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The medieval chronology of Malacca

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In 1897, Charles Otto Blagden (6 September 1864 – 25 August 1949) presented a paper entitled “Medieval chronology of Malacca" at the 11th International Congress of Orientalists ( 5 - 12 September 1897, Paris ). This paper was recently printed as a small booklet by Nutmeg Books . In what follows, we reproduce the full text of Blagden's 1897 paper, using digitized text data from Bibliothèque nationale de France. The book can be acquired from Nutmeg Books @ Shopee , Riwayat Bookstore, Kinokuniya Bookstore, etc. That Malay history is as yet in a very unsatisfactory state will be readily admitted by all who have taken the trouble to look into the subject. So far as the medieval period is concerned, it may be fairly said that what passes for history amongst the Malays consists mainly of a string of purely mythical legends, partly of native, partly of Arab but mainly of Indian origin, followed by and to some extent mixed up with anec...

The tuah-tuha kerfuffle

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“Twah” in old Javanese literature The word “tuah” is phonetically similar to “twah”, although they may look a bit different orthographically. Curiously the disimilarity is true only when Roman/Javanese script is used, for in Jawi script, they are completely identical since “u” and “w” share the same wa-glyph (و). Now, the word “twah” can be found in The English version was published by Zoetmulder himself in 1982. Darusuprata and Sumarti Suprayitna worked out an Indonesian version and got it published in 1995. • P. J. Zoetmulder (1982) Old Javanese-English Dictionary (with the collaboration of S. O. Robson) , Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague. • P. J. Zoetmulder, Darusuprata, and S. Suprayitna (1995) Kamus Jawa Kuna-Indonesia, Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Jakarta. The word “twah” can be found in p. 1339: twah (JwB/ModJ toh, GR:) bercak bawaan, bercak hitam pd kulit. birthmark, black spot on the skin. GR: is an abbreviation of J. F. C. Gericke, T. Roorda (19...

Melaka-Ryukyu exchanges 1469

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When Shō Toku 尚 德 (r. 1461 to 1469), the last Ryukyuan king who Unification of Ryukyu was achieved by Shō Hashi 尚巴志 in 1429, effectively ended the Sanzan Period 三山時代. Shō Toku was the grandson of Shō Hashi 尚巴志 and the son of Shō Teechū 尚泰久. In 1453, with the support from Kanamaru 金丸, Sho Toku's father killed his nephew, the then crown prince 尚志魯 and took the Ryukyuan crown for himself. Kanamaru would later denied the son of Shō Toku the rights to the throne. descended directly from Shō Hashi ( 尚 巴 志 , r. 1421 to 1439), died unexpectedly, at only 28, in June 1469. A coup d'état was staged and Shō Toku's heir was denied access to the throne. 虎ぬ子や虎、悪王ぬ子や悪王。 物呉 ゆすど 我御主 、 内間御鎖 ど我御主 The name of the usurper was Uchima Kanamaru 内間 金丸 , who was the trade minister 御物城 御鎖側官 in the administrations of Shō Toku and that of his father's. With the help from Asatu Ufuya 安里 大親 (Sinic name: 毛興文), Kanamaru was crowned at the age of 54, with the re...