The Penghulu Papers

The Rumah Besar is a repository of family documents going back to the 1870's, photographs, furnitures, memorabilia, weapons from the war of the 19th century, etc. The family documents are now a subject of a research grant (1997-1999) from The Toyota Foundation. The Toyota Foundation has also given a publication grant for 2000 to publish the Tarikh Raja Asal (1933) and Peringatan Tarikh Perjalanan Raja Shahabuddin dan Rahman Pergi ke Makkah (1940).

In the words of Annabel the Gallop, Curator, Oriental and India Collections, The British Library: "It is rare to find such a cohesive collection of Malay manuscripts documents, covering the activities of three generations of a family of Penghulus, still intact in private hands. I have been able to personally inspect copies of the approximately 150 documents which have been translated into Romanized Malay, and can confirm the importance of the contents. To the best of my knowledge, no comparable collection of Malay manuscripts of this nature is held outside Malaysia, although there may be smaller numbers of similar documents in the National Archives of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur."