Kitab Takbir

bibliography

text notes

list of words

Bibliography

title:		Kitab Takbir
edition:		Surianiah bt. Pakih, “Manuskrip ‘Ta`bir Mimpi’: Analisis dan Transliterasi Teks”, Universiti Malaya, Akademi Islam, Fakulti Usuluddin, 1993. Accessible online at: myManuskrip.
manuscript:		Or. 113, KITLV (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde), Leiden.
dates:		text:  ±1820;    manuscript:  >1833
provenance:		Tegal, Java.
words:		17440 words
references:		to the pages (1-137) and lines of the underlying manuscript.

 

Editorial notes and bibliography

This text is an example of an important branch of older knowledge, collected in notebooks which would be called Primbon in Javanese, but sometimes Kitab Tib in Malay.  This collection deals with omens linked to dreams, eclipses, earth tremors and involuntary bodily movements.

The manuscript is described thus by Iskandar:

 

1635. KITLV Or. 113

Kitab ta`bir

iii (+) 141 pp.; Dutch laid paper; wm. Pro Patria; 20 x 16 cm. and 20 x 16.5 cm.; 13 lines per p.; legible writing; new binding; the copyist was Muhammad Idris, son of the adipati of Tegal; the copying up to p. 125 was finished on 27 Dzulka`edah 1248/16 April 1833.

I pp. 1-42:

Ta`bir mimpi; divided into 7 fasal; each chapter explains the dream of each night of the week, beginning with Friday night;

II pp. 43-64:

Ta`bir gerhana; divided in eight fasal; each for the following years of the eight-year cycle; alif, ha, jim, zal, dai, ba, wau, and dal akhir; each fasal is again divided into twelve parts for the months;

III pp. 64-90:

Ta`bir lindu; also divided into eight fasal as in II; at the end the author recommends the reader consult a syaikh when using the interpretation and states that this work has been approved by Syaikh Abdur-Rauf of Aceh, and by Syaikh Badr al-Din and Syaikh Abd-Allah of Lahore, whom the author met in Arabia;

IV pp. 91-126:

Ta`bir mimpi; it starts with dreams dreamt at certain times which cannot be interpreted; the following part relating to dreams about persons or objects is divided into twenty bab beginning with segala ulama yang dimimpikan and ending with segala raja-raja yang adil atau adhi yang adil yang telah dimimpikan; this part was finished on 27 Dzulkaedah 1248/16 April 1833;

V pp. 127-134:

Gerak yang di dalam diri kita; vibration of parts of the body as an omen;

VI pp. 135-137:

Laksana kucing yang bertuah dan yang celaka.

 

Surianiah presents a careful edition, together with a survey of the text’s contents, language and ideological context.

Reference:

Teuku Iskandar, Catalogue of Malay, Minangkabau, and South Sumatran Manuscripts in the Netherlands, 2 vols, Leiden: Documentatiebureau Islam-Christendom, 1999: vol.2, #1635 pp.778-779.

 

Preparation

Added:  August 2009

The transcribed text, available at myMansukrip, has been further lightly edited and adapted to the format of the MCP.

The manuscript pages are indicated in Surianiah’s edition; the lines have been imputed.