Réinterprétation des plus anciennes stèles funéraires islamiques nousantariennes: II. La stèle de Leran (Java) datée de 475/1082 et les stèles associées

Ludvik Kalus In this second "Reappraisal of the oldest Nusantara Islamic tombstones", L. Kalus and C. Guillot analyse the famous Leran stone, dated AD 1082 and believed to be the oldest Islamic tombstone in Southeast Asia. Ravaisse's interpretation of the epitaph (1925) only necessitates minor revisions. The palaeography of the inscription is exceptional and cannot be related to any part of the Islamic world, even though some of its features are reminiscent of the Iranian domain and Egypt. What is significant, however, is that there are actually in Leran four tombstones, which cannot be dissociated from one another. They are made of a kind of marble not to be found in the Archipelago. Moreover, one of the stones has clearly be cut in order to transform it into an anchor. It can be established that those four stones have no relation to any Islamic community in East Java at the end of the 1 1 th century, as has been surmised until now. They were used as ballast and anchor aboard a foreign ship and brought as such to Leran, most probably between the 1 1 th and the 14 th century.Kalus Ludvik, Guillot Claude. Réinterprétation des plus anciennes stèles funéraires islamiques nousantariennes: II. La stèle de Leran (Java) datée de 475/1082 et les stèles associées. In: Archipel, volume 67, 2004. pp. 17-36