Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:20:53.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

In Quest of Kalah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

S. Q. Fatimi
Get access

Extract

Kalah was the earliest recorded settlement of Muslims in this part of the world, and from Arab and Persian descriptions of it from the middle of the ninth to that of the fourteenth century, it was undoubtedly an important port in South East Asia.

But where was it actually located? The problem has baffled some of the best minds of the east and the west. It has been debated since 1718. During this long period eminent historians, geographers, Arabicists, Indologists and Sinologists have made an effort at solving the riddle, but at best they have succeeded only partially. Earlier attempts at identification were very much wide of the mark. Abbe Renaudot (1718) who initiated the debate identified it with Malabar, while Gildemeister (1838) located it in Coromandel, and Reinaud (1845) equated it with Galle in Ceylon. Alfred Maury (1846) was the first to realise that the search for it must be made in the Malaysian region and he suggested Kedah. Walckenear (1852) made this equation famous by accepting it in his commentary on the story of Sindbad the sailor. P. A. van der Lith (1883–6) gave massive support to it in his elaborate and erudite discussion on the subject in his annotation and edition of Buzurg bin Shahriyār's Book of the Marvels of the Indies. It seemed that van der Lith had clinched the issue by getting the philological support from no less an eminent authority on the subject than M. Kern, who stated that the Malay d was pronounced very like an Arab 1. And then followed a galaxy of great Arabicists, like de Goeje (1889) and G. Le Strange (1905) all of whom accepted this equation. Pelliot (1901) and other Sinologists, and Coedes (1918) and other Indologists found it handy in their own search of Malaysian place-names.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian History , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , September 1960 , pp. 62 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes and References

1. Variously transliterated as Kalah, Kalāh, Kalā, Kalakh, Kilah, Killah, Kalī’, Qal-'ah, and Qal’. More common transliteration is Kalah.

2. Renaudot, Abbê, (ed.) Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine de deux voyageurs Mahometans qui y allerent dans le ixè siecle de notre ère, Paris, 1718Google Scholar. quoted in Streck, M., article on Kalah, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. II, 1927.Google Scholar

3. Gildemeister, Ioannes, (ed.) Scriptorum Arabum De Rèbus Indicis pp. 57 et seq., Bonn, 1838.Google Scholar

4. Reinaud, Joseph Toussaint, (ed.) Relations de voyages fairs par Ies arabes et les persans dans l'Inde et a la Chine dans le XIIe siécle de l'ére chrétienne. Tome II, p. 18 note 12, p. 22, note 1, Paris, 1845.Google Scholar

5. Alfred, Maury, “Examen de la route que suivaient, au ixe siècle de notreère, les Arabes et Ies Persans pour aller en Chine,” in Bulletin de la Sociètè de Géographie, 1846, pp. 203–238Google Scholar. Cf. “The most consistent and probable interpretation yet published appears to be that of M. Alfred Maury.” (Yule, Henry, revised by Henri Cordier, Cathay and the Way Thither, being a Collection of Mediaeval Notices of China, Vol. 1, pp. ciii–civ. Hakluyt Society, London, 1913.)

6. Walckenaer, (ed.) Nouvelles Annals de Voyages, p. 19, Paris, 1852Google Scholar. Quoted by Streck, , op. cit.Google Scholar, and extensively by Major, R. H., India in the Fifteenth Century, Introduction, Hakluyt Society, London, 1857.Google Scholar

7. Van der Lith, P. A., (ed.) Livre des Merveilles de l'Inde, pp. 255–264, Leiden, 1883–1886.Google Scholar

8. Ibid., Supplement to Excursion B, p. 308. See also Fokker, A. A., Malay Phonetices, pp. 47–48, Leiden, 1895.Google Scholar

9. De Goeje, M. J., De Gids: Algtmeen Cultural Tijdschri, Vol. iii, 1889, p. 297.Google Scholar

10. Le Strange, G., (ed.) Hamd Allāh Mustawfī's Nuzhat al-Qulub (Gibb memorial Series), p. 203, note 6, p. 231, note 21.Google Scholar

11. Pelliot, Paul. “Deux itineraires de Chine en Inde á la fin du VIIIe siécle”Google Scholar in Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient (B.E.F.E.O.), IV, 1904, pp. 348–354.

12. Coedes, George, “Le royaume de Crivijaya”, in B.E.F.E.O. XVIII, No. 6, 1918, pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

13. Gerini, G.E., “The Nagara-Kretagama list of countries on the Indo-Chinese mainland,” in Journal of Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain (JRAS), 07, 1905, p. 500.Google Scholar

14. Ferrand, Gabriel, “Le K'ouen-louen et Ies anciennes navigations intericèaniques dans les mers du Sud”, Appendix I, in Journal Asiatique (JA), Series II, XIV, 09– 10 1919, pp. 214–233.Google Scholar

But, where on the Isthmus of Kra? Concluding the above article he is certain that it was on the western coast in the region of 10° Latitude North. (Ibid., p. 233), but in his article on “Zabag” in the Encyclopaedia of Islam (EI) Vol. IV, 1934, he writes, “Kalah = Kra (on the eastern coast of Malaya)”, (p. 1183 Column ‘b’), and on column ‘a’ of the same page “Kalah = Kra (on the western coast of Malaya”. Is this discrepancy the doing of the Printer's devil, or were there some second thoughts on the part of Kerrand himself? Vide also, Schrieke, B., Indonesian Sociological Studies Part II, Hague & Bandung, 1957, p. 232Google Scholar, “Kalah (Kedah, Kra or Patani),” p. 262, Kalah (Kedah or Kra that is to say Patani)” but on p. 405 “Kalah (Kedah)”.

