Article

Malay manuscripts in Germany

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Malay manuscripts in Germany

Hans Overbeck, a German orientalist working in Bremen, published this descriptive catalogue of Malay manuscripts held in German public libraries in 1926, documenting holdings at Berlin, Dresden, Munich, and Hamburg. The article serves as a systematic inventory of these collections, cross-referencing each item against the standard catalogues of Batavia and Leiden to identify duplicates and unique copies.

Summary

Overbeck undertook this catalogue at the request of the exchange system linking German public libraries, and he worked under considerable time pressure without access to the Batavia or Leiden catalogues during the initial examination. He acknowledges that this limitation led him to spend time on works already fully described elsewhere while neglecting rarer items. His method is to provide a brief physical description (paper type, format, line count), a title or opening formula, any colophon or date, and cross-references to the Batavia catalogue (van Ronkel, 1909) and Leiden II (van Ronkel, 1921), noting where other copies exist in London, The Hague, Brussels, or Paris.

The bulk of the article is devoted to the Schoemann collection at the Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, which Overbeck observes appears to consist largely of copies made to order for a European collector, written by a small number of scribes on European paper. These include well-known romances (Hikayat Seri Rama, Sultan Iskandar, Indera Putera, Panji Sumirang), theological works, poetry, and a particularly detailed law code (Sch. V. 33) covering forty-four chapters of customary and Islamic law. Beyond the Schoemann collection, Overbeck catalogues a significant group of Undang-Undang manuscripts from Sumatra’s West Coast, original Dutch-Malay treaties from Ternate, a copper-plate piagem from Palembang, and a divination book with a Balinese provenance note.

The article’s most substantial narrative contribution is the reconstruction of the Hikayat Raga Singasayah from two fragmentary manuscripts (Sch. V. 8 and 22), which Overbeck stitches together to produce a continuous plot summary of this Javanese-origin romance involving a hero who wins a princess, is murdered and dismembered, is restored by a Shaikh, and ultimately defeats a demon army with the aid of a Jin princess.

Key Findings

  • The Schoemann collection (Berlin) comprises at least 49 numbered items, most on European paper in modern hands, with colophons dating copies between A.H. 1241 (c. 1825) and A.H. 1274 (1857); Overbeck notes they were likely copied from Batavia manuscripts for a European collector (p. 235).
  • Two original treaties between the Sultan of Ternate and the Dutch East India Company are preserved: one dated 18 June 1638 (10 March 1639, “gedaan Ternate, Casteel Malayen”) on commercial and political relations, and another dated 30 January 1650 on sovereignty and the destruction of clove-trees against a payment of 6,000 reals (p. 255).
  • A copper-plate piagem (government decree) from the Residentie of Palembang, dated 25 May 1825, grants Pangeran Saribu the title of pesirah of Batang Hari Belitang and regulates the rights of Lampung inhabitants and the abolition of certain tribute obligations (p. 251).
  • The Undang-Undang manuscripts from Sumatra’s West Coast (Ms. Or. Oct. 1111, 1112; Qu. 1110, 1111; Fol. 3150, 3151, 3153) form a related group of Minangkabau customary law codes, some in Jawi script and others in Dutch romanized transcription, with Oct. 1111 being the most complete and containing a mythological-historical introduction with the Menangkabau legend (pp. 252–257).
  • The Hamburg manuscript (Brockelmann-Catalogus No. 295), a 122-leaf volume of very thin paper, was the property of Joh. Fr. Winckler, head-pastor in Hamburg since 1718, and contains a Sufi treatise, chapters from Suyuti’s encyclopaedia with interlinear Malay translation, and formal petition templates for addressing the Sultan, Kadi, Mufti, and Ulema (p. 259).
  • The Munich collection includes a four-volume Arabic-Malay and Malay-Arabic dictionary (Cod. or. mixt. 95–98) and four letters of safe-conduct from Borneo princes issued for Dr. Karl Brugel and his hunter, dated 1326–1327 A.H. (1908–1909 A.D.) (p. 259).

Conclusion

Overbeck’s catalogue establishes that German libraries hold a modest but not negligible collection of Malay manuscripts, the majority of which are modern copies of works already represented in the major Dutch and British collections. The genuinely significant items are the original Ternate treaties of 1638 and 1650, the Palembang piagem of 1825, the group of West Coast Sumatran law codes, and the Hamburg manuscript with its early modern provenance. The article’s lasting value lies in making these holdings visible to the scholarly community and in the careful cross-referencing that identifies which German copies are duplicates and which represent unique textual witnesses.

Context

  • Primary archival collections examined: Preussische Staatsbibliothek (Berlin), Sachsische Landesbibliothek (Dresden), Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Munich), Stadtbibliothek (Hamburg), with the latter two known only from catalogue abstracts and a letter from Dr. W. Aichele.
  • The article contributes to the historiography of Malay manuscript studies by extending the standard Batavia-Leiden-London framework to German holdings, and by preserving Snouck Hurgronje’s unpublished marginal notes on several Schoemann manuscripts.

References