1 Braginsky, Vladimir, ‘Malay scribes on their craft and audience (with special reference to the description of the reading assembly by Safirin bin Usman Fadli)’, Indonesia and the Malay world, 86 (2002): 43–8Google Scholar. All translations mine unless otherwise noted.

2 Ibid., p. 44.

3 Refer to Ibid., p. 53.

4 Ibid., p. 53.

5 See Harun, Jelani, ‘Sifat-Sifat perempuan menurut Syeikh Nuruddin ar-Raniri dalam Kitab Bustanus Salatin’, Dewan Sastera, 26 (1996): 37Google Scholar.

6 See Sham, Abu Hassan, Syair-syair Melayu Riau (Kuala Lumpur: Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, 1995), p. 70Google Scholar.

7 See Syair Siti Zubaidah perang Cina, ed. Abdul Mutalib Abdul Ghani (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1983), p. xix.

8 Kratz, Ulrich, ‘Running a lending library in Palembang in 1886 A.D.’, Indonesia Circle, 14 (1977): 4Google Scholar.

9 Ibid., p. 7.

10 Ibid., p. 6.

11 Braginsky, Vladimir, The heritage of traditional Malay literature (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004), pp. 544, 546Google Scholar.

12 Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680, vol. 1 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), pp. 215–25Google Scholar.

13 Ibid., p. 217.

14 Andaya, Barbara Watson, The flaming womb: Repositioning women in early modern Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006), p. 53Google Scholar.

15 Ibid., pp. 53–4.

16 Ibid., p. 54.

17 Ibid.

18 Sham, Abu Hassan, Puisi-puisi Raja Ali Haji (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1993), pp. 75–6Google Scholar; Matheson, Virginia, ‘Questions arising from a nineteenth-century Riau syair’, RIMA, 17 (1983): 9, 41–4Google Scholar; Wieringa, Edwin, ‘Female emancipation or literary convention? The theme of the woman who set out to free her husband in the Malay Syair saudagar bodoh (ca. 1861) by Raja Kalzum’, RIMA, 31, 2 (1997): 13Google Scholar.

19 Matthes (1856), quoted in Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, vol. 1, p. 219.

20 On Puteri's, Engku influence, see The precious gift (Tuhfat al-nafis), ed. and trans. Matheson, Virginia and Andaya, Barbara Watson (Kuala Lumpur: OUP, 1982), pp. 211, 222, 237, 245 and 254Google Scholar. On the texts, see Wieringa, Edwin, Catalogue of Malay and Minangkabau manuscripts, vol. 1 (Leiden: Legatum Warnerianum, 1998), pp. 77, 127–9Google Scholar.

21 Tengku or Engku Selangor is probably Engku Puteri's younger half-sister, Engku Tengah, who was Tengku Ampuan of Selangor.

22 Wieringa, Catalogue, facsimile on p. 76.

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27 Riddell, Peter, Transferring a tradition: ‘Abd al-Ra'uf al-Singkili's rendering into Malay of the Jalalayn commentary (Berkeley: Monograph Series, Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies), 1990, pp. 13–14Google Scholar.

28 Katalog manuskrip Melayu koleksi Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia: Tambahan pertama (Kuala Lumpur: Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, 2001), pp. 36, 42, 49.

29 Dobbin, Christine, ‘Islamic revivalism in Minangkabau at the turn of the nineteenth century’, Modern Asian studies, 8, 3 (1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Cited in Andaya, Barbara Watson and Matheson, Virginia, ‘Islamic thought and Malay tradition: The writings of Raja Ali Haji of Riau (ca. 1809–ca. 1870)’, in Perceptions of the past in Southeast Asia, ed. Reid, A. and Marr, D. (Singapore: Heinemann, 1979), p. 113Google Scholar.

31 Watson Andaya and Matheson, ‘Islamic thought’, pp. 112–13.

32 Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, ‘Naqshbandiyya’, Encyclopedia of Islam, 2^nd edn, p. 938.