15. Moens, lr.J.L., ‘Srivijaya Yava en Kataha, T.B.G. LXXVII, 1937Google Scholar, translated into English by R.J. de Touche, Journal of Malayan Branch Royal Asiatic Society, (JMBRAS), XVII, Part II, 1939, pp. 92 etseq.

16. Gerini, G. E., Researches on Ptolemy's Geography of Eastern Asia (Further India and Indo-Malay Archipelago), pp. 86–91, London, 1909Google Scholar. This theory has been further examined by DrWheatley, Paul, “Takola Emporion: A Study of an Early Malayan Place-Name” in Malayan Journal of Tropical Geography (MJTG), 03, 1954, pp. 1–13.Google Scholar

17. Groeneveldt, W.P., Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca Compiled from Chinese Sources in Rost, R. (ed.), Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago, Vol. I, pp. 242–243, London, 1887.Google Scholar

It will be interesting to note that the editor of Miscellaneous Papers has added the following remarks as a footnote, “Professor van der Lith, in his dissertation on Kalah (L.L., pp. 255–63, see also Kern's Note ib, p. 308), has clearly established what Walekenaer and Yule had conjectured, viz., that Kalah is identical with Kadah (Kedah, Queddah)” p. 243, n. 1.

18. Schlegal, G., ‘Geographical Notes’, T'oung Pao, Vol. X, 03 1899, pp. 289–291, and pp. 464–469.Google Scholar

19. Chau Ju-Kua, His Worlc on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Century, entitled Chufan-Chi, Translated and annotated by Friedr. Hirth and Rockhill, W. W., p. 11, St. Petersburg, 1911.Google Scholar

20. E.I., article on KALAH, Vol. II, p. 669 (b).

21. Ibid, p. 670 (a).

22. Yule, Henry and Burnell, A.C., Hobson-Jobson, A Glossary oi Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words, article on CALAY, p. 145, London, 1903.Google Scholar

23. E.I. article on KAL'I-KALA'I. Vol. II, p. 694 (b).

24. Ibid., article on KALAH, Vol. II, p. 669 (b).

25. Tibbets, G.R., “The Malay Peninsula as known to the Arab Geographers” in MJTG, No. 9, 12 1956, pp. 21–60.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., p. 23. But is it so? We shall discuss this problem in the section on ‘the Etymology of Kalang’.

27. Ibid., p. 31.

1. See Section I, note 13. above. But one may perhaps say that Gerini himself made no mean a contribution to this state of affairs.

2. Beazley, C.R., The Dawn of Modern Geography, Vol. I, p. 394, New York, 1949.Google Scholar

3. Ibid., p. 396.

4. Hall, D.G.E., A History of South-East Asia, p. 176, London, 1955.Google Scholar

5. For instance, a small horizontal dash, if combined with a little longer vertical one J = 1, the same with a small vertical dash + one dot on top; = n; + two dots on top; = t: + three dots on top; = th; + one dot at bottom; = b; my in Malay Jāwī but = p in Persian and Urdu.

This handicap was overcome by careful scientific writers through spelling out every technical term and proper noun, especially if it was a foreign word. But unfortunately the earlier travellers were not scientists.

6. The complications to which the carelessness of these copyists can lead is illustrated in the different versions of Vijaya (N.JABA, GHABA, BNIJABA etc.), see section on ‘Political conditions’, below.

Even to this day when the art of printing has reached a high degree of perfection the ‘Printer's Devil’ remains the bugbear of the author. One instance of the havoc played by it is provided by Beazley. In his masterly analysis of Arab geographical literature in his standard work The Dawn of Modern Geography, Vol. I, he mentions Kalah a number of times and rightly places it in the Malay peninsula (p. 298, p. 441, footnote etseq.) till he comes to the contributions of Massoudy (al-Mas'udī, d. 956) and Kalah surreptitiously becomes Kolah (with an ‘o’ in place of ‘a’ in the first syllable) and the learned Professor attempts to identify it with Kolaba, near Bombay! Of course, he adds a question mark at the same time. (p. 4,66, also footnote 3).

7. Ferrand, G., Relations de voyages et textes gèographiques Arabes, Persans et Turcs relatifs a l'Extrême-Orient du VINe au XVIIIe siècle, Tom 1, p. IX, Paris, 1913.Google Scholar

8. Moens, , op. cit., p. 6.Google Scholar

9. Ibid., p. 1.

10. Nilakanta Sastri, K.A., Kataha in Journal of Greater India Society (JGIS), V, No. 1, 01, 1938, p. 135Google Scholar. See, also ibid, Notes on the Historical Geography of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, JGIS, VII, No. 1, Jan. 1940, pp. 15–42.

