Women and Power in Tuhfat Al-Nafis: Gender Studies in Malay History

In classical Malay literature, female characters are often not given the opportunity by the author to defend their rights. Women are considered passive in facing life. In Malay literature the role of female figures in public is often depicted as achieving hegemony of power through marriage and alliances with allied kingdoms. A passive attitude is the image of women, but in the <em>Tuhfatun Nafis</em> Manuscript, Tengku Tengah is told as a woman who was active in the political turmoil between Raja Kecik and the Kingdom of Johor. For this reason, the author aims to establish the role of Tengku Tengah in the political turmoil at that time. This article uses qualitative methods in collecting sources. With this, the researcher carried out a library research using a text content analysis approach.