E.

Wieringa
A last admonition to P.P. Roorda van Eysinga in 1828; Haji Zainal Abidin's Syair Alif-Ba-Ta

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 154 (1998), no: 1, Leiden, 116-128

This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl

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 E.P. WIERINGA

A Last Admonition to P.P. Roorda van

Eysinga in 1828
Haji Zainal Abidin's Syair Alif-Ba-Ta'

Introduction
Malay manuscripts copied by Haji Zainal Abidin of the kampung of
Pekhojan Pengukiran in Batavia are relatively well represented in the
Leiden University Library's Oriental manuscript collection. This scribe is
explicitly mentioned as the copyist of Cod.Or. 1714, a Kitab Tabib, which
was copied in 1824. Other manuscripts which can be ascribed to him, on the
basis of the handwriting, are: Cod.Or. 1701, comprising a copy of the
Hikayat Banjar (dated 11 January 1828); two texts contained in manuscript
Cod.Or. 1763, namely the Hikayat Nakhoda Muda and the Surat Ingatan
Tengku Sayyid Mühammad Zainal Kudsi, which were probably written in
about 1825; and Cod.Or. 1935, representing a copy (dated 11 or 19 December
1825) of the Hikayat Andaken Penurat (Van der Molen 1984:331-2). The
handwriting of Cod.Or. 1728, Hikayat Sultan Móghul mengajarkan
anaknya, seems to me also to point to him.1 Furthermore, in 1828-1829 he
copied six hikayat which are now kept in the General State Archives at
The Hague, in the collection of Du Bus de Gisignies (Van der Molen
1984:326-33).
These manuscripts were probably all the products of Haji Zainal

I would like to thank the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in Bonn for providing me
with a scholarship in 1996-97 enabling me to work at the Institute of Ethnology, University of
Munster.
1
Van Ronkel used this ms for the ninth story ('De Groot-Mogol en zijn zoon') in his jawi
anthology (Van Ronkel 1908a). Tol and Witkam (1993:xi-xii), in their brief discussion of this
hikayat, only refer to Cod.Or. 1693 (2) and Cod.Or. 1728, though copies are also to be found in
the second story of Jakarta National Library Ml. 24 (formerly Bat.Gen. 24, see Van Ronkel
1909:89) and in the second story of Berlin Schoemann V, 27 (see Snouck Hurgronje 1950:146-7).

E.P. WIERINGA took his Ph.D. at Leiden University and is presently affiliated with the Research
Project 'Handbook of Javanese Literature' at that University. His publications in the same field
include: 'Frauenemanzipation oder literarische Konvention? Zum Thema "Die Frau, die auszog,
ihren Mann zu erlösen" im malaiischen Syair Saudagar Bodoh (± 1861) von der Dichterin Raja
Kalzum', Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 147 (1997):195-211, and 'Der
flatterhafte Schmetterling und die fröhlichen Früchte; Zwei malaiische Gedichte von
Mühammad Bakir aus dem Batavia des ausgehenden 19. Jahrhunderts', Asiatische Studiën,
forthcoming. Dr. Wieringa may be contacted at the HJL Project, University of Leiden, P.O. Box
9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.

BK1154-1 (1998)
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 A Last Admonition to P.P. Roorda van Eysinga in 1828 117

