Islamic Manuscripts from Aceh in the British Library

Abstract

Aceh has long been renowned as a centre of Islamic scholarship, and some of the most famous Malay texts were composed in this area of north Sumatra. However, despite an abundance of philological and literary studies of texts from Aceh, little attention has yet been paid to the materiality of the manuscript culture of the region. A small collection of 18 manuscripts from Aceh now in the British Library has therefore been subjected to detailed codicological scrutiny. These manuscripts, which appear to be representative of the books which circulated in the 18th and 19th century, contain multiple texts in Arabic, Malay and Acehnese, and the full contents of each volume are identified and contextualised with respect to other collections. Particular attention is paid to the original covers or bindings of the manuscripts, and illuminated elements, and some comments are drawn about the broader Acehnese tradition.

Prince Paku Ningrat’s Qur’an Manuscript at the Sumenep Palace in 1793: Its Characteristics and Analysis

“…The writing of the manuscript of the mushaf al-Qur'an of Prince Paku Ningrat uses the primary material of daluang or barley paper, which is paper produced from the fabric of the Broussonetia Papyrifera tree, while on the page after the cover it uses European form (Gallop, 2021). This is in line with the copying of mushaf carried out in Java and Madura in the 18th century AD, which was written using daluang paper, and European paper did use these two types of paper (Gallop & Fathurahman, 2022).…”

“…For example, the manuscript text f the 12th century is set at a margin; the 15th century established a new border. In contrast, e addition of decorations in the 19th century, or even the Mughal manuscript of the 16th century, While the small addition of the 18th century (Gallop & Fathurahman, 2022) . The evaluation of such manuscripts depends on correctly identifying e nature Paku Ningrat Sumeneb 1793.…”

“…Figure 4. Illumination on surah al-KahfiIn all manuscripts of the Qur'an produced in the tradition of the archipelago, the frame ornament decorated in the middle will frame the beginning of Surat al-Kahfi(Gallop & Fathurahman, 2022). Still, in the Qur'an (Awsatul Qur'an), precisely on juz 15, verse 19 of the surah al-Kahfi.…”