Light Letters: Unlocking New Insights Into History Of Kedah And The Malay Archipelago

By Ima Aimi Nadia Ibrahim

ALOR SETAR, Aug 31 (Bernama) -- The Light Letters, a collection of manuscripts which include correspondence, writings and notes involving Malay rulers and dignitaries from around the Malay Archipelago and English traders written between 1768 and 1794, has the potential to open a new window into the study of the history of Kedah and Malay Archipelago.

Professor of Social and Intellectual History at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation, International Islamic University Malaysia, Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Murad Merican, said the collection of letters could also provide a new narrative space for rewriting the historical position of Kedah on the global stage in the past.

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"Approximately 30 per cent of the Light Letters collection touches on a critical episode in the diplomatic relations between the Malay state, namely Kedah, and the English, as well as other European countries and Siam.

"The collection also contains letters discussing Penang Island by two Sultans of Kedah, Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin Mu'adzam Shah II and his son Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah, with the English," he told Bernama when contacted today.

He was asked to comment on Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, which became the first university granted access to digital images of the Light Letters by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

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The Light Letters (1768-1794), comprising 1,200 letters, bounded in 11 volumes, which include correspondence, writings and notes involving Malay rulers and dignitaries from around the Malay Archipelago, business partners, wives of Malay aristocrats, Francis Light, and some English traders originally written over a period of 27 years between 1768 and 1794.

The Light Letters collection, or the Letters of the Malay Archipelago Collection 1768-1794 was also presented to the Sultan of Kedah, Al-Aminul Karim Sultan Sallehuddin Sultan Badlishah, at Istana Anak Bukit here recently.

Ahmad Murad described the presentation of the copies to the Sultan of Kedah as highly significant in the context of Malay Sultanate history.

According to him, Sultan Sallehuddin was very pleased to receive the collection, and His Royal Highness was also informed about the preservation of the collection at USM, which is now easily accessible to the public.

"The Sultan of Kedah is very interested in history and was pleased to personally receive the collection of letters. It is worth noting that the Light Letters collection, which is part of the largest Malay manuscript collection in the world, was returned to the Sultan of Kedah and not the Kedah government," he said.

Ahmad Murad added that many other collections of historical letters related to the Malay Archipelago are still kept at SOAS, the British Library, and other universities in Britain, and efforts are underway to digitise and bring them back to this country, including letters related to Kedah and Francis Light, The Thalang Letters.

USM has been granted exclusive rights by the SOAS via a memorandum of agreement (Loan of Light Letters) signed in Sept 2018 to have access to the digital images of the Light Letters for researchers, scholars, and the public, offering descriptive metadata, transcriptions, and transliterations that can be accessed online.

Commenting on this, Ahmad Murad said that during his tenure at USM, he proposed to SOAS in 2010 to digitise the Light Letters, create a portal accessible to the public, romanize all the letters from Jawi script, and translate them into English.

"Permission to bring back digital images of the collection was only granted after copyright issues were resolved, and finally, in 2017, I handed over the Light Letters collection to USM. An agreement was established between USM and SOAS in 2018, giving USM the rights to store and manage the collection's images," he said.

He described this effort as 'decolonising' and 'liberating' the collection of letters that originated from this region and had been stored for about 200 years at SOAS.

Ahmad Murad said access to the collection of letters would allow the public, especially researchers, to benefit from studying the documents to conduct research and produce theses related to the history of the Malay Archipelago.

"The collection will also be displayed in several institutions across the country as part of an educational strategy to raise awareness about the nation's history, thereby aligning and correcting the nation's history, including Kedah," he said.

He also expressed his appreciation to several parties who played key roles in bringing back the collection of letters, including the Ministry of Higher Education, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, and USM, which coordinated the digitisation of the collection, an effort that took place from 2011 to 2017.

-- BERNAMA