11. Moens, , op. cit., p. 7.Google Scholar

12. Tibbets, , op. cit., p. 21.Google Scholar

13. Ibid., p. 33.

1. Sapir, Edward, Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech, p. 210, New York, 1821.Google Scholar

2. Jespersen, Otto, Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin, p. 207, London, 1947.Google Scholar

3. Jones, Daniel, The Phoneme: Its Nature and Use, p. 36, Cambridge, 1950.Google Scholar

4. Al-Jawālīqī, Abu Mansur, al-Mu'arrab min al-Kalām al-A'jami ‘ala huruf al-Mu'jam, p. 6, Cairo, 1361 A.H.

5. Ibid., Introduction, pp. 17–20.

6. “= a family of sounds in a given language which are related in character and are used in such a way that no one member ever occurs in a word in the same phonetic context as any other word.” Jones, , op. cit., p. 10Google Scholar; for fuller discussions, pp. 7–10.

7. Jones, , op. cit., pp. 219 and 226.Google Scholar

8. Defremery, C., and Sanguinetti, B.R., Voyages d' Ibn Batoutah, Vol. IV. p, 167, Paris, 1859.Google Scholar

9. Ferrand, G. (ed.) Instructions nautiques et routiers Arabes et Portugais des XVe et XVIe Siecles, Tome II, Paris, 1925Google Scholar. For instance, Sinjafura (Singapore), folio 21v.: Finanj (Penang), folio 27r.; Balanj (Balang), folio 67,; etc.

10. Ibid., folio 78 r.

11. Ibid., folio 88 v.

12. Ibid., folio 27 r.

13. Ibid., folio 70 v.

14. Brandstetter, R., An Introduction to Indonesian Linguistics, (translated by Blagden, C.O.), p. 269, London, 1916.Google Scholar

15. De Josselin De Jong, P.E., “Malayan and Sumatran Place-Names in Classical Malay Literature”, in MJTG, 9, 12 1956, p.69.Google Scholar

16. Newbold, T.J., Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, Vol. I, pp. 122, 287 and 360Google Scholar and Vol. II, pp. 45–47, London, 1839.

17. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 37; Vol. II, pp. 41, 59 and 60.

18. De Jong, De Josselin, op. cit., p. 69.Google Scholar

19. Fokker, A.A., Malay Phonetics p. 26 and p. 10; Leiden, 1895.Google Scholar

20. Jespersen, op. cit., p. 208.

21. Yule and Cordier, Cathay, op. cit., I, p. lxxx, note 3, and I, p. cxciii.

22. Ibid, II, p. 486.

23. Ibid., II, p. 496.

24. Ibid., I, p. 113, n.3.

25. Quoted in al-BuldānYaqut, Mu'jam Yaqut, Mu'jam, under article al-Qal'ah Vol. 7, p. 148 and al-Sīn, Vol. V, p. 415, Cairo, 1906.Google Scholar

1. Blagden, C. O., “Chau Ju Kua's Chu-fan-chi” in JRAS, 1913, p. 168.Google Scholar

2. For the ‘wisdom’ of travelling in lighter vessels see the story narrated by Buzurg in Van der Lith, P.A., (ed.) Livre des Merveilles de l'Inde, op. cit., pp 85–90.Google Scholar

3. Sauvaget, J., (ed.) Ahbār as Sīn wa'l-Hind, Relation de la Chine et de l'Inde, rédigée en 851, pp. 8–9, Paris, 1948Google Scholar.

Albatross itself is derived from the Arabic word alqadus, the bucket: Pelican; so named by the Arabs for its supposed water-carrying habits.

4. Reinaud, , op cit, Tome I, pp. 90–91Google Scholar (trans); II, pp 87–88 (text).

5. Yule, Henry, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Vol. I. p. III, Hakluyt Series, 1903. Odoric in Yule, 's Cathay, op.cit., Vol. II, p. 160.Google Scholar For fuller discussion, Hornell, James, Water Transport: Origins and Early Evolution, pp. 231–35, Cambridge, 1946.Google ScholarHourani, G.F., Arab Seafaring, pp. 91–97Google Scholar, Princeton Oriental Studies, 1951, has completely missed the difference between the two distinct methods of Arab shipbuilding and wrongly implies that all Arab ships were sewn.

