Malay Graffiti In A Nineteenth-Century Lithographed Bombay Qur’an

Edwin Wieringa

doi:10.31291/hn.v7i1.516

Authors

Edwin Wieringa University of Cologne, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31291/hn.v7i1.516

Keywords:

Bombay Islam, Marginalia, Arabic Script., Qur’ān

Abstract

A lithographed copy of the Qur’ān, printed in Bombay (Mumbai, India) in 1881, was bought in Sumatra a few years later by a certain K. Bijls, a Malay-speaking Dutchman who made several markings in it which may be regarded as a form of “graffiti”, in the sense of markings asserting his ownership. This same person most probably also added a marginal calligraphic composition to the text, in a manner that is typical of Malay epistolography, perhaps prompted by an element on the printed page that was unfamiliar to him, hence catching his eye and imagination.

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