Classical Malay

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Just recording about Malay language especially when we were disconnected with our ancestral land in Yemen because of family problems and unexpected events in life. I actually speak and understand few languages due our hybrid nature. While historically in South East Asia, our people are well-versed with Classical Malay and Arabic. When people talk about Classical Malay, automatically people would come to the language used in the Malacca Sultanate of 14th century.

However, we have our own version of Classical Malay language in Northern Malayan Peninsula. It is largely influenced by the Patanese and Acheen version of Classical Malay while there are also Classical Malay spoken in our capital in Alor Setar since 18th century.  Our sultanate was also invaded at once by the 16th century Acheen Sultanate of Northern Sumatera. Some people said that there was no Acheen influence in Kedah but there is "some" influence such as in cuisine where we also have their Kueh Karas and few Acheen words were absorbed in Kedah Malay for e.g jelan lidah (Acheen: jelen lidah) which means stick out the tongue. Other than that, we also received the kitabs from their Sultanate around 11th century just after the sultanate of Kedah accept Islam as the court religion.

The Classical Malay language was used to be a medium for all of the people in our sultanates to convey ideas and also as a medium of da'awa. Our people had also used Arabic script to transcript the previously Pallava written Malay maybe because they were lazy to learn the complex Pallava script or because they were non-Hindus. In Southern Thailand, the Classical Malay is known as Jawi language and is spoken in few provinces of Southern Thailand such as Yala, Patani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun. While in Malaysia, it is spoken with its variants in Kelantan and Baling or Sik in Kedah. My Malay actually sounds more like these people because I mingled with the Hulu people of Kedah and sometimes people might mistaken me to a Kelantanese, hehehe... 

Malay language exists in Northern Malayan Peninsula up to Krabi province in Thailand since the era of Srivijayan Buddhist Malay empire. Regarding Kedah Malay and their variants, I could say that I am quite expert in it and we also created our secret language where no one from other area or region would understand us. The grammar is more or less is according to old language. Sometimes, people who never read religious books in Classical Malay would be dumbfounded and thinking that we are of different era... I just learned to speak in Modern Standard Malay at school and it also makes me a lot in pain when I pronounce everything differently to what is written on the board...

Some words which were derived from the hybrid Classical Malay that we still use are like:

Kutub khanah (Persian): Library

Kitab (Arabic): Book

Pondok (Arabic): Madrasa, Motel

Melele (Malay): Temple

Sakar (Arabic): Sugar

Kanzulmal (Arabic): Treasury

Petitih (Malay): History

Perhamba, diperhamba (Malay): polite version of first pronoun

Boran (Sanskrit, Thai): Ancient, Old

Achard (Hindi): Pickled vegetable 

Faranggi (Persian): White man, caucasian

Kaus kaki: Shoes

Haram zadah (Persian): Bastard

Lau ayam (Thai+Malay): Chicken coop

Nyedra (Sanskrit): Sleep soundly... The real word is Chandra which means moon...

Taqwim (Arabic): Calender 

Dastar (Persian): Turban 

Narang (Persian): Orange

Cheruk (Khmer, Malay): Hidden land

Belalai (Malay): Nose  

Lebai (Persian): Non-Arabic speaking man who had performed pilgrimage usually indicated by their white skull-cap

Lemari (Portuguese): Closet 

Bantal kaki (Malay): Malay royalties' friend

Tali api (Malay): Wire

Pera-Pera (Malay): Plastic tupperware

Kerchong (Malay): Basket

Ngenjuk (Malay): Take and give something to someone 

Nowadays, we mixed the language a lot with English or even speaking fully in English because it makes us a lot easier to communicate with people including with Malays of other states. Other than that, we always use the particles such as "lah" or "pun" even when speaking in Chinese and we also spontaneously would use the beginning of sentences such as "makanya", haha... I checked these with some Hui Chinese students from China at my university last time and astonishingly some of the words especially of Arabic and Persian origin are similar to theirs while they were from rural region of Western China : O I think that these hybridization looks like Jewish hybrid languages in Europe too such as Ladino or Yiddish where we absorb the words that we listened and we also use our own words when we do not know native words, lol...

