Terengganu Inscription Stone (;
Jawi: ) is a
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
stele
A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...
carrying
Classical Malay
Malay was first used in the first millennia known as Old Malay, a part of the Austronesian language family. Over a period of two millennia, Malay has undergone various stages of development that derived from different layers of foreign influen ...
inscription
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
in
Jawi script
Jawi (; ; ; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Banjarese, Betawi, Magindanao, Malay, Mëranaw, Minangkabau, Tausūg, Ternate and many other languages in Southeast Asia. Jawi ...
that was found in
Terengganu
Terengganu (; Terengganu Malay: ''Tranung'', formerly spelled Trengganu or Tringganu) is a sultanate and States and federal territories of Malaysia, federal state of Malaysia. The state is also known by its Arabic honorific, ''Dāru l-Iman (c ...
, Malaysia. The inscription, dated possibly to 702
AH (corresponds to 1303
CE) or 789 AH (1387 CE) constituted the earliest evidence of
Jawi writing in the
Malay world
The Malay world or Malay realm (Indonesian language, Indonesian/Malay language, Malay: or ) is a concept or an expression that has been used by different authors and groups over time to denote several different notions, derived from varied in ...
of
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
, and was one of the oldest testimonies to the advent of
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
as a
state religion in the region. It contains the proclamation issued by a ruler of
Terengganu
Terengganu (; Terengganu Malay: ''Tranung'', formerly spelled Trengganu or Tringganu) is a sultanate and States and federal territories of Malaysia, federal state of Malaysia. The state is also known by its Arabic honorific, ''Dāru l-Iman (c ...
known as ''Seri Paduka Tuan'', urging his subjects to extend and uphold
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
and providing 10 basic
Sharia
Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
laws for their guidance.
The stone was found half-submerged by a bank of Tersat river in
Kuala Berang, Hulu Terengganu, in 1887 CE after the floods had receded. A Terengganuan nobleman, Pengiran Anum Engku Abdul Kadir bin Engku Besar and his tin-prospector friend, Saiyed Husin Ghulam Al Bukhari came across the stone and brought it on a
raft
A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...
to
Kuala Terengganu
Kuala Terengganu (; Terengganu Malay language, Terengganu Malay: ''Kole Tranung''), colloquially referred to as KT, is the administrative, economic and royal List of capitals in Malaysia, city of the state of Terengganu, Malaysia. Kuala Tereng ...
where it was presented to
Sultan Zainal Abidin III, and placed atop of
Bukit Puteri ('Princess hill').
In 2009, a meeting of the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
's International Advisory Committee (IAC) held in
Barbados
Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...
, included the Inscribed Stone of Terengganu in the
Memory of the World International Register, making it the fourth heritage recognition accorded to
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
after the ''
Hikayat Hang Tuah
''Hikayat Hang Tuah'' ( Jawi: حکاية هڠ تواه) is a Malay work of literature that tells the tale of the legendary Malay warrior Hang Tuah and his four warrior friends – Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekir and Hang Lekiu – who li ...
'', ''
Sejarah Melayu
The ''Malay Annals'' ( Malay: ''Sejarah Melayu'', Jawi: ), originally titled ''Sulalatus Salatin'' (''Genealogy of Kings''), is a literary work that gives a romanticised history of the origin, evolution and destruction of the Malacca Sultanat ...
'', and the correspondence of
Sultan Abdul Hamid in 2001.
History
With the
advent of Islam into Southeast Asia in the 10th or 11th century, a life based on the teachings of
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
and the
Hadith
Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
became widespread and together with this, the use of the
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...
. Over the time, the script was modified and adapted to suit the spoken
Classical Malay
Malay was first used in the first millennia known as Old Malay, a part of the Austronesian language family. Over a period of two millennia, Malay has undergone various stages of development that derived from different layers of foreign influen ...
language, and thus
Jawi script
Jawi (; ; ; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Banjarese, Betawi, Magindanao, Malay, Mëranaw, Minangkabau, Tausūg, Ternate and many other languages in Southeast Asia. Jawi ...
was created. This development heralded a new age of
literacy
Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...
, when converts to the new faith gradually replaced the previous Indian-derived scripts with Jawi, in expressing their new belief.
As a testimony to the spread of Islam that originated from the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
, the artefact offers more than just a glimpse of the life of the people of the era. It also depicted the growing Islamic culture subsumed under a set of religious laws. A concomitant feature of this historic movement was the growth of
maritime trade that centred around Kuala Berang, the place where the stone was discovered. The inscribed stone alludes to regional trade that flourished in the course of
Islamisation, with its trading pattern and movement of peoples during that time.