Abidin's work as a copyist at the General Secretariat in Batavia in the

1820s. Less well-known is his 'original' work as a Malay poet. At least two
works, namely the Pantun-pantun Haji Zainal Abidin (Leiden University
Library KI. 189) and the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta or Syair sekalian huruf
berkata-kata (Leiden University Library KI. 172), are ascribed to him. In
this article I want to take a closer look at the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta, which,
like so many Malay texts, is only known from its catalogue description.
Although syair in the nineteenth century constituted by far the most
popular Malay literary genre, for a long time they received little
scholarly attention, as, with a few exceptions to prove the rule - like, for
example, the Syair Bidasari arid Syair Ken Tambuhan - they were
regarded as mere trifles.
Klinkert disposed of the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta in only a few words. He
described it as a 'very trivial Malay poem in which the letters of the
alphabet are speaking characters1.2 Van Ronkel summarized its contents
more neutrally as a discussion between the letters of the alphabet on
ethical subjects, ending in a fairly comprehensive religious admonition and
concluding with a few lines about fishes discussing religion (Van Ronkel
1921:81). Van Ronkel's description subsequently became Standard textbook
wisdom. The Syair Alif-Ba-Ta is now known in the secondary literature as
a poem dealing with ethical questions in an allegorical way (see, for
example, Braginsky 1993:55). Hooykaas (1947:77) described it as an
'alphabet poem, with 30 maxims'.
Yet Van Ronkel only gained a fleeting impression of this work, because,
probably for lack of time, he only skimmed through the text. I wish to
show here that the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta as a work of religious admonition
was written by Zainal Abidin in 1828 as an occasional poem for Roorda van
Eysinga. To avoid possible misunderstanding, I should point out that there
is no such thing as the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta. In fact, there are several poems
bearing the same title, namely, apart from Leiden University Library KI.
172: KITLV Leiden Or 105 (Van Ronkel 1908b:227), London SOAS MS 46944
(Ricklefs and Voorhoeve 1977:166), Jakarta v.d.W. 266, pp. 1-11 (Van
Ronkel 1909:358-9), v.d.W. 236, pp. 12-26 (Van Ronkel 1909:359), and
Leiden University Library Cod.Or. 1735 (Juynboll 1899:33). They are all
different on the point of content, although of course the main characters in
all of them are the letters of the Arabic alphabet. For the purposes of the
present article I am confining myself to Leiden University Library KI. 172.

2
Klinkert's comment ('Zeer onbeduidend Maleisch gedicht, waarin de letters van het
alphabet sprekend optreden') is found on a loose piece of paper inserted in KI. 172, see Van
Ronkel 1921:80.

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 118 E.P. Wieringa

The talking letters

What do the letters in KI. 172 say? Not very much, really, for in this
poem, which consists of a total of 220 stanzas, their conversation takes up
only the first 60 stanzas. These are followed in stanzas 61-181 by an
intermezzo - which Van Ronkel rightly characterized as a fairly
comprehensive religious admonition - in which the poet addresses his
readers directly. Then, in stanzas 182-215, the discussion is taken over by
fishes, with the poet concluding his poem in stanzas 216-220.
The Syair Alif-Ba-Ta is not a poem about the mystical interpretation
of letters - a topic many Sufis have dwelt on, 'even in distant parts of the
Muslim world, like Indonesia' (Schimmel 1975:411). The fact that the first
part of the poem has letters discussing religious matters is to my mind only
a minor detail. The letters might easily have been substituted with
flowers, birds, fishes, and the like, such as we are familiar with from the
so-called animal and flower syair (Overbeck 1934). The letters speak in
alphabetical order, but the letters Dal, Dzal, Ra, Nga, Pa, and Ga are
passed over. After the letter Ha has spoken, the poem concludes with the
ligature Lam-alif (often regarded as a single letter, though it is a
combination of two letters) and the letter Ya, which means that the
Hamzah and Nya are also omitted. The letters Nga, Pa, Ga and Nya of
the Jawi script are not part of the Arabic alphabet, which may be why
they were not included in the poem. This may also be the reason why the
Hamzah has been left out, for, although it is one of the thirty-four letters
of the Malay alphabet, it also is not part of the Arabic alphabet, as a
word cannot begin with Hamzah. But why do the letters Dal, Dzal and Ra
not speak? Were they perhaps simply forgotten?
In the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta the letters begin their conversation with a
reference to the greatness of God, who created the universe. He is without
equal and unique, and people who deny this are infidels. God created
Adam out of mud. Adam and Eve were blissfully wedded in Heaven, but
Satan stole the Fruit of Eternity (buah khuldi) and ordered them to eat of
it, after which God expelled them from Heaven. Eve feil down on earth
and landed in Jeddah, whereas Adam landed in India.3 Adam travelled to
Mecca to perform the pilgrimage. In the baitullah there he asked
forgiveness for his sins. While Adam was performing the pilgrimage, his
son Kabil killed his brother because he wanted his wife.4 Adam, the