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

Tribute to Kedah : Some of History of Administration in 19th C II

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

I put this post here so foreign students who study in our university be it from South East Asia or other parts of the world could also access about the original possessor of Pulau Pinang where our institution is build on. Penang was the belonging of Kedah Sultanate. The same goes to Perlis state, hahaha. I don't care what Penangites wanted to say about this and I would like to be blunt that their form of Malay is not nice to my ears because they also commented that our Malay sounds more nasal, fast, difficult to be understood and weird. Some of my undergraduate colleague from Penang maybe pretended that they don't understand my Kedah Malay maybe to boast that they are urban people and we are from village. I live in Kuala Lumpur most of my life and never in my parents village (only sometimes with grandparents in Perlis) but I still can speak in our state Malay and not so fluent in others' Malay. I use English or Chinese when people do not understand my Malay. Most Chinese people in Penang that I found actually can speak in Kedah Malay as compared to those Malays (mamak or Indian Muslims) who speak in Indian style of North Malay language.

Penangites should be aware about this fact that they belong to us no matter if the island was already sold by trick to British. In the same time, when I mingle with some foreign students, I found that it is quite disappointing because they are not aware about their local friends origin nor bother trying to find out about their local friends but they had lived here more than a year. As for me I am aware about them all be they from India, Pakistan or China including about Indonesians and each main islands' history though I never been to their countries. Their people are abundant here especially in southern Malaysian states including who were issued with identity card from government officials in 1970s-1990s onward because they share ethnicity with southern Malay states citizens.

I also read Indonesian authors' book be it of socialism, communism and religious ideologies (Hindu and Islam) though I don't understand the vocabulary used as the veteran writers in Indonesia used Dutch words and other ethnic languages as compared to them who read nothing about their neighbors' books or literature so they are not aware that people are different. They assume that people in Malaysia might be the same or serumpun with them because of the language used in institutional Malaysia was standardized with their language but the fact about citizens is not like that. I also talked about the treatise of Arab descents that I found in our old house in the issue that the Ministry of Education tried to banish the usage of Arabic script in Malay documents simply because they want to standardize Classical Malay with more "modern" Indonesian language and another reason is to make Malay wider spoken by non-Malay and non-Arab ethnics. Our elders actually do not like the idea because it makes younger people and other Muslim ethnics becoming far from scripture studies.

Last time we have huge Arabic and Farsi terms in Classical Malay and these were also used in Kedah high level of speeches. It still survives in our form of Malay that I used to speak with our elders for example such as :

Persian Origin
 
1. Haram zadah/jadah - bastard
2. Dastar - turban
3. Faranggi - European, nowadays elders begin to use local word such as orang puteh (whites)
4. Samaan - bag, furniture, carpenter
5. Paqqir/Faqir - a sufi term to refer to one self when speaking to other respectable person as a sign of humility. It actually means I and I sometimes translate this into Chinese too when speaking to fellow Muslim Chinese brothers but I dunno if they understood this, hahahaha
6. Narang - orange

Arabic Origin and Pronunciation

1. Wazir - minister, supervisor
2. Daqqtour - doctor, Arabic style pronunciation, lol
3. Buzah - Buddha
4. Ittihaad - economy
5. Siyaasah - politics
6. Sundoq - piggy bank
7. Kitab - books no matter what ever book
8. Rodyu - Radio
9. Talavizen - Television
10. Jahannam - ruined, actually in real Arabic it means hell
11. Habeeb - usually used by Yemenite mission order people to refer to fellow brothers
12. Nazam - arrangement
13. Mishwarah - meeting
14. Mutakallim -  speaker, moderator, academic speeches
15. Fikrah - idea
16. Madrasah - school, sometimes we also say melele which refers to religious school
17. Toffah - apple, this is imported fruit, Kelantanese if I am not mistaken also use the same word

