Raja Ali Haji b. Raja Ahmad(c. 1809-c. 1873), of Riau, was the best known nineteenth-century Malay scholar of Islam. He influenced European views of "correct" Malay language, and this influence, in turn, has shaped the formation of the national language policies of both Malaysia and Indonesia. Although he wrote extensively on language, traditional Malay custom, and Islam, he is remembered in Indonesia and Malaysia for his epic Tuhfat al-nafis , a history of the diaspora of the Bugis from South Sulawesi through the Malayo-Indonesian archipelago from