3
Lines 15a-b read: Hawa ke dunia jatuh ke Juddah / Adam jatuh di Hindia lalu ke Mekkah. The
most comtnon tradition is that Eve alighted in Jeddah and Adam in Ceylon.
4
The Koran only contains the story of one of the two sons of Adam killing the other
because his own sacrifice was rejected while his brother's was accepted (Koran 5:27-32).
According to Muslim legend, however, Kabil and Habil (Cain and Abel) each had a twin sister,
and Adam married each brother to the other brother's twin sister. Habil's wife was the prettier
of the two, and Kabil killed his brother out of jealousy. In Malay literature this story can be
found inter alia in Kisas an-Nabi (see Gerth van Wijk 1893:264-5) and Hikayat seribu masalah
(Djamaris 1994:46).

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 A Last Admonition to P.P. Roorda van Eysinga in 1828 119

prophet of God, performed his religious duties at the baitul-haram day

and night, because he knew that time was running out for him. Muhammad,
the seal of the prophets, was likewise wholly devoted to God, for he knew
about the agonies of death. The letter Zai thereupon observes that in the
days of our ancestors there were Islam and Christianity, as still is the case
today. Next, in stanza 24, he admonishes his friends with the following
words:

ltulah handai baiklah pikir
dunia sekarang sudahlah akhir
kepada Allah jikalau mungkir5
kapirlah engkau menjadi kapir
You should think about this carefully, my
friends,
the world is presently drawing to its end.
If you should turn away from God,
as a heathen you will become an infidel.

The conversation then turns to the subject of death. We are destined for
death, and instead of following our lower instincts (nafsu) and being
attached to this world, we should préparé for the eternal world after
death. In the words of the letter Nun in stanza 52:

Jangan kauharap emas dan uang Don't put your trust in gold and money,
dunia nan fana sahajakan hilang this finite world is destined to disappear.
di dalam kubur duduk seorang In the grave you will be all on your own,
Kuburmu sempit terlalu petang your grave will be cramped and pitch-dark.

The letter Waw admonishes his friends to stop being careless and
unmindful of God, as life on earth is very brief. The letter Ha asks his
friends if they have heard the news that the Mahdi will appear within
five years. The Mahdi will have the flag and the garments of the Prophet
and will wage war on infidels all over the world. The letter Lam-alif says
he knows that the Mahdi will replace the Prophet as leader of the
Muslims, converting the Chinese and infidels. The letter Ya, finally,
states that the Mahdi will confirm Islam. The Prophet Khidir will be his
commander, and together they will wage a Holy War. This letter then
incites Muslims to préparé their bodies (probably for the last fight,
though this is not mentioned specifically) and to perform their religious
duties seriously.

A fire-and-brimstone sermon
At this point the poet takes over and puts an end to the speeches of the
letters. In stanza 61 he steps in and addresses his readers as follows:

5
Here 'mungkir' is placed at the end of the line for the sake of the rhyme. The normal word
order would be 'jikalau mungkir kepada Allah'.

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120 E.P. Wieringa

Gantikan bilangan alif ba ta Let's change the subject of what alif-ba-ta

had to say,
segala huruf habis berkata now that the letters have all spoken.
memberi petua mengajari kita They have given us advice and instructed us,
barang yang tuli bebal dan buta all who are deaf, ignorant and blind.

Although the poet interrupts the letters, the subject here, death, remains
unchanged (stanza 63):

Manusia ini banyak yang bebal Mankind is generally ignorant,

mengaku dirinya orang berakaï though it claims to be astute.
tatkala waktu kedatangan ajal Only when the hour of death strikes
baharulah handai engkau tnenyesal will you repent, my friends.

Like many a pious poet before him, Haji Zainal Abidin warns believers
against love of this world, by which he means worldly wealth. In this
world, gold and silver are coveted and cherished and people tend to forget
their Lord, foolishly thinking they will live forever. In stanza 74 he
paraphrases the Koranic saying 'Wealth and children are an ornament of
life of the world. But the good deeds which endure are better in thy Lord's
sight for reward, and better in respect of hope' (Koran 18:47, in the
translation of Pickthal 1953:215) as follows:

Anak dan harta jangan kauria Don't delight in progeny and property,
itulah amal yang sia-sia for as good deeds they will not count.