These word actually were still used 15 years ago when I mingled with our elders. Even now when I am writing in Malay also I am using some of these words an terms and many other friends actually do not understand it. It is only used among our people but sometimes I had forgotten and using them with non-Arab descent friends while talking. It also denotes our ethnicity and how orthodox we are in term of culture. Elders would also use the word according to period of time. Nowadays very difficult to hear these kind of speech anymore because many have passed away. Many youngsters now had abandon these simply because they found it as not modern and orthodox and nobody teach them these. So, this is the price that we pay just because we wanted to be looked modern or in the same level with others. I don't think if this is important but my experience now only shows that we will receive disappointment when we try to imitate others because others are also not strong in their identity. Why not we be proud with the identity that we already possessed? We are also proficient in our villages style of speech when we make friend with village folks. When rewinding these words, it makes me wanted to seriously learn Farsi and polishing my Arabic but now I am still occupied... huhuhuhu.....  

I would like to advise as a Muslim who are not bounded by geography, try to be aware and caring about each other. Recognize diversity and differences. Don't be selfish and thinking that only we are the one who inhabit the earth. If we have this kind of attitude we won't be mercy-compassionate to ourselves and others.      

Figures from Kedah post-Malaysia 1957

Tunku Abdul Rahman

The Sultanate of Kedah has leaders who looks far to the future. They think also about the future of the sultanate and its safety. Among them is Tunku Abdul Rahman who was the first Prime Minister of Malaysia. He was the son of Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah from the Sultanate of Kedah. I am sure Indonesian friends know about him because he was the figure who was involved in the Confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia where Soekarno at that time was the President of the Republic of Indonesia. Tunku Abdul Rahman mother is a Mon ethnic of Martaban royal family from today's Myanmar and she was a Buddhist. Mon is an ancient ethnic of Myanmar and Thailand. They are not identical to Thais. When their country was annexed, the Mons and their royalties ran to Siam and seeking refuge because the emperor of Siam has family connection with the Mons royalties. The Mons are devout Theravada Buddhists, Buddhist missionaries and their ancient country were known as Phra Nakorn Sri Dvaravati which consists of ancient city-states in modern Thailand today and Myanmar. There was a temple dedicated to the maternal grandmother of Tunku Abdul Rahman in Alor Setar. My late maternal grandpa call it as melele which means temple to gain meritorious deeds. Melele also refer to Islamic madrasah in our state language.

Mahathir Muhammad

Other one who become known in federal stage is Mahathir Muhammad. He is from Alor Setar. His father is an Indian Muslim whose origin from Kerala state of India.  I was born in his era where he begins his career as a prime minister in 1981 the year where my third sister was born and he resigned in 2003 where I was an O-Level student in Semenyih in Selangor. I will be honest here too. I do not like this guy for some of his ideas, I don't care about his visions and I think he is an ego though he is from my state but during his time he also tries to bring back our state's ancient connection with Cambodia because we can watch many Cambodian and Thai movies in government television channel. Because of this, we are aware also about other ASEAN countries as compared to other ASEAN countries citizen. Because of him too I am now a political studies student and not a religious studies student. He said that we, madrasah and religious studies students will only be tukang kukuq nyiuq (coconut grater guy) in the village. It also means that when trying to catch up with materialism development, we have to look down on religious studies? Actually religious studies students were aware about the need of technology and we never look down at physical science studies but we were attacked by politicians and becoming the victims of situation. People even in religious school had also lose respect to their own self when listening to this kind of speech and we become not confident with our selves and for me I lose faith in our own religion after listening to this. People are of different nature, inclination and ability. That is the fact that this guy should realize.

So, two of Malaysian Prime Ministers were from Kedah Sultanate. One who was known as Abdullah Badawi was from mainland Penang and it was our territory too. Actually I am not trying to be proud with all of these figures because I don't care at all about them. I just care about my state and our sultanate like our ancestors did. If people asking me what is my citizenship now, I will first say I am from Kedah no matter if people recognize it or not in world map. Then only I will say I hold Malaysian passport. So, this is the complexity of Malaysia as a Federation of states/countries.   

