Amin Sweeney (December 13, 193813 November 2010) was a Malay linguist of Anglo-Irish descent. He was primarily known as the author of three volumes of ''The Complete Works of

Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Abdullah bin Abdul al Kadir (1796–1854) ( ar, عبد الله بن عبد القادر ') also known as Munshi Abdullah, was a Malayan writer of mixed ancestry. He was a famous Malacca-born munshi of Singapore and died in Jeddah, a part of ...

Munsyi'' and as the chief editor of the online literary journal ''Horizon Online'', a prominent Indonesian literary magazine managed by Taufiq Ismail. Amin Sweeney was born in England in 1938, and was sent by the British army to Malaya in 1958 to help stop the communist insurgency. Whilst in the army, he chose to live with the Malay soldiers and moved to

Kluang Kluang ( Jawi: كلواڠ), formerly Keluang, is a town in Kluang District, Johor, Malaysia. Kluang was founded in 1915 as the administrative capital of central Johor by the British. It is located in the centre of the state and is within 90 min ...

from

Melaka Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has bee ...

where he taught English. During his time as a lieutenant in the army, he taught himself Malay culture and Islamic studies. A year later he returned to London and converted to Islam in a London mosque. Amin's interest in the Malay language and literature drove him to study at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. In 1970, he completed his doctorate dissertation in Malay literature. He then became a lecturer and a professor at

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia The National University of Malaysia ( ms, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, abbreviated as UKM) is a public university located in Bandar Baru Bangi, Hulu Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia. Its teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia ...

(1970–1977). Afterwards, he was an advisor for graduate and postgraduate programs, Chairman of the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies (1986–1991) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Centre for Southeast Asia Studies (1991–1998) at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, US, until he retired and became an

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

in 1998. Amin lived in Cibeureum, near Cipayung,

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.Bahasa Indonesia Indonesian ( ) is the official and national language of Indonesia. It is a standardized variety of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Indonesia is t ...

; she was also the reason he moved to Jakarta. Sweeney had a daughter with Sastri, a son and a daughter from a previous marriage, and six grandchildren. When he died, he was in the process of becoming an Indonesian citizen from a Malaysian one.

Selected written works

As a scholar, he wrote many monographs and books. Among them were ''Malay Shadow Puppets'' (London, 1972), ''The Ramayana and the Malay Shadow-Play'' (Kuala Lumpur, 1972), ''Studies in Malaysian Oral and Musical Tradition'' (with William P Malm, Ann Arbor, 1974), ''An International Seminar on the Shadow Plays of Asia'' (with Goto Akira, Tokyo, 1976), ''Reputations Live On: An Early Malay Autobiography'' (Berkeley, 1980), ''Authors and Audiences in Traditional Malay Literature'' (Berkeley, 1980), ''A Full Hearing: Orality and Literacy in the Malay World'' (Berkeley, 1987), ''Malay Word Music'' (Kuala Lumpur, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1994), and ''Karya Lengkap Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi'' (''The Complete Works of Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi'', three volumes, Jakarta, 2005–2008).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Amin 1938 births 2010 deaths Linguists from Malaysia Academic staff of the National University of Malaysia Malaysian military personnel Malaysian Muslims Malaysian people of English descent Malaysian people of Irish descent University of California, Berkeley faculty