Bidasari: Jewel of Malay Muslim Culture

The sly wit and silky eroticism of the verse genre known as romantic syair were staple dishes on the Southeast Asian cultural menu, especially in the Malay, Islamic regional centres. Yet very few examples are available in translation for the many readers interested in the genre, and attempts by academics to account for their powers of attraction are even rarer. This book is the author s effort to convey the seductive qualities of the sexiest of the romantic syair, the Poem of Bidasari .