Persianate Prose and the Making of Malay Muslim Literature

In this path-breaking new work Daneshgar shows that there must have been more intensive relations between the Iranian world and Southeast Asia than was previously accepted. His findings suggest that Persian was in fact known by a literate elite in Java and Sumatra, as was Malay in early Safavid Persia. He argues that the fourteenth-century Persian text Durr al-Majalis, which is edited and translated in this book, is the main source of many of the Malay pious tales (hikayat) of the pre-modern period. This is a masterly study of exchanges between medieval Persian and Malay manuscript cultures as well as Persian influence on early Southeast Asian Islam. -- Martin van Bruinessen, Utrecht University
This book represents a ground-breaking contribution to the study of early Islamic history in Southeast Asia, particularly through its examination of Durr al-Majalis. By expanding on the foundational work of earlier scholars, the author offers fresh insights and opens new doors for future scholarship in the field. -- Peter G. Riddell, SOAS University of London