Looking at Palembang through its manuscripts

Abstract

After the fall of Sriwijaya and the arrival of Islam, in the 18th century Palembang grew to become a renowned centre of Islamic learning. Active royal patronage for visiting Arab scholars led to the emergence of a new generation of local religious scholars and writers, whose many theological and literary works are now held mainly in manuscript collections in the Netherlands and Jakarta. A new catalogue has, for the first time, documented the collections of manuscripts still held in private hands in Palembang itself.