CHAPTER III: Aceh as crucible of Muslim-Malay literature

The language of Pasai?s written literature can be classified as Pre-Classical Malay, as opposed to the Classical Malay of such eighteenth-century works as the Hikayat Hang Tuah or the Sejarah Melayu (Shellabear edition). The account of Ibn Battuta testifies to the close relationship between the courts of Pasai and Delhi, of which the court language was Persian. Persian literature was predominantly translated into Malay during the heyday of Pasai. The turn of the seventeenth century appears to have been a time of continued cultural production for Malay-Islamic texts at Aceh. Sultan Ali Mughayat Syah defeated Samudra-Pasai in 1524 and annexed the country. Its sultan escaped to exile in Portuguese Malacca but its legacy, the Muslim-Malay culture, lived on and continued to develop further in the Sultanate of Aceh Dar al-Salam. Keywords: Aceh Dar al-Salam; Malay-Islamic texts; Muslim-Malay culture; Portuguese Malacca; Samudra-Pasai