6. Bretschneider, E., On the knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs and Arabian Colonies and other Western Countries mentioned in Chinese books, London, 1871, deals with the different aspects of the question in a masterly way. Also, Yule's Cathay, Preliminary chapter; Chau-Ju Kua, op. cit., Tien-Tse Chang, Sino Portuguese Trade from 1514 to 1644: A Sythesis of Portuguese and Chinese Sources, pp. 1–27 gives a good summary of the original Chinese sources on the Arab trade with China during the period under review; Kuwabara, Jitsuzo, Exploits oi P'u Shou-Keng, an Arab who served as Commissioner of Customs in China, Memoir of the Toyo Bunko Research Department, Tokyo, 1928–35; and Lo, Hsiang-lin, “A New Study of P'u Shou- Keng and His Times” in Monumenta Orientalia Vol. 1, No. 2, 12 1958, pp. 1–26.Google Scholar

7. Nainar, S. Muhammad Husayn, The Knowledge of India Possessed by Arab Geographers Down to the 14th Century A.D. with Special Reference to Southern India, Madras University Islamic Series, 1942, pp. 30–31 and footnotes, 40, 48fn., 181, 194, 197, and 204; Minorsky, V., (ed.) Hudud al-'Alam, pp. 27, 87 and 243, Oxford, 1937Google Scholar; and Ahmad, S. Maqbul, India and the Neighbouring Territories as described by the Sharīf al-Idrīsi in his Kitāb Nuzhat al-Mushtāq fī ‘Khtirāq al-Afāq, Part II, Muslim University, Aligarh (in Press).

8. Island with a town of the same name, off the coast of Burma, in the Kyoukhpyu district separated from the mainland by a narrow but deep channel between Lat. 18° 51′ to 19° 24′N. and Long. 93° 28′ to 94° 5′E. It was an important trading centre of the period under consideration as shown by the discovery of some Eastern Chalukya coins on its sea-shore. Vide, Latter, Thomas, “Symbolical Coins of Arakan” in Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal (JBAS), XV, 1846, p. 240Google Scholar; Fleet, J.E., “Some Gold. Coins of the Eastern Chalukya Kings Sakitvarman and Raja Raja II”, in Indian Antiquary (IA), 03, 1890, pp. 79–82Google Scholar.

Arab and Persian writers use three different toponyms which are similar to each other and have got mixed up. First is , or (Rahmī or Rahmān) with slight variations, which was a powerful kingdom on mainland India (Ibu Khurdādbih), at war with both Gujra and Balhara (Chola) Kings (Sulaymān, the Merchant) having a large army of elephants and with possessions both on land and sea (Mas'udī). The identification of this toponym with both the Mon version (rahnman) and the Pāli version (Ramanna) of the kingdom of Pegu is evident (for the two versions vide Blagden, CO., Telaing, Mon and Ramannadesa, in Journal of Burma Research Society (JBRS), IV, 1914 pp. 57–60) Yule and Cordier were correct in identifying it with Rahmanniya, but they had a reservation: “I should be sorry to define more particularly limits of the region intended by the Arab writer [Masudī]” (Yule & Cordier, Marco, I, 243). Ralph Fitch, who visited India between 1583 and 1591, (Foster, Early Travels in India, Oxford, 1921, p. 26, n, 5) and Manrique, who visited the city of Ramu (Cox's Bazar) in 1630 (Bengal Past and Present, XIII, pp. 229 et seq. and 268) refer to a kingdom of Rame (or Ramu) situated between Chittagong and Arakan. According to Pref. R.C. Majumdar this was the home-kingdom of the Pālas and for this reason the Arabs designated them by this term. He thinks it significant that later the term Rahma denoted the Kingdom of Pegu, presumably because it then formed a part of the later Kingdom (“Lāma Tāranãtha's Account of Bengal”, in Indian Historical Quarterly (I.H.Q.), XVI, 1940, pp. 232–234).Google Scholar Also Cf. Ferrand, , Relations, p. 29, p. 36, and p. 43, n.2. et seq.Google Scholar

The second is or (Rāmī or Rāmnī) island. Not only thename but the account of this island as given by Ibn Khurdãdhbih is so identical with the island of Ramree or Ram-byi ‘the country of Rama’ that the compilers of the Imperial Gazetteer AtJas ol India, 1931, (p. 47) and the historian of Burma, A.P. Phayre, are in no doubt about this identification (Phayre. “On the History of Pegu”, JBAS, XLII, 1873, Part I, No. I, p. 24, note). But the same can not be said about Rāmnī of, some other writers.

The third is still more towards south, i.e. Lamurī (of Buzurg bin Shahriyar, Rashīd Dīn etc.) which is identical with Lambri of Marco Polo, Lamori of Father Odoric and Lamiri of Sejarah Melayu and is situated in North Sumatra (Van der Lith, , pp. 66, 125, & 176Google Scholar, Yule, , Marco, 11. pp. 299–301Google Scholar, Cathay, , II, p. 146Google Scholar; De Josselin De Jong, MJTG, 9, p. 67, Brown, Malay Annals, JMBRAS, XXV, Pts, 2 & 3, p. 42) Gerini in his effort to tidy up the history of the region, has mixed up the three place-names (Researches, pp. 673–702) and Ferrand confuses the last two, possibly on account of his theory: Malay r is always equal to an Arab 1 (Relations. pp. 25, 36 et seq.) The question will be further discussed later on.

9. The actual text says (lit. ‘and who intended China, turned or diverted from B.LIN and put Sarandib on his left). This description follows that of the island of Rami and of its neighbouring islands, which evidently implies that the island of Rāmī was not on the regular route to China and could not be Lambri North Sumatra). Ibn Khurdādhbih is talking of three routes from B.LIN and not two as has been wrongly assumed by many of his commentators.

