The Discovery of a Manuscript of Tarjumān Al-Mustafīd, the First Complete Qur'an Interpretation in Malay

jigunma

Jun 30

The island of Sumatra and the sultanate of Aceh played a crucial role in the spread of Islam and Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir) throughout the Malay world. A foundational name is that of 'Abd al-Rā'ūf al-Fansūrī (ca. 1615-1693), one of the earliest Qur'anic commentators in the Malay world. His work, Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, representsthe first - and for several centuries the only - complete interpretation of the Qur'an in the Malay language (Riddell 1990).

The Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, which was written in Aceh in the late 17^th century, was completed with the help of 'Abd al-Rā'ūf's student and co-author, Bābā Dāwūd al-Rūmī (d. first half of 18th century). The Tarjumān al-Mustafīd was first printed in Istanbul in 1884, from a manuscript brought to Istanbul and presented to Sultan Abdulhamid II by Ahmad al-Fatānī (d. 1908), supervisor of the Malay printing press in Mecca. This Istanbul edition provided the basis of many subsequent editions, including a second printing in Istanbul in 1906, as well as many others, as shown below:

Publisher	Location	Year
Matba'a-i Osmaniyye	Istanbul	1884
Matba'atü'l- Miriyye, Bulaq	Bulaq, Egypt	1885
Matba'atü'l-Miriyye	Mecca	1905
Matba'a-i Osmaniyye	Istanbul	1906
Mohammed al-Marbawi	Cairo	1951
Sulayman Maraghi	Singapore	1951

I am pleased to report the recent discovery of the manuscript of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd from which the first edition was printed in Istanbul in 1884. The manuscript is held in the Faculty of Theology of Uludag University, Bursa, and consists of three volumes bound in cherry-coloured leather blind-stamped with designs of sunbursts, chrysanthemums, and miklep. In total there are 866 folios or 1732 pages of Italian paper, watermarked "Andrea Galvani Pordenone". Each folio measures 234 x 160 mm, with a text block of 168 x 108 mm, containing 21 lines of text written in Arabic and Malay in Jawi script.

The three volumes of the manuscript of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, bound in cherry-red leather.

The watermark of the Italian paper used in the manuscript of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, 1884.

The first volume is unfortunately lacking the beginning, but the two other volumes are intact. According to the colophon, the second volume of the manuscript was completed on 14 Dhul Qadah 1301 (i.e. 5 September 1884), and the third volume was completed in Mecca on 5 Muharram 1302 (i.e. 25 October 1884) by a scribe named Jadullah ibn al-Marhum Muhammad Badawi al-Misri. The following paragraphs describe the discovery of this long-lost manuscript.

Opening pages of the second volume of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, 1884.

Opening pages of the third volume of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, 1884.

Final pages with colophon of the third volume of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, 1884.

I served as founding Director of the Manuscripts Research Center at Uludag University, Faculty of Theology, Bursa. Our Center was informed by the Dean that there was a Malay Qur'anic commentary in the faculty manuscript collection that had not been classified in detail for fifty years. After initial fruitless searching, when I realised that Malay used an adapted form of the Arabic alphabet (known as Jawi), the different dotted letters in the commentary section of a manuscript caught my attention. Upon seeing that the name of the work was Tarjumān al-Mustafīdand its author was named as 'Abd al-Rā'ūf al-Fansūrī al-Jāwī at the end of the work, the excitement of discovering this manuscript was great.

Various questions arose as to how this commentary reached Anatolia and Bursa. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kara, a retired professor of the faculty suggested consulting Prof. Dr. Mikail Bayram, one of the first professors of the faculty who lived in Konya. Prof. Bayram did remember the work, informing me that a "Tafsir-i Cāvī" or 'Jawi Tafsir' (Qur'anic commentary in Jawi script) had been donated to the faculty by an old woman. He narrated the story of the work's arrival:

"In 1974, an old woman came to the faculty with many books. "I want to donate these to your school," she said. While classifying these works, I came across a manuscript in three volumes. I realized that the work is a translation of the Qur'an. I could read the verses comfortably, but I could not read the tafsir, nor could I decipher the language. I was very excited about the fact that this work was in a language that I had never encountered before and that I did not know. It was unlike any of the languages I knew. We had the work examined by experts in all languages spoken in the Ottoman domains, but no one could understand which language it was.

