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so Malay texts written in the Arabic script were never easy to read, the more so be cause the Arabic custom of desisting from the use of vowel marks was followed by Malay scribes. In the fifteenth century the Javanese Indian script was already current for many centuries, and it was well adapted to the native language. Moreover in Java the con version to Islam was accomplished gradually, at first in the trading towns and the mari time districts on the North Coast. No foreign force from outside the island was operative or decisive in winning the victory for Islam. The faith was introduced by relatively peaceful middle-class traders, from the be ginning conversant with the Malay and Javanese languages. In Java just as in other newly converted countries the Arabic script (by the inter mediary of the Malay language) was intro duced at an early time. But then it is remarkable that some of the oldest, still sixteenth century, Islamic Javanese manus cripts were written in Javanese script. Per haps this fact is to be explained by the prestige of Javanese scholarship, a heritage of centuries old pre-Islamic Javanese culture, which in the beginning still outshone the glamour of the new Malay Arabic script, though the latter bore the genuine stamp of Islam. An additional reason for sixteenth century Javanese Muslims to write in the old Javanese Indian script was the peculiar property of the writing-material, palmleaves, for centuries in use in Java. On account of the rough fibrous surface it is difficult to make many dots and short lines on a palm- leaf. The fibrousness enforces writing in straight parallel lines, whereas the current

Arabic script consists mainly of short sloping lines. It is a fact that the intro duction of the Arabic script and paper as a writing material coincided in Java and else where in the Archipelago (see 00130). Javanese palmleaf manuscripts with Arabic script are practically non-existant. Writing Javanese texts in Arabic charac ters required making some new letters by adding diacritical dots to existing ones in order to have representations for all Javan ese phonemes, at least not very much inferior to the old Javanese-Indian script. On ac count of the Javanese vocalism, which is richer than Malay vocalism, it was necessary to apply the existing vowel marks through out the texts in order to prevent equivo cality. Often the vowel marks were put in the writing after the completion of some lines, or a page, or even a whole text. Of course this custom led to the making of mistakes, Javanese texts written in Arabic script are called pégon texts, a term which suggests wryness, obliquity. Probably this name was given on account of the short sloping lines of the current Arabic writing, as compared with the straight parallel lines of the Javanese Indian script (see the facsimiles in volume Three). Pégon script became popular in Java in Muslim religious communities spread all over the country, where Malay and Arabic texts were studied. In several cases Javanese texts written in pégon script were left unvo calized, partly or entirely without vowel marks. This variety of pégon script was called gundil, hairless. Of course, gundil texts are difficult to read for persons un familiar with the idiom of the Muslim religious communities where gundil script