49-654: Hikayat ( Jawi : حكاية; Gurmukhi : ਹਿਕਾਇਤਾ , romanized: Hikā'itā ) is an Arabic word that literally translates to "stories" and is a form of Malay and Sikh literature. This article presents a list of hikayat from various time periods. Malay hikayats relate the adventures of heroes from kingdoms across the Malay Archipelago (spanning modern Indonesia and Malaysia , especially in Sumatra ) or chronicles of their royalty. The stories they contain, though based on history, are heavily romanticized. Poetical format
98-510: A Latin translation was made, although the exact date is unknown. Some manuscripts pseudonymously attribute the texts authorship to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes , and so the author is commonly called Pseudo-Callisthenes. In premodern times, the Alexander Romance underwent more than 100 translations, elaborations, and derivations in dozens of languages, including almost all European vernaculars as well as in every language from
147-509: A commentary of the entire Alexander Romance was published in English by Krzysztof Nawotka. The first modern English translation of the Romance was produced by E.H. Haight in 1955. The major modern English translation of the Romance is that of Richard Stoneman in 1991. Significant French translations include those of Tallet-Bonvalot in 1994, and Bounoure & Serret in 2004. An Italian translation
196-548: A confused manner with respect to the order and location of the campaigns. Once he reaches Egypt, an oracle of the god Amun instructs him where to go to create the city that will become Alexandria . The march into Asia continues and Alexander conquers Tyre . He begins exchanging letters with the Persian emperor Darius III , though the story now delves into more campaigns in Greece. The Persian march resumes and eventually Alexander conquers
245-666: A copy of an earlier work, Paisiy Hilendarski 's Slavic-Bulgarian History (1762). The two most important Spanish versions of the Alexander Romance are: In medieval England , the Alexander Romance experienced remarkable popularity. It is even referred to in Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales , where the monk apologizes to the pilgrimage group for treating a material so well known. There are five major romances in Middle English that survive, though most only in fragments. There are also two versions from Scotland , one sometimes ascribed to
294-682: A few statements that would develop into the fully-fledged myths of episodes in the Land of Darkness , especially in versions of the Romance in Islamicate lands. In a journey that is directed towards Polaris , the Polar constellation, he is to find the Land of the Blessed at the edge of the world which in "a region where the sun does not shine" (2.39). The Land of Darkness becomes a prominent feature in subsequent recensions of
343-454: A fountain. Immediately upon being washed, the fish sprang to life and escaped into the fountain. Realizing the has discovered the Fountain of Life , Andreas tells no one else about it and drinks the water for himself. He also stores away some of the water into a silver vessel, hoping to use some of it to seduce Alexander's daughter. Meanwhile, Alexander eventually reaches the Land of the Blessed but
392-524: A single work. Nectanebo II , the last Pharaoh of Egypt , foresees that his kingdom will fall to the Persians and so flees to the Macedonian court under the guise of the identity of a magician. In his time there, he falls in love with the wife of king Philip II of Macedon , Olympias . Olympias becomes pregnant by Nectanebo, but his paternity is kept a secret. Philip develops a suspicion of an affair between
441-550: A variant of β called λ, and the now-lost δ was perhaps the most important in the transmission of the text into the non-Greek world as it was the basis of the 10th-century Latin translation produced by Leo the Archpriest . The Recensio α, also known as the Historia Alexandri Magni , is the oldest and can be dated to the 3rd century AD. It is known from one manuscript, called A. It was subjected to various revisions during
490-731: Is considered as part of 19th century Malay literature. In Dutch occupied Aceh, Hikayat Perang Sabil was confiscated from Sabi's house during a Police raid on September 27, 1917. Hikayat Hikayat ( Jawi : حكاية ; Gurmukhi : ਹਿਕਾਇਤਾ , romanized: Hikā'itā ) (or hikajat ), which may be translated as "Romances", represent a genre of literature popular in Malay and Sikh literature and can be written in both verse and prose. Hikayat often mix past- and present-tense such that past events appear to be prophesied. Texts in this genre are meant to be publicly performed and are also often self-referential, in which they record examples of
539-551: Is enticed by the opportunity to drink from it, which she does and becomes immortal. Alexander learns of the miracle and punishes both Andreas and his daughter greatly: for Andreas is turned into a daimōn of the sea and his daughter into a daimōn of the desert. This story was elaborated on in subsequent versions of the Romance , such as in the Syriac Song of Alexander and in the Talmud . The original Alexander Romance contains
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#1732852314492588-628: Is gone before ultimately succumbing to the poison. Ptolemy I Soter receives his body in the Egyptian city of Memphis where the priests order it to be sent to Alexandria, the greatest city he had built during his march. The work concludes by providing a list of all the cities that Alexander founded. The Romance locates the Gates of Alexander between two mountains called the "Breasts of the North" ( Greek : Μαζοί Βορρά ). The mountains are initially 18 feet apart and
