Writing history in the Indian Ocean world

In previous articles, I looked at a number of textual traditions from Southeast Asia that have strong connections to the Indian Ocean world, while also exhibiting distinctively local outlooks: the Javanese chronogram tradition, and the works of the Malay Sufi poet Hamzah of Barus.

In this article, I examine a historical text written in northern Sumatra in the mid-17th century, which illustrates some of the complexities of cultural influence at global and local scales. My aim is to illustrate a concrete model for how these cultural factors interacted to shape the way that history was written. I’m interested in the question: what did it mean to write history in the Indian Ocean world?