The Royal Library of Bone: Bugis and Makassar manuscripts in the British Library

In March 2019, the digitisation was completed of 75 Javanese manuscripts from Yogyakarta now held in the British Library, which had been captured from the Kraton or Palace of Yogyakarta in June 1812 following a British assault. What is much less widely known is that the British Library also holds the core of another royal library from Indonesia, also taken in armed conflict during the brief period of British administration in Java from 1811 to 1816 under the command of Thomas Stamford Raffles. All the 34 manuscripts from south Sulawesi in the British Library can be identified as orginating from the palace of the Bugis kingdom of Bone, and were seized in a British attack on Bone in June 1814.

At the time the ruler of Bone was Sultan Muhammad Ismail Muhtajuddin (r. 1812-1823), also known as La Mappatunruq and posthumously as Matinroe ri Lalebbata; he was the son of the redoubtable Sultan Ahmad al-Salih Syamsuddin (r. 1775-1812) who had died just two years previously. Following disagreements between the sultan and the British Resident of Makassar, an expedition was despatched from Java under the command of General Sir Miles Nightingale. On 8 June 1814, troops led by by Lt. Col. McLeod attacked and overran the palace of Bone, with a considerable loss of life on the Bugis side. Five cannon and a large quantity of armaments were captured – and also, evidently, many manuscripts from the royal library – after which the palace was set on fire by the British (Thorn 1815: 341).