New additions to the Digital Library
We are pleased to announce that the Society recently added eighteen manuscripts to its Digital Library. They include eleven manuscripts from the Malay collections, and a further seven from the Javanese collections. Together, they represent an important addition to the Society’s digital collections from maritime South East Asia.
The Malay manuscripts have been digitized in partnership with UniSZA (Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Terengganu, Malaysia). Many of these manuscripts are from the bequest of Sir William Edward Maxwell (1846-1897), who served in British Malaya in a range of posts between 1865 and 1892, including Assistant Resident of Perak and Resident of Selangor. His bequest comprised over a hundred volumes, most of which were manuscripts, including many that were copied for Maxwell on European paper.
This project also saw the digitization of one manuscript from the collection that was presented in 1830 by the widow of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1754-1826). This is RAS Raffles Malay 68, a copy of the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) that is dated AH 1223 (1808 AD).
UniSZA also supported the digitization of some of the most recent additions to the Society’s Malay manuscript collection, including typescript volumes pertaining to the history and culture of Terengganu. These were donated by A. H. Hill, Lecturer in Malay at SOAS, in 1954.
The second digitization project pertains to the Society’s collection of Javanese manuscripts. These volumes also formed part of the Raffles bequest that was received in 1830. The digitization of these manuscripts was supported by the Naskah Sumatra project. This project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award and is based at SOAS, where it investigates manuscript libraries in three locations in Sumatra – Palembang, Aceh, and Minangkabau – to rediscover the intellectual and literary culture of Sumatra in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The seven newly-digitized Javanese manuscripts are from Palembang. Research indicates most were taken from the royal library of the palace of Palembang during the British attack on the Sultanate of Palembang in 1812. It is known that many books originating from the royal library were subsequently dispersed, often entering various British and other European collections. Raffles likely received some manuscripts from officers who were present during the attack or in its aftermath.
It is important that these manuscripts are made available digitally so that they are accessible to international audiences, especially in Palembang and South Sumatra. We are grateful to the Naskah Sumatra team for initiating and supporting this project.
Dr Annabel Gallop discussed the background to the Society’s Raffles Collection at our recent Collections Evening, and we look forward to her insights being made available in a forthcoming issue of the Society’s journal.
Lectures and Events
Yesterday evening, on Thursday 24 April, the Society hosted a lecture by Dr Nil Palabıyık, entitled ‘Silent Teachers: Turkish Books and Oriental Learning in Early Modern Europe’. Organised in collaboration with the Levantine Heritage Foundation, this event provided a scholarly excursion into the considerable challenges involved in learning Turkish in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition, the Society hosted a Zoom lecture last week, on Thursday 17 April, when Professor Stephen Martin addressed the question, ‘Was the VOC funding Mozart?’ This builds upon an article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, ‘Was the VOC funding Mozart? The diaries of Wilhelm Buschman on Kharg Island’, which is available here.
Posted by Edward Weech, 25 April 2025