Figures in Kedah in Pre-Malaysia

Before 1957, there were two figures being appointed as Kedah Chief Minister. At this time only our status as a country being degraded to a state so our officials like Prime Minister have to be called as Chief Minister to represent the authority of our country/state.

The first is Haji Muhammad Sharif bin Osman (1948-1954) and the second is His Highness Tunku Isma'il bin Tunku Yahya (1954-1959). Both of them were the pioneer for today's administration system in our sultanate. They had revolutionized our sultanate education system, religion, public health and medical system, communication and urban development. They are all in social, economic and political development.

When Malayan Peninsula achieved its independence from British Empire or the Great Britain, Kedah Sultanate begin to receive new projects and infrastructures according to phases through our Chief Ministers chosen by citizens who tried to defend our rights at Federal Territory level. 

Those who became Chief Ministers of Kedah after 1957 were :

1. Sayyid Omar bin Sayyid Abdullah Shahabuddin, 1959-1967

2. Sayyid Ahmad bin Sayyid Mahmud Shahbuddin, 1967-1978

3. Sayyid Nahar bin Sayyid Sheikh Shahabuddin, 1978-1985

4. Osman bin Arof 1985-1995

5. Sanusi bin Junid, 1995-1999

6. Sayyid Razak bin Sayyid Zayn Barakbah, 1999-2005

7. Mahadzir Khalid, 2005-2008

8. Azizan Abdul Razak, 2008-2012

Urm, most of these ministers are of Arab descent and actually were Malayan Arabs or Hadramis/Yemenis just like my self and others who are now considering themselves as Malay. Now I will call them Arab who deny themselves or Arab tak sedar diri, hahaha. How do we know that they are non-Malays? They used the title Sayyid. There are also Arabs who used the title Wan like my previous post talked about, those who used the title Sharif or Malay folks will call them as Soreahh, those who only used the title Sheikh to denote their religious teacher ancestors and also those who omit their title because of few reasons. Besides that, there are also Indian Muslim who put the name Sayyid to their son who is born in Friday especially from Penang. This one is not Sayyid of Arab ancestry. It is known as Sayyid Juma'at, hahaha. Usually orthodox Arab descents will only permit their people to marry their daughters or those who are related to them because of their interpretation of their traditional school of jurisprudence, Shafi'ie madzhab. Immigrant Arabs were not as orthodox as this, hahaha. Nowadays, some do not really care about this anymore. I am also laughing to this kind of people if they still exist, hahahaa.

I am not sure about the ethnicity status of the fourth Chief Minister of Kedah Sultanate. My dad served his office as a secretary around 1994-1995 in Wisma Darul Aman. At this time I had to move with my family to Kedah state like what I talked in previous posts. Sanusi bin Junid is an Achehnese by ethnicity. So, Malayan Arabs actually were involved in our state affairs. All of these people were representing the Malay Nationalist party so I guess that is why I am also forced to be assumed as other ethnicity though I am not a politician. The current Chief Minister, Mr. Azizan Abdul Razak is not from Malay Nationalist party but from Islamic brotherhood party.

I don't care much about political party but this is the scene of our politics. I assume the seventh and the current Chief Minister as Malays too but who knows they might also have Arab or Indian ancestry too. It is a very personal matter unless if they themselves talk about this or showing their lineage lists according to their family oral traditions of elders. Usually younger generations do not care much and elders also do not care to tell younger generations unless if the younger one ask them or forcing them to speak out. 

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love amin!          

Why racial background is always according to spoken language or attire?

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Last Week's Experience

Last week while waiting for Friday sermon, I had greeted a Muslim Chinese brother, an undergraduate or just English language student at the language center but I had forgotten to speak in English. His name is something like Yeong Yeong but I don't normally ask people's personal name in the beginning except their surname but he told me his name so be it, haha. I just cynically tell him I am a Chinese, why I can't speak my own language? Hehehehe... Then he seems like at lost to see a non-Chinese face speaking in Chinese. He said that he thought I was a Malay. It was not weird in China or even in Thailand where non-Han ethnics speaking in Mandarin Chinese but why making that face here? Well, this is not my first time being looked like some kind of alien from Mars because our compatriots whether of Chinese descent or Malays also looked at me like that.