While the Islamisation of Terengganu was pursued effectively with the rise of the new way of thinking, it did not completely put an end to the old way of life. The inscribed stone still contained a number of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
terms, a memorial to
Southeast Asia's Hindu past.
Discovery
The inscribed stone was first discovered by villagers at a steep sloping riverbank of Tersat river, Kampung Buluh,
Kuala Berang, Hulu Terengganu in 1887, and was later brought to a nearby
surau
A surau is an Islamic assembly building in some regions of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, used for worship and religious instruction. Generally smaller physical structures, their ritual functions are similar to those of a mosque, they admit ...
, known as ''Surau Tok Rashid''. From there, the stone was further moved to Surau Kampung Buluh. In 1902, a Terengganuan
nobleman
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...
, Pengiran Anum Engku Abdul Kadir bin Engku Besar and his
Tin-prospector friend, Syed Husin bin Ghulam Al-Bokhari, came to Kampung Buluh. While they were at Surau Kampung Buluh to perform the
Zuhr prayer, they noticed a stone with inscriptions used as a
pedestal
A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...
by the villagers, to step onto before entering the main prayer hall. After the prayer, they requested
Penghulu Ali and his villagers to carry the stone on a raft to be brought to the capital,
Kuala Terengganu
Kuala Terengganu (; Terengganu Malay language, Terengganu Malay: ''Kole Tranung''), colloquially referred to as KT, is the administrative, economic and royal List of capitals in Malaysia, city of the state of Terengganu, Malaysia. Kuala Tereng ...
. When it reached Kuala Terengganu, the stone was presented to
Sultan Zainal Abidin III who ordered it to be placed atop of Bukit Puteri ('princess hill'), near to the royal palace.
The stone remained on top of the hill for 20 years, until July 1922, when the Deputy British adviser of Terengganu, Major H.S Peterson asked a Japanese photographer, N. Suzuki, to take images of the inscription and send them to C.O Bledgen to be analyzed. In 1923, British adviser to Terengganu, J.L Humphreys acquired approval from the Government of Terengganu to lend the stone to
Raffles Museum, Singapore. The stone remained in Singapore for 37 years until 1960, when it was relocated to the
National Museum of Malaysia.
The State Government of Terengganu have been lobbying for the repatriation of the Inscribed Stone to its home state since 1979. On 12 February 1987, the Terengganu officially wrote to the administration of the National Museum, seeking permission to relocate the Inscribed Stone to their State Museum. Only in 1991, the
Federal Cabinet granted approval to the request and the Inscribed Stone was returned to Terengganu. It is now displayed at the Terengganu State Museum.
Date of the inscription
The inscription is dated, however due to damage on the lower left edge of the stone, where the year of the inscription is mentioned in the 11th lines, the date is incomplete and can be variously read as ranging from 702 to 789
A.H. (1303 to 1387 CE). C.O. Blagden, who first deciphered the inscription, presented many possible dates that range from February – March 1303 CE to February 1387 CE. He doubted that the earlier date
Rajab
Rajab () is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of the classical Arabic verb ''rajaba'' is "to respect", which could also mean "be awe or be in fear", of which Rajab is a derivative.
This month is regarded as one ...
, 702 AH or 1303 CE would be correct, and concluded that on general grounds he was inclined to lean towards the latest possible date.
This dating was challenged by
Syed Muhammad Naguib al-Attas, who argued that the earlier date is the correct one through an variety of logical, mathematical, linguistic, cultural, philosophical and mystical arguments, and by attempting to reconstruct the lost part of the inscription. In his speech published by the National Museum of Malaysia, Naguib stated that the correct date of the inscription is
Friday
Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO 8601-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth ...
, 4th of
Rajab
Rajab () is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of the classical Arabic verb ''rajaba'' is "to respect", which could also mean "be awe or be in fear", of which Rajab is a derivative.
This month is regarded as one ...
, 702
A.H., that corresponds to
Friday
Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO 8601-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth ...
, 22 February 1303 CE. His assertion is based on the following explanation.
The year 702 AH began on 26 August 1303 CE. The day on which the Christian
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...
year began for that
Islamic calendar
The Hijri calendar (), also known in English as the Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the Ramad ...
year was a
Monday
Monday is the day of the week that takes place between Sunday and Tuesday. According to the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 8601 standard, it is the first day of the week.
Names
The names of the day of the week were co ...
(i.e. 1 January 1303 CE was a Monday, and 237 days had elapsed in the Christian year when the Islamic year began on the 1st of
Muharram
Al-Muharram () is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is banned. It precedes the month of Safar. The tenth of Muharram is known as Ashura, an important day of commemoration in ...
