Russell Jones (orientalist): Difference between revisions

'''DrRussell Jones''' (14 April 1926 – 9 June 2019<ref>[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13639811.2020.1725328 Obituary: Russell Jones (1926–2019)], ''Indonesia and the Malay World'', isVolume 48, 2020, Issue 140, pp. 136-143. Retrieved 14 November 2022.</ref>) was a British [[Orientalism|Orientalist]] who hashad researched [[Ethnic Malays|Malay]] and [[Indonesian people|Indonesian]] languages and culture in the broad sense. He is a noted scholar of pre-modern Malay literature,<ref>e.g. ''Hikayat Raja Pasai'', Kuala Lumpur: Yayasan Karyawan, 1999.</ref> particularly when it comes to relating the texts to the manuscripts. His other interests include foreign influences on Malay and Indonesian, the Chinese in the Nanyang, and the history of papermaking. His current research iswas focused on the paper and watermarks of Malay manuscripts.

His involvement with [[Indonesia]] and [[Malaysia]] resulted from the fortunate accident of being posted to South East Asia as a young soldier. He was born in 1926 in England, near the Welsh border of Wales, and brought up on a farm in Shropshire. He left school at the age of 16, and since it was during World War II, at the age of eighteen he enlisted in the Royal Marines. A posting to Singapore in 1945, then to [[Batavia, Dutch (NetherlandsEast Indies)]], inspired a lasting interest in Malay and Indonesian. Being inspired to learn more about the Malay world he had discovered, on returning to England he studied Malay at the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] in London.

His interest in Chinese arose during this period. He acquired a knowledge of the Hokkien dialect of Chinese (Minnanhua), and took the government examinations in spoken Amoy Hokkien following private tuition in Singapore and Penang. This enabled him to introduce a system of recording Chinese names in the department, based on the Chinese characters, and eventually led to the publication of a book on Chinese names,<ref>''Chinese Names: The Traditions Surrounding the Use of Chinese Surnames and Personal Names'', Kuala Lumpur: Pelanduk Publications, 1997.</ref> and another on Chinese loan-words in Malay and Indonesian.<ref>''Chinese Loan-words in Malay and Indonesian: A Background Study'', Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya, 2009.</ref>

Returning to Europe after [[Merdeka]], he resumed his studies which included Malay, Dutch and Arabic languages, and Islamic history, in the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]], followed by three years of doctoral research at the [[University of Leiden]]. In 1961 he went to Australia, where he taughtwas a lecturer in Malay in the Department of Indonesian and Malay Studies under [[F. H. van Naerssen]] at the [[University of Sydney]]<ref>''[https://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/Calendar/1963/1963.pdf Calendar of the University of Sydney for the Year 1963]'', Sydney: V. C. N. Blight, 1962, p. 45. Retrieved 14 November 2022.</ref> until 1965. His subsequent academic career until he retired in 1984 was in [[SOAS]], [[University of London]], and where he issubsequently remained an honorary Research Fellow still. Altogether he has published about sixty articles and books.

In 1973 he was instrumental in founding the international Indonesian Etymological Project, which gathered a corpus of about twenty thousand loan-words in Indonesian and Malay, leading to the publication of a book in 2007,<ref>''Loan-words in Indonesian and Malay'' (as General editor), Leiden: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 2007.</ref> and embodied in a web site in Bangkok, [http://sealang.net/indonesia http://sealang.net/indonesia]. Also in 1973 he was instrumental in founding a newsletter which over the years has beenwas transformed into the academic journal [http://www.tandfonline.com/action/aboutThisJournal?show=aimsScope&journalCode=cimw&#.UnfivxwYe58 ''Indonesia and the Malay World''], published by Routledge.

The preparation of his PhDPh.D., on the legend of the Sufi, Ibrahim ibn Adham, rested extensively on Malay (and some Arabic) manuscript sources.<ref>''Hikayat Sultan Ibrahim ibn Adham'', Berkeley: University of California, 1985.</ref> This and subsequent research into Malay manuscripts, nearly all written on Dutch or British or Italian paper, brought a realisation of the need to study the watermarks to establish the date they were written, or copied. He soon found that this science of filigranology hashad a way of becoming an all-consuming passion for those who taketook it up. After more than forty years’years devoted to filigranology of Malay/Indonesian manuscripts he has becomebecame something of an authority -– perhaps the only one -– on this neglected field. and asAs he approachesapproached the end of his working life he is dedicatingdedicated himself single-mindedly to passing on his knowledge to the next generation of Indonesian and Malay codicologists.