Arts and Design Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-6061 (Paper) ISSN 2225-059X (Online) Vol.89, 2021 27 Visual Characteristics of Sajarah Banten Manuscript Illustrations Savitri Putri Ramadina * Yasraf Amir Piliang Nuning Damayanti Adisasmito Pindi Setiawan Faculty of Arts and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology, Jalan Ganesha No. 10, Bandung, Indonesia Abstract Banten Sultanate was an Islamic kingdom in the western part of Java island, and one of important international port in the 15 th through 19 th century. There were different cultures interacted in Banten, such as from the European, Chinese, Indians, and merchant from Muslim-dominant areas such as Middle East. As a cosmopolitan, the illustrations of one of its historical manuscripts, Sajarah Banten KBG 183 would have distinct visual characteristics. This paper would try to find those characteristics by applying compositional analysis to observe their compositional, technological, and productional modalities. Later, semiotic method would be applied to scrutinize the signs used in the visualization of Sajarah Banten illustrations. The result showed that the illustrations characteristically used firm technical lines and minimalistic colors. The story characters were not drawn and only represented by objects alluding to their positions or activities. These visual characteristics were likely influenced by Islamic art aesthetics of aniconism and European technical drawings of 19 th century. Keywords: Banten, illustration, manuscript, visual characteristics. DOI: 10.7176/ADS/89-04 Publication date: January 31 st 2021 1. Introduction The Sultanate of Banten was one of the Islamic kingdoms on the western part of Java, founded by Syarif Hidayatullah or Sunan Gunung Jati (1448-1568) and his son Hasanudin. Sunan Gunung Jati was one of Wali Sanga, a group of Islamic preachers who utilized acculturation in visual artifacts as a medium of da'wah (Islamic teaching). The form of acculturation between traditional and Islamic art by the Wali Sanga on the island of Java contains the old Hindu-Buddhist cultural values as well as traditional beliefs and achieved its classical form in the Islamic period. In addition to the Banten Sultanate, Sunan Gunung Jati also related to the Sultanate of Demak in central Java and the Sultanate of Cirebon on the north coast of Java. Before the emergence of Banten Sultanate, the area belonged to the Hindu-Buddhist Tarumanegara Kingdom and later Sunda Kingdom. The archaeological findings in Banten Girang showed the presence of 10 th century Shivaite temple with Hindu iconographies, and several inscriptions written in Javanese (Guillot, 2011). There are also a group of people called Baduy with the indigenous animistic belief of Sunda Wiwitan which still exist in Banten area until present time. During its reign, the Banten Sultanate was known as an international trading harbor visited by Chinese, Arabic, Indian, and European merchants. This coastal, seafaring cosmopolitan nature combined with the predominance of Islamic principles and Javanese court influence seemingly left no room for traces of the indigenous field-based culture. However, during 1651-1682 Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa campaigned his “food production” policy through developments of inland fields near the border with Batavia, which was the stronghold of Dutch military force (Guillot, 2011). Although this policy was mainly as a deterrent and a way to watch out for the foreign force, it also revived Banten’s indigenous field culture. Banten Sultanate’s unique mixtures of both coastal-cosmopolitan and indigenous culture, blanketed by Islamic teachings gave birth to distinct visual characteristics found in one of the manuscripts depicting the history of the sultanate, Sajarah Banten. The name Sajarah Banten (“History of Banten”) itself is collectively used to refer to a group of 29 manuscripts detailing the legend and history surrounding the founding, rise and decline of Banten Sultanate from 15 th century to 19 th century. Among those 29 manuscripts only one of them containing illustrations, which is Sajarah Banten in Indonesian National Library collection coded KBG 183. The Sajarah Banten KBG 183 manuscript was written in Pegon alphabets, which were Arabic alphabets adapted for Javanese language, with total 87 pages (Pudjiastuti, 2010). The first part of the manuscript told of the founding of Banten Sultanate and the genealogy of Banten rulers traced all the way back to Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, to establish their sovereignty as Islamic kingdom. The next part, also the central story of the manuscript, was the reign of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa during 1651-1683 and the succession war between him and his son, Sultan Haji. The manuscript described that the Sultan Haji who conspired with Dutch army to take over Banten from Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa was a fake one while the real Sultan Haji was detained in a faraway island. The rest of the manuscript told of the consequences of the succession war, and the next rulers of Banten up to Sultan Ishaq (Muhammad Ishaq Zainulmuttaqin) in 1801. Based on the text, it is assumed that it was written at the very least at the end of Sultan Ishaq’s reign in 1803