10. Lāmurī is distinctly mentioned as being on the way to Cathay by Buzurg bin Shahriyār (955 A.D.) Ibn Sa'īd (1274 A.D. quoted in van der Lith, p. 258), Marco Polo (1292–3), Rashid-ud Din (1310) and Odoric (1323). See note 8 above.

11. Modern Barus is on the west coast of Sumatra, but from the Arab, the Chinese, and the earlier western accounts it appears that the term was applied not only to the port, but to the country of which it must be the principal town. For fuller discussion see the Section on the neighbouring places of Kalah.

12. See the Section on the neighbouring places of Kalah.

13. Pulao Jumar, near Arao Islands (Lat. 2° 45′N, Long. 100° 45′E) is the place recommended by Sulaymān al-Mahrī for crossing over from the east coast of Sumatra to the west coast of Malaya, Vide, Ferrand, G., Instructions Nautiques et Rautieis Arabes et Portugais, Vol. II, folio 89 r., Paris, 1925. The present day concentration of the Menangkabaus in the Klang region of Selangor State and its neighbouring Negri Sembilan is also the evidence of that part of Malaya being the customary arrival place for vessels from Sumatra.

14. Van der Lith, , op. cit., p. 126Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. I, pp. 36, 182, 183. Vol. II, 301, 361, 414. 583.Google Scholar

15. Van der Lith, , op.cit., p. 258Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. II, pp. 343, 383 and 296.Google Scholar

16. Kimble, G.H.T., Geography in the Middle Ages, p. 66, London, 1938.Google Scholar

17. Beazley, , op cit., pp. 534.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., p. 526.

19. Tie'n-Tse-Chang, , Sino-Portuguese Trade, from 1514 to 1644, A Synthesis of Portuguese and Chinese sources, p. 21, Leyden. 1934.Google Scholar

20. Yule, , Marco, II, pp. 280–309.Google Scholar

21. Yule, , Cathay, II, pp. 146–150.Google Scholar

22. Ibid., Vol. IV, pp. 92–103, & 145–148.

23. Cabaton, Antoine, article on CHAMS in Encyclopaedia oi Religion and Ethics, Vol. III, Edinburgh, 1932, pp. 340–350Google Scholar, and on INDOCHINA in E.I. Vol. II, pp. 504–510; Ravaisse, P., “Duex Inscriptions au Coufiques Du Campa,” in JA, Series II, Vol. XX, 1922, pp. 247–289Google Scholar; Maspero, M.G., Le Royaume de Champa, p. 25, Paris/Brussells, 1928.Google Scholar Fresh evidence on this subject has been presented in the present writer's paper on “The Role of China in the Spread of Islam in South-East Asia” submitted for the forthcoming Conference of South-East Asian Historians.

25. de Eredia, E.G., Desrcription oi Malacca and Meredional India and Cathay, ed. by Mills, J.V. in JMBRAS, III, Pt. I, p. 49Google Scholar; Rentse, Anker, “History of Kelantan” in JMBRAS, XII Pt. II, p. 55Google Scholar; Paterson, H.S., “An Early Malay Inscription from Trengganu”, in JMBRAS, II, Pt. 3, 252–261.Google Scholar

25. Adat Atjeh ed. by G.W.J. Drewes and P. Voorhove, p. 31, Hague, 1958. The subject has been discussed in detail in the present writer's paper on “Bengal's Relations with Her Neighbours in S.-E. Asia, (1200–1600 AD),” read at the Tenth Pakistan History Conference held at Rajshahi in February this year, and is to be published soon.

1. A Persian word meaning ‘the Book of the Road’ (rāh or rah—road; nāme—letter, book). The Persian nāme became māni in Arabic through metathesis, and we got the Arabic word rahmānī or rahmānaj for these nautical guides. Many other nautical terms were borrowed by the Arabs from the Persian language. Ferrand, G., L'Element Persan dans les taxtes Nautiques Arabes des XVe et XVIe siecles, JA, Vol CCIV, April–June 1924, pp. 193–257.

2. De Goeje, M.J. (ed.), Ahsan al-Taqāsīm fi ma'rifat al-Aqalim, Bibliothica Geographoram Arabicorum, No. 3, p. 11, Leiden, 1906.Google Scholar

3. Hasan, Hādī, A History ot Persian Navigation, pp. 129–130, London, 1928.Google Scholar Romances like this have led to the growth of the Alexander legend in the Malayasian folk-lore.

4. Ferrand, G., (ed.) Instructions nautiques et routiers Arabes et Portugais, Vol. I, folio 3 r. et seq. Paris, 1921–1923.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., folio 4 r.

