Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd - Announcements

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Letters with three headings – Procedures in letter writing
Letters with three
headings, Bima,
7 October 1823
(1 Safar 1239)
Almost all Malay letters between correspondence of the 18th
and 19th century bore a heading with short Islamic verses,
written in Arabic at the top.
The positioning of the headings determined the rank of sender
and recipient, practiced by society at the time; usually with two
headings, this official letter from Sultan Ismail of Bima, to
Baron van der Capellen in Batavia is unique with three
illuminated headings in its motifs.
According to the kitab terasul, the official manual of correct Malay letter
writing, written by M. Abdul Nasir, it writes, if a person of lesser
ranking sends a letter to a dignitary, the heading should appear on the left;
if the correspondents are of the same rank, the heading must be in the middle;
and in letters from a ruler or dignitary to a person of lower ranking, the
headings will appear on the right.
Delicately drafted by the finest of Malay calligraphers, with the artistic
flair of the illuminator in ink, colours and gold on paper, reflecting a time
transcended culture of divine respect in rank and status.