(i.e. 26 August 1302 CE).
Rajab
Rajab () is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of the classical Arabic verb ''rajaba'' is "to respect", which could also mean "be awe or be in fear", of which Rajab is a derivative.
This month is regarded as one ...
is the 7th month of the Islamic calendar, and since the year 702 AH began in August 1302 CE, it therefore occurred in the month of February 1303 CE, which Christian year began on a
Tuesday
Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. According to international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week; thus, Tuesday is the second day of the week. According to many traditional calendars, however, Sunda ...
. Bearing in mind that the Christian year began on a Tuesday, it is found that only the 4th day of Rajab, which was the 181st day of the Islamic year 702, agrees with our computation of the date. Moreover, the 4th of Rajab confirms our computation because it was a Friday of Rajab, as mentioned in the inscription.
Content
The stone is 89 cm in height, 53 cm in width at the top, and weighs 214.8 kg. All of its four facades have inscriptions written from right to left. The inscription is in Classical Malay written in the Jawi script, with dots for most of the Arabic-derived letters ( ب ، ت ، ج ، ش ، ق ، ن ، ي ) and native Jawi letters ( چ ، ݢ ، ڠ ، ڤ ), being not visible, except for the letters ( ڽ ، ض ، ف ).
Jawi spelling system
The spelling system of the Inscribed Stone of Terengganu has similarities with modern Jawi spelling system in a number of areas:
* Use of the Letters ''
tāʼ marbūṭah
Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic ''tāʾ'' , Aramaic ''taw'' 𐡕, Hebrew ''tav'' , Phoenician ''tāw'' 𐤕, and Syriac ''taw'' ܬ. In Arabic, it also gives rise to the derived ...
'' (ة) and ''
tāʼ maftūḥah'' (ت) - For present-day spelling,
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka has determined that the /t/ sound in Malay words should be denoted in Jawi script by ''tāʼ maftūḥah'', whereas the /t/ sound in words particularly special nouns, borrowed from Arabic should be retained in its original form with ''tāʼ marbūṭah'', except for common words that have been absorbed by and are regularly used in Malay such as ''rakyat'' (people) ( رعيت ), ''nikmat'' (grace) ( نعمت ), ''hikmat'' (wisdom) ( حکمت ) and ''berkat'' (blessing) ( برکت ). This system was established in the Inscribed Stone as per below table, where Arabic loanword which is a special noun, ''Jumaat'' (Friday) (جمعة) does not change.
* Use of the Letter ''
Qāf'' (ق) in final closed
syllable
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
s - In the present-day Jawi spelling system, all
glottal stop
The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...
s in final closed syllables of Malay words are spelt with ''qāf'', while the consonant sound /k/ in the final closed syllable of English loanwords is spelled with ''
kāf'' such as ''abstrak'' (
abstract) ( ابسترک ), ''plastik'' (
plastic
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...
) ( ڤلستيک ) and ''kek'' (
cake
Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...
) ( كيک ). For Arabic loan words, the spelling of the source language is maintained such as for ''
isyak'' ( عشاء ), ''imsak'' (the time to stop
suhoor slightly before
Fajr) ( امساک ), ''rujuk'' (refer) ( روجوع ) and ''
talak'' (divorce) ( طلاق ). Some of the glottal stops in final closed syllables represented by letter ''qāf'' in the Inscribed Stone, are shown in the following table.
* Use of the Letter ''Nya'' (ڽ) - Based on the consonants found on the Terengganu Inscribed Stone, there were consonant sounds in Classical Malay that were not found in the Arabic alphabet. Letters of this type include ''ca'' (چ) in ''acara'' (event) ( احارا ), ''nga'' (ڠ) in ''dengan'' (with) ( دعں ), ''pa'' (ڤ) in ''pada'' (to) ( فدا ), ''ga'' (ݢ) in ''pinggang'' (waist) ( ڡعكع ), and ''nya'' (ڽ) in ''denda-nya'' (the penalty) ( داٮداڽ ). However, a special feature of the Terengganu Stone is the use of the letter ''nya''. It is exquisitely written with three dots above it, making it the oldest known Jawi letter.
References
Bibliography
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* {{citation , author=UNESCO , title=Memory of the World: Malaysia , url=https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/grid?fq%5Bsm_unsc_field_ref_countries_label%5D%5B%5D=Malaysia&date_from=&date_to=&query=&op=Search#toggle-facets , author-link=UNESCO
14th-century inscriptions
1887 archaeological discoveries
Inscriptions in Malaysia
History of Terengganu
Islam in Malaysia
Malaysian literature
Steles
Islamic inscriptions
Malay inscriptions
Memory of the World Register