Marks of many hands

Abstract

Annotation is a paratextual element of Malay manuscripts that has been little studied. This preliminary investigation draws on recently digitised material to survey the varieties of annotation in both literary and kitab manuscripts, highlighting the significant differences between the two manuscript corpora. The main categories of annotation in literary manuscripts include ownership marks, doodling and probatio pennae, warnings about the contents of the texts, pictorial annotation, and, rarest of all, readers' responses to the text. However, annotation is found in far greater quantities in kitab manuscripts, suggesting that the surau or similar religious establishment was the more definitively literate milieu-in spite of the central importance of oral instruction and of personal relationships between teacher and student. Annotation in kitab manuscripts consists mainly of scholarly glosses, including cross-references to other works or authorities, and translation into Malay, along with notes taken down by a student while being instructed by a teacher, and occasional more personal comments. The article concludes with a case study of annotation in a kitab compendium from the collection of Surau Syeikh Abdurrahman in Lima Puluh Kota, west Sumatra. Digitised as part of an Endangered Archives Programme project, the manuscript is heavily annotated in a number of hands. The earlier annotation, including scholarly references, translation glosses and 'lecture notes', is typical of kitab manuscripts and of Islamic manuscripts more generally. The most recent annotation, dating to the 1990s, reveals an apparent collapse in that pedagogic tradition, most likely related to the controversies of Minangkabau Sufism that occured over the manuscript's life.

Cultural Values' Integration in Character Development in Elementary Schools: The Sukuraga as Learning Media

“…Tribe has the meaning of part or also called member while the body has the meaning of body. This Sukuraga puppet is used as a medium for conveying goodness because this Sukuraga puppet contains advice so that we as humans must know ourselves better and must be grateful for what we have, including our body parts which must be used for good things as an expression of our feelings of gratitude (Hijjas, 2017). This Sukuraga puppet is based on the Al-Quran Surah Yasin: 65 and Surah Annur: 24.…”

“…It is hoped that this application can help teachers in teaching character education in schools that are held with limited face-to-face and hybrid learning. In 2015, Puppet Sukuraga was used as a "Media Character Education" by the Governor of West Java (Williamson, 2014;Shipper, 2016;Hijjas, 2017). However, the reality is that there are still many teachers, students, and Indonesian people who are not familiar with Puppet Sukuraga, especially in a digital form.…”

Shifting Landscapes: Remapping The Writing Traditions of Islamic Southeast Asia through Digitisation

“…More pertinently, comments by readers may elucidate attitudes to the texts from the communities within which they were produced. The value of these 'marks of many hands' are vividly traced by Mulaika Hijjas (2017), who compared literary Malay manuscripts and Islamic kitab literature in both Arabic and Malay, and found a greatly heightened intellectual engagment with the text in the kitab milieu. As a case study, she examined a digitised Islamic compendium on Sufism from a surau in West Sumatra (EAP205/3/1), and identified multiple types and layers of annotations, over several generations, the latest written in roman script and dated 25/2/1996.…”

FROM HOMETOWN TO THE OVERSEAS: Tuanku Hasan Basri (THB) and His Role in Developing Tariqa Shattariyya (TS) in Medan City, Indonesia

“…Furthermore, surau is a means of spiritual activity and the development of TS in the community. 4 TS is an important spiritual school in people's lives because it is an element of the tariqa and an integral part of the prevailing social traditions. The religious identity of the Pariaman people refers to the TS tradition that developed in their hometown.…”