Page 71 - Hikayat-Patani-The-Story-Of-Patani 1

62 HIKAYAT PATANI

destroyed by the reading of B. B gives a much more elaborate and
specified genealogy of the descendants of Raja Hujan. It features Raja
Abu as the greatgrandson of Raja Hujan, and Alung Nam again as the
former’s grandson. It adds another two generations after Alung Nam.
Even if we consider these two last names to be an interpolation by some
knowledgeable copyist, we still have difficulty with the fact that Alung
Nam (the last name mentioned by A) comes, according to the reliable
looking text of B, five rather than two generations after Raja Hujan, so
that he must have been bom at least a century after Raja Hujan, and if
the writer of version A knew this man as an adult, our text could not
possibly date back to before 1760.
It is difficult to determine how conclusive this argument is. It is
remarkable that the two versions are not only different, but are also
contradictory: whereas A calls the son of Raja Hujan Raja Kecik, that
name does not occur in the list in B, unless the strange word k-c-a’-n
(the name of the grandson in B), should be read as Kecik. And while
A suggests that Raja Abu and Alung Nam are on the same genealogical
level, B features the latter as the former’s grandchild. A partial solution
to our problem would be to consider Alung Nam of A as a different
person from Alung Nam of B, the former then indeed being a brother
of Raja Abu.5 In that case the author of the version from which A
originated could still be a contemporary of Alung Yunus, whereas with
regard to B we would have to assume that this part of the text was
edited late in the 18th century by someone who possessed detailed know­
ledge of the descendants of Raja Hujan.
That the author of our text was a Muslim is actually implied by the
fact that he was a Patani Malay. He is not a zealous apologist for Islam,
nor is he very critical of the religion of the Thai. But from the way in
which he deals with religious matters it is obvious that he knew Islam
as an insider and that Buddhism was fundamentally a foreign religion
to him. The story of the Islamization of Patani itself bears witness to his
belief that Islam is the normal thing; and he censures the king for not
really giving up his “heathen” way of life (pekerjaan fakir) (p. 11).
While he shows the usual respect for religious leaders, syaikhs, hajis, etc.,
he refrains from attacking other religions. Apparently in his day one had
to take other religions for granted in a town like Patani with its im­
portant Siamese and Chinese groups.
As a writer, too, our author was a typical Malay. In the final chapter

5 In the family tree of the descendants of the elephant doctor there are also several
cases of grandparents and grandchildren bearing the same name.