Book Review ‘Rainbows of Malay Literature and Beyond: Festshrift in Honour of Professor Md. Salleh Yaapar’

Abstract

Edited by Lalita Sinha, Rainbows of Malay Literature and Beyond: Festshrift in Honour of Professor Md. Salleh Yaapar written to pay tribute to Md. Salleh Yaapar, a leading Malaysian scholar, poet and translator. The Festschrift comes from a variety of contributors to colleagues and former students, scholars, authors and poets. They from various disciplines and locations have written traditional and modern works. This uniqueness is supplemented by various nationalities and ethnicities from the contributors of this book, namely Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean, Filipino, French, Dutch, German, Russian, and American-Dutch, German, Russian, and American. Although literature, religion, and philosophy are the core of Md Salleh Yaapar writing, his essay offers readers with a wide range of views into the Malay world and his clash with other cultures. The editors and contributors express their appreciation and admiration for Professor Salleh in this book. The articles in this volume cover various topics in line with his broad interests. Essay writers are the leading scholars in their respective fields and present the results of their current research activities from a new and innovative point of view. Md. Salleh was born on December 20, 1946 in a remote village in Permatang Rawa, Kepala Batas located northwest of Peninsular Malaysia. He is the only son of Jaafar bin Shafie and Rahmah binti
Ahmad. His father never went to school, only had a small grocery store in the village and with his wife, he was also a rice grower. Md. Salleh’s mother is the leader of a traditional Muslim singing group who entertains the villagers during the maulud, the birthday celebration of the Prophet Muhammad. He is also known as 'teller of stories' in the village tradition. From the genre of story, she will read for gatherings in the villages, as well as to her son at home, quotes from Tale of the Light of Muhammad, The Tale of Amir Hamzah and tell him about myths and legends of rich and vast treasures in tradition oral language. From this background it has formed the heart and mind of Md. Salleh. Md. Salleh is still proud of the start of his life story when he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 2000, as seen from his excitement in naming the beautiful pedestrian path in front of the USM Cultural Center, Permatang Pelajar. However, in the course of his academic progress, he traveled further. Starting from the Regional Teacher Training Center, to University of Malaya (UM) in Kuala Lumpur (BA Hons.), to the University of the Philippines (MA), and to Temple University (MA and PhD) in Philadelphia, resulting in a difference in him in most of his higher education.