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IJSSH 2014 Vol.4(3): 178-182 ISSN: 2010-3646
DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2014.V4.342

The Images of “Keling” in Sulalat al-Salatin

Abdur-Rahman Mohamed Amin and Ahmad Murad Merican

Abstract—The word “Keling” in Malaysia has become a socially undesirable term and it has a derogatory connotation for Malaysians of Indian origin. Though the word existed in the Malay vocabulary since 15th century, there was an attempt to remove it from the Malay dictionary due to its negative connotations. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the images of “Keling” amongst the Malays circa 14th to 15th centuries. The analysis on the discourse is to discover the semantics of the word “Keling” in the 17th century Malay epic Sulalat al-Salatin. From this study, it was found that the historical relationship between Malacca and “keling” started early than 15th century. “Keling” played a very important role to help the administration of the Malacca Malay Empire. Generally, the word “Keling” has been used mostly with a positive connotation in Sulalat al-Salatin.

Index Terms—Keling, Malacca, Malay Annals, Sulalat al-Salatin.

Abdur-Rahman Mohamed Amin and Ahmad Murad Merican are with the Department of Management and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750, Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia (e-mail: urrahman_amin@petronas.com.my, amurad_noormerican@petronas.com.my).

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Cite: Abdur-Rahman Mohamed Amin and Ahmad Murad Merican, " The Images of “Keling” in Sulalat al-Salatin," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 178-182, 2014.

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