The Sundanese adopted the genre of the babad from their neighbours, the Javanese, during domination of the region by the Sultanate of Mataram in the 17th century. Sundanese contact with the genre created a slightly different variant. For Sundanese, the term babad does not always refer to historical narratives as it does in Java. Babad can also refer to non-historical narratives, such as for example the Babad Kawung, a manual on how to make palm sugar. Furthermore, the farming cultures in remote areas of Sunda have preferred very short versions of the babad. Unlike the case in the city, good quality paper is very difficult to find and is a luxury, so these communities tend to rewrite the long version of written materials into shorter versions. This situation may also be influenced by the persistence of a strong oral tradition in which people only need to know (or record) the skeleton of a story.

The structure of the babad in Sunda, particularly those conveying historical narrative, retains the major characteristics of the Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese babad. Like the major babad from these traditions, such as the Babad Tanah Jawi, the Babad Dipanagara, the Babad Pajajaran and the Babad Buleleng, the Babad Pamijahan also contains the two elements of genealogy and narrative. To treat it as an historical document in modern terms would be rash. Similarly, it is also difficult to analyse it in terms of its poetics, particularly if we are in search of sophisticated story sequences or episodes. However, this does not mean that such written material is not invaluable for our purposes.

Although the Babad Pamijahan has a poor literary structure and lacks historical data in the modern historical sense, the village council nevertheless treats the manuscript as a legitimate source for explaining the identity of villagers as descendants of Abdul Muhyi. However, the way villagers generate this concept of identity from the manuscript is complicated and needs to be clarified.

For the people of Pamijahan their babad is as important as other items of sacred material culture. Although many of them do not understand the language of the text, they can still generate meaning from different directions. We find here that the babad is not only a book of history but also an artefact of the wali. As is the case with other artefacts in Pamijahan, it too is believed to have spiritual power which comes directly from Shaykh Abdul Muhyi and his contemporaries. So villagers conserve the manuscript as well as the words of its text.

To understand the meaning of the Babad Pamijahan in its context we have to treat this narrative both as a self-telling text and as a text which functions in social and cultural discourse.