I reached out to the old woman who donated the work. However, the only information she knew about the tafsir was that she inherited it from her grandfathers. I was assigned to Konya from Bursa, but my mind was always on this book. Years later, an International Symposium was held in Bursa. Many scientists from foreign countries also participated. In a backstage environment, I gave information about this interpretation to foreign academics. The work was of great interest to them and they wanted to see it.

We went to the college together. I put the work in front of the academics. One by one, they examined the work. However, every scientist who looked at the work was stepping aside, saying, "It doesn't speak to me," in frustration. Among them was a scholar from Bangladesh. After examining the work, this scholar said, 'This work is in Malay!' Thus, we realized that the tafsir is in Malay. The issue of who, where and why the work was brought to Bursa was a separate issue."

Prof. Bayram concluded: "I was most happy when the secret of the Malay tafsir was solved. Because I tried so hard to decipher the language of the work."

I began searching for archival evidence concerning the printing of this commentary in Istanbul, and managed to find some documents dated 1905 relating to the reprint of the Tarjumān al-Mustafīd in Istanbul in 1906.

An article by Dr. Filiz Dığıroğlu mentions a Malay-language commentary in the following terms: "It is interesting that the only application made to the Tedkīk-i Müellefāt Committee from the province of Hijaz is related to the translation of Kadı Beyzāvī's Tafsir into the Jawi language. The request relates to the approval of the reprint of the translation of the tafsir published in Meccah." (Dığıroğlu 2018). I contacted Dr Dığıroğlu, who was researching the subject of Malay works published by the printing press in the Ottoman period. She was not aware that the said manuscript was in Bursa and was excited to learn of the copy that was brought to Istanbul for the printing of the work in 1884 and presented to Abdulhamid II.

I obtained the documents mentioned in Ms. Dığıroğlu's article from the Meşihat Archive in Istanbul and translated them from Ottoman Turkish: "Upon the request for the review of Qazi Beyzāvī Tafsir, which was translated into Jawi and printed with the approval of the editorial board of the Makkah printing house, since there was no officer who knew the Jawi language, the Makkah scholars who knew this language gave the approval for the printed edition of the tafsir. It has been reported that it is appropriate to reprint it." The identification of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd with the famous commentary by al-Baydawi (Beyzāvī) was erroneous (Riddell 1990), but this error found its way into the printed edition, being repeated in subsequent editions as well.

Document in Ottoman Turkish reporting the request to print the Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, 4 Cemaziyelahir 1323 (i.e. 6 August 1905). Meşihat Archive, IST_MFT_MSH_DFT02_01785 S.133, NR. 31.

After reading the application document to the Tedkīk-i Müellefāt Committee regarding the request for the tafsir to be published, I found in the Ottoman Archives the official approval issued by the Sheikhul-Islam for printing, in which it is stated: The petition for the reprint of Kadı Beyzāvī's Tafsir and the Jawi books of the Mecca printing house were checked by the inspection committee. Deciding that the translation is true to the original, it was reported that there was no obstacle for printing.

Official approval document issued by the Sheikhul-Islam to print the Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, 18 Cemaziyelahir 1323 (i.e. 20 August 1905). Ottoman Archives, Istanbul, BOA, MF.MKT./865-52-3.

This, therefore, is the story of the manuscript of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd that was brought to Istanbul for the printing press by Ahmad al- Fatānī and presented to Abdulhamid II, and which was the source of the first printed edition in 1884, which was reprinted in Istanbul in 1906. This manuscript copy was evidently then brought to Bursa from Istanbul and donated to the Faculty of Theology of Uludag University in Bursa in 1974.

Bibliography

Riddell, Peter G., Transferring a Tradition: ʿAbd Al-Ra'ūf Al-Singkilī's Rendering into Malay of the Jalālayan Commentary. Berkeley: Centers for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 1990.

Dığıroglu, Filiz, 'Religious Publishing in Abdulhamid II Era: Who Produces the Islamic Texts?', Journal of Marmara University Faculty of Theology, Issue 54, June 2018.