An Ottoman Journey to Johor: Mustafa bin Mustafa’s Aksa-yı Şark’da Bir Cevelân (1894)
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Abstract
This study examines how the Ottoman traveller, Mustafa bin Mustafa,
portrayed and perceived Johor and its people in his travelogue Aksa-yı Şark’da Bir Cevelân (A Tour in the Far East, 1894). The study partially compares his observations with those found in contemporaneous travelogues, such as Florence Caddy’s To Siam and Malaya in the Duke of Sutherland’s Yacht (1889) and Süleyman Şükrü’s Seyahat-i Kübra (The Great Travel, 1907). After his dismissal as district governor of Qa’tabah
in Yemen, Mustafa began his journey to the Far East in April 1892. He spent nearly one year in Johor (1892–1893), a significant contact zone in the Malay world. There, he observed the political, cultural and socio-economic life and met Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor (1833–1895) and Syed Muhammad Alsagoff (1836–1906), two central figures in Ottoman-Johor relations. However, his travelogue did not cover Ottoman-Johor relations due to his disinterest in the politics of his time. Instead, he focused on Johor’s geography, culture, religious customs and tropical fruits. Briefly, Mustafa’s Aksa-yı Şark’da Bir Cevelân represents a unique and rare non-Western and Ottoman/Muslim travel narrative that documents the Ottoman exploration of Johor and Ottoman-Johor encounters in the late 19th century.
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References
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