Novel
Taj al-Salatin
Not translated into English
Bukhari al-Jauhari · 1603
Synopsis
A treatise on conduct for the use of kings and their officers, in an introduction and twenty-four chapters divided into four parts. The first teaches self-knowledge, knowledge of God, the nature of the world and death; the following ones deal with royal dignity, justice and tyranny, then the duties of those at court, courtiers, messengers, scribes and viziers. Precepts, exemplary tales and maxims alternate, and two pages examine whether a woman may rule.
Context
The book draws on Persian sources of government already in circulation in Aceh, among them Kashifi's Akhlaq-e Mohseni, without being a translation of them: one historian sees in it one of the most original Malay texts of its time. More than twenty manuscripts of it are recorded, some richly illuminated in an Indo-Persian and Ottoman manner unusual in the region, such as the one held by the British Library. A bilingual edition, with the Jawi text and a Dutch translation facing it, appeared in Batavia in 1827.
Who it is for
A seventeenth-century treatise on government, dense and austere, which presupposes an interest in Islamic political thought and its dialogue with Persian sources rather than in narrative.
Prizes and reception
One of the most widely copied political texts of the Malay courts, read even in those of Java, and the model for the Malay treatises on government that followed it.