Wahai Melayu, ini ialah sebuah riwayat yang mensyairkan keagungan yang tidak terganti walaupun seribu zaman. Dari Kedah Tua dan besi-besinya yang menjadi lagu perang, Srivijaya yang menakluk seluruh kepulauan menjadi satu bangsa dan Melaka yang kayanya tidak terbayang dek akal manusia. Hal ini ialah kitab yang merakamkan sebuah keagungan yang menyembah kaki Melayu. Adakah anda sudah lupa tentang bagaimana bangsa kita dipuja oleh penghuni dunia? Dari tempat bersemayam Izanagi, perlahan-lahan berita tentang kita merayap ke Sungai Kuning yang menyimpan seribu legenda raja agung dari kayangan dan juga ketika kita pernah dijulang di bumi Mahabharata yang menjadi latar sebuah cerita para dewa. Tetap harum di tanah Arab tempat lahirnya Nabi akhir zaman dan kisah kita pernah terpasak di tanah para nabi, tempat kononnya Isa disalib. Khabar mengenai kita tetap bersemayam di hujung Eropah, bumi dua anak kembar yang dijaga serigala lalu terbitnya sebuah empayar. Ketika 88 bahasa ditutur di pelabuhan teragung, bahasamu tetap menjadi raja. Kata seorang pendeta Belanda, “Kau bukan seorang intelektual, jika bahasa ini tidak sebati dengan lidahmu.” Wahai bangsa perang, wahai bangsa pendeta, wahai bangsa diplomat agung, bangkitlah mengembalikan keagungan!
70 bab. 536 muka surat. Tebal gila, tapi berbaloi. Buku ni memang fokus pasal sejarah Melayu. Makluman awal; jangan sempitkan tafsiran "Melayu" mengikut Perlembagaan Malaysia je, tapi kena luaskan horizon perspektif kita ke seluruh alam Melayu suatu ketika dahulu.
Buku ni lebih kurang macam one-stop-center la untuk rujukan ringkas sejarah tamadun Melayu. Srivijaya, Funan, Champa, Langkasuka, Melaka, dan lain². Bukan setakat sejarah kuasa pemerintahan, ada jugak cerita pasal hasil seni budaya kita. Banyak la senang cerita. 😅
Tau apa yang boleh jadikan buku ni lagi menarik? Peta. Kalau The Patriots boleh buat peta untuk setiap tamadun & tempoh bangun jatuh sesebuah kerajaan. Lagi mudah pembaca nak faham. Lebih² lagi pembaca muda² yang baru sekolah rendah. Lebih kurang macam Bab 70, tapi dalam saiz poster, dan berwarna. Eh, mintak macam² pulak dah... 😆
Aku sememangnya berminat dengan sejarah melayu, bahasa, kesenian keris, kapal dll. Jadi berasaskan dengan minat, maka aku pun beli Kitab Tamadun Melayu ni. Lepas baca, aku rate 3 bintang.
Memang tak dinafikan ada banyak ilmu yang dapat dicedok dari buku ni. Panel penulis boleh kupas banyak tajuk antaranya asal bangsa melayu, bahasa melayu, seni alam melayu, zaman kesultanan melaka, johor dan sebagainya. Kebanyakan hujah yang dijelaskan aku rasa boleh diterima, namun ada juga tempat yang mana aku rasa agak susah nak diterima. Antara sebabnya adalah aku dapat rasa penulisan dalam kitab ni agak bias dan ada faktor emosi.
Dalam penulisan dalam buku ni, aku tak dapat rasa pandangan dari sudut neutral. Ada penulisan dalam buku ni mungkin nak menjawab kesalahan fakta sesetengah pihak atau menyatakan kesedihan budaya sendiri tak diangkat. Jadi nada dalam penulisan menjadi defensif dan seolah-olah cuma nak menjawab dengan emosi. Disebabkan ada campuran penulisan neutral dan bias ni, nak menghadam info dalam buku ni kadang-kadang jadi masalah.
Bibliografi memang ada disenaraikan di bahagian belakang buku. Tapi kita tak tahu pada satu claim tu, mana sumber yang boleh dirujuk antara bibliografi tadi.
Akhir sekali yang paling penting, kualiti editorial yang rendah. Kalau penulisan ni pernah dikeluarkan di internet sekalipun, mana boleh editor tinggal je kesalahan ejaan dan tatabahasa. Buku ni 500 muka surat lebih. Hampir semua tajuk aku boleh jumpa kesalahan bahasa. Bagi aku aspek bahasa ni sangat penting. Ada sikit kesalahan pun boleh kacau persepsi kita dekat sesuatu buku tu, inikan pula kalau kesalahan tu banyak. Nampak macam pihak penerbit memang tak kisah pasal kesalahan penulisan. Nak baca pun jadi susah.
