This is a New Rumi Edition of the Sejarah Melayu which has been transliterated from the original Jawi manuscript known as Raffles M.S. 18 entitled Sulalat us-Salatin(The Genealogy of Sultans). The original copy of this manuscript, kept in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, is generally considered by many scholars to be the oldest text of this famous Hikayat. The transliteration has been done by Abdul Rahman Hj. Ismail of Universiti Sains Malaysia in the new Romanised Malay script, based on the ejaan baru, the new spelling now extant. The work is an improvement on the English scholar administrator R.O. Winstedt’s even earlier Rumi edition that was also published by the Society as early as 1938. The work represented a bold effort and may be regarded in many ways as a genuine contribution in further exploring this intriguing text. The Society has decided not to reprint Winstedt’s edition but to commission and publish a fresh transliteration as his text was in old Malay and suffers from several problems with regard to the transliteration of the more vague and difficult passages. This New Edition contains a Foreword by the editor Cheah Boon Kheng, a new essay by the Dutch scholar R. Roolvink and introductory notes by Abdul Rahman Hj. Ismail and R.O. Winstedt relating to the controversial issues of the authorship, patronage and the date of Raffles M.S. 18. This volume will certainly be of interest to lovers of the Sejarah Melayu, especially scholars, writers and students.

Contents:

1. Pra Kata/Foreword
2. Sulalat Us-Salatin Naskhah Raja Bungsu – Pengenalan
3. Sulalat Us-Salatin Naskhah Raja Bungsu
4. Sejarah Melayu: Masalah versi-versi yang lain
5. An Outline of the Malay Annals contained in Raffles MS. No. 18. (Reprinted from JMBRAS Vol. 16. Pt. 3. December 1938)
6. The Date, Author and Identity of the Original Draft of the Malay Annal
7. The Preface of The Malay Annals (Ibid 1938)
8. Teks/Text of Raffles MS No. 18.

Transcribed from the original Jawi manuscript into New Romanised Malay script