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Vol. 11 No. 2 (2026)
Special Issue: The Qur’ān and the Turkic World

Special Issue: The Qur’ān and the Turkic World: Context and Interpretation

Qur’anic Footprints from Southeast Asia in the Turkic World: A Mystery Solved

https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v11i2.1145

Published 20.04.2026

  • Osman Nuri Solak
    • ,
  • Peter G. Riddell
Osman Nuri Solak
Uludag University, Bursa, Turkiye

Peter G. Riddell
SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom

Abstract

This article links Southeast Asian tafsir and the Ottoman State by focusing on the first printed edition of the Tarjumān al-Mustafīd in Istanbul in 1884. The island of Sumatra and the Sultanate of Aceh played a crucial role in the spread of Islam and Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir) throughout the Malay world. A foundational name is that of ‘Abd al-Rā’ūf al-Fansūrī (ca. 1615–1693), one of the earliest Qur’anic commentators in the Malay world. His work, Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, represents the first – and for several centuries the only – complete interpretation of the Qur’an in the Malay language. The Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, which was written in Aceh in the late 17th century, was completed with the help of ‘Abd al-Rā’ūf’s student and co-author, Bābā Dāwūd al-Rūmī (d. first half of 18th century). The Tarjumān al-Mustafīd was first printed in Istanbul in 1884, from a manuscript brought to Istanbul and presented to Sultan Abdülhamid II by Ahmad al-Fatānī (d. 1908), supervisor of the Malay printing press in Mecca. This recently discovered manuscript of Tarjumān al-Mustafīd is held in the Faculty of Theology of Uludag University, Bursa.

 

Keywords

Ottoman, Aceh, tafsir, manuscript, Malay, printing

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Author Biography

Peter G. Riddell



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