The angel of death is waiting for us all, and when one dies, worldly
wealth is insignificant. At the time of death, friends and comrades will
gather around one, bringing medicines and uttering magical formulas. One's
relatives will wail and cry loudly, tearing their hair.6 When the soul is
separated from the body, the corpse will be washed and buried. The imam
will instruct the deceased in his grave through the talkin (exhortation to
the dead) as to what to say to the two angels of death. Water will be
sprinkled over the grave and sweet basil (sulasi) planted on it.7 When
everyone has left the grave, Munkar and Nakir will ask the deceased
questions like: 'Who is your Lord?', 'What is your religion?1, 'Who is your
Prophet?', and so on. The believer will be able to answer these questions
smoothly and satisfactorily, but the unbeliever will not be able to answer
them.
The poet then describes in great detail the so-called 'punishment in the

6
This may be interpreted as a sign that the deceased was an unbeliever, for 'Allah, angels,
and men curse people who cry loudly at a death, although weeping or silent crying is allowed -
an attitude of patience and resignation is more highly regarded' (Nor bin Ngah 1982:16).
7
Sulasi, sweet basil, is famous for its lasting fragrance (Wilkinson 1959:1043). There are
several varieties, see Heyne 1950:1336 ff.

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 A Last Admonition to P.P. Roorda van Eysinga in 1828 121

grave' (cadhab al-kabr) which the unbeliever is subjected to. This purüsh-
ment will last till the Day of Resurrection, when graver terrors still will
follow. Then people will be gathered in the Place of Assembly, where the
sun will shine fiercely from a distance of only one span (sejengkal).
Parched, famished and exhausted, they will wander around crazed,
searching for the Prophet Muhammad. Their good and bad deeds will be
weighed, after which they have to cross the bridge that is thinner than a
hair and sharper than a sword: the believers will be able to cross it
quickly, at lightning speed, but the unbelievers will fall off, and so on and
so forth. In short, it is a proper fire-and-brimstone sermon.
At the end of his fear-inspiring admonition, the poet in stanza 179
repeats a verse about disobedience which occurred already in stanza 162:

Jikalau durhaka kepada emak
tiada dikata guru dan bapak
mulutnya terkerat perutnya bengkak
di dalam neraka tiada bergerak
If someone has been disobedient to his mother
and intractable to his teacher and father,
his mouth will be sliced off and his belly
become swollen,
in heil he'11 be paralysed.

Furthermore, he adds (stanzas 180-181):

Gila berlari berkampung-kampung You will madly run for shelter,

hendak mencari tempat berïindung looking for a place to hide.
kepada Allah meminta tolong-tolong You will constantly c'ry to God for help:
tobatlah aku berbuat bohong 'I repent my lying ways'.

Subhana Allah heran sekali Praise be to God! Amazing!

nyawa dan badan sangatlah fani My body and soul are exhausted.
hati birahi aku tahani I will curb my passionate heart,
maka fakir mengarang saHr ini that is why I composed this poem.

The story of the fishes

Now starts the discussion between the fishes, opened by the whale
(stanzas 182-183):

Ikan nun itu ikan pertama
di dalam laut terlalu lama
ia bersoal dengan segala ulama
bertanyakan masalah pohon agama
The whale is the first fish,
he has been in the ocean for a very long time.
He had a discussion with the theologians,
asking them about questions of the founda-'
tion of religion.

Dijawab pula seekor layang Theflyingfish answered him:

pohon agama itulah sembahyang 'The foundation of religion is prayer,
berbuat ibadat malam dan siang the worship of God night and day,
supaya Nabi terlalu sayang so that the Prophet will be pleased'.

