Narrative
The Hikayat Abdullah
Hikayat Abdullah
Munsyi Abdullah · 1849
Synopsis
The story of Abdullah, told by himself: his childhood in Malacca, his studies with scholars, his trade as a teacher of Malay and a copyist, then his arrival in Singapore a few months after the island became a British port, in the service of Stamford Raffles. He describes life in the young colony, its pirates, its murders and its scourges, and takes an unsparing look at the Malay rulers, the British and the missionaries.
Context
Encouraged by the American missionary Alfred North, the author wrote the book in Arabic script between 1840 and 1843; the Mission Press of Singapore published it in lithograph in 1849, and it is one of the first Malay literary texts sold commercially. In it he signs his work and writes in the everyday Malay of his time, without the marvellous of the old tales. In 1955 A. H. Hill produced an annotated English translation, regarded as the best.
Who it is for
An autobiographical narrative in prose, written in simple language; it exists in English and reads like a chronicle of the early days of the colony.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as a break in the style of Malay prose; it served as compulsory reading in the Malay schools of Singapore until the 1970s.
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