Just who are 'the Malays'? This provocative study poses the question and considers how and why the answers have changed over time, and from one region to another.

Anthony Milner develops a sustained argument about ethnicity and identity in an historical, 'Malay' context. The Malays is a comprehensive examination of the origins and development of Malay identity, ethnicity, and consciousness over the past five centuries.

• Covers the political, economic, and cultural development of the Malays
• Explores the Malay presence in Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa, as well as the modern Malay show-state of Malaysia
• Offers diplomatic speculation about ways Malay ethnicity will develop and be challenged in the future

Anthony Milner is Basham Professor of Asian History at the Australian National University, and was Visiting Professor at The Research Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (Tokyo) in 2007. He has also held appointments as Raffles Visiting Professor of History at the National University of Singapore and Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. His writings on 'the Malays' include The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya (1995, 2002), and Kerajaan: Malay Political Culture on the Eve of Colonial Rule (1982). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.