32 A TAMIL MALAY MANUSCRIPT. 
I proceed to quote a few sentences of the beginning of the 
treatise in Tamil translation: for convenience’s sake I abstain 
from using the elaborate Tamil characters. ‘The Arabic preamble 
runs :—‘ Praise to Allah who created the creatures in order to 
know Him, and ordained them to follow His commands; prayer 
and ereetings be on His apostle Muhammad the Prophet on whom 
His merey be bestowed.” 
The Tamil translation runs thus: 
ella pugalum pugalciyum Allah Twala ukku 
all praise laudation and Allah Ta’ala to 
padaippugalar padaittan tanar arya wéndr 
creation (acc.) who created him to know —__— for 
tanudaya markattiidu nadakkum padt parimanan 
his divine way in to walk hke he ordained 
Allah Taala udaya salamum awanudaya 
Allah Ta/’ala of peace and his 
tudan ukku namudaya nabwyar Muhammad 
messenger to our Prophet « Muhammad 
rahmattanawidam.... awargalar kottiram awar 
grace MHEANIS: 41. to his tribe his 
tolanmar awarudaya ummatukku.... undawatagawum 
comrades his sfammalhy Ohne cucu shall become. 
Certain portions which were illegible to me (a Tamil Moslem, 
no doubt, would be able to read them) I have left vacant. In the 
same manner the translation runs, ever increasing in its inter- 
pretation of the Arabic sentences, so that gradually it developes 
into an ample commentary, fifteen folios, till there comes an ab- 
rupt ending. The last page of these fifteen folios is not covered 
with writing: ; on the page immediately following a Malay dog- 
matical oped of six folios begins. Next come some Tamil pages 
containing different dogmatical and legal items, and some niyyah- 
formulae and wedding-formulae, the Arabic prayers being indi- 
cated either by Tamil or by Malay titles, on one page even by a 
Persian one. So we find here the four great Moslem languages 
united: the sacred Arabic for the formulae, the old literary Per- 
sian, which once was the court language in Northern India, the 
far spread Malay, which is both the intermediary language of all 
Indonesian nations of the Moslem creed, and the islamised Tamil, 
the commercial idiom of the Dekhan. 
The text further deals with the common dogmatical and 
mystical or divinatory subjects, which are usually to be found in 
so many Indian and Indonesian religious tracts. It would be ex- 
tremely tiresome to.enumerate the contents of this varied manu- 
script in detail; it may suffice to point out the characteristic parts 
only. So we pass by in silence the Malay portions on dogmatics 
and the mystic circles (so-called dairahs) and on the different 
Jour. Straits Branch 
