This rare early Malay manuscript is from Pattani, an old Malay Sultanate that is now a part of Thailand. The first text in this handwritten copy includes the Nyanyi Siti Fatimah or Song of Siti Fatimah. These were poems written in praise of Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah, her husband Ali and their sons Hasan and Husain. A line in the text notes that the manuscript was completed on the 15th day of Ramadhan in 1250 of the Islamic Hijrah calendar. This date corresponds to the 15th January 1835. Interestingly, while the text clearly states that it was written in Pattani, it also notes that it was copied by Bayu bin Daman Syah and was the property of Fakir Ramli of Burma. This link to Burma is significant because the manuscript is handwritten using white ink on black gatefold paper. This type of text was common to Burma and Thailand but is rare in the Malay world.
