Malay Annals

The Malay Annals (Malay: Sejarah Melayu, Jawi: سجاره ملايو), originally titled Sulalatus Salatin (Genealogy of Kings),^[1] is a literary work that gives a romanticised history of the origin, evolution and demise of the great Malay maritime empire, the Malacca Sultanate.^[2] The work, which was composed sometime between the 15th and 16th centuries, is considered one of the finest literary and historical works in the Malay language.^[3]

The original text has undergone numerous changes, with the oldest surviving version from 1612, through the rewriting effort commissioned by the then regent of Johor, Raja Abdullah.^[4][5] It was originally written in the Classical Malay on traditional paper in old Jawi script, but today exists in 32 different manuscripts, including those in Rumi script.^[6] Notwithstanding some of its mystical contents, historians have looked at the text as a primary source of information on past events verifiable by other historical sources, in the Malay world.^[7] In 2001, the Malay Annals was listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme International Register.^[8]