THESAURUS OF INDONESIAN ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPTS

This work, says T. Iskandar, was firstly reported in the list of Isaak de Saint Martin collection (1696). Tāj al-salāṭīn was written in 1603 by Bukhārī al-Jawharī or al-Johori, and possibly it was made as a gift for the Acehnese Sultan, Alauddin Riayat Syah (1589-1604). The Sultan was very much interested in Sufism and he was therefore been given the title to Sayyid al-Mukammal.

Scholars are not in the same opinion With regard to the writer’s identification. The writer was initially identified as Bukhārī al-Jawharī. Those who go with this are Valentijn, Werndly, Roorda van Eysinga, and De Hollander. Van Ronkel then proposes a new identification based on the Jawi letters j-w-h-r-y as found in the work, stating that this cannot be read johor, but jawhari. Therefore, the writer of Tāj al-salāṭīn is Bukhārī al-Jawharī. Braginsky then states that Tāj al-salāṭīn was drawn upon about thirty Arabic and Persian works on religious and political aspects, governance, society, history and ethics. Tāj al-salāṭīn also contains some Persian expressions. Bukhārī also quoted a number of works, such as Siyar al-Mulūk of Niẓām al-Mulk (written in 1092 and completed by another writer in 1106), al-Asrār of Farīd al-Dīn al-ʻAṭṭār (written in 1188), Akhlaq-i Muhsini (1494) of Husain Wa’iz Kasyifi, some Persian romances on Leila and Majnun, Khusraw and Syirin, Yusuf and Zulaikha, Sultan Mahmud and Ayaz Kawula, and some other Persian works.

The introduction of the work says: "Maka dinamai kitab ini Taj al-salatin, namanya arti itu mahkota segala raja-raja. Bermula sebab dinamai demikian kitab ini itulah daripada fihak kemuliaan harganya jua. Karena barangsiapa daripada segala raja-raja yang ada kitab ini sertanya, senantiasa membaca dia dan mendengarkan katanya dan menurut maknanya dialah raja dengan sempurnanya..."