Of all, I love this one particular essay written by Syed Nizamuddun on 'pantun' or pantoum in French. I'm in the same mind of the writer that we should be proud that bangsa Melayu has our own 'khazanah agung asli' - pantun, without knowing that it's being highly romanticized by Western poets since ages ago. It's high time our younger generation looks no further but soul-searching for our very own in-depth & rich Malay literature. We should open our eyes, our heart at the same time, and embrace it but maintain the humbleness.
Kenyang buaya ikan gelama, Selipar hanyut di hujung titi; Hilang budaya hilanglah nama, Hampir luput menunggu mati.
This book, despite the authoritative title, is nevertheless a collection of writings (or more like, paens) to the Malay civilization. The content has a broad range, from brief summary of kingdoms and empire, down to the interpretation of yellow gelutinous rice in the Malay culture. I think it is not my place to point out which one in it are history, or pseudo-history, but just like the yellow gelutinous rice, take some of the writings with a pinch of salt.
I found no energy to individually comment on the chapters, but rather to just put forward a queer tangential thoughts of mine. The title is The Kitab (which as I mentioned previously, has a specific semantic connotation referring to authoritative books) of the Malay Civilization. But throughout the book, there were scatteted chapters on the Achehnese or even the Javanese.
I hope the publishers do not bear any thoughts that all people in the Archipelago are Malays; that the Bataks, the Javanese, the Balinese are Malays. It is one of the many sub-ethnics of the Archipelago, that belongs to the stock of the Austronesian. The connotation Malayo-Polinesian is just a convenient term that describes the extent of sphere employed by the people that resides in the Western part of the Archipelago, not that every people in the Archipelago are Malays.
The term Malay further complicated in the context of Malaysia. In Malaysia, the term Malay is used widely and applicable to every people that is native to the Archipelago. It is only in this country that all sub-ethnics are simplied to be called as Malays. Thus, in Malaysia, there is only Malay Javanese, Malay Minangkabau and so on. Only in personal connotation one would refer himself as belonging to the specific sub-ethnic.
It is thus make me think, what distinguishes one sub-ethnic from another?
Races while are social constructs, they possesses physical and tangible realities. Infallible statistics insists that more African-Americans lives with a single parents, and Overseas Chinese are more successful than the natives. This is because races are autonomous in-group identification that can self perpetuate cultural propagation within it and they are also self-reinforcing. Thus, race while sharing the same ontological status with a unicorn, it possesses a real function as a tool of cultural propagation.
The term Malay is quite complex, as it is consecutively and probably simultaneously could be conceived as an ethnic, a sub-ethnic, a religio-ethnic.
What distinguishes a sub-ethnic from another is very challenging to identify, for most of the time, there are only factors that can decide what-is-not rather than positive factors that can adequately describes the what-is. Consider the Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks who virtually shares everything except the factors that I would describe as below.
What distinguishes between one ethnic to the other is largely cultural, and then minimally geographical and almost none for biological (except under phenotypic description). Cultural values is what that distinguishes one group to another, exactly because it is replicable, transmissible and perpetuated perpetuallly in-group, because knowledge possesses its own cost, and thus it is more economical to be propagated within own group. Geographical factors retains the ancient rule of specification and intensification of cultural values (under factors such as isolation), and also to some extent biological (inherited disease, topographical measurements).
In the case of the sub-ethnics of the people of Nusantara, we could arrive to the most potent descriptions of who is the Malays, by applying several filters: geographical, religion, cultural orientation and lastly historical continuity.
Cultural values is constrained by geographical factors. They provide some degrees of spatial and temporal separation that creates differential patterns over time. For an instance, a cultural value that already spread in lowlands requires some number of years to be spread to the highlands, sometimes even none. Or horizontally, a value that spread across lands would transformed over time, interpreted according to local custom values. By the time another value B arrives, the prior value A has already morphed to A1, A2, A3. Thus the resultant admixture would be B1A1, B2A2, B3A3. Further mixture and assimilation over time would further increase the range of resultant value-set. Geographical values in the Malay archipelago also creates differentiation among their people, creating grounds for further distinguishment.
