Books of the Old School

Many books that I sought in Malaysia have disappeared. I was looking for Za'ba's 'Ilmu Mengarang Melayu' (The art of Malay composition) which is now out of print, and then someone reminded me of an English schoolbook that told in words and pictures, stories of everyday Malaysian characters like the 'Kelentong Man', the street vendor who attracted children's attention by the 'kelentong' sound of his bell. I remember going through the book many, many times, picking it out from my uncle's desultory collection in our Tanjong house. One day in class I stood up and introduced the 'kelentong' man during our English lesson, and was of course laughed out of court by my classmates and our teacher who was not privy to the delights of our street-vendor bell-ringer.

In London I was fortunate to have picked up a very interesting copy of the Canai Bacaan from a second-hand bookshop. I say interesting because as soon as I picked it up, a note fell out from its pages, in the Jawi and Rumi hand of one Encik Abdul Rahman bin Haji Othman, to one 'Tuan Guest', asking for an appointment to be deferred. (If you have your GUiT you'll be able to see this on page 294). And then, recently, in Kuala Terengganu, while talking to Tuan Haji Yacob bin Abdullah al-Yunani, the last surviving son of our Haji Abdullah Tung, better known as Pök Löh Yunang (of the Bookshop fame), he reminded me of another old school text-book, the 'Julung Bacaan'. I only remember this one very vaguely, but would venture to add that it was probably in the 'Bacaan' series of which the 'Canai' was one. Tuan Haji Yacob made me sit up when he said that Abdullah al-Yunani (Keda Pök Löh Yunang), arguably the most famous bookshop in Kuala Trengganu, sold handwritten copies (literally) of the 'Julung Bacaan' in its salad days. The copyist, he said, was his elder brother Muhammad Nor.

When I arrived in KL last December from the Singapore Writer's Festival (where GUiT was launched) I was soon taken to a merry wedding kenduri hosted by father of the bride Encik Yahaya bin Muhammad Nor, son, as you may have guessed, of the scribe who made the Julung Bacaan widely available in Kuala Terengganu when it was not yet a City on the Water and the Monsoon not yet a celebrated Cup, but a fearsome wind that blew. I was fortunate to have met so many members of the al-Yunani family, including our Pizzaman, whose wife is also from the Tung dynasty.

NOTE: En Yahaya Mohd Nor reminds me that Julung Bacaan was the book that introduced many students to Jawi.