hikayah
right|thumb|A copy of the Hang Tuah Saga in display. Hikayat (Jawi: ; ) (or hikajat), which may be translated as "Romances", represent a genre of literature popular in Malay and Sikh literature and can be written in both verse and prose. Hikayat often mix past- and present-tense such that past events appear to be prophesied. Texts in this genre are meant to be publicly performed and are also often self-referential, in which they record examples of the recitation of other hikayat.
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right|thumb|A copy of the Hang Tuah Saga in display. Hikayat (Jawi: ; ) (or hikajat), which may be translated as "Romances", represent a genre of literature popular in Malay and Sikh literature and can be written in both verse and prose. Hikayat often mix past- and present-tense such that past events appear to be prophesied. Texts in this genre are meant to be publicly performed and are also often self-referential, in which they record examples of the recitation of other hikayat.
Malay hikayats relate the adventures of heroes from kingdoms across the Malay Archipelago (spanning modern Indonesia and Malaysia, especially in Sumatra) or chronicles of their royalty. The stories they contain, though based on history, are heavily romanticized. Poetical format is not required in Malay and Arabic Hikayat while the Acehnese Hikayat requires it. Hikayats also appear in Sikh literature of the Indian subcontinent, of which 11 or 12 are associated with Guru Gobind Singh. One famous example is the Hikaaitaan.