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 122 E.P. Wieringa

Besides the whale and the flying fish, all kinds of fish take part in the
religious discussion. The names of their species seem to have been chosen at
random. At least, I have not been able to discover any kind of system
behind (the order of) their appearance. Fresh- and salt-water fishes
interact indiscriminately, and not even all of the participating ikan are
really fish according to modern Western taxonomy: the ikan gurita, for
example, is a kind of small octopus (Onychoteuthis anggulata) and the
ikan duyung is a sea cow {Halicora dugong). It may be that the discussion is
opened by a whale because this fish is considered to be rather stupid.
Hamzah Fansuri wrote in one of his poems, for example: 'The whale is
swimming about in the Ocean in search of water' (Drewes and Brakel
1986:141).
The fishes likewise reject this world and stress the importance of
preparing for the hereafter. So a murrel 8 (ikan toman, Ophiocephalus
app.) expounds (stanza 192):

dengarkan hadith dan Firman Heed the hadith and the Word of God,
sabda Nabi akhir zaman The Prophet to all time said:
dunia ini seperti pinjaman 'This world is but a thing borrowed'.

All agree (stanza 193):

Maka berkata sekalian ikan Thereupon the fishes said:

barang yang haram jangan dimakan 'Don't eat anything that is forbidden;
pekerjaan masiat hendak jauhkan may we keep away from sinful conduct,
perkataan dalam kitab kita dengarkan and heed what the Scriptures say'.

The wise threadfin, ikan kurau (Polynemis), winds up the discussion by

saying that our Lord is without equal. After that the poet concludes with
the words (stanza 216):

Habislah sudah sacir ini That is the end of this syair,

menyurat lebih tiada berani I have not the courage to write more,
sakit sungguh badanku ini my body really aches all over,
hati di dalam habislah fana and my inner heart has perished.

Zainal Abidin's story of the fishes is quite different from the Syair Ikan
by Muhammad Hasan as published by Tan Tjhan Hie in 1897 (see Overbeck
1934:148). In Muhammad Hasan's Syair Ikan, salt- and fresh-water fishes
also discuss religion but, in the published edition at any rate, the author
seems to be more concerned about the moral decay of his times. The poet

8
'Murrel' is the English translation given for ikan toman by Wilkinson (1959:1232), but this
name is not listed in the modern English dictionaries. In Javanese this fish is called gabus,
defined by Home (1974:181) as 'an eel-like river fish1. According to the Enq/clopaedie (1919:800)
this is a member of the family of 'slangenkopvisschen', or Ophiocephalidae.

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 A Last Admonition to P.P. Roorda van Eysinga in 1828 123

criticizes boys and girls who, to his mind, have gone astray, and also the
licentious behaviour of adult women (Tan Tjhan Hie 1897:18):

Sekarang ini banyak yang indah-indah
malu dan sopan lenyaplah sudah
perempuan Hu lakunya orang jandah
dengan taruna ia berani bercandah
Nowadays many are dolled up,
modesty and good manners have disap-
peared totally.
These women behave like widows,
brazenly flirting with youths.9

The version of Muhammad Hasan's Syair Ikan as contained in Leiden

University Library Cod.Or. 1990 is much more similar to Zainal Abidin's
story, however. The above-cited stanza is absent in it, and its writer on the
whole seems to place a stronger emphasis on the theme of death, just like
Zainal Abidin. Here Muhammad Hasan presents a fire-and-brimstone
sermon, along with a description of a funeral and of the subsequent
punishments in the grave, along the same lines as Zainal Abidin, for
example. This episode is not included in the edition published by Tan
Tjhan Hie, however.

Occasional poetry

On the basis of a misinterpretation of line 218c, in which a place with the

name b-n-t-n is mentioned, Van Ronkel assumed that the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta
was written at Bintan. Perhaps he came to this conclusion because the
manuscript once belonged to Klinkert, who collected his manuscripts
mainly in Riau. The title-page of KI. 172 contains the following note,
however, written in an untrained hand in Jawi script. Critically edited,
this note runs:

Syair sekalian huruf berkatal yang <di>karangkan oleh Haji Zainal

Abidin Abdullah Tif, Batawiah kampung Pakhojan.

Many Orientalists are notorious for their appalling hand in Arabic script,
because they are not used to writing Arabic characters but tend only to
draw them. So perhaps this note was written by Roorda van Eysinga.
Interestingly, the spelling of the name of Haji Zainal Abidin's father
appears to be based on hearsay. Roorda van Eysinga referred to the Malay
poet as 'Hadjie Zin el Abidin bin Abdollah Thïf' (Roorda van Eysinga
1855:xx), whereas the usual rendering of the father's name would have
been 'Abdul Lafïf. This is a common Muslim name, connected with Divine
grace (Schimmel 1989:26).