The lands of Acheh and Pasai are located at the tip of the Sumatran Island, allowing them to become the first kingdoms to convert to Islam. Islam moved slowly inlands, during that time Hindu-Buddhism further entrenched and locally transformed among the people of Minangkabau, resulting to them to be the last Sumatran people to convert to Islam. Geographical factors also provide different historical events to the different people, especially in the channel-like geography of the Archipelago. Most historical events happened to the lands that directly faced the Malaccan Straits, and not so much over its farther Eastern lands. Geography thus provide a setting differential grounds that separate the countries that faced directly the Straits versus those who are not, and the people who lived inlands and those who are not, and the people who in the lowlands versus those who are not.
The first instances broadly separates the Sumatran-Malayan people with the Javan-Bornean people, the second and third separates the Minangkabau, Batak and more isolated people than the rest of the people.
Secondly, religion provides a critical distinguishing factors simply because through the laws of covenant and apostasy, it remains as a powerful group indicator. It also provides specific worlview that allows or constraints the values the people could nurture. This factor sealed the destiny between the Christian Bataks, the Hindu Balinese with the rest of the people of the Archipelago. It also provided a new definition for the Peninsular Malays, bestowing them a religio-ethnic perspective.
Thirdly is cultural orientation. The world of the Archipelago is largely of partrilineal heritage, contrasted with the matrilineal culture of the Minangkabau and its satellites communities. As this heavily involves large part of the communal life i.e inheritance laws, roles of communal leader, distribution of work etc, cultural orientation is an important factor that specifies one sub-ethnic from another. The cultural orientation also in time produces specific attributes to the sub-ethnic, e.g the Minangkabau are heavily represented with more educated and professional members of its communities, the Achehnese are noted traders.
Fourthly and the most unspecific would be historical continuity. Historical continuity describes the flow of temporal associations that is related to one community, allowing them to produce a common historical consciousness. But it is also the weakest because the first three factors are much more strong in their grip; Dutch invasion of the Sumatra cultivates a sense of unity among the natives only temporarily, in fact it strengthens the exclusivinist feelings among the sub-ethnics as its aftermath. But a good example to demonstrate how historical continuity could provide a distinguishing factor would be the inheritors of the Sriwijaya empire. The Sriwijaya empire is the direct inheritor of the kingdom Sang Sapurba in the Genealogy of Kings, that describes the lands the progenitor of the Malay rulers ruled over. After Sriwijaya falls, it was continued by the Malaccan Sultanate. It is here Islamic dimension is added to further distinguishes the term Malay. After Malacca falls, the Johor Sultanate continued the banner, while other royal houses of the Peninsular continued their Malaccan heritage from ancient marriages and vassalages.
Thus, it is clear then that who is Malay, in contrast with other races is, of Austronesian stock that speak a Malayo-Polynesian language, specifically of its Western branch. What distinguishes a Malay from other sub-ethnics would be, a Malay is a person as mentioned above that prescribes an Islamic patrilineal heritage, that occupies the world of Sriwijaya and Malaccan heritage, as prescribed by the Sulalatus Salatin. This would include the Peninsular Malays, the Malays of the Southern Thailand, the Cham Malays, the Brunei Malays, the Malays of Singapura, and the Malay of the Riau Islands and Southern Sumatra. A specific term is applied to Malaysian Malay, a Malay is as above but is also the citizen of Malaysia.
Dari segi pengisian, aku rasa tiada masalah. Huraian yang dibuat lengkap berdasarkan rujukan-rujukan yang boleh dipercayai. Tapi, ada beberapa kekurangan contohnya buku ni tak menceritakan berkenaan kerajaan Pahang dan Perak yang ada hubungan langsung dengan kerajaan Melaka.
Dari segi kepelbagaian tajuk, buku ini agak lengkap dari sejarah pengenalan nama "Melayu", adat-adat orang Melayu sehinggalah sejarah ringkas tamadun-tamadun Melayu terdahulu. Pada pendapat aku, buku ini akan jadi lebih menarik kalau dimasukkan sekali ulasan mengenai seni pertahanan diri dan juga ilmu-ilmu yang diamalkan dalam tamadun Melayu.
Perkara yang paling tak memuaskan dalam buku ini ialah teknikal. Buku ni tidak dibahagikan kepada beberapa bahagian mengikut kategori masing-masing. Pada bab-bab awal, diceritakan mengenai asal-usul Melayu dan bahasa Melayu. Kemudian, buku ni terus masuk kepada bab adat istiadat Melayu dan falsafah yang terlibat. Seterusnya masuk pula kepada ulasan mengenai tamadun-tamadun Melayu terdahulu. Bagi aku, susunan bab dalam buku ni sangatlah tidak teratur. Dari segi corak penulisan, sangat berbeza dari satu bab ke satu bab. Mungkin atas sebab buku ni ditulis oleh penulis yang berbeza-beza.
