Field research and the teaching of early Malayan history

Abstract

Galileo, the great 17th century Italian mathematician and astronomer, is said to have had an argument with some of the learned doctors of Padua University over his claim to have dis Galileo saw the moons covered that the planet Jupiter had moons. through his telescope. The doctors, who had all read the works of Aristotle, knew that Jupiter had no moons. When Galileo in- vited them to look through his telescope and see for themselves, they refused on the grounds that this would only be a waste of time. In some ways the history of Malaya before the founding of the Malacca Sultanate in the early 15th century has been written by scholars in the tradition of the Padua doctors. Texts have been given great weight; the equivalent of telescopes have been ignored.