637-735: Is not required in Malay and Arabic Hikayat while the Acehnese Hikayat requires it. Hikayats also appear in Sikh literature of the Indian subcontinent , of which 11 or 12 are associated with Guru Gobind Singh . The original Jawi script Acehnese language work Hikayat Perang Sabil ( Hikayat Prang Sabi ) has been transliterated into the Latin alphabet and annotated by Ibrahim Alfian (Teuku.) published in Jakarta. Perang sabi
686-561: Is taken from the one provided by Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox 2002. Italian versions of the Alexander Romance include: The Romanian Alexander Romance , entitled the Alexandria , was derived from a Greek and Serbian variant and became the most widely-read literary text in Romania between the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. In 1833, the Romanian legend was translated into Bulgarian in
735-404: Is unable to enter it. At the same time, he learns of Andreas losing the fish and questions him over it. Andreas confesses about what happened with the fish, and he is whipped for it, but he denies that he drank any and does not mention that he stored some, and asks Alexander over why he should worry about the past. At a later point, Andreas manages to use the water to seduce Alexander's daughter, who
784-659: The Historia de Proeliis , which went through three recensions between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries and made Alexander a household name throughout the Middle Ages , being translated more times in the next three centuries than any other text except for the Gospels . Another very popular Latin version was the Alexandreis of Walter of Châtillon . Before Leo, versions of the Romance were still known: an abridged 9th-century version of
833-650: The Syriac Alexander Legend . Traditions about Alexander's search for the Fountain of Life were influenced by earlier legends about the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh and his search for immortality, such as in the Epic of Gilgamesh . Alexander is travelling along with his company in search of the Land of the Blessed . On the way to the Land, Alexander becomes hungry and asks one of his cooks, Andreas, to get him some meat. Andreas gets some fish and begins to wash it in
882-473: The Alexander Romance have not survived, that they existed is known; it is thought that two versions existed. The earlier came into existence between the fourth and seventh centuries and its influence is detectable in extant Georgian texts such as The Conversion of Kartli chronicles and in The Life of Kings . The second was produced sometime between the ninth to twelfth centuries, and fragments of it were kept by
931-504: The Alexander Romance . Two books appear to be the main sources used by the author of the Alexander Romance . One was a collection of Alexander fictions involving pseudepigraphical letters between Alexander and other figures such as Aristotle and adversaries of his like Darius III , as well as dialogues with Indian philosophers among other material. The second was a history written by Cleitarchus (c. 300 BC), containing an already mythologized account of Alexander. Historians also suspect
980-529: The Byzantine Empire , some of them recasting it into poetical form in Medieval Greek vernacular. Recensio α is the source of a Latin version by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius (4th century), as well as an Armenian version (5th century). The β recension was composed between 300 and 550 AD. It rephrases much material in α and also adds new material to it. Compared to α, it lacks the end of Book I and
1029-530: The Early Scots poet John Barbour , which exists only in a sixteenth-century printing; and a Middle Scots version from 1499: Middle Scots versions include: There were two translations of the Alexander Romance into Old Church Slavonic /Old Bulgarian. The Irish Alexander Romance , also known as the Imthusa Alexandair , was composed around 1100, representing the first complete vernacular version of
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#17328523144921078-561: The Indian subcontinent , of which 11 or 12 are associated with Guru Gobind Singh . One famous example is the Hikaaitaan . The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah , originating as a translation of a fourteenth-century Persian text, may be the oldest example of the hikayat genre. It is mentioned already in the oldest known list of Malay manuscripts from 1696 produced by Isaac de l'Ostal de Saint-Martin . One common set of traditions which were frequently written into hikayat included literature in
1127-509: The 12th century, but ancient Indian texts do not mention Alexander. The Epic of Sundiata , an epic poem for the Mandinka people , structures the story of the hero and founder of the Mali Empire , Sundiata Keita , in a way that resembles the biography and legends of Alexander. The most important Greek recensions of the Alexander Romance are the α, β, γ and ε recensions. There is also
1176-513: The Egyptian, a Persian for the Persians, and so forth. In Europe, the popularity of the Alexander Romance resurged when Leo the Archpriest discovered a Greek copy in Constantinople while he was on a diplomatic missions. He produced a translation into Latin titled the Nativitas et historia Alexandri Magni regis , which became the basis of the far more successful and expanded version known as