6. For full bibliography on the subject see Ferrand, G., article on SHIHAB al-DIN Ahmad ibn Mājid, El, Vol. IV, pp. 362–368. Perhaps it will not be out of place to add a few notes to the masterly written article of Ferrand. (i) Ibn Mājid was an Arab of Najd born at Julfãr, but all the Portugese accounts describe him as a Moor of Gujerat. Ferrand expresses his inability to explain this discrepancy (p. 363 (a)). A perusal of the history of the Muzarffar Shahī dynasty's rule over Gujerat will show that the splendour of the Gujerat court and the prosperity of its maritime trade attracted a large number of Arabs from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf ports. (Vide. Zafar al-Wālih bi Muzaffar wa Alih by 'Abd Allah Muhammad bin 'Umar, who himself came from Mecca in 1555, edited by Sir E. Denison Ross, Mir'at-i- Sikandarī, Mirat-i-Ahmadī, History of Gujarat by M.S. Commissariat, etc. An interesting outcome of the Arab contacts with Gujerat was the wealth of literature in Arabic produced in Gujerat at that time which has been studied by Baqirali Muhammadali Tirmidhi in his Ph.D. thesis submitted to the University of Bombay in 1947.) Contemporary biographical dictionaries, like al-Nur al-Sāfir ii Akhbãr al-Qarn al-'Ashir and Khulāsat al-Athar ii A'yãn al-Qarn al-Hādī 'Ashar are full of the description of the constant voyages made by these enterprising people between the land of their birth and that of their adoption. The author of the first named voluminous biographical dictionary 'Abd al-Qādir bin Shaykh bin 'Abd Allah al'Aydrus was one of them. The long title by which he was known, Muhy al-Din al-Shaykh al-Yamanī al-Hadramī al-Hindī, tells us about the migrations, that he made, he originally belonged to Yemen, migrated to Hadramawt and finally settled down in Gujerat, Ahmedabad, where he died in 1628. Likewise our pilot Ibn Mājid appears to have come to Gujerat early in his youth where he must have received his education in “the Indian Mathematics” which he proudly mentions to have learnt in his boyhood, without telling us where (Ferrand, Instructions. Vol. I, folio 116 r.). It was this knowledge of the “Indian Mathematics” that gave him the partly-Arabic-and-partly-Sanskrit title Mu'allim (Ar. ‘pilot’, lit. ‘teacher’) Kanaka (Sansk. ‘Astrologer’), which was corrupted Dy the Portuguese into Malemo Cana.

Ibn Mājid was also a poet of some merit. A number of his treatises are versified tor easy memorising. In one such Qasīda (Ode) named ‘Ode of Mecca’, he composed a beautiful prologue (tashbīb) in which he portrayed the beauties of the ‘gazelles’ of the tribe of Amir. One of these gazelles he luckily married, but the other love, the wander-lust, separated them and he came to Gujerat leaving her behind with tears flowing down her cheeks. After this short and painfully sweet poetic prologue (folio 164 v. — 165 v.) the pilot in him takes control and he goes on giving his usual nautical instructions with their mathematical measurements for a sea voyage from Arabia to Gujerat. Most probably these opening verses of the ‘Ode ot Mecca’ explain why Ibn Majid an Arab by birth and descent was called a Moor from Gujerat by the Portuguese, (ii) Not only Gujerat, but the whole western coast of India was receiving a new wave ot Arabian influx in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries under the prosperous indenpendent Muslim principalities of the Deocan. Eminent among the Arabs who got settled in Deccan was the erudite and wersatile scholar and statesman, Jamāl al-Dīn Abu 'Alawī al-Shallī al-Hadramī (d. 1682), who besides compiling a supplement to the biographical dictionary of his compatriot 'Abd al-Qadir, referred to above, has also written four treatises on nautical astronomy, namely Risãlah fi 'ilm al-Mīqāt, Risālah fī ma'rifat ittitāq al-Matali' wa ikhtilahhā, Risãlah fi al-Muqanfir, and Risãlah fi al-Astuilāb. (al-Muhibbī, Muhammad bin Fadl Allāh, Khulāsat al-Athar fī A'yan al-Qarn al-Hādī 'Ashar, Vol. III, pp. 336–338, Cairo, 1284 A.H.). A careful publication of these treatises may advance the study of the subject started by Ferrand. (iii) Ferrand mentions how the memory ot Ibn Majid's navigational exploits is kept green by the people sailing out of the Red Sea into the vast expanse ot the Indian Ocean (L'astronomie, p. 228; E. 1., Vol. IV, p. 36). In this connection it may be interesting to note that a nautical journal kept by a Mu'allim (pilot) ot Konkan (Gujerat) who lived in the reign of Aurangzib (1657–1706) strongly recommends saying Fariha in honour ot ibn Majid betore setting sail. This nautical journal was kept in Konkani dialect of Gujerati and is interspersed with passages in Persian. It is at the moment preserved at the Library attached to the Jami Masjid of Bombay. The first page bearing the title ot the treatise and the name of the author is missing. Internal evidence shows that the author was alive during the reign of Aurangzib.

7. Ferrand, G., Article on SULAYMAN al-MAHRI, E.I. Vol. IV. pp. 529–535.Google Scholar Instructions Nautique, Vol. II consists of these treatises.

