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SUMMARY:Reconstructing the Palembang royal library - Dr Mulaika Hijjas (SO
 AS)
DTSTART:20200226T170000Z
DTEND:20200226T180000Z
UID:TALK136780@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Barbara Roe
DESCRIPTION:\n\nBefore it was looted by the British in 1812 and then again
  by the Dutch in 1821\, the library of the Sultanate of Palembang\, on the
  southeast coast of Sumatra\, was one of the richest in maritime Southeast
  Asia. My presentation will revisit the remnants of the Palembang royal li
 brary\, now dispersed across institutions in Europe and Asia\, to examine 
 what it may reveal about the court’s vibrant\, multilingual literary cul
 ture. I will discuss one manuscript in particular\, a Malay translation of
  an 8th-c Arabic historical text\, the Futūḥ al-Shām\, describing the 
 conquest of Syria. While translations of Arabic religious works are ubiqui
 tous in Malay manuscript collections\, this is perhaps the only known Mala
 y translation of an Arabic historiographical text. Commissioned in 1769 by
  a senior noble\, Pangeran Ratu bin Paduka Seri Sultan Ahmad Najmuddin\, f
 rom a local scholar\, Kiai Mas Fakhruddin\, and extant in manuscript in th
 is single exemplar\, this text is suggestive of the preoccupations of the 
 late 18th-century Palembang court. It seems that the court was actively in
 volved in commissioning translations\, and that this intellectual endeavou
 r was connected to the intensifying European political and military pressu
 re the court was facing. As I will show\, this text\, and an inventory of 
 what remains of the library\, also indicate the scholarly and literary net
 works that connected Southeast Asia with the Islamic lands to the west.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room SG1\, ground floor\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 Wes
 t Road\, Cambridge CB3 9DT
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