9
(Young, childless) widows have a bad reputation as flirts, see Berg 1930:298; Wilkinson
1959:443-4.

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124 E.P. Wieringa

The last stanzas of the poem (217-219) contain a dedication by Haji

Zainal Abidin to Roorda van Eysinga:

SaHr disurat tunduk tengadah I wrote this poem constantly looking

dikeluarkan ia dari dalam dada
yang empunya ini paduka tuan Roorda
pada zaman ini ia telah berpindah
Itulah sebabnya kami suratkan
kepada sekalian handai kami katakan
di negeri Banten Allah tentukan
mudah-mudahan selamat Allah peliharakan
up and down,
it camerightout of my heart.
lts owner is the honourable Mr
Roorda
who now has left.
That is the reason why I wrote it,
all my friends I teil about it.
God has assigned you to Banten,
may God take care of you!

Sembah sujud kami yang hina I present my humble compliments

ke bawah kadim paduka yang bijaksana to the soles of Your Astute Highness.
kami pohonkan kepada Tuhan yang ghana I beseech the Mighty Lord
persembahan kami jika berguna that my gift may be of use.

In my view the letters b-n-t-n here should be transliterated as 'Banten', as

Banten was the residency to which Roorda van Eysinga was posted as
secretary on 23 February 1828 and he left for Banten on 2 March of that
year (Wap 1857:20). The most obvious conclusion would be that the Syair
Alif-Ba-Ta was written as a good-bye present for Roorda van Eysinga on
the occasion of his departure from Batavia in 1828. Haji Zainal Abidin
had been Roorda's Quran teacher and had instructed him in Malay poetry
(Roorda van Eysinga 1855:xx).
The last quatrain (220), perhaps deliberately, is ambiguous. It reads:

Tiadalah dapat kami katakan

di dalam sacir kami sebutkan
janganlah paduka tuan lupakan
adalah juga kami ingatkan

This could be interpreted as an effusion of personal emotion (forget-me-not)

on the occasion of parting. Roorda van Eysinga may have read:

What I cannot say to you

I express in my poem.
Please, Sir, do not forget me,
just as I will remember you.

It is also possible that what Haji Zainal Abidin wanted 'to convey was
that Roorda van Eysinga should remember not so much his teacher as the
latter's religious teachings. In that case Zainal Abidin, as his former

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 A Last Admonition to P.P. Roorda van Eysinga in 1828 125

teacher, meant to give the poem to his pupil as a final lesson, hence:

What I cannot say to you (because I am not teaching you anymore)

I mention in this poem.
Please, Sir, do not forget it,
just as I will remember it (the religious contents of the poem).

It seems to me that Zainal Abidin, who, as Roorda van Eysinga's

subordinate, of course had not been able to speak out openly before ('what I
cannot say to you'), now finally feit free to express his religious views in a
poem. Now that Roorda van Eysinga was on the point of departure, Zainal
Abidin was able to také advantage of the opportunity to present his
Christian pupil/employer with an edifying homily. Zainal Abidin's poem
on the subject of meditatio mortis was to set Roorda van Eysinga thinking
about his departure in a metaphorical sense.