33 Matheson and Watson Andaya, Tuhfat, pp. 283–4.

34 On Raja Ali Haji's friendship with Von de Wall, see Di dalam berkekalan persahabatan: ‘In everlasting friendship’. Letters from Raja Ali Haji, ed. Jan van der Putten and Al-Azhar (Leiden: Semaian, 1995). For the characterisation of Raja Ali Haji, see Riddell, Peter G., Islam in the Malay-Indonesian world: Transmission and response (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001), p. 191Google Scholar.

35 Raja Ali Haji in Abu Hassan Sham, Puisi-puisi Raja Ali Haji, p. 375.

36 Ibid., pp. 383–4.

37 Raja Ali Haji in Puisi-puisi, ed. Abu Hassan Sham, p. 280.

38 Ibid., p. 325.

39 ‘adab al-zawjah ‘ala al-zawj iaitu adab isteri atas suami’. Raja Ali Haji in ed. Abu Hassan Sham, Puisi-puisi, pp. 435–43.

40 ‘Syair Suluh Pegawai’, Raja Ali Haji in Puisi-puisi Raja Ali Haji, p. 331.

41 That is, if ‘surat Kurais Raja Alam’ is Hikayat Koris Mengindera, as seems likely. See Di dalam berkekalan persahabatan, p. 40.

42 Notulen van de algemeene en bestuurs-vergaderingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, vol. 4 (Batavia: Lange & Co., 1867), p. 191.

43 Klinkert also noted that his copy of Syair Selindung Delima was ‘copied by a woman at Penyengat’, but did not provide a name. See Iskandar, Catalogue, p. 733.

44 Drewes, Gerardus Willebrordus Joannes, Directions for travellers on the mystic path (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1977), p. 198Google Scholar.

45 See http://www.sabda.org/sejarah/artikel/dicari_penerjemah_alkitab.htm (last accessed on 10 Mar. 2009).

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47 van Ronkel, Philip Samuel, ‘Catalogus der Maleische handschriften van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie, 57 (1909): 321Google Scholar. Unfortunately van Ronkel does not date the MS, and his note is now lost.

48 Raja Ali Haji in van Eysinga, P.P. Roorda, ‘Abdoel Moeloek, koning van Barbarije’, Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie, 9, 4 (1847): 291Google Scholar.

49 Di dalam berkekalan persahabatan, p. 40.

50 See van der Putten, Jan, His word is the truth: Haji Ibrahim's letters and other writings (Leiden: CNWS, 2001), p. 212Google Scholar.

51 Quoted in Teeuw, Andries, ‘The Malay sha'ir: Problems of origin and tradition’, BKI, 122 (1966): 429–30Google Scholar.

52 In Abu Hassan Sham, Puisi-puisi Raja Ali Haji, p. 374.

53 Braginsky, Heritage, p. 542.

54 Woolf, Virginia, A room of one's own (London: Penguin, 2000), pp. 50–1Google Scholar.

55 See Proudfoot on how Penyengat has come to occupy a ‘peculiar position in the history of Malay philology’, ‘An expedition into the politics of Malay philology’, JMBRAS, 76, 1 (2003): 31. Similarly, Ulrich Kratz points out how European intervention may have distorted the manuscript record, in ‘The editing of Malay manuscripts and textual criticism’, Bijdragen, 137 (1988), pp. 236–7.

56 In Hikayat Bayan Budiman, ed. Winstedt (Kuala Lumpur: OUP, 1966), p. 146.

57 British Library B.5 (IO 2608) Hikayat Putra Jaya Pati, f. 26. I am indebted to Vladimir Braginsky for this reference, and for correcting Winstedt's claim that this text is a version of Hikayat Indraputra. See Winstedt, Richard Olof, History of classical Malay literature (Kuala Lumpur: MBRAS Reprint, 1996), pp. 52 and 57Google Scholar.

