2 GRAVE-STONE OF SULTAN MANSUR SHAH OF MALACCA, 
The head-stone is worth deciphering, because it is so far as is 
known the only extant stone of the tombs of the Sultans of Malacca 
and secondly because Mansur Shah played a great part in Malay and 
Chinese records. 
By the help of the casts I was able to decipher the inscriptions. 
and by reconstructing a pair of damaged words to get an absolutely 
certain reading of the names and of the date. Only the first lne 
presented difficulties but by the help of my friend R. A. Dr. Husein 
Jaya-diningrat a reading in my opinion satisfactory was secured, 
so that all the words on that line with the first word of the second. 
line duly accounted for are meant to glorify not the Sultan as in 
Hervey’s version but the grave. Major J. C, Moulton kindly sent 
me at my request photos of all four sides of the stone which is now 
placed on a cement pedestal for its better preservation. I give my 
reconstruction for each side on the accompanying plates so that 
any one more competent than I may express his views on it. 
The reading is as follows: (Plate I. obverse): 
Jolall cand Byes 4,3\.2\\ 4 4\;\\ 5 etal roe id. sl oe , 
eo ole sales cy ot (,) payee (cyl Jobst SAM 
Plate Il (Reverse) reads :— | 
Boe —) Cre la, S| oe Os AIS re) Se! ole cr? isl 33 
(a gilese) NWCA) scl GP) SN ye Stel, ove, Oe 
Compared with the Hervey version it thus reads: Hadzthi al- 
raudzat al-mukaddasat al-mutahharat al-zawiyat al-safiyat al- — 
munawwarat Wl Sultan al-adil al-badzil al-Sultan Mansur Shah bin 
Muzaffar Shah al-marhum: kad intakala min dar al-mahal ila dar 
amal yaum al-arbaa min Rajab sanat thanatein wa thamanin wa 
thaman mvah min al-Hijrah al-Nubawyah al-mustafawyah 
Or translated 
“This is the consecrated the holy grave the brilliant illumin- 
ated tomb of the just Sultan, the magnanimous ruler Sultan Man- 
sur Shah son of the deceased Muzaffar Shah. He removed from 
this mortal abode to the abode of- hope on Wednesday of Rajab in 
the year 882 after the Hijrah of the Prophet, the Chosen One.” 
As my reading of the gravestone differs in many places from 
that of Hervey, I must add an explanation of some details. The 
difference in my conception of the words of the first line is great 
and I take it that mim has been broken off in the middle words, and 
read &@e\) ( 3 stands in the lower corner), but the reading is 
of little or no consequence since, once we know who the person en- 
tombed is, it matters relatively little if one takes a word to be in 
praise of the grave or of the dead. However the correct reading 
of the bottom line on Plate I is of very great importance for the 
Jour. Straits Branch. 
