XXV. NOTES ON THE PENGKALAN KEMPAS 
TOMBSTONE. 
By C. BopEN KLoss. 
(Plates XII—XV.) 
At the south end of Sheikh Ahmad’s grave at Pengkalan 
Kempas in Negri Sembilan (near the bank of the Linggi River 
and close to the boundary of Malacca) stands his tombstone. 
This is a quadrilateral pillar pierced near its centre by 
a hole running from side to side and bearing between its top 
and the perforation an inscription on each face. 
The east and west sides, which are devoid of perforation 
(pls. XIV and XV), show in Arabic-Malay the same legend: 
one version clean-cut and apparently the work of a good 
craftsman, but an illiterate man—the other the cana of 
a stone-cutter both illiterate and poor, 
The north and south sides through which the perforation 
passes (pls. XII and XIII) bear legends in an unidentified 
script ; but each is prefaced by the same invocation in Arabic- 
Malay as on the other sides. In this case, however, the 
records are not in duplicate though they agree with the 
others in that one, the ern, is somewhat inferior in 
workmanship. All the legends appear to have been cut at 
the same period. 
This stone has several times been referred to in print ay 
R. J. Wilkinson,' by R. O. Winstedt?; and by I 
Evans? and W. A. Wallace. § 
Wilkinson has nothing to say about the inscriptions. 
Winstedt states :—‘‘ The Indian lettering has never been de- 
ciphered ; but the Malay inscription in Arabic lettering, evi- 
dently done locally and by an amateur carver, records that it 
marks the grave of one Shaikh Ahmad Makhtar Ramali ib ni 
Marfu Talani and was erected in A.H. 872 (corresponding to 
1467 A.D.) ‘in the reign of Sultan Shah Mansur.’ It is 
possible that parts of the Shaikh’s tomb were Spaces 
locally and-that other parts like the highly ornate ‘Swor 
were brought from India, as we have seen was a common 
custom.’ 
Winstedt has bescowid the manuscript disso. of Dain 
1 Twentieth Century og ganas of British Malaya, 1908, p. 77, with 
“ene (p. - 79) = hess southern 
; 2 Journ ts Branch Repal Asiat. Soc., No. 77, 1917, p- 173. 
: ai 
* Cf. Evans and Wallace, antea, plates and plans. 