The Issue

I just feel weird because our spoken language does not really reflect our identity. I hate people calling me a Malay simply because I speak in Malay, pelet Kedah piao lagi. We are not Malays although many of us refused to be known differently from Malays. That's their problem but for me why should I lie????! I am aware about my origin since I began to check them with paternal elders. We speak in Malay because it is our state's national language. Our state had earlier exist in the form of kingdom and sultanate before our country (Malaysia) exist because it only exist after British gathered all of the states in the peninsula into a federal entity and giving them independence. 

It's just the same like Hui Chinese in China who does not like to be known as Han but we are different in term that both Malays and us are Muslim, the same religion. Sometimes error happens in identification during British occupation because the concept of nation-state of British was also exercised in the state's administration. I think people should acknowledge us as Arabs of North Indian sub-continent descent or Malayan Arabs in contrast to Arabs from Middle East and we are also non-Indian. I feel offended when the term Jawi Peranakan is used to also include us as Indians. We use Arabic script in all of our writings while Muslim Indians in Malaysia have their own vernacular religious studies classes. We preserve many of Arabic pronunciation though we are not fluent in Arabic anymore. Most of all, those Arabic speaking people in Middle East were not pure Arabs in majority but some of them are Kurdish, Roman descent, Assyrians, Levants (only if they admit that they are wild Arabs) and etc.

There are many Arabs associated to prophet Muhammad s.a.w family who were expelled to Iran, Turkey and India due to the war before the establishment of Umayyad caliphate. Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal and Baba Abdul Qadir were among them whose family moved to Persian empire provinces. Our people or community never really mingle with natives though our ancestors spreading the message of prophethood because of some differences but it is different today because many youngsters began to abandon their identity. This does not mean that we are bunch of boastful idiots who wanted to show off if we talk about this but it is just the matter of identity. We could see what happen if we do not take care about our identity or trying to abandon it. Example is myself where I feel so low and began to turn away to others' tradition (Buddhism) but I am lucky enough that He brought me back to the path. 

I don't know how many people like us who turned to others' path. I checked about converts to Christianity from Islam for example just to be away from comfort zone for a moment and the result I found one for example John Avaterranean/Muhammad Shukri Effandi who was baptized as a Christian because he was not aware about his family background which also includes his family religious background. He wrote a book titled a Muslim who became a Christian. The translation of this book is online so everybody could access it and check it our selves, click here to read.   

Urm, about the persatuan Syed hazzab something which comes out in the news paper I don't know from which state and I am not interested to join any organization. I am not apart of them because we are from Kedah state and we are of Gujarat Arab ancestry. Our custom apart of it is to hide our title and we never put any title in front of our names so people could not differentiate us from others. We do not associate ourselves to religion in front of people but our elders were actually very conservative and orthodox. We behave just like natives and we are very proud of our state. We love our sultan and other compatriots regardless whether they are Malay, Siamese, Chinese or etc. It's to the extend that we never really acknowledge Perlis as a different state because we only recognize it as our sultan's land. The same thing to Penang Island.

We love Kedah Malay language and we write in the language but nowadays I feel more comfortable with English and Chinese if I am not speaking in Kedah Malay (differently from Malaysian Malay based from Johor-Riau Malay). We always feel angry when people who are not from Kedah trying to speak in the language without first learning it and showing it in the national medias because it ruins our national language and mocking our state's cultural traits as to portray how patriotic we are to our beloved state. We are the descents of 17th century Arab travelers and our paternal line were from Gujarat: Ahmedabad and Surat of India. These places were the posts of Arab soldiers and some Muslim Arabs from Sindh province of Multan kingdom in today's Pakistan were also expelled there to Gujarat after Muslim civil war before they dispersed more to southern part which is Malayan Peninsula, Lower Myanmar, South Thai and Sumatera in further India. Gujarat was also the center of da'awat for Ismai'ili Shi'a Muslims of Musta'ali branch after Yemen and Fatimid Egypt. This tradition of da'awat was already exercised by our people regardless madzhab or side since before the existence of Tablighi Jama'at movement from Deoband.

