608. Islamic Malay Minangkabau Buckler or Shield

Detail – the cartouches of script

Rare Malay Brass Shield (Buckler) with Islamic Script

Shields or bucklers such as this example were cast by the Minangkabau people of west Sumatra for export to the Aceh sultanate in northern Sumatra. The Acehnese used these bucklers for a type of sword dance that is no longer performed.

This buckler has been cast with seven plain bosses surrounded by triangular bamboo shoot motifs (

pucuk rebung) arranged as six-pointed stars. The edge is scalloped, and the reverse has several lugs through which an arm strap could be threaded (but which now will permit the item to be displayed say from a wall.)

This buckler is highly unusual in that it has been cast with six cartouches of Islamic script, presumably

Jawi, the localised version of Arabic. Other than rice measuring containers and perhaps belt buckles cast with talismanic symbols, examples of Malay brassware cast with script are rare. Other than these items, no other examples appear to have been published to date. (See below for images of the cartouches of script.)

Similar Malay bucklers but without script are illustrated in Singh, B.,

Malay Brassware: A Guide to the Collections, National Museum of Singapore, 1985, p. 41.