8. It is worth noting that a clearly written manuscript of al Mahrī's al-'Umdat is in the Oriental Library of Islamia College, Peshawar (MS No. 1935). This manuscript was copied in the month of Rabi' al-Thānī, 1007 A.H. (1598 A.D.) by a South Indian pilot, Mu'allim 'Ali bin Mu'allim Husayn al-Chulī (sic).

9. Newbold, , op. cit, Vol. II, p. 30.Google Scholar

10. Albuquerque, Braz de, The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Vol. 3, pp. 66 & 155Google Scholar, Hakluyt Series. 1875–85.

11. Ferrand, Instructions, Vol. I, folio 103 v.

12. Ibid., folio 103 r.

13. Ibid., vol. II, folio 89 r.

14. Ibid., folio 56 v.

15. Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. II, p. 533, note 9.Google Scholar

16. Sauvaget, , op. cit., pp. 89Google ScholarFerrand, , Relations, Vol. I, pp. 38–39.Google Scholar

17. Kimble, , op. cit., p. 51Google Scholar; Minorsky, , op. cit., p. XVGoogle Scholar; Nafīs, Ahmad, Muslim Contribution to Geography, pp. 61–70. Lahore, 1947.Google Scholar

18. Tibbets, , MJTG, p. 27.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., p. 29.

20. Reinaud, , op. cit., p. 93Google ScholarFerrand, , Relations, Vol. I, p. 83.Google Scholar

21. Tibbets, , op. cit., pp. 27–29.Google Scholar

22. Yāqut, , Mu'jam al-Buldān, Vol. V, p. 415 and vol. VII, p. 148, Cairo, 1906Google Scholar; Gildemeister, (ed.) Qazwīnī's Athār al-Bilād wa Akhbār al-'Ibād. p. 69, Bonn, 1838Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. I, pp. 221–222 and Vol. II, 314.Google Scholar

23. Tibbets, , op. cit., p. 29.Google Scholar

24. Van der Lith, , op. cit., p. 176Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. II, p. 588.Google Scholar

25. Tibbets, , op. cit., p. 29.Google Scholar

26. Beazley, , op. cit., p. 29.Google Scholar

27. Burton, R.F. (trans.), ‘The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night’, Vol VI, p. 386, London, 1897.Google Scholar

1. A select bibliography of the English literature on the subject is as follows:— Ahmad, , Nafis, , Muslim Contribution to Geography, Lahore, 1947Google Scholar; Ahmad, S. Maqbul, article on Djughrāfiyā, E.I. (New Edition in press); Barthold, V.V., Preface in Minorsky, V., Hudud al-Alam (translation & Commentary), Gibb Memorial, Oxford, 1937; Beazley, R., The Dawn of Modern Geography, Vol. I & III, New York, 1949Google Scholar; Kimble, G. H. J.Geography in the Middle Ages, London, 1938Google Scholar; Kramers, J. H., article on Geography and Commerce in Arnold, T., & Guillaume, A. (ed.) The Legacy of Islam, Oxford, 1931Google Scholar, and article on Djughrāfiyā in Supplement to the E.I., 1938; and Schoy, C., Geography of the Muslims of the Middle Ages, in The Geographical Review (American Geographical Society), Vol. XIV, 1924, pp. 257–269.Google Scholar

2. Kimble, , op. cit., p. 51.Google Scholar

3. Barbier de Meynard, C., (trans & ed.), Le Livere des Routes et des Piovinces, par Ibn-Khordadbeh, p. 64Google Scholar (Arabic Text), p. 188 (trans); de Goeje, M.J., (ed.) Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l Mamālik, Bibliothica Geographorum Arabicorum (B.G.A) Part VI, p. 66, Leiden, 1889Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. I, p. 27.Google Scholar

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. de Meynard, Barbier, op.cit., p. 65Google Scholar (Arabic), p, 189 (trans); de Goeje, ibid.; Ferrand, , op. cit., p. 28.Google Scholar For the reading of the toponym see Section VII, below.

7. Houtsma, M. Th., (ed.), Historiae, Vol. I, p. 207. Leiden, 1883Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. I, p. 50.Google Scholar

8. De Goeje, M.J., (ed.) Mukhtasar Kitãb al-Buldān, B.G.A., Part V, p. 12, Leiden. 1885Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. I, p. 58.Google Scholar

9. De Goeje, M.J., (ed.) Kitāb al-A'lāk al-Nafīsa, B.G.A., Part VII, p. 88, Leiden, 1892Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. I, p. 68.Google Scholar

10. Kimble, , op. cit., p. 53.Google Scholar

11. Ahmad, S. Maqbul, Travels of Abu 'l Hasan 'Ali b. Al-Husayn Al-Mas'udī in Islamic Culture (I.C.), Vol. XXVIII, No. 4, 10 1954, pp. 509–524Google Scholar, also Al-Mas'udī's Coutributions to Medieval Arab Geography, in I. C., Vol. XXVII, No. 2, April 1953, pp. 61–77 and Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, Jan. 1954, pp. 275–286.

