December 2019 – Following several visits by Flagship team to Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM), a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed between IIUM and IAMM on 6th December 2019. The MoA was signed by The Honourable Rector of IIUM Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak and the Director of IAMM Mr. Syed Mohamad Albukhary.
The main scopes of the responsibilities: IIUM: To transliterate a selected manuscript and perform content analyses. IAMM: To prepare manuscript, provide high quality images of selected manuscript and design publication.
It is hoped that the project will run smoothly and with full cooperation from both parties.
Sitting from left: Dr. Heba Nayel Barakat (Head of Curatorial Affairs Department of IAMM), Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak (IIUM Rector) and Prof. Dr. Ahmad Hafiz Zulkifly (Deputy Rector IIUM).Museum tour by Dr. Heba, showing a Qur’an aged hundreds of years.Part of the team posed in Ottoman Room, exhibited in the museum.
In conjunction with IKOD, the flagship has opened a booth at the IIUM Grand hall, exhibiting Malay medical transliterated books, quizzes, and some plants. The booth was opened for two days from 12-13th October 2019, and it was aiming to create awareness among IIUM community and also the public about the importance of preserving the knowledge from Malay Medical Manuscripts. Some visitors were challenged to read Jawi old style of writing. The committees received various ways of reading because the old spelling is not like what we have today. It requires knowledge, context understanding and ‘iktikad to be able to read old Jawi writing, and most importantly understand the whole context of the text.
In 2019, a team of the flagship made several visits to Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) in Kuala Lumpur to discuss a possible collaboration since IAMM holds a large collection of Malay manuscripts. Some of them are pertaining to medical content, which is the main interest of the flagship.
Thus, in May and June 2019, the team had viewed 10 manuscripts to be selected as a pilot project of collaboration between IIUM and IAMM. The main objective of the collaboration is to transliterate Malay medical manuscripts and analyse the medical content.
Below are some pictures of the manuscript viewing and selection process.
On the 23rd of August 2019, 31 volunteers comprising of students and lecturers from IIUM Kuantan Campus embarked on a journey to Banda Aceh, Indonesia to participate in a volunteering trip together with 20 delegate members of Masyarakat Peduli Sejarah Aceh (MAPESA). The program, Jelajah Tamadun Islam Aceh 2019, was spearheaded by 28 committee members from BRC Mahallah Fatimah Az-Zahra, co-organized by MRC Mahallah Khalid al-Walid, Kumpulan Latihan Kelanasiswa Malaysia and Professional Huffaz Club IIUM Kuantan.
The purpose of the trip is to appreciate and partake in an effort to conserve, preserve and embrace cultural heritage of islamic Aceh Sultanate relics by involving in a historical discovery alongside the Acehnese non-government organisation that concerns with islamic historical civilization. Three academia from the campus, made up of college principal, program advisor and fellow were also involved in the remarkable 4 day volunteering trip to the northwest Indonesia Province of Sumatra Island.
On the day of the arrival, the program kick-started with an intellectual discourse titled Seminar Dakwah and Tamadun Aceh-Pahang which took place at Aula Fakultas Adab dan Humaniora, UIN Ar-Raniry. Among the panel of speakers who were involved in the discussion, Drs Nurdin and Dr Manan, academia from the university itself and Dr Mohd Affendi from IIUM Kuantan Campus.
The volunteering participants then made their way to Kampung Ulee Tuy, Darul Imarah Bandar Aceh where tombstones believed belonging to the rulers during the era of Menteri Penghulu Fawas Maharaja Setia were situated. Here, the volunteers involved in a cleaning and excavating activity to search for missing tombstones that were buried in the village vicinity. The participants managed to experience the process of unearthing and conserving the ancient gravestones which have been presumably existed ever since the 16th century of the Aceh Sultanate.
Tsunami MuseumRecovering buried ancient ‘Batu Acheh’
“Fakulti Adab dan Kemanusiaan” of the Islamic State University of Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh in collaboration with Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences (KAHS), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Kuantan, Pahang, held a “Seminar Da’wah dan Tamaddun Aceh-Pahang” on Friday (23/8/2019) at the “Fakulti Adab dan Kemanusiaan” Auditorium at the local campus. This seminar is in conjunction with IIUM flagship hosted by KAHS which is known as Health Information and Knowledge from Malay Medical Manuscripts (HIKAM).
This seminar is one of the “Jelajah Tamadun Islam Aceh” program initiated by the IIUM. In addition to the Malaysian delegation of about 30 people, the seminar included UIN campus residents, alumni and other UIN guests.
Dean of “Fakulti Adab dan Kemanusiaan” UIN Ar-Raniry, Dr. Fauzi Ismail MSI, represented by the Dean of Academic Affairs and Institutions, Dr. Phil Abdul Manan, M.Sc., MA in his speech said cooperation and scientific activities like this need to be enhanced.
According to Abdul Manan, this activity is the platform to develop the faculty. He hoped that the activities would be followed by other activities to enhance cooperation between the “Fakulti Adab dan Kemanusiaan” of U-Ar-Raniry with IIUM Kuantan, Pahang.
