“This book takes the reader to a fascinating musical soundscape in the royal courts of Malaysia that is unimaginable to most music lovers today. Raja Iskandar Bin Raja Halid skillfully describes the history and significance of nobat and explains why and how it still has symbolic meaning today.”
— Margaret Kartomi, author of Performing the Arts of Indonesia: Malay Identity and Politics in the Music, Dance and Theatre of the Riau Islands
"Raja Iskandar Bin Raja Halid’s detailed and erudite study of the nobat of the Malay world is also a study of a neglected, but vital, facet of Islamicate culture – the trumpets, pipes, and drums that have served as accoutrements of the ruler’s spiritual and temporal power since early times. The author approaches both the local and the colonial historical sources with a keen eye and sharp ear in this consistently engaging, well-researched volume."
— Martin Stokes, King's College, London
"This book situates the interplay of power, acculturation, and sovereignty of the Malay nobat from well-known Malay historical literatures, royal histories, and chronicles in the Malay world with fecundity and prolificacy. Raja Iskandar Bin Raja Halid has succinctly probed the subject of the Malay nobat by evoking the ecstatic and aesthetic contents of the Malay royal regalia, connecting Islamic influences and ceremonial ensembles from the Middle East and South Asia with the nobat of Aceh and the Malay Sultanates in the Malay peninsula. This publication is a major contribution to studies in Malay-Islamic-Royal music in Southeast Asia."
— Mohd Anis Md Nor, Nusantara Performing Arts Research Center
The effort to write such a broad, insightful historical, social, and stylistic study of nobat is impressive, and the author has made it accessible to a fairly broad readership whose interests may lean toward cultural studies, Malay World and Southeast Asian arts, Islamic Studies, or regional history. The text is neither laden with theoretical jargon, nor is a music degree required to appreciate its in-depth discussions of nobat music... [I recommend] this book as a valuable contribution to an important, yet understudied subject.
— Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
The Malay Nobat: A History of Power, Acculturation, and Sovereignty is a well written and meticulous book developed from fieldwork and archival sources. This is a fascinating work on nobat coming from Malaysia. What makes this book different is that it addresses nobat, originally from the Middle East and South Asia, from a Southeast Asian perspective... The Malay Nobat is a very accessible book. Though nominally about the Malay nobat, in many ways it illuminates the larger Malay world from a perspective unknown to most scholars working outside the area. By engaging with the annals, Raja Halid provides a rich history of Malay kingship, and through nobat he connects the Malay royal courts to broader histories of the Middle East and South Asia. As a result, his book tells a different story about the region than the more familiar history of its religious conservatism in modern times.
— Yale Journal of Music & Religion