Raja Aisyah's Hikayat Syamsul Anwar, completed in 1890, was perhaps one earliest testaments of feminism to be found in Malay literature: it describes the secret life of Badrul Muin, a heroine who disguises herself as a male.
He founded the Kutub Khanah Yamtuan Ahmadi in 1866, the first Islamic library of its kind in the Malay world.