Diary about Relatives

We post this not to boast na'udzubillah but just a matter of fact so that people around don't simply judge people because of their spoken language or just because they wear Baju Melayu or Chongsum. To my maternal relatives if you happen to stumble by here but you feel like recognize who is this Abdullah, stop judging my mum and dad because you know no sh*t about our life or our paternal ancestry as we were not religious in appearance but you still slander us just because maternal grandma loves us and close to us. She was close to us because we always return to the village visiting and staying with her while they rarely see her though they lived close to her. We lived in the capital and taking the pain to see relatives in the midst of pressuring life.

We don't want any money from late grandparents or anyone. As for me I even never use my dad's position to get government job when he was a contract government servant. My dad was a lowly reporter whom my cousin brother used to hurt my feeling when he said to me don't be a reporter like my dad. I was a 13 years old boy and that makes me feel alone in Perlis while studying in the madrasah. Among the reason I slowly became bitter toward Islam and its adherents is because of relatives. I began to find friends in Thai Buddhist temples due to that cousin brother was a supporter of a political party associated with Muslim brotherhood and I was just a little child. At least dad works and getting his salary with dignity for 20 years before being a government contract worker for government only to be sacked with humiliation. He does not smuggle rice from Thailand. He was our bread-winner and our hero though not religious. We are not cheap people and we have dignity! Now I am proving it by rejecting any scholarship or assistance from government. I don't take any zakat (tithe) for Ibnu Sabeel and only depending on the Lord because I know that it will be rejected without any reply and Allah made my heart feel heavy to apply any help from human anymore. I don't take sadaqah (donation) from people unless if they mention it as present or I'll dump them all or giving them to others.

Insha Allah I will return to the path and my responsibility but I will never associate myself to government or any political movement just like Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal. There is a significance why I choose his school of jurisprudence and not adhering to our Yemenite order school of jurisprudence, which is Shafi'ie school. I respect Imam Shafi'ie but I know more about Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal and how he has to face torments from leaders who were not fearful to Allah.

Concluding

This is also about the history of minority ethnics in Malaysian state. Anything in the post about what I feel is just my opinion and what I personally feel... Everybody including Malays, Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Tamils have the right to have some pride in themselves but why we can't and were demanded to stay with dual identity? If we talk about these, people would assume that we are trying to boast about ourselves. Our ancestors had also involved in defending the Kedah state for the sultan and people and preventing northern region from being absorbed by Siamese empire before the arrival of British. Mentions about this is also in researchers notes like the late Wan Saghir's researches but its just that we don't feel it is important to tell people. I just feel weird...

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!

Mid Term Break: Sightseeing in Acheen and Armenian Streets

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Colonial style houses at the row of Yap Temple

Thursday, 14 Zulhijjah 1432 H (10 Nov 2011) 10:00 am

We came to some heritage trail because Georgetown of Penang Island is recognized as a heritage site by UNESCO and this institution I am studying in is in Penang Island, hehehe. I went back to Bukit Gambir but I didn't return to my hostel. I just wait for the bus to Georgetown. Feel bored and empty but I bring some books with me so I read them while waiting for bus. I went off from the bus at Little India. I had visited the area and I feel not interested to be there anymore. I just walked my way to the side of Yap Temple which is a Chinese clan temple.   

Yap Temple

Yap Temple 

 Another angle of Yap Temple

I walked into the temple... The environment around is heavy with jossticks smokes and they had arranged some offerings for ancestors with fruits and some candles in the shape of lotus. I didn't take pictures to respect the temple because it seems that they are having an occasion though they didn't prevent me from snapping pictures as long as it is not in flash mode. Few Chinese nationals or perhaps Taiwanese are also looking around the temple. Penang Chinese community is still maintaining pre-Cultural Revolution cultural traits of Chinese community because they were not involved in Cultural Revolution event in China. To describe the internal part of the temple, it's just an ancestral temple with ancestral name plaques and some idols of god at the altar. They also provide jossticks and offering stuffs like papers to be burn with some charge or donation. Just walking around in the temple for about 10 minutes because nothing much to see except in the other building at the side they sell porcelains and pictures.