1225-504: The Great from his birth, to his succession of the throne of Macedon, his conquests including that of the Persian Empire , and finally his death. Although constructed around an historical core, the romance is mostly fantastical, including many miraculous tales and encounters with mythical creatures such as sirens or centaurs . In this context, the term Romance refers not to the meaning of
1274-456: The Islamicized regions of Asia and Africa, from Mali to Malaysia . Some of the more notable translations were made into Coptic , Ge'ez , Middle Persian , Byzantine Greek , Arabic , Persian , Armenian , Syriac , and Hebrew . Owing to the great variety of distinct works derived from the original Greek romance, the "Alexander romance" is sometimes treated as a literary genre , instead of
1323-457: The Persians. He marries Roxane, the daughter of Darius, and writes letters to Olympias describing all he saw and his adventures during his conquests, including his wandering through the Land of Darkness , search for the Water of Life , and more. Next, he proceeds to conquer India from which he writes letters to Aristotle, though he also receives an omen about his coming death in this time. He visits
1372-561: The Romance in a European vernacular. It includes episodes such as Alexander's visit to Jerusalem, talking trees, encounters with Dindimus, and more. Two sources the author identified for his work were Orosius and Josephus . An Ethiopic version of the Alexander Romance was first composed in the Geʽez language between the 14th and 16th centuries was produced as a translation of an intermediary 9th-century Arabic text of what ultimately goes back to
1421-478: The Syriac recension. The Ethiopic version also integrates motifs from the Syriac Alexander Legend within the Romance narrative. There are seven known Ethiopian Alexander Romances: There are three or four medieval Hebrew versions of the Alexander Romance : There are four texts in the tradition of the Alexander Romance in Syriac, and they have been often mistaken with one another. All four were translated in
1470-447: The desired status of "martyr" by launching suicide attacks on the Dutch. Perang sabil was the Malay equivalent to other terms like Jihad, Ghazawat for "Holy war", the text was also spelled "Hikayat perang sabi". Fiction novels like Sayf Muhammad Isa's Sabil: Prahara di Bumi Rencong on the war by Aceh against the Dutch include references ro Hikayat Perang Sabil. Mualimbunsu Syam Muhammad wrote
1519-423: The first six chapters of Book II. However, it contains the end of Book II, which is missing from α. A combination of α and some material from β was used to create the ε recension in the 8th century. Furthermore, the β and ε recensions were combined to generate the much larger γ recension later still. There are several Old and Middle French and one Anglo-Norman Alexander romances. The following list of works
List of Hikayat - Misplaced Pages Continue
1568-483: The horned motif, representing the horns of Zeus Ammon to visualize Alexander stems from much earlier, originally in coinage depicting Alexander by his immediate successors Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt and more prominently the king of Thrace Lysimachus were the earliest produce coinage of Alexander with the rams horns. The motif would be carried over into later Alexander legends, such as the Armenian translation of α and
1617-637: The major languages of Europe as versions of the Alexander romance became the most popular form of medieval European literature after the Bible , such as Old French (12th century), Middle Scots ( The Buik of Alexander , 13th century), Italian , Spanish (the Libro de Alexandre ), Central German ( Lamprecht 's Alexanderlied , and a 15th-century version by Johannes Hartlieb ), Slavonic , Romanian , Hungarian , Irish, and more. The Syriac Alexander Romance ,
1666-464: The most important Syriac translation of the Greek Romance , as well as the much shorter and abridged version known in the Syriac Alexander Legend , composed either in ~630 shortly after Heraclius defeated the Persians or in the mid-6th century during the reign of Justinian I , contains additional motifs not found in the earliest Greek version of the Romance , including the apocalypticization of
1715-553: The much earlier Latin translation by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius , the Zacher Epitome , achieved some popularity. In addition, in 781, Alcuin sent Charlemagne a copy of a text known as Alexander and Dindimus King of the Brahmans . The principal manuscript of Beowulf also contains a translation of Alexander's letter to Aristotle. Translations from Leo's Latin version and its recension would subsequently be made into all
1764-657: The pass is rather wide, but Alexander's prayers to God causes the mountains to draw nearer, thus narrowing the pass. There he builds the Caspian Gates out of bronze, coating them with fast-sticking oil. The gates enclosed twenty-two nations and their monarchs, including Gog and Magog (therein called "Goth and Magoth"). The geographic location of these mountains is rather vague, described as a 50-day march away northwards after Alexander put to flight his Belsyrian enemies (the Bebrykes , of Bithynia in modern-day North Turkey ). In
1813-565: The recensions (including in Greek) of the Romance can be considered canonical. Furthermore, translations were not merely so but were also typically variant versions of the text. The legendary Alexander was also widely assimilated into the religion and culture of those who wrote about him: in Christian legends, Alexander became a Christian; in Islamic legends, Alexander became a Muslim; he was an Egyptian for
