BERPETUALANG KE ACEH: Rural Perlak, the seat of a powerful ancient Islamic kingdom!

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This blogspot is a medium to share my thoughts and adventures apart from promoting my books. Below are the books which have been written or authored and published by myself.

"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Mencari Diri dan Erti".

ISBN 983-42031-0-1, Jun 2006

"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Membela Syiar yang Asal"

ISBN 983-42031-1-x, May 2007

"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Sirih Pulang ke Gagang?"

ISBN 978-983-42031-2-2, November 2007

It is interesting to note that while these books were written in Malay it has gained enough attention to merit being part of the collections of the American Library of Congress and National Library of Australia. Look here and here.

While the first three books were published by my own company, the fourth titled "Rumah Azan" was published in April 2009 by a company called Karnadya with the help of the Malaysian national literary body Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. It features beautiful pictures along with stories behind selected mosques which could be related to the history of Islam and the Malays alongside the formation of the Malaysian nation. Look at the article A collaboration of old collegemates - the book "Rumah Azan".

My fifth book "Ahlul Bait (Family) of Rasulullah SAW and Malay Sultanates", an English translation and adaptation of the Malay book "Ahlul Bait (Keluarga) Rasulullah SAW dan Kesultanan Melayu" authored by Hj Muzaffar Mohamad and Tun Suzana Othman was published early 2010. Look here... My 5th book is out! Ahlul Bait (Family) of Rasulullah SAW and the Malay Sultanates... . For more information check out my Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU.

Like my fourth book "Rumah Azan", the sixth book "Kereta Api Menuju Destinasi" is also a coffee-table book which is published by the company Karnadya with the cooperation of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (the main Malay literary body in Malaysia). Coming out January 2011 it features pictures and stories on the adventure travelling by train to all of Peninsular Malaysia along with the interesting places which could be reached this way.

My seventh book "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah" in turn is a coffee-table book which is written, editted, designed and has pictures taken by me. Coming out of the factory October 2011, this book which combines family history with history of places such as Singapura, Johor, Batu Pahat, Muar and in fact the history of the island of Java and England has been reviewed with me interviewed live in the program Selamat Pagi Malaysia at RTM1. Look at the article Siaran langsung ulasan buku "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah" dan temu ramah di Selamat Pagi Malaysia. Some selected contents have been featured in Sneak peek "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah".

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The "Berpetualang ke Aceh" series of novels could be obtained in e-book form. Enter http://www.e-sentral.com/, click general novel and go to page 4. You can also type the word "Aceh" at the search box. Or click straight Book 1, Book 2 and Book 3.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Rural Perlak, the seat of a powerful ancient Islamic kingdom!

Continued from Thursday morning trip from Langsa to Perlak and reminiscing what goes on before...

OK. So we are in Perlak. It's time to head to a nearby rural area...

The area we want to go to is some 7 km away inland from the town of Perlak...

On the way there are plenty of padi or rice fields...

The village scene look rather backwards. One could find very few houses with any sort of modern roofing and even then its only zinc roof...

Almost all the houses we saw en-route use the old traditional roof which one could hardly find in Malaysia anymore... except in traditional jungle huts intentionally made that way or those belonging to the indigenious jungle folks the Orang Asli or the local aborigines...

So far I have traversed some 500 km across many area in Aceh and none seemed as backwards as these rural areas not so far away from the town of Perlak.

But believe it or not, here lies the seat of a once powerful ancient Islamic kingdom, the Sultanate of Perlak. For the record, the Sultanate which is officially recorded as having been established in the year 840 AD and lasted more than 400 years independently was a centre for propagating Islam to the whole Malay archipelago. The reason we wanted to go to these parts is because here lies to tomb of the first Sultan of Perlak, Sultan Sayyid Maulana Abdul Aziz Shah. I will touch more on this in my other blogspots CATATAN SI MERAH SILU and SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) . Feel free to have a look at these blogspots later...