Islamic Museum

Penang Islamic Museum 

Penang Islamic Museum was actually the residence of Syed Ahmad al-Attas. He is an Arab merchant from Acheh of Indonesia today. He became a leader for the community in Acheen street mosque during the Penang Riot of 1867. I read the Chinese character at the street sign, it is written as 打石街 Tashi Jie. It was restored around 1993-1994 in a pilot restoration spearheaded by state government through municipal council implementation. Federal government also helped with technical assistance by French government.

 90 years old handwritten Quran

Naqshabandi credential letter to Sheikh Omar Basheer the mufti of Pulau Pinang by Arabian government before the order was banned by Pulau Pinang government

Hajji Fatheel Basheer collection of artifacts, he's a "Malay" figure who had been given the task to develop Malay village in Ayer Itam, Pulau Pinang since 1931. These artifacts was exhibited in Penang State Museum in 1964. The long one is walking stick of 1922 belongs to Zechariah Basheer, Palestine Spoon a Saucer brought home from Palestine by Sheikh Omar Basheer in 1310 H, and incense container of 1908.

Sheikh Omar Basheer diary written in Arabic which is a surviving document about Penang Riot of 1867
 

Traditional circumcision set. Muslim boys are usually circumcized when they reach 13 years old which is the tradition of patriarchs Abraham and Ishmael a.s

Wooden boxes with Quranic verses carved on them and wooden door

 

Terengganu inscription replica in Malay written with Arabic script about the introduction of Islam in the state

Stuffs involved in traditional medication production used by Syed Ahmad al-Attas family such as pots, grinders and trays

Ceramics where some of them were produced in Iran around the late of 17th C

Crafts made from leaves and metal

Incense pots which is apart of Arabian culture and the lowest part of the rack is betel leaves' set which represents Malay culture

The above part of the rack are Jambiah which is Arabian tribal weapon and it is a kind of knife. Lowest part are Malay daggers or keris and parangs for self defence

Wood carvings with Quranic verses usually being decorations in masjids and holy places

 Musical instruments like arbab, gambus, and flute. Arbab is also used as Thai and Lao musical instruments while gambus is Arabian style musical instrument. The flute is used in Northern Malaysian Peninsula as well. This is some differences between Northern and Southern Malaysian states in term of cultural traits.

Penang Prominent Peranakan Arab Figures

From this museum walk, I get to know few prominent figures of Arab descent. Not all of them are with the title syed (lord) but some are with the title sheikh or have no title at all.

Sheikh Omar Basheer

This guy is a Muslim scholar with his clan name Basheer. An Arab descent, I guess his mother or grandmother is a native. He is from Khalidy Naqshabandi order and this order is classified as illegal by religious authority. I am not really sure about the reasons because sometimes religious authority could also be influenced by politics. There are politics in every place. Khalid was a teacher of the Naqshabandi tariqa in Mecca. Sheikh Omar Basheer had propagate the tariqa and suluk form of retreat in Penang. This order is also popular in Indonesia, Johore, and Kedah. This figure had issued a legal ruling to stop Muslims from joining secret societies in Penang. British administration also referred to him in matters of Islam and Malays affair. He was an imam in Acheen street masjid and a teacher in Ayer Itam masjid. Before that he was a Qadhi (Jurist) in Demak, Java Island and he returned to Penang because of his wife and two children death. He passed away in 1881 and was buried in Ayer Itam, Penang.  

