Anti-feudal elements in classical Malay political theory: the Taj al-Salatin
Abstract
In the classical Islamic tradition, what we may call political theory can be extracted from various disciplines and fields as diverse as theology, philosophy, ethics and jurisprudence, as well as works belonging to the nasihat (counsel-for-kings) or ‘mirrors for princes’ genre, and handbooks of administration. This article discusses a seventeenth-century Malay work, the Taj al-Salatin, which belongs to the nasihat genre and has significant Persian influence. The Taj al-Salatin is a Malay mirror for princes said to have been composed around 1603 in Aceh. This article focuses on the anti-feudal orientation of the Taj al-Salatin, suggesting that this crucial element of pre-modern Malay literature was in competition with feudal elements that are also expressed in Malay literature.
Summary
This article examines the Taj al-Salatin (c. 1603), a Malay mirror-for-princes text composed in the Sultanate of Aceh by Bukhari al-Jauhari, and argues that it contains a significant anti-feudal orientation that places it in tension with feudal values also present in classical Malay literature. Alatas situates the work within the broader nasihat al-muluk (counsel-for-kings) genre of the classical Islamic tradition, tracing its Persian antecedents in Nizam al-Mulk’s Siyasat-nama and al-Ghazali’s Nasihat al-Muluk, and notes that the text adopts Persian prosody, structural arrangement, and even a crown-shaped radial composition with justice at its apex (pp. 30–33).
The central analytical framework is drawn from Shaharuddin Maaruf’s distinction between Malay feudalism and Malay humanism, the latter grounded in the Islamic principle of God’s sovereignty as a check on arbitrary royal power. Alatas demonstrates that the Taj al-Salatin redirects loyalty from the ruler to God, insists on the rule of law without class exception, and defines legitimate rulership in terms of adil (justice) and ihsan (righteousness)—qualities without which a ruler cannot be considered a ruler at all (pp. 34–36). The article contrasts this with feudal values such as blind loyalty, indifference to social justice, and the acceptance of arbitrary power, illustrated through episodes in the Sejarah Melayu involving the Bendahara Seri Maharaja and Megat Seri Rama (pp. 33–34).
Alatas concludes by noting that while the nasihat genre is inherently normative, the Taj al-Salatin gestures toward a more analytic approach through its emphasis on knowing the world (mengenal dunia), and he calls for a positive, explanatory political theory for the Malay world in the spirit of Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah (pp. 36–37).
Key Findings
- The Taj al-Salatin was composed around 1603 in Aceh and is considered the most important Persian-influenced andarz (wisdom/advice) literature produced in the Malay world; it quotes Nizam al-Mulk, al-Ghazali, Farid al-Din Attar’s Kitab al-Asrar, and Husayn Wa’iz Kashifi’s Akhalqi-i Muhsini (pp. 31–32).
- The text’s structure is a radial, crown-shaped composition with the concept of justice at the apex, a form Braginsky identifies as a projection of the traditional Persian crown onto a horizontal plane (p. 32).
- The Taj al-Salatin explicitly states that the ruler must “consider himself as one of the subjects” and that “any law he would not like imposed on himself, he should not impose on his subjects” (p. 35).
- Shaharuddin Maaruf identifies ten feudal values (servile attitude to authority, lack of rule of law, indifference to social justice, etc.) and thirteen counter-values in the Islamic tradition (rational-egalitarian authority, rule of law, social justice, dignity of labour, etc.) that are in active conflict within Malay tradition (pp. 34–35).
- Farish Noor observes that the Taj al-Salatin, written nearly half a century before Hobbes’ Leviathan, reorganises the feudal worldview by demanding loyalty to God rather than to the raja, thereby “distracting both loyalty and attention from the rajas themselves” (p. 34).
- The text declares that “whoever among the rulers is without these two elements [adil dan ihsan], cannot be considered a ruler,” a formulation that Alatas identifies as a direct challenge to Malay feudalism (p. 36).
Conclusion
Alatas’ definitive takeaway is that the Taj al-Salatin represents a crucial anti-feudal strand in pre-modern Malay political thought that was in genuine competition with feudal elements in the same literary tradition, and that this normative discourse retains relevance for contemporary governance. However, he argues that the nasihat genre alone is insufficient for a full political theory and that the Malay world needs a more analytic, positive approach to the study of politics and governance—one that provides explanation, proof, and demonstration rather than mere normative assertion, as exemplified by Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah.
Context
- The article draws primarily on the romanized Malay edition of the Taj al-Salatin edited by Khalid M. Hussain (1992, based on a Leiden University Library manuscript) and on Shaharuddin Maaruf’s 1991 essay “Malay Literature as Social History” as the principal secondary source for textual quotations and interpretation.
- Historiographically, the article contributes to the ongoing debate—initiated by Syed Hussein Alatas (1972) and developed by Shaharuddin Maaruf—on the coexistence and conflict of feudal and Islamic value systems in Malay society, extending the argument from the Sejarah Melayu to the nasihat genre and explicitly linking it to questions of modern governance and the need for an analytic political sociology of the Malay world.