Sikeureung Seal in Surat-Surat dari Aceh Manuscript: Shape and Content Analysis

摘要

A letter may be used for both personal and public communication media. For public purpose, letter is used for diplomatic communication media of a government or country. Seal is usually contained in official letter as a sign of legitimacy. In classic manuscript, a seal is commonly placed at the top or bottom of the letter or can be replaced by the sovereign's signature. In Nusantara, the oldest sealin Malay manuscript by Sultan Alauddin Riayat Syah dated in 1602 (Gallop, 1994: 4). According to Gallop, seal in Nusantara texts is commonly in the shape of circle. Some of them are decorated with flower petals. Soot ink and lacquer are the most common material used for seal. Seal usually contains the information related to name, time, date, and motto. Sikeureungseal used by Aceh kings for official letters.Sikeureungis the product of acculturation between Islamization and Hinduism or what is called as Indianization (Lombard, 2014:249). The seal is called as "Sembilan Seal" or "Halilintar Seal" because it contains nine tangled circles which formed flower with the biggest circle at the center (Sulaiman, Rusdi, and Abdul, 1992: 42). This study is aimed at describing the forms and content of Sikeureung seal in Surat-Surat dari Acehmanuscript. This research is codicology and philology study. This study is conducted by transliterating the names of Sultan/Sultanah written in the seal and describing the unique shape of Sikeureungbased on the names of Sultan/Sultanah reigned during the period.