The Stone is 89 cm in height, 53 cm in width at the top, and weighs 214.8 kg. All of its four sides have inscriptions in Malay written in the Jawi script, and dated AH 702 (1303). The promulgation of Islamic laws established Islam as the state religion of Terengganu, the first recorded state in the Malay Peninsula to do so, and defined a new way of life for the people. The first side records this recognition of Islam as the state religion, while the other sides record commandments and regulations.
The front of the Stone of Terengganu, with the Jawi script going horizontally across its face.
One side of the Inscribed Stone of Terengganu, with the Jawi script running vertically.
The Inscribed Stone of Terengganu has assumed additional importance, especially in the context of understanding the political and social history of Southeast Asia, and the transformation of the religious and economic life of its people associated with trade and commerce of the era. The presence of traders from various Asian regions illustrates not only the variety of cultures that interacted in the area, but also the migratory patterns of the time.
This translation of the text on the front of the Stone establishes its great significance:
Behold the Prophet of God and his apostles.
Praise the God Almighty for giving us Islam.
With Islam, truth revealed to all Thy creatures.
On this land the religion of the Holy Prophet shall prevail.
The Holy Prophet, the upholder of truth in Thy kingdom.
Hear ye kings, these messages.
Messages from the Almighty, ye doubt not.
Goodwill, with thee fellow men, saith the Almighty.
Be it known, the land of Terengganu, the first to receive message of Islam.
On the noon on Friday in the month of Rejab whilst the sun was in the north by religious reckoning.
Seven hundred and two years after the demise of the Holy Prophet.
Inscribed 2011
What is it
Two manuscript copies of La Galigo, a poetic text in a Bugis dialect of South Sulawesi in Southeast Asia and dating from around the 14th century. One copy is in South Sulawesi in Indonesia and the other is in the Netherlands.
Why was it inscribed
At an estimated 6000 folio pages long, La Galigo, also known as Sureq Galigo, may be the longest work of literature in the world. A mythological epic, the work has its origins in oral tradition and its language is considered beautiful and difficult.
Where is it
Museum La Galigo, Makassar, Indonesia; Leiden University Library, Leiden, the Netherlands
The two copies of La Galigo listed on the Register are not the only extant manuscripts of the work: many others are in public and private collections, but the work itself is so long that no single manuscript contains the entire text. Instead, the work is contained in many manuscripts and all the known copies are fragments – some extensive, others much smaller – but the copies in Museum La Galigo in Indonesia and at Leiden University Library in the Netherlands are exceptionally important.
The Sulawesian manuscript, at 217 pages in length, narrates one complete episode in the text. The Dutch manuscript is 2851 pages long and comprises the first third of the story; this version is the largest continuous and consistent fragment of the text in the world. Both were probably transcribed in the 19th century.
La Galigo is a poetic text generally set in a strict, five-syllable metre using a particular branch of the Bugis dialect. Its origins lay in oral tradition and it was thought to have first been recorded in writing around the 14th century, when the indigenous Bugis script developed. Its story is a mythological epic centred in Luwuq, the kingdom regarded as the cradle of Bugis culture, and relates the coming of the gods to Earth and their adventures there over six generations.
The main barriers to the study and understanding of the work are the disappearing knowledge of Bugis in both written and spoken forms. The first systematic study of La Galigo was the work of B.F. Matthes, a missionary who, like many of his colleagues, learned the local language of the region in which he taught and preached. He also published a Bugis–Dutch dictionary which remains an important source both for the language and its use in La Galigo.
Difficulties with the language, and the fragmented and incomplete nature of the manuscripts mean that, although the text is of a high literary quality, it remains less studied than other epic poems. However, La Galigo still remains part of the culture and identity of the Bugis people who have named public roads and buildings after the story and its protagonists.
Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts
Inscribed 2007
What are they
A collection of seventy-one Persian manuscripts each containing (on average) 100 miniature paintings in exquisite and vibrant colours, produced in art centres and royal ateliers in Asia Minor, Central Asia, Persia and India over a span of almost 500 years.
Why were they inscribed
The collection is a treasure trove of the ‘art of copying’, a widespread activity for distributing iconography and information, and is of great importance for its authentic copies of Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts from different royal ateliers. It is culturally significant for the evolution of art schools and ateliers in the Islamic world.
Where are they
National Library and Archives of Egypt, Cairo, Egypt
This unique collection of Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts from different royal ateliers comprises seventy-one rare illustrated and illuminated Persian manuscripts that highlight the development of royal ateliers from the 14th century to the 19th century. The collection is unique as it tells the history of Persian Islamic miniature painting, the development of Persian calligraphic script styles and the art of single folios and album compilation (muraqqa’). The collection was produced at renowned art centres and royal ateliers that flourished in a vast geographical region: from Baghdad and the Mosul area to Central Asia (Samarkand and Bukhara), to Iran and Afghanistan (Herat, Shiraz and Isfahan) and to the Indian Subcontinent. All of these geographical areas considered the Persian language as the literate and refined language to be used by the elite. The collection includes miniature paintings from the Mosul and Baghdad School which was devastated by the Mongol invasion in 1258, from the Timurid school which flourished in 1368 under Shah Timur, in Iran, Turkistan and Khurasan, and from the Safavid dynasty (1502–1736 ) as well as from the Mughal Empire of India (15th–18th centuries). Among the rare manuscripts are a copy of Khalila wa Dimna (which includes 112 miniatures) inscribed in the 12th century by Abu al Muzafar Bahramshah of Ghaznah, a Shâhnâmeh of Ferdowsi (with 166 miniatures) inscribed and illustrated by Mani during the 15th century and a copy of the Bustan of Sa’adi al-Shirazi inscribed by Sultan Ali al Katib in 1488 and illustrated by the renowned Behzad who proudly signed and dated his miniatures to 1489.