January 25, 2021 William Farquhar Correspondence and Other 19th Century Malay Letters Now Online at the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress today announced the digitization of 46 Malay letters from the 19^th century, mainly from Malay kings and Southeast Asian notables to William Farquhar, a pioneering British colonial administrator in Singapore (1819-1823), providing online access to an important resource on the founding of that country.

The digitization comes ahead of the 202nd anniversary of the signing of the Singapore Treaty, which greenlighted plans for the British East India Company to establish a trading post there, a pivotal moment in that country´s history. The treaty was signed on Feb. 6, 1819, by Sir Stamford Raffles, Sultan Hussein Shah and Temenggong Abdul Rahman.

A popular and well-respected figure, Farquhar was installed as the first British Resident and Commandant of Singapore, the highest political office at the time, to oversee the port operations and develop the colony. Under British colonial rule, a resident also managed relations between British India and native rulers from different princely states.

For the first time, researchers, students and leaders in academia worldwide will have online access to a rare primary source collection that is connected to the founding of Singapore in the form of these letters written between 1812 and 1832, by Malay rulers and notables in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaya.

“The digitization of the William Farquhar correspondence and other Malay letters is significant as it greatly enhances access to a notable Southeast Asian Collection of 19th-century Malay letters that shed light on the founding of a British trading post in Singapore. Before these letters were available online, researchers had to base their analysis on less-than-optimal duplicates or visit the Library in person to view the originals onsite,” said Dongfang Shao, chief of the Asian Division.

Written in Jawi script, an adaptation of the Arabic script for writing the Malay language, the 46 letters reflect exchanges between Malay rulers and Farquhar, a key figure in the founding of modern Singapore. The collection includes a finding aid, which is also available online.

Further research into the origin of the letters revealed that they were purchased by Alfred North, an American missionary, for the United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842).

Three lists of books, found among inventory records from the expedition from 1839 through 1854, ultimately confirmed the provenance of the letters, as well as many other Malay and Bugis manuscripts and early printed books at the Library of Congress, according to Southeast Asian reference librarian Joshua Kueh, who detailed the sourcing of these documents in a recent blog.

Among the items re-discovered thanks to those lists is a Malay code of law copied by Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir (1796-1854), a Malacca-born writer who helped usher in modern Malay literature.

The collection includes a letter penned by Siti Fatimah binti Jamaluddin Abdul Rahman, sultanah of Pammana, the female monarch of that kingdom at the time. In it, she informs Farquhar that her husband, Sultan Ali Dato’ Pamanah, has died and asks for the purchase of weapons.

“Therefore, we ask our friend (Farquhar)… to help procure some guns with gunpowder and bullets, that we will be most grateful,” the letter states, according to a passage translated by Kueh.

In another letter, Sultan Muhammad Kanzul Alam ibn Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin al-marhum of Brunei, thanks Farquhar for his recent letter and perfume gift and informs him that he’ll be sending three traders to Singapore, Melaka and Pulau Pinang. His Majesty also describes Brunei’s health crisis due to a deadly outbreak.

The digitized correspondence also includes a few letters between Malay notables and businessmen, Chinese among them, offering a glimpse into the larger context of the political and social climate in which Farquhar and Malay rulers operated.

The digitization of these rare letters reflects the Library of Congress´ commitment to a user-centered strategic plan to expand access to its vast collections in real-time. Learn about the Library´s five-year plan at loc.gov/strategic-plan/.

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