1862-453: The recitation of other hikayat . Malay hikayats relate the adventures of heroes from kingdoms across the Malay Archipelago (spanning modern Indonesia and Malaysia , especially in Sumatra ) or chronicles of their royalty. The stories they contain, though based on history, are heavily romanticized. Poetical format is not required in Malay and Arabic Hikayat while the Acehnese Hikayat requires it. Hikayats also appear in Sikh literature of
1911-741: The same 1889 volume by E. A. Wallis Budge , though some of them have appeared in newer editions since then. A Coptic translation of the Romance from the Greek was already being revised in the sixth century. A fragmentary manuscript, originally 220 pages long, in the Sahidic dialect was discovered in the White Monastery . It draws on older Demotic Egyptian traditions, which existed in written form perhaps as early as 275 BC. It has been edited and published by Oscar von Lemm. Several fragments of it have been collected and translated. Though Georgian versions of
1960-451: The temples of the sun and moon, and makes the Amazons his subjects. During his return, as he reaches Babylonia , he meets the son of Antipater (the figure ruling Macedonia in Alexander's stead during the journeys of the latter) who was sent to poison Alexander. The conspiracy succeeds, and Alexander begins to die, though he names the rulers who will control the provinces of his empire after he
2009-745: The tradition of the Alexander legends . These include the Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain ("The Story of Alexander the Two-Horned One"), the Hikayat Raja Iskandar ("The Story of King Alexander") and Hikayat Ya’juj wa-Ma’juj ("The Story of Gog and Magog"). Alexander Romance The Alexander Romance is an account of the life and exploits of Alexander the Great . Of uncertain authorship, it has been described as "antiquity's most successful novel". The Romance describes Alexander
List of Hikayat - Misplaced Pages Continue
2058-454: The two, but Nectanebo allays Philip's suspicions by sending a magic sea-hawk to him in a dream. Alexander is born from this pregnancy, but while he is growing up he kills Nectanebo, who reveals Alexander's paternity as he dies. Alexander begins to be educated by Aristotle and competes in the Olympics . After Philip dies, Alexander begins his campaigns into Asia, although the story is written in
2107-486: The use of Greek-language Egyptian sources underlying traditions about the pharaohs Nectanebo II and Sesostris . By contrast, oral tradition did not play an important role. A strikingly close parallel to Alexander's relentless quest, though one limited by the constraints of human and mortal existence, is in the Epic of Gilgamesh . The first commentary to the Romance was a German work titled Der griechische Alexanderroman , published by Adolf Ausfeld in 1907. In 2017,
2156-461: The wall built against Gog and Magog . Subsequent Middle Eastern recensions of the Alexander legend were generated following the Syriac traditions, including versions in Arabic , Persian ( Iskandarnameh ), Ethiopic , Hebrew (in the first part of Sefer HaAggadah ), Ottoman Turkish (14th century), and Middle Mongolian (13th-14th century). Knowledge of Romance tradition entered Chinese texts by
2205-531: The word in modern times but in the Old French sense of a novel or roman , a "lengthy prose narrative of a complex and fictional character" (although Alexander's historicity did not deter ancient authors from using this term). It was widely copied and translated, accruing various legends and fantastical elements at different stages. The original version was composed in Ancient Greek some time before 338 AD, when
2254-518: The work called "Motives for Perang Sabil in Nusantara", Motivasi perang sabil di Nusantara: kajian kitab Ramalan Joyoboyo, Dalailul-Khairat, dan Hikayat Perang Sabil on Indonesia's history of Islamic holy war (Jihad). Children and women were inspired to do suicide attacks by the Hikayat Perang Sabil against the Dutch. Hikayat Perang Sabil is also known as "Hikayat Prang Sabi". Hikayat Perang Sabil
2303-466: The α recension of the Alexander Romance , Alexander's father is an Egyptian priest named Nectanebo who sports a set of ram horns. After his death, Alexander is described as " the horned king " (βασιλέα κερασφόρον) by an oracle instructing Ptolemy, a general of Alexander, on where to bury him. This statement was repeated in the Armenian recension of the Alexander Romance in the 5th century. The use of
2352-455: Was produced by Franco in 2001. In 2010, a Polish translation was published by Krzysztof Nawotka. In 2007, Richard Stoneman published an Italian edition of the Romance in three volumes, titled Il Romanzo di Alessandro . Throughout classical antiquity and the Middle Ages , the Romance experienced numerous expansions and revisions exhibiting a variability unknown for more formal literary forms. Distinctively, and unlike other texts, none of
2401-625: Was the Acehnese word for jihad, a holy war and Acehnese language literary works on perang sabi were distributed by Islamic clerics ('ulama) such as Teungku di Tiro to help the resistance against the Dutch in the Aceh War. The recompense awarded by in paradise detailed in Islamic Arabic texts and Dutch atrocities were expounded on in the Hikayat Perang Sabil which was communally read by small cabals of Ulama and Acehnese who swore an oath before going to achieve
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