Menjejaki Warisan Khazanah Manuskrip dan Buku Nadir Melayu di Cambridge University Library (The Cambridge University Library’s Malay Manuscripts and Rare Books Collection: An Exploratory Survey)

Abstract

ABSTRAK: Perhatian pengkaji manuskrip dan buku nadir Melayu di Great Britain seringkali tertumpu kepada bahan yang mudah dicapai di institusi terkenal di ibu kota negara tersebut sahaja, misalnya di The British Library, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) dan The Royal Asiatic Society. Sebaliknya, koleksi manuskrip dan buku nadir Melayu yang lain di United Kingdom jarang sekali diterokai pengkaji tempatan. Salah satu khazanah persuratan Melayu yang sungguh bermakna bagi warisan peradaban dunia Melayu adalah koleksi manuskrip dan buku nadir Melayu yang terpelihara di Cambridge University Library (CUL). Antara lain, koleksi ini mengandungi naskhah-naskhah manuskrip Melayu tertua di dunia dan codex unicus buku-buku cetak batu Melayu yang diperoleh dari Ceylon, Labuan dan Singapura pada suku ketiga kurun ke-19. Makalah ini berhasrat untuk memperkenalkan koleksi ini kepada khalayak baru melalui sebuah perbincangan awal mengenai ‘provenance’ atau latar sejarah pemilikan bahan Melayu di CUL, khasnya Koleksi Richard James Wilkinson (1867-1941). Koleksi Wilkinson ini merupakan bahan rujukan teras bagi penulisan magnum opus beliau, ‘A Malay-English Dictionary’ (1903), serta tulisannya dalam siri ‘Papers on Malay Subjects’ (1907-1911). Salah satu manuskrip yang baharu dikenal pasti judulnya di dalam koleksi Wilkinson ini pula ialah sebuah naskhah Hikayat Pahang yang tidak pernah diperkatakan secara terperinci sebelum ini. Makalah ini akan menyampaikan maklumat baru mengenainya, selain membincangkan koleksi manuskrip-manuskrip Hikayat Pahang yang diketahui keberadaannya pada ketika ini.

Kata kunci: Cambridge University Library; Malay manuscripts; Hikayat Pahang

ABSTRACT: The attention of Malay manuscript and rare book researchers working in Great Britain is often drawn to collections in well-known and readily accessible institutions in its capital alone, namely those at The British Library, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) and The Royal Asiatic Society. Similar collections elsewhere in the United Kingdom are frequently overlooked and rarely explored. One such collection is preserved in the Cambridge University Library (CUL), whose holdings contain some of the oldest Malay manuscripts extant, as well as a significant selection of early Malay lithographed codices unici, gathered from Ceylon, Labuan and Singapore in the third quarter of the 19th century. This paper proposes to introduce the CUL’s collection to a wider audience by outlining the provenance of the CUL’s Malay holdings, with a particular focus on the Malay manuscripts and rare books assembled by Richard James Wilkinson (1867-1941). Together, they formed the core primary reference material for the writing of his magnum opus, ‘A Malay-English Dictionary’ (1903), and his contributions to the influential serial ‘Papers on Malay Subjects’ (1907- 1911). Among the many valuable Malay manuscripts kept in Wilkinson’s collection is a hitherto unidentified manuscript copy of Hikayat Pahang. New information on this important codex and other extant copies of Hikayat Pahang will be examined in the following discussion.

Keywords: Cambridge University Library; Malay manuscripts; Hikayat Pahang