Some remaining questions

Roorda van Eysinga (1855:xx) writes that Haji Zainal Abidin 'later' wrote
'a poem about me'. What poem did Roorda van Eysinga mean? In any case
not the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta, to my mind, for this is not strictly speaking a
poem about him, but rather a poem for him. It is possible that Roorda van
Eysinga was familiar with the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta before 1828, as we have
a copy dating from 1826, which was based on a manuscript from Krukut. As
far as I know, there are two copies of the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta which
probably once belonged to Roorda van Eysinga, and which nowadays are
kept at the National Library in Paris, namely (1) Mal.-pol. 103, folios 59
recto - 71 recto (Voorhoeve 1973:60), and (2) Mal.-pol. 245, folios 12 recto -
24 recto (Voorhoeve 1973:67-8). Originally Roorda van Eysinga tried to
sell his whole collection in The Netherlands, but his namesake, the well-
known Professor of Oriental Languages Taco Roorda, advised the Dutch
government to buy only some ten manuscripts in this collection. This it did,
and the remainder went to France, apparently at a high price.10 There was
no love lost between the two Roordas (Fasseur 1993:85).
The first of these manuscripts was copied by Suhaiml c Aidarüs
c
Uthman in 1262 A.H. / 1846 A.D. It contains a complete version of Haji
Zainal Abidin's poem, as well as, on folios 78v-80v, another Syair huruf
berkata-kata, which is very similar in subject to Haji Zainal Abidin's
Syair Alif-Ba-Ta and may have been inspired by it. The letters in this
short poem likewise dweil on death and exhort the readers to lead a pious
life. They speak in alphabetical order, beginning with Alif.11

10
See the letter from T. Roorda to E. Dulaurier dated 27 November 1843 (KITLV H 428).
11
The poem opens with the Unes: 'Kata alif Allah Tuhan yang mahamulia / daripada sarwa
sekalian terlalu kaya'.

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126 E.P. Wieringa

The second manuscript was copied by another well-known clerk at the

General Secretariat, namely Muhammad Cing Sacidullah. His copy is
incomplete, with the last lines corresponding to the last lines on folio 13
recto of KI. 172.12 The colophon reads:

Tamatlah sudah saHr pun habis
bulan Dulkaidah harinya Kemis
[f 24v] jam pukul tujuh habis ditulis
dipinjam di Krukut tiada majelis
Finis. The poem was finished
in the month of Dulkaidah, on a Thursday
at seven o'clock its writing was completed;
I borrowed [the manuscript, which was] not
very elegant from Krukut.

At the end of the manuscript, Muhammad Cing Sacidullah states that he

finished his work at the General Secretariat at one. o'clock on Monday, 13
March 1826 (Mal.-pol. 245, f. 52v). Does this imply that Haji Zainal
Abidin was still working on the poem in 1826, since Muhammad Cing
Sacidullah's model was 'not very elegant' and incomplete? Was Haji
Zainal Abidin really the author of the Syair Alif-Ba-Ta or did he only
copy an existing poem which he deemed a fitting 'last message'?
Apparently the genre of poems featuring talking letters in traditional
Malay literature was considered eminently suitable for occasional
poetry.13 Furthermore, it was possible in this genre to represent the letters
as literati discussing serious religious matters.14
There are more questions which remain unanswered. For example, was
KI. 172 the manuscript that was originally presented to Roorda van
Eysinga in 1828, or is it a later copy? The paper is of Dutch manufacture
and has the watermark 'Beehive' and the counter-mark 'J. Kool & Comp'.
Although Jan Kool was quite a famous paper manufacturer, I have not been
able to establish an exact date for this paper (see Voorn 1960:331-3).
Finally, how and when did this manuscript end up in Klinkert's collection?

12
These lines read: 'Kepada Allah meminta tolong / tobatlah aku berbuat bohong'.
13
Compare, for example, KITLV Or. 105, Syair Alif Ba Ta, which was written on the
occasion of the departure of the Resident of Riau on 28 June 1893 (Van Ronkel 1908b:227), and
SOAS MS 46944, which possibly also was a piece of occasional poetry (Ricklefs and Voorhoeve
1977).
14
Judging from their brief descriptions, Jakarta v.d.W. 226, pp. 1-11, and v.d.W. 236 also
deal with religious matters (Van Ronkel 1909:358-9). Leiden University Library Cod.Or. 1735 at
least also warns its readers of future punishments in heil. Stanza 18b-d, for example, reads: 'Ke
dalam neraka tempatnya jatuh / dagingnya hancur tulang pun rapuh / dimakan api sekalian luruh II'.
A draft transliteration of this ms was made by Barmawi Mukri (1985) in the context of a
seminar at the IAIN Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta presented by Dr. Karel Steenbrink in 1985.1
would like to thank Dr. Steenbrink for giving me a copy of this paper.

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 A Last Admonition to P.P. Roorda van Eysinga in 1828 127

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