“In the future, it is hoped that this collaboration and good relations will be further developed in other forms of academic activities such as student exchange, community service, scientific paper publishing and collaborative research,” Abdul Manan said in a speech on Friday (23/8).
Meanwhile, IIUM representatives of the Kuantan Campus, Asst. Prof. Dr. Normah Binti Haron, principal at Mahallah Fatimah az-Zahrah, stressed on the importance of cooperation between disciplines in various fields of science.
The event organized by Hermansyah, a lecturer in Philology at the “Fakulti Adab dan Kemanusiaan” at UIN Ar-Raniry has gathered speakers from both universities.
From UIN Ar-Raniry by Drs. Nurdin AR, M.Hum discussed about the history of Aceh traditional science and technology and Dr. Phil Dr. Phil Abdul Manan, M.Sc., MA talked about ethnographic studies of pregnant women and childcare at West Haj Lab, South Aceh.
Meanwhile, from IIUM Kuantan, Pahang, Asst. Prof. Dr. Mohd. Affendi introduced the topic of discussion on Malay medical manuscript “Ar-Rahmah Aceh: Menjawab Hurgronje?”.
As we know, the relationship between Aceh and Pahang has been around since the time of the Aceh Sultanate during the reign of Iskandar Muda. He brought many people from Pahang to Aceh and one of them made Sultan Iskandar Tsani his adopted son and married his daughter Sultanah Shafiyatuddin to Tajul Alam.
August 2019 – An MMM booth was established in conjunction with IIUM Plant Open Day (IPOD) on 21st and 22nd of August 2019.
The purpose of the booth was to create awareness about the value of Malay Medical Manuscripts (MMM) among the visitors. Explanation from personnel have opened some of the visitors on the importance to study the manuscripts which is one of the main objectives of this flagship.
Among activities at the booth was rearranging words written in old “Jawi” which was proven to be challenging. There was also crossword puzzles pertaining to MMM for the crowd to test their Malay history knowledge. Several books on MMM were sold at the booth and some were written by the flagship leader. The exhibited medicinal plants also managed to grab the attention of the crowd.
In short, the event managed to attract a large crowd into IIUM and that made the booth reach its target to create awareness among the visitors.
Why don’t you challenge your “Jawi” reading skill by trying to rearrange these words into two sound sentences?
The flagship team made an educational cum volunteering visit to Aceh on 23rd August 2019. The purpose of the trip was to appreciate and partake in an effort to conserve, preserve and embrace cultural heritage of Islamic Aceh Sultanate relics by involving in a historical discovery alongside the Acehnese non-government organisation that concerns with islamic historical civilization. Three academia from the campus, made up of college principal, program advisor and fellow were also involved in the remarkable 4 day volunteering trip to the northwest Indonesia Province of Sumatra Island.
The volunteering participants made their way to Kampung Ulee Tuy, Darul Imarah Bandar Aceh where tombstones believed belonging to the rulers during the era of Menteri Penghulu Fawas Maharaja Setia were situated. Here, the volunteers involved in a cleaning and excavating activity to search for missing tombstones that were buried in the village vicinity. The participants managed to experience the process of unearthing and conserving the ancient gravestones which have been presumably existed ever since the 16th century of the Aceh Sultanate.
On 1 & 2 August 2019, Malay Medical Manuscript as Sources of Knowledge (IIUM flagship hosted by KAHS) organised a workshop on “Jawi” Transliteration. The workshop was participated by 25 staff and the sole presenter for the workshop was Asst. Prof. Dr. Mohd Affend Mohd Shafri who is also the flagship leader.
The two-day programme discussed about the vision and mission of the flagship, Malay medicine, research on Malay Medical Manuscripts from modern science perspective, aiding tools for “Jawi” transliteration, origin of Malay, civilisation and history of Malay, and scholars in Malay civilisation.
The participants were given a chance to have hands-on experience on how to read Malay Medical Manuscripts which require various skills. In the end, the participants presented their transliterated manuscript to the members of the workshop.
It was indeed a fruitful workshop and worth the two days. This is a starting point of the flagship to instill the enthusiasm and awareness especially among IIUM researchers to start looking at our forgotten treasure which are slowly decomposing. To let those be decomposed without harvesting the information contained, it is a great loss for the nation.
In conjunction with the Annual General Meeting of the Akademi Sains Islam Malaysia (ASASI), a seminar on Malay Ethnoscience will be organised by ASASI and the Kulliyyah of Allied Health Science (KAHS), IIUM. The seminar will take place on 6th April between 0900-1630 at Institut Penyelidikan Matematik (INSPEN), UPM. Registration online can be performed via https://goo.gl/euQ24E
Sari Segala Ubat is the latest book published by Dr. Mohd. Affendi (Flagship champion). The book content is based on a Malay medical manuscript entitled MSS B15 Kitab Ubat-ubat dan ‘Azimat, which is currently being kept in the British Library, United Kingdom. It is believed that the manuscript was copied from Tama’s manuscript (or Sama), who was a royal healer for Pontianak Sultanate, on 17th May 1813. The manuscript contains healing practices by the royal healer of the Pontianak Sultanate, Kalimantan Barat, Borneo. The information in the manuscript may broaden the knowledge of science and technology that had been used in the past among Malay communities in Borneo.
English