The Malay Kitab Tibb at the Intersection of Malay Medical Practices, Islamisation of Knowledge, and Colonial Medicine

A recent exhibition of medical manuscripts at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) entitled Al-Tibb: Healing Traditions in Islamic Medical Manuscripts successfully raised awareness of traditional healing among Malays featuring the museum’s collection of Malay medical and divination manuscripts. Malay medicine and traditional healing are known to be a form of sacred knowledge and art that is usually passed down from one generation to another or to a trusted apprentice. The practice comprises using natural resources, spiritual practices, divination approaches, and Quranic verse recitations. Manuscripts detailing this medical knowledge were still being produced and used when the British came to colonize the Malay Peninsula in the late nineteenth century. The start of concerted British efforts to understand the medical history and circumstances of the Malay peninsula in order to better extract resources saw efforts to collect local knowledge, prompting colonial administrators such as Richard Winstedt, John Gimlette and W. W. Skeat to record their experiences and perceptions of Malay medical practices inscribed in written manuals known as Kitab Tibb Melayu (Malay Book of Medicine) and Kitab Faal or Kitab Ramalan (Books on Divination). Contrary to seeing Malay medical practices solely as part of traditional medicine, this paper situates Malay medical manuscripts or Kitab Tibb at the intersection of Malay, Islamic and colonial medicine. This paper will present some preliminary findings on situating the Malay Kitab Tibb in the fast changing medical and colonial environment of Malaya in the late nineteenth century.