Main Article Content
Abstract
Brunei History Centre is one of Brunei Darussalam government's agency that handles Malay manuscript collection and preservation activities. Through inventory and cataloging studies carried out since the 1980s, the involvement of this centre is seen to be in line with other institutions such as the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, the Museums Department, and the Brunei National Archives as manuscript collectors and preservers. However, unlike in the institutions mentioned, the status of the Malay manuscripts collection at the Brunei History Centre has never been mentioned in detail. This article presents a discussion regarding the position of Malay manuscripts in Brunei by analyzing previous studies on the inventory and cataloging of manuscripts, as well as describing the Brunei History Center's manuscript collection in general. This discussion is based on literature research and fieldwork, as well as interviews with agency officials involved. Based on this research, 270 manuscripts were found, which could be categorized into several genres. In addition, a number of untitled manuscripts were also uncovered at the Brunei History Centre. This discussion is pertinent in efforts to establish the existence and potentiality of the Malay manuscript collection at the Brunei History Centre; particularly to foreign researchers in a bid to assist in creating a knowledge base with regards to the collection. In addition, this also serves as a guide for any future undertakings with regard to the appropriate procedures and approaches dealing with those manuscripts. Essentially, this discussion places an emphasis on the fact that the role of this collection could not be disregarded in the scholarly pursuits of Malay manuscripts, mainly from its context as a source of historical analysis as well as in the investigation of Malay-Islamic civilization.
Keywords
Article Details
Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Al-Tamaddun
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
By submitting manuscripts to the Journal of Al-Tamaddun, authors agree to transfer copyright to the journal. However, authors may republish their work or grant others permission to republish it; in which case it should be accompanied by a proper acknowledgment that the work was originally published in the Journal of Al-Tamaddun. The journal adopt CC-BY-NC licence which authors may also share and distribute their article anywhere of non-commercial website, social media and repositories immediately on publication.
Authors may also reuse the Abstract and Citation information (e.g. Title, Author name, Publication dates) of their article anywhere at any time including social media such as Facebook, blogs and Twitter, providing that where possible a link is included back to the article on the journal site.