1838.] 



A notice of the Malayan Code. 



391 



many of the original laws they brought with them from the parent 

 state Menangkabowe, to the exigencies of their new situations. The 

 progress of civilization and introduction of Mahommedanism brought 

 on other and more important changes. 



Hence the discrepancies observable in the numerous codes of laws, 

 existing throughout the wide and straggling extent occupied by these 

 colonies. 



Almost every Malay state has its peculiar co&e—Adat or Undang 

 Undang—some are written, but many are mere oral traditions ; the 

 written compilations are blended and interpolated with the law of the 

 Shera and Aiats from the Koran. Still a family resemblance is, I 

 think, to be traced throughout all. 



The principal codes are those of Menangkabowe, Malacca, Johore, 

 Quedah, Acbin, Palembang, Moco Moco, and Siac. 



Having thus rapidly noticed the state of society producing these 

 deviations from the parent code of Menangkabowe, I shall, without 

 farther comment, proceed to give a cursory analysis of the principal 

 one — namely, that of Malacca. The greater part of this celebrated 

 code was compiled during the reign of Sultan Iskander Shah, who 

 founded the city of Malacca A. H. 673. His laws were afterwards 

 collected and re-arranged, with many additions and alterations, by Sul- 

 tan Mahmud Shah, who commenced his reign A. H. 675. At this time 

 probably, the great admixture of Mahommedan law took place. This 

 compilation appears to extend, in an integral state, only so far as Fasl 

 xxxiii. The rest was collected by Sultan Suit man Abdal J alii 

 Rahmet Shah, through the agency of his minister Bandahdra Tan 

 Hassan. This last part contains a few ancient regulations, that possibly 

 had escaped the notice of the former compilers — some that had been 

 already laid down, with slight modifications ; and a few enacted by 

 Rahmet Shah himself. 



The entire code is divided into two distinct parts — the land and the 

 maritime — the latter has been translated and commented on by Sir 

 Stamford Raffles ; the former comprises eighty-one Fasts or chapters, 

 treating principally on criminal law, laying down penalties and fines, 

 together with regulations for the etiquette to be observed at the courts 

 of Malay princes, and rules for the guidance of the chiefs and principal 

 officers of state. 



Many of the regulations have been blended, as previously remarked, 

 with the law of the Koran ; but, as a whole, the code retains, generally, 

 strongly defined features of its Malayan origin. Some of them, it will 

 be observed, bear resemblance to those laid down in the Mdnara 

 Dherma Sdstra, or Institutes of Menu ; although there is nothing, in 

 the present Malay code, analogous to the regulations for the distinctions 



