174 and Journal 79, page 49). And the Hadthramaut family of Sayids got the throne of Pontianak in Borneo as well as that of Siak.

Direct Arab influence made itself felt strongly only after the invention of steam-ships had made voyages easy.