We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
Classical Malay law codes provide an important resource for the study of traditional Malay governance and administration, as well as the structure of society. That is not all. Legal codes reflect traditional ways of thought. The proverb, “pound rice in a mortar, boil it in an earthenware pot”, suggests that Malays had a fine regard for order. The proverb, “Where the sky touches the earth, the earth upholds the sky; in the land where you live, you must follow local custom”, suggests a willingness and an ability to adapt to current conditions and the vicissitudes of change. For this reason, elements of animism, Hinduism and Islam can exist comfortably side-by-side in Malay culture.
Sir Stamford Raffles was the first person to realize the value of studying classical Malay legal codes. While he was in Penang (1805-1810), he employed four Malay secretaries to collect legal documents. He rejected the contemporary scholarly idea that Malays had no understanding of law, firmly insisting that each kingdom had its own code. The secretaries were to transcribe these codes for his earnest attention. The result of his studies was an article he published in Asiatic Researches (volume 12, 1818).
Even so, there have been scholars who have doubted the relevance of traditional law codes for the actual administration of justice. In one of his articles, R. J. Wilkinson advised students of the law not to bother too much about these codes. He pointed out that Malay law codes had never had the backing of any legal body and were more like “legal digests”; as such, they might suggest what the current practices might be but the laws were not always applied and individuals were not always punished for their faults (Wilkinson 1908). R. O. Winstedt was also of the opinion that these digests were nothing more than reference works; they were often ignored and a strong sultan, or a judge who sought to be on good terms with such a sultan, could easily set their provisions aside (Winstedt 1958: 136).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
