A Tamil Malay Manuscript. 
BY RAP Ha SyVANe EO NKoRIE. 
Professor of Malay at Leiden University. 
“It is well known that Islam and the greater part of Meelam 
mysticism found its way to the Indonesian Archipelago not from 
Arabia, but from Southern India. It is, indeed, a truth so well 
proved, that it seems superfluous to lay stress on it, or to deal with it 
in detail. It may suffice to remind the reader of the undeniable fact 
that the very form of popular Islam, the character of its mysticism, 
the whole Islamic edifying and romantic literature, the form of 
many Arabic loanw ords, ‘the style of Muhammedan tombs and 
so on point to Southern India as the land of their origin. 
The Tamil words which were introduced by the Dearie: 
Moslem merchants, who converted the partly animistic partly 
Hinduistic population of Sumatra and Java, are still in use. 
Many a Dekhan saint or divine is venerated in these islands to the 
present day; in short, the Muhammedanism of the Dekhan stil 
flourishes in the Indonesian world, in spite of later orthodox in- 
fluences from Mecca and Hadramaut. 
The substratum of animistic ideas is always visible through 
the Islamic tenets in their popular form while the Hindu nomen- 
elature of some Moslem ideas indicates the intermediate layer that 
preceded. the Islamic period. Let us only call to mind that to de- 
signate the Moslem teacher, the Islamic fast and the Muhammedan 
religion old Sanskrit words (guru, puwasa and agama) have sur- 
vived in many Indonesian languages, 
All such historical evidence as is now available regarding the 
introduction of Islam into the Archipelago has been elucidated by 
various scholars in the course of their investigations. The people 
themselves are not aware of the link which exists between their 
creed and the distant Mohammedan provinces of Southern India. 
At best, a few Indianimmigrants may have a dim consciousness of the 
existence of that historical connection. Thus, some thirty years ago, 
a member of the Indian merchant family Akuan at Samarang showed 
a trilingual Muhammedan manuscript to Dr. Snouck Hurgronje. 
“This document,” the owner explained, “shows the way by which the 
penetration of Islam has taken place; the Persian part representing 
the original literary language of Islamic culture in India; the portion 
in a modern Indian idiom, not understood by us, being represen- 
tative of the interjacent country between Hindustan and these 
islands, and the third portion, the wholly intelligible Malay part, the 
speech of Islam as it is now in this country.” But that intelligent 
merchant certainly is an exception. In order to follow the current 
of Islamic civilisation we have to examine historical facts and lin- 
guistic and religious evidence. In certain cases we have to rely on 
a single book, tale or manuscript. 
Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc., No. 85, 1922. 
