The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS) is a learned society based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [1]
Established in 1877, the society is dedicated to the collection, recording and communication of geographic, historic and cultural information about Malaya, Singapore and Brunei. A primary objective of the society is the encouragement of the study of the region by publishing a journal and undertaking other scholarly activity. Although affiliated to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (RAS) it is completely autonomous, thanks to financial support from the governments of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei and other organizations. Members, however, have access to the library facilities of the RAS when in London.
The society was founded in Singapore in 1877 as the Straits Asiatic Society by a small group of expatriates led by Archdeacon (later Bishop) George Hose. In 1878, having sought and obtained an affiliation with the RAS, it became the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society with 150 founder members, many of whom were colonial administrators. Archdeacon Hose became the first president, serving as such until 1908. Today the society has more than 1,000 members.
During the colonial period the society was supported by grants from the government and donations from the Sultans of the Malay States and also benefitted from various privileges, such as government-provided premises and printing facilities. In 1923 the society's name was changed to recognise political changes to the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and in 1954, when the Society was also relocated to Kuala Lumpur, to its current name. [2]
The journal was produced from the very early days of the society, initially as the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and currently as the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society . Since then 309 journals have been published, as well as 48 monographs, and the journal is considered the oldest active publication in the region.
The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under British Raj control in 1858 and then under direct British control as a Crown colony on 1 April 1867. In 1946, following the end of the Second World War and the Japanese occupation, the colony was dissolved as part of Britain's reorganisation of its Southeast Asian dependencies in the area.
Sultan Sir Ibrahim Al-Masyhur Ibni Almarhum Sultan Abu Bakar Al-Khalil Ibrahim Shah was a Malaysian sultan and the 22nd Sultan of Johor and the 2nd Sultan of modern Johor. He was considered to be "fabulously wealthy."
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the society has been a forum, through lectures, its journal, and other publications, for scholarship relating to Asian culture and society of the highest level. It is the United Kingdom's senior learned society in the field of Asian studies. Fellows of the society are elected regularly. Fellows include highly accomplished and notable scholars of Asian studies. They are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRAS.
The Singapore Stone is a fragment of a large sandstone slab which originally stood at the mouth of the Singapore River. The large slab, which is believed to date back to at least the 13th century and possibly as early as the 10th or 11th century, bore an undeciphered inscription. Recent theories suggest that the inscription is either in Old Javanese or in Sanskrit, which suggested a possibility that the island was an extension of the Majapahit civilization in the past.
Malaysian legal history has been determined by events spanning a period of some six hundred years. Of these, three major periods were largely responsible for shaping the current Malaysian system. The first was the founding of the Melaka Sultanate at the beginning of the 15th century; second was the spread of Islam in the indigenous culture; and finally, and perhaps the most significant in modern Malaysia, was British colonial rule which brought with it constitutional government and the common law system.
The Kedah Sultanate is a Muslim dynasty located in the Malay Peninsula. It was originally an independent state, but became a British protectorate in 1909. Its monarchy was abolished after it was added to the Malayan Union but was restored and added to the Malayan Union's successor, the Federation of Malaya.
Sultan Salehuddin Shah ibni Almarhum Daeng Celak was the first Sultan of Selangor. He was the son of the famous Bugis warrior prince Daeng Celak. He took on the title of Sultan Sallehuddin of Selangor in 1742. The Bugis had already begun to settle on the West coast of the Malayan Peninsula towards the end of the 17th century.
The Larut Wars were a series of four wars started in July 1861 and ended with the signing of the Pangkor Treaty of 1874. The conflict was fought among local Chinese secret societies over the control of mining areas in Perak which later involved rivalry between Raja Abdullah and Ngah Ibrahim, making it a war of succession.
Sir Richard Olaf Winstedt, or more commonly R. O. Winstedt, was an English Orientalist and colonial administrator with expertise in British Malaya.
The Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS) is a scholarly journal published by the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS). The journal covers topics of historical interest concerning peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan and Singapore. It was founded in 1877 in Singapore.
Tun Habib Abdul Majid bin Tun Ali bin Tun Muhammad was the 19th Bendahara of the Johor Sultanate during the late 17th century. The Johor Sultanate under Sultan Mahmud Shah II saw a gradual decline of royal authority during Tun Habib's tenure as the Bendahara of Johor. Internal challenges within the Sultanate faced by Tun Habib consolidated his power as the Bendahara, in which case the Bendahara monopolised legitimate authority over the Johor Sultanate by the 1690s. After his death, Tun Habib's descendants spanned throughout the Johor Sultanate and established ruling houses in Riau-Lingga, Johor, Pahang and Terengganu.
Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill was a British medical doctor, naturalist, ornithologist and curator of Singapore’s Raffles Museum. His main interest, area of expertise and legacy of published knowledge was the natural, geographical and cultural history of Malaya, Singapore and the historically associated Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
Richard James Wilkinson was a British Colonial administrator, scholar of Malay, and historian. The son of a British Consul, Richard James Wilkinson was born in 1867 in Salonika (Thessaloniki) in the Ottoman Empire. After Felsted School was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was multilingual and had a command of French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish, and later, Malay and Hokkien which he qualified in, in 1889, while a cadet after joining the Straits Settlements Civil Service. He was an important contributor to the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Asiatic Society (JMBRAS). On 7 November 1900 Wilkinson presented a collection of Malay manuscripts and printed books to the University of Cambridge Library. He was appointed CMG in 1912.
George Frederick Hose was an Anglican clergyman, Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak from 1881 to 1909.
Emily or Emma Sadka was an Iraqi-Singaporean historian and researcher specialising in the Political History of the Malayan region, which she taught at the University of Malaya (Singapore) and in Australian universities.
Charles Otto Blagden was an English Orientalist and linguist who specialised in the Malay, Mon and Pyu languages. He is particularly known for his studies of Burmese epigraphic inscriptions in the Mon and Pyu scripts.
The Seri Rambai is a 17th-century Dutch cannon displayed at Fort Cornwallis in George Town, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the largest bronze gun in Malaysia, a fertility symbol and the subject of legends and prophecy.
Sir Roland St. John Braddell was a historian and colonial adviser in British Malaya. He was considered "one of Malaya's foremost legal authorities".
Francis James Bernard was the first police chief of the Police Force in Singapore and the founder of the Singapore Chronicle, the first newspaper in Singapore.
Sultan Muzaffar Shah I ibni Almarhum Sultan Mahmud Shah (1505-1549) was the first Sultan of Perak from 1528 to 1549. He was the son of Sultan Mahmud Shah of Malacca and Putri Onang Kening, daughter of Sultan Mansur Shah of Kelantan.