Writing Traditions of Malabar: A View from the Lands below the Winds
Join us for the second talk in the Malaibar talk series in Manuscript Cultures, organized in collaboration with the British Library, London. Speaker - Dr. Annabel The Gallop (Lead Curator, Southeast Asia collections, British Library). June 10, 2026
About This Event
Abstract
The islands of Southeast Asia have historically been known as ‘the lands below the winds’, reflecting their location relative to the monsoons that sent ships from the shores of the Indian subcontinent across the seas to the Malay archipelago. These maritime crossings were the conduit for centuries for the passage of faiths, languages, scripts, textiles, and art.
In recent decades, Southeast Asia has witnessed an impressive blossoming of activities for the appreciation, preservation, and study of the manuscript cultures of the region, involving both institutional support and local networks of passionate scholars. In view of their shared maritime heritage and Islamic traditions predominantly shaped by the Shafi’i school, some of these new understandings and methodologies for the study of writing traditions in the Malay world may fruitfully be applied above the
winds, back across the Indian Ocean, in Malabar. Learnings from Nusantara may include identifying new arenas for study, appropriate comparators, and questions to be asked, hopefully leading to further insights into the art of the Islamic book, the diplomatics of documents, and the role of seals.
About the Speaker
Annabel Teh Gallop is Lead Curator for Southeast Asia at the British Library in London. Her main research interests are in Malay manuscripts, letters, documents, and seals, and the art of the Qur’an in the Indian Ocean world. Recent publications include Malay seals from the Islamic world of Southeast Asia (2019), a catalogue of over 2,000 seals from Southeast Asia inscribed in Arabic script, and ‘In praise of the Prophet: illuminated Kitab Mawlid manuscripts from Southeast Asia’, in Oceans that speak: Islam and the emergence of the Malay world (Kuala Lumpur: IAMM, 2024). She was the co-director of the British Academy-funded research project (2009-2012), Islam, trade and politics across the Indian Ocean, investigating Ottoman links with Southeast Asia, and in 2019 was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.