The Grave-Stone of Sultan Mansur Shah of Malacca.
By Zainul-Abidin bin Ahmad.
The following suggestions with reference to Mr. J. P. Mo- quette's scholary paper on the above subject translated by Dr. Win- stedt in J.R.A.S., S.B. No. 85 may not be out of place here:—
(a) That the word الرحوم which comes after مظڤرشاه in Mr. Moquette's reading of Plate I be placed immediately before مظڤرشاه;
firstly because that is the usual order (i. e, al-marham first and
the name of the deceased following) when the expression is used,
especially by the Malays; and secondly, seeing that the word الساطان
which lies directly above the word (
language characters), (see third line in Plate
1) is read before (language characters), it follows that the word الرحوم which lies
also directly above the name مظڤرشاه can also be read first. As far
as I can judge from the plate, nothing seems to be there that
makes it particularly necessary to violate usage and read الرحوم
last.
(b) That the reading of (language characters) (dári-’l-ma’ál) be sub-
stituted in place of دارامال (dári ámál). For this I have several
reasons:-
(1) (language characters) is not compatible, as far as rhythmic flow is concerned, with داراطال with which it ought to correspond; be-
cause the latter (i.e. داراطال) has the article أل and the former
has not. From a grammatical stand-point there does not appear to
be reason enough that داراطال
should have the article and (language characters)
