[Talk] Singapore’s Alexanders: Persianate Kings and Premodern Pasts

Readers in New York may be interested in this talk by Teren Sevea at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at the NYU on 2 April 2024.

Exploring sources on the pre-Qur’anic prophet-king lskandar Dhu al-Qarnayn, this talk focuses on the premodern origins of Singapore and its Alexandrian dynasty, whose heirs were memorialized as saints (karamat). The talk first delves into Malay chronicles that memorialized the cosmopolitan ancestry and charismatic authority of divinely sanctioned Southeast Asian kings, who reigned from the mid-13th to early 18th centuries. It then discusses the resilience of premodern Islam in modern Singapore, where poets, panegyrists, storytellers, and shrine caretakers from the late 19th century to the present have preserved histories of premodern kings and karamat. The presentation considers how premodern Islamic pasts survive amidst aggrandizing urban redevelopment, refusing to be removed, let alone forgotten.

Source: Singapore’s Alexanders: Persianate Kings and Premodern Pasts