Tanah Air: passing through the Malay Archipelago

Mohd Noor Merican, Ahmad Murad (2022) Tanah Air: passing through the Malay Archipelago. ISTAC-IIUM Publications, Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur. ISBN 9789839379686

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Abstract

Tanah Air: Passing Through the Malay Archipelago narrates and re-tells ideas, episodes and places in the Malay Archipelago. Some have called it a cultural history of the region. It could be viewed as the sociological imagination of the Tanah Air. The collective experience of the rantau is here reminded and recontextualized. In this regard, we see the past—of Melaka, Kedah, Tanjong, by extension Malay society and the Malay Archipelago as integral to global history. This is where civilizations and cultures meet; where its rivers, straits and seas give life to communities and societies over the centuries. The Alam Melayu, expressed through the Tanah Air is never an ambiguous notion to its inhabitants. It is relatively a manifestation of a cosmopolitan world. It is a historical, cultural and sociological reality. The columns in this book are arranged thematically, divided into three parts, with a prologue and an epilogue. The essay titled “The Melaka Enlightenment and Its Oceanic Geographies,” which serves as the prologue, is exclusively meant for this book. This is to premise Melaka as central to our narrative and to remind us that modern Malaysia is much a product of the Melaka Enlightenment in its history and geography. It is time that we shift our experience of Melaka as a globalized polity and forge its vibrancy from an oceanic perspective. Abdullah Munshi is appropriated for the Epilogue to resonate the articulation of the Tanah Air. Abdullah has rendered, in various genres and readings of the Tanah Air. This book is not meant to be read as a history book. It is to be consumed with how the narrative has been arranged and structured, without any pretensions. The three parts of the book fairly resonate with the different but interrelated themes. One function of a newspaper column is to shed new ways of thinking about things, people and ideas. This series of essays on the Tanah Air is to appropriate perspectives in re-casting and re-understanding the global dynamics not only centering on Melaka but appropriating the chain and connections of events and ideas radiating throughout the Malay Archipelago, especially from the early modern period.

Item Type:	Book
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Sociology, Anthropology, Malay and South East Asia
Subjects:	D History General and Old World D History General and Old World > D History (General)
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC)
Depositing User:	PROF. DR. AHMAD MURAD MOHD NOOR MERICAN
Date Deposited:	11 Oct 2024 12:25
Last Modified:	11 Oct 2024 12:25
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/114632

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