Abdullah bin Abdulkadir Munsji

Born 1796, in Malacca; died in 1854, in Mecca. Malay writer and enlightener.

Abdullah bin Abdulkadir Munsji was born into a merchant family. He wrote the publicistic memoirs Tale of Abdullah (1849), an autobiography; Story About the Voyage of Abdullah bin Abdulkadir From Singapore to Kelantan (1849); and Story About Abdullah’s Voyage to Jidda (1854). He sought to purify the Malay language of clichés and Arabisms. In 1840 he edited and published the 15th-century historical chronicles Malay Genealogies. He translated The Tale of Gahlila and Damina, a version of the Panchatantra, from the Tamil in 1835.