Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra81821920roya).pdf/49

 The Genealogy of Malacca's Kings from a copy of the Bustanu's-Salatin.

This interesting and important passage was copied for the late Mr. W. Barnes from a copy of the Bustanu's-Salatin belonging, it is said, to H. H. the late Sultan of Pahang, when H. H. was still Tengku Besar. Apparently it had been the intention of Mr. Barnes to offer it to the Society, but death frustrated him.

The interest of the passage lies in the light it throws on Malay history. Firstly, it gives the variant list of the kings of Singapore and Malacca, to which Wilkinson drew attention on pp. 15 and 21 of his History, Part 1, Papers on Malay Subjects Kuala Lumpur, F.M.S. 1908. It gives the orthodox list of the Malacca royal house down to the date of the Portuguese conquest and then continuing their history down to the birth of Sultan Iskandar Ala'u'd-din Mughayat Shah II of Acheen (1636-1641) it throws light on the earlier history of Palang and Johor.

It had been the intention of Mr. Barnes to compare this version with the version of the Bustanu's-Salatin at Leyden, but it is hard for Europeans in the East to find time and opportunity for such comparative work. Print our local manuscripts, when obtainable and once in print passages can easily be compared. Mr. Barnes had got one variant version, the source of which I have been unable to trace: its variants I have cited in foot-notes.

The Bustanu's-Salatin was composed at Acheh by Shaikh Nuru'd-din Muhammad Jilani ibni Hasanji ibni Muhammad Hamid a'r-Raniri, who also composed an ''Ht. Iskandar Dzu'l-Karnain in Malay as he tells us on p. 14, vol. II of Wilkinson's edition of the Bustanu's-Salatin'': in 1634. he had translated the Siratul-mustakim into Malay. (Vide also Snouck Hurgrouje's "The Achehnese." vol. I, p. 12). After the fall of Pasai, Malacca, and after the conquest of Malacca. Acheen became the centre of Muhammadan religion and learning. It was Sultan Iskandar the second of Acheen and Shaikh Nuru'd-din who sent the Babu'n-Nikah, the Siratu'l-mustakim and a complimentary letter to the Raja of Kedah on the establishment of Islam in that country: so the "Kedah Annals" tell us.

Possibly some of the historical detail given in this passage has been added by a later hand.

Mr. R. J. Wilkinson printed 2 vols, of the Bustanu's-Sabatin (American Mission Press, Singapore, 1900), but most unfortunately his MS. was lost before the rest, which contains the chapters on