58 Leiden University Library Klinkert 139, Syair Sultan Yahya, p. 4.

59 Leiden University Library Klinkert 164, Syair Saudagar Bodoh, p. 8.

60 For further information on Muhammad Bakir, see Henri Chambert-Loir, ‘Malay literature in the nineteenth century: The Fadli connection’, in Variation, transformation and meaning, ed. Johannes Jacobus Ras and Stuart Owen Robson (Leiden: KITLV Press, 1991).

61 Antologi syair simbolik dalam sastera Indonesia lama (Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, n.d), p. 38.

62 On the Islamisation of these syair, see Koster, Gijs, ‘Making it new in 1884: Lie Kim Hok's Syair Siti Akbari’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 154, 1 (1998): 99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Salleh, Siti Hawa Haji, Kesusasteraan Melayu abad kesembilan-belas (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2002), p. 24Google Scholar.

64 In Bunga rampai sastera lama II, ed. Kamarulzaman bin Abdul Halim et al. (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1962), p. 57. However, the two manuscripts of Hikayat Koris Mengindera listed in Dewan Bahasa's catalogue are said to have belonged to Sharifah Mastura binti Syed Shahabudin and Che' Lara, Manja, wife of Halim Syah, Sultan Abdul Hamid. Katalog manuskrip koleksi Perpustakaan Dewan Bahasa (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1983), pp. 28–9Google Scholar.

65 Katalog manuskrip koleksi Perpustakaan Dewan Bahasa, pp. 48, 50, 40.

66 Katalog manuskrip Melayu koleksi Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia tambahan kedua (Kuala Lumpur: Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, 2002), pp. 61, 154; Tambahan ketiga (Kuala Lumpur: Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, 2003), p. 34.

67 Iskandar, Catalogue, pp. 417, 53, 418

68 The owner of the manuscript has the non-gender-specific name Encik Sulung, ‘cucu kepada Encik Ribut orang Tanjung Pinang’. Leiden University Library Klinkert 32, Hikayat Syah Firman, final page. See van der Putten, His word is the truth, p. 226.

69 Ming, Ding Choo, Raja Aisyah Sulaiman: Pengarang ulung wanita Melayu (Bangi: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 1999), pp. 175–86Google Scholar.

70 Possibly ‘hamba yang karib’ is a misreading of the more usual ‘hamba yang gharib’. Refer to Ding, Raja Aisyah Sulaiman, p. 179.

71 Personal communication from Annabel Teh Gallop, 24 Mar. 2004. For Tengku Ampuan Mariam's book on dance, see Ismail, Siti Zainon and Piah, Harun Mat, Lambang Sari: Tari Gamelan Terengganu (Bangi: UKM, 1986)Google Scholar.

72 Klinkert, H.C. ‘Twee Maleische handschriften’, Bijdragen, 28 (1880): 512Google Scholar.

73 See Gallop, Annabel Teh, Legacy of the Malay letter / Warisan warkah Melayu (London: The British Library for the National Archives of Malaysia, 1994), pp. 201, 220, 223Google Scholar; Wieringa, Catalogue, p. 427.

74 Iskandar, Catalogue, pp. 802–4. On Riau tarasul, see van der Putten, His word is the truth, p. 14.

75 Kratz, Ulrich, ‘Like a fish gasping for water: The letters of a temporary spouse from Bengkulu’, Indonesia and the Malay world, 100 (2006): 255Google Scholar.

76 Gallop, Legacy, p. 201.

77 Ibid., pp. 201, 220, 223; Wieringa, Catalogue, p. 427.

78 See Iskandar, Catalogue, p. 722.

79 Changing styles of love letter writing are discussed by Wieringa, Edwin, ‘Writing love: Expressing nearness and dearness in Malay-language love letters’, Indonesia and the Malay world, 31 (2003): 317–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 Putten, Jan van der, ‘Dead letters: Undeliverable Malay letters from the early 1870s’, Indonesia and the Malay world, 31 (2003): 392CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 British Library Malay Mss B3. ‘kertas Olanda dilayang angin / putih kuning sambutlah tuan’, f. 44 r.

