La cité royale dans la littérature traditionnelle malaise

Daniel Perret (1)

1 EFEO - École française d'Extrême-Orient

Due to poverty of written sources and lack of interest shown by the archaeologists until recent years, the urban history of the Malay world before the 19th c., particularly before the 16th c., is still in an embryonic stage compared with other regions. This article try to show that, despite their shortage, local written sources such as the traditional Malay literature cannot be neglected to approach some aspects of the urban history such as the royal city. It is based on a corpus of 24 texts dated from the 15th c. onwards. The main themes regarding the royal city in the traditional Malay literature are its foundation, its morphology and structure. Descriptions are generally stereotyped and seem to refer to a kind of model located outside the Malay world. Thus, as convention takes precedence over realism, this type of source has to be taken very cautiously regarding the physical aspect of the city but stands as a valuable source regarding the symbolic aspect and the perception of the city by the autochthons.

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Littératures

Daniel Perret. La cité royale dans la littérature traditionnelle malaise : Représentation et contribution à l'histoire des cités anciennes du monde malais. Aséanie, Sciences humaines en Asie du Sud-Est, 1999, 3, pp.75-89. ⟨10.3406/asean.1999.1620⟩. ⟨halshs-01883829⟩