THE ADVENT OP MUHAMMADANISM, 173 



Baju-nya beledu ainul-banat 



Kain-nija kain Bugis K embay at 



Keris-nya sempana ganja iras, 

 Keratan tongJcat nabi Adam, 



Serpai be si Khersani 



Di-pakai jubali kliasah halus, 

 Jubali metered sampai ka-kaki; 

 Serban Kashmiri warna hijau, 



Buatan Arab di-negeri Mekkah 



Keris sempana ganja iras 



Pamur janji di-tengali 



Pamur jilallah di-tuntong, 



Pamur alif terdiri sendiri-nya; 



Bukan-nya besi sa-barang besi. 



Besi U'belt penganching kaabalt Allah. 



Cambay, Khorassan, Kashmir, Mecca were all familiar names 

 to these Malay buyers of foreign merchandise. 



Sultan Mansur Shah, who died in 1475 A.D., conquered 

 Pahang Kampar and Indragiri and introduced Muhammadanism 

 into those countries. His tomb-stone beautifully carved, with an 

 inscription in Arabic, lies now in two fragments outside the front 

 door of the Residency at Malacca. Certainly it was no Malay 

 craftsman who did the lettering. 



This tomb-stone of Sultan Mansur Shah, if the date has been 

 correctly deciphered as 880 A.H., is a few years later than that of 

 the Muhammadan saint at Pangkalan Kempas. The Indian letter- 

 ing on the Pangkalan Kempas stone has never been deciphered; 

 but the Malay inscription in Arabic lettering, evidently done locally 

 and by an amateur carver, records that it marks the grave of one 

 Shaikh Ahmad Makhtar Ramali ibni Marfu Talani and was erected 

 in A.H. 872 (corresponding to 1467 A.D.) "in the reign of Sul- 

 tan Shah Mansur." It is possible that parts of the Shaikh's tomb- 

 were constructed locally and that other parts, like the ornate so- 

 called " Sword/' were brought from India, as we have seen was a 

 common custom. The word " Allah " stands carved in high relief 

 on the " Sword," so that one may surmise it is a genuine Muham- 

 madan relic, and not a Hindu stone adapted for a Muhammadan 

 shrine, as might be contended if " Allah " were cut into the sur- 

 face of the stone ; a word in high relief must almost certainly form 

 part of the original ornamentation. It shows the interest that has 

 been taken in our few archaeological remains, when as late as 1910 

 a keen enquirer like the late Mr. Barnes could write of the tomb- 

 stone of Raja Fatimah of Pahang, which is dated A.H. 901 -A.D. 

 1496, as " the oldest dated grave-stone in the Peninsula " ! (•/. P. 

 A. S. t S. B. No. GO, pp. 87-39). Like Sultan Mansur's tomb-stone 

 Raja Fati mah's stone has an inscription in the Arabic language 

 and the lettering too is not amateurish but less fine perhaps than 

 that on the Sultan's. 



R. A. Soc, No. 77, 1917. 