82 Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, p. 218.

83 Ibid., p. 217.

84 Nathan, J.E., The census of British Malaya 1921 (London: Waterlow and Sons Ltd., 1922), pp. 107, 109Google Scholar.

85 Ibid., p. 109.

86 Hamer, C. Den, ‘De Sair Madi Kentjana’, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 33 (1890): 531Google Scholar.

87 Ibid.

88 Proudfoot, Ian, The print threshold in Malaysia (Clayton, Vic.: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1994), p. 43Google Scholar.

89 See ‘Tanggapan pengarang Riau terhadap budaya bandar di pulau jiran’, SARI, 25 (2007): 149.

90 Proudfoot, The print threshold, p. 43.

91 The four most frequently republished titles in the boom years of the Malay lithographic press were syair for women readers: Syair Sultan Abdul Muluk, Syair Siti Zubaidah, Syair Haris Fadhilah and Syair Sultan Yahya. See Proudfoot, Ian, Early Malay printed books (Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Malaya, 1993), p. 29Google Scholar.

92 Jones, Russell, ‘The origins of the Malay manuscript tradition’, in Cultural contact and textual interpretation, ed. Grijns, C.D. and Robson, S.O. (Dordrecht: Foris, 1986), p. 139Google Scholar.

93 Siti Hawa Haji Salleh, Kesusasteraan Melayu abad kesembilan-belas, pp. 10–11.

94 Baron, Beth, The women's awakening in Egypt: Culture, society, and the press (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 80–1Google Scholar.

95 Tucker, Judith E., Women in nineteenth-century Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 124CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

96 Baron, Women's awakening, p. 81.

97 Ibid., p. 82.

98 According to Reid, ‘Islam took with it to Southeast Asia a very different sexual morality which regarded it as not only unnecessary but also dangerous for women to be able to write’, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, p. 220. Raja Ali Haji's work spells out the more punitive sexual morality that revivalist Islam applied to women, but the syair by women of his family suggests that reading and writing remained open to them.

99 Tucker, Women in nineteenth-century Egypt, p. 124.

100 Puisi-puisi Raja Ali Haji, p. 433. This verse is marginalia on the earliest surviving manuscript, dated to 1914, and so may relate to a slightly later era. However, the manuscript did belong to a Penyengat woman, Raja Halimah Abdullah. Refer to Abu Hassan Sham, pp. 145–6, 363. A lebai running a school for female students is also the subject of an extremely ribald syair by Haji, Raja Ali, in Kitab pengetahuan bahasa, ed. Shaghir Abdullah, Hj. Wan Mohd. (Kuala Lumpur: Khazanah Fathaniyah, 1997), pp. 305–8Google Scholar.

101 Vaughan, J.D., ‘Notes on the Malays of Pinang and Province Wellesley’, Journal of the Indian archipelago and eastern Asia, 2, 2 (1857): 122Google Scholar.

102 In Karya lengkap Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi, jilid 3: Hikayat Abdullah, ed. Amin Sweeney (Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia and École française dExtrême-Orient, 2006), pp. 18–19.

103 Watson Andaya, The flaming womb, p. 54.

104 Said, Mohamad (Tan Sri Datuk Dr), Memoirs of a Menteri Besar (Singapore: Heinemann Asia, 1982), p. 52Google Scholar.

105 Ibid., pp. 46, 52.

106 Dhofier, Zamakhsyari, The pesantren tradition: The role of the kyai in the maintenance of traditional Islam in Java (Tempe, AZ: Program for Southeast Asian Studies, 1999), pp. 14–15Google Scholar.

107 Mohamad Said, Memoirs, p. 78.

108 Ibid., p. 79.

109 Ibid., p. 52.