Syed Ahmad al-Attas

The mansion which is now the museum is his residence. He was an Arab spice trader from Acheh and Acheh is an Indonesian province in Sumatera Island. The mansion was build around 1860s. Mr. al-Attas has two wives. His first wife is a Malay noble woman of royal court. His second wife is a Chinese woman, the daughter of a Strait Chinese black pepper merchant whose name is Khoo Teang Poh (Qiu Tianpao). So, some Arab descents had also been classified as Chinese or associated with Chinese face, lol. I don't know what happened to this guy's children but I know many prominent leaders with this clan name such as the founding member of Malaysian People's Movement party (GERAKAN), Mr. Syed Hussein al-Attas. He formed the party around 1968 as an offshoot of Labor party and nowadays the party is the party with majority Chinese members working with the National Front parties while the founder of this party is a Hadrami Arab.

In 1870s, this Syed Ahmad guy became a staunch supporter of Achehnese movements to expel Dutch imperial power from Northern Sumatera. He sponsored weapons and guns to those people, perhaps his mother is Achehnese so those people are technically his maternal brothers. The residence was not only a mansion but also a place of secret meeting among Achehnese leaders.

In 1930s until 1960s, the mansion had became a place of recycle by Chettiars (Indian). In 1995, the mansion became a place to enhance the love toward art and history through its architecture. It was used as a heritage center. Now, this guy's house became Islamic museum and I walked inside the house.

Place Name: Muzium Islam Pulau Pinang

Address: No. 128 Lebuh Armenian 10200, Penang

Contact: (phone) 604-2620172/2503021 (fax) 604-2644692

Web: www.penangislamicmuseum.net

Visiting Hours: Everyday 9:00-17:30

Closed: Tuesdays

Ticket: Adult, RM3, Kids, RM1, the uncle gave me discount as I am a student, RM2 yaye! 

Closing The Post

Finished the visit... The upper part of this museum is still in renovation so I have no chance to visit it. Anyone having some free time come to visit this museum and show us what's new up there, haha

Through His will I wish to have some trips to Alor Setar to get some more information. After I've finished this degree I would also like to plan a travel to Gujarat in India as well as Yemen. For now, I have no political and economic interests like others because I live like other non-Bumis. So, I don't care about Malay rights or identification in my documents because I didn't get any benefit from that. I have to work hard to survive like others and only believe the God as my Protector and Friend.

My experience, when I was in Sekolah Agama Rakyat (State Religious School) after mum brought me home from Perlis (I had already been tied with Buddhist sacred thread but I didn't consider the proclamation of refuge to Buddhism teachings yet until I reached 15 years old), those Selangor Javanese officers in religious department also had treated us like foreigners. It was because we are not natives in Selangor state although if we checked back the Javanese officers background, perhaps they're also of immigrants from Indonesia of 1970s. We didn't get textbooks assistance too and we have to buy everything. We weren't rich people with many siblings but nobody believes us or perhaps playing do not understand. Nowadays, we don't believe any free thing. We have to pay and work for everything and thank You dear the God because You made me return to our path because it is not the fault of the path but fault of human-being with negative thoughts : )

Last time I didn't even put "Malay" in my documents though my late grandpa had registered my dad as a "Malay." If he is still alive today perhaps I would ask him why we have to be registered with our mothers identity like Jews? We are not Jews and I don't want to be one because we indeed are not Jews though some of them in the East are our cousins. I just ticked "others" and I hate the question for racial background in documents and forms. I don't know what is the benefit of checking people's racial background when we are the citizen of the same country???! Those of non-Malay background could not get any help or assistance? Any difference in treatments?

There are many kind of non-Malay natives who had been here since few hundred of years before independence like the Siamese, the half native Portuguese speaking Luso Christians of Malacca whom are Catholics, the Baba and Nyonya of Chinese descent, the Ibanese, the Dusun-Kadazan of Borneo, Orang Asli Semenanjung and many others. They were all recognized according to their ethnicity but Peranakan Arab were not recognized while being forced to have hidden identity (including lying on their obvious background to get business tender). 

I had also snapped some pictures of Acheen Street Masjid but I don't know what's wrong with the system. It doesn't want to accept the picture. I had long tried to access the masjid and recording it into documents. It is known as Malay Masjid but the founder of the masjid is Mr. al-Attas. Never mind, nations are all brothers and sisters. But we should not lie to others. That's what I am trying to say. Just tell the truth, it is difficult but at least it makes us feel better.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!