Secara keseluruhannya, buku ni sesuai untuk sesiapa yang ingin tahu mengenai tamadun Melayu secara ringkas.
Ulasan ni hanya pendapat peribadi saya sebagai seorang anak muda yang cetek ilmu sejarah tapi masih ingin menimba ilmu. Jadi, mungkin tak sama dengan orang yang dah biasa baca buku sejarah Melayu.
Bosan. Ingatkan susunan dia macam Kitab Tamadun China or Korea ikut bahagian tapi ni terus je 70 bab apa apa je yang penulis nak tulis. Sepatutnya buatlah ikut bahagian; sejarah asal yang dari champa sampai johor tu, budaya, pemerintahan, tokoh tokoh penting etc.. Agak berterabur dan intipati banyak bosan. Kadang kadang bila baca tu saya ada terfikir "penulis tak rasa syok sendiri dan overclaim ke?". Ada banyak benda yang saya masih cuba hadamkan perkaitannya dengan orang Melayu kita sekarang. Ada kaitan ke? Ada bab yang terlalu meleret nak hadamkan pun bosan.
Sepatutnya masukkan lebih banyak gambar untuk gambaran lebih jelas macam bab Keris tu. Bab Keris bagus banyak juga gambar. Bab perahu jong semua tu takde gambar untuk bagi gambaran bahagian kapal atau apa apa so agak bosan dan tak menarik. Bab lain yang perlu ilustrasi pun banyak tak ada ilustrasi.
Paling suka penulis Nornizam Jamal. He stayed on business and tak tulis ikut emosi sangat. Moustapha Abbas perlu kurangkan emosi semasa menulis. Ya, semangat Melayu tapi saya rasa penulisan beliau ada bahagian tertentu yang terlalu mengikut emosi. Penulisan dari penulis lain pun saya rasa banyak je tak neutral, lebih kepada emosi. Sepatutnya berbicara tentang fakta ni, mestilah kena neutral dan tak ikut emosi atau overclaim.
Bab akhir sekali sebenarnya lebih baik kalau buat buku fiksyen asing sebab it's not sejarah tapi lebih kepada angan angan penulis semata. Kalau buat buku fiksyen bolehlah, ni letak dalam Kitab Tamadun buat apa?
Macam biasalah The Patriots tak lari dari typo. Sentiasa ada kesalahan ejaan walaupun dari penulis hebat macam Ayman. Sepatutnya The Patriots hire editor bertauliah untuk semak dengan lebih teliti penulisan. Sakit mata baca typo.
Akhir sekali references dan nota kaki tersangat terhad dan cara citation ada tak jelas. Saya lebih suka kalau banyak citation and nota kaki untuk sokong hujah penulis. Cuma banyak bibliografi saja tanpa citation langsung so dia macam ragu ragu sikitlah bila baca. Bibliografi biasalah kita tak tahu dekat penulisan bahagian mana yang penulis tu pakai. So nak percaya claim penulis tu was was tau. Harap harap boleh banyakkan references and nota kaki di masa hadapan
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Umumnya sangat baik, cubanya saya dapati ada penulis-penulis dalam karya ini yang syok sendiri menjadikan ianya amat menyedihkan. Masalah tatabahasa dan kesalahan ejaan juga sangat jelas. Jadi, okay lah...
Alhamdulillah dah kenal bangsa sendiri Kita bagi 4.5/5 Semua bagus cuma ada kurang banyak typo ngn double perenggan yang sama ok je cuma tulah jarang jumpa buku yg typo amat jelas.
Tiada review. Hanya kejujuran. 2023 - 2024. Akhirnya tamat!!! Terima kasih The Patriots. Terus menerbitkan buku ilmiah sebegini. Dan saya kekal sebagai pembeli dan pembaca.
Tolak 1 bintang sebab kesilapan teknikal dalam buku seperti pengulangan ayat atau perenggan di beberapa tempat dalam buku. Perkara ini sedikit sebanyak mengganggu pembacaan. Mungkin sebab ini edisi pertama. Harap edisi kedua lebih baik. Isi buku memang bagus sekali. Selayaknya menjadi bahan bacaan wajib.