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Unknown: The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah
(15th century) a Malay text
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Taken from : Yves Bonnefoy ;Asian Mythologies
This manuscript of which about 30 copies still exist, got in the fifteenth century adopted from Persian. The period in which Malaysia had a commercial empire stretching to East Africa is over (several centuries already) . Knowledge of East Africa is lost, and arrives newly from (secondhand ) sources in Persia.
The manuscripts attest of a Shiite presence in the Malay world at the beginning of islamisation. The half brother of the martyrs of Shiitism, Hasan and Husayn, Muhammad Hanafiah appears here as a brave warrior who seeks to avenge them.
After the death of Husayn on the battlefield of Karbala, Yazid prepares to put his prisoners to death. But Muhammad Hanafiah gathers together the partisans of Ali and takes up the battle again. Yazid is forced to seek help from the four Oriental kings ; Frankish, Chinese, Abyssinian and Zanj. Muhammad Hanafiah is captured, and is going to be burned alive, but he is saved at the last minute and his severed arm is miraculously rejoined. Yazid tries to escape but is killed in the flames....