12. Barbier, de Meynard & Pavet de, Courteille (ed.), Les Prairies d'Or, Vol. I, p. 340, Society Asiatique, Paris, 1861Google Scholar: Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. I, p. 98.Google Scholar

13. de Meynard, Barbier & de Courteille, Pavet, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 326–27Google Scholar; de Goeje, M.J., Kitāb al-Tanbīh wa 'l-Ishrāf, B.G.A., Part VIII, p. 358, Leiden, 1894.Google Scholar

14. Mehren, A.F., (ed.) Cosmographie de Chems-ed-Din Abou Abdallah Mohammed ed-Dimichqi, p. 208, St. Petersburg, 1866Google Scholar; (trans.) Manuel de la cosmographie du moyen age, p. 203, Paris, 1874Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. II, p. 383.Google Scholar

15. See Notes, 3–6 above and Section V, notes 16 and 20.

16. Blagden, C.O., Notes on Malay History, JSBRAS, No. 53, 1909, pp. 147–148.Google Scholar

17. For a fanciful account of the foundation of Malacca see Brown C.C., (trans.) Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals, JMBRAS, Vol. XXV, Pts. 2 & 3, 1952, pp. 51–52.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., p. 64.

19. Begbie, P.J., The Malayan Peninsula, p. 87, Madras. 1834.Google Scholar

20. Newbold, , op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

21. Bird, I.L., The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither, p. 219, London, 1883.Google Scholar

22. Jamaluddin, Mon, History of Port SwettenhamGoogle Scholar, an Honours academic exercise, Department of History, University of Malaya, Singapore, 1958.

23. Malacca Strait Pilot, Hydrographic Department, Admiralty, London, 1946, p. 150.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., pp. 150–167.

25. Sauvaget, , op. cit., p. 8.Google Scholar

26. Newbold, , op. cit., Vol. II, p. 30.Google Scholar

27. The Arabic text reads as follows which literally means: 'Seamen call that-which-is-between-two-gulfs when there is a passage for them in that, ‘a s. r. r.’ This long-winded tortuous sentence is not so in the original terse Arabic. Ferrand's translation: “que les marins appelent surr et au pluriel sarair, qui est le point de jonction de deux detioits ou canaux” (which seamen call surr, plural sarī'ir, which is the point of junction of two straits or canals), (p. 98) is wrong and misleading.

Arab lexicographers do not define s.r.r (sarr or surr) the way al-Mas'udī defines it. The most comprehensive Arabic Dictionary, Lisan al-'Arab, devotes seven long pages to the different derivatives and nuances of the root-word, s.r.r., but the only nearest word having above meaning is istarr, ‘said of ditches and trenches, when they are extremely narrow’. (Vol. V, pp. 119–125Google Scholar, Bulaq edition). It is significant that al-Mas'udī explicitly points out that it is a term used by seamen. The present writer would prefer to read it sarr and thinks it likely that the word is derived from the Malay word sělat, meaning ‘strait’, having undergone the linguistic process commonly called ‘contamination’ by the philologists (or preferably ‘blending’ as suggested by DrConda, J., Sanskrit in Indonesia, p. 281, Nagpur, 1952).Google Scholar

28. Maxwell, , George, , In Malay Forests, pp. 84–95, also pp. 237–238, Singapore, 1957.Google Scholar

29. Za'aba, Zain al-'Abidīn bin Ahmad, Some Malay Legendary Tales, in JMBRAS, Vol. XXIV, Pt. I, 1951, pp. 85–89.Google Scholar

30. Ibid., The Origin of some Malay Place-Names, JMBRAS, Vol. III, Pt. I. 1925, pp. 79–81.Google Scholar

31. See Note 1, above, p. 98; also Wright, J.K., Notes on the knowledge of latitudes and longitudes in the middle ages, in Isis, International Review devoted to the History of Science and Civilization, Vol. V. 1923, pp. 75–98Google Scholar; Ferrand, Instruction, Vol. III. Sarton, G., Introduction to the History of Science, Vols. I & IIGoogle Scholar, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1950, gives an excellent introduction to the Arab and Persian writers on these and all the allied subjects along with the bibliography of all the literature available on the respective authors in Western languages.

32. Another element of confusion was that the Ptolemic system of the seven climes had become just a part of tradition; its geometrical basis was lost. Consequently, we find that very different figures are given for the latitude of the demarcation lines of the climes.

33. Yāqut, Shihāb al-Dīn Abu 'Abd Allāh Yāqut bin Abd Allāh al-Hamawī, , Mu jam al-Buldān, Vol. VII, p. 277, Egypt, 1906.Google Scholar The actual words of Yaqut are , ‘towards the direction of the equator’, guarded enough statement for the scientific mind of the Middle Ages. But Ferrand carelessly translated it, ‘sur la ligne de l'equateur’ (on the equator). (Relations, Vol. I p. 230).Google Scholar It seems that Yāqut had the right conception about the position of Kalah being 3° North of equator, for under the heading , the equator, he quotes al-Bīrunī's statement of Kitāb al-Tafhim, the significance of which will be discussed later on (p. 89 of this article), (Mu'jam-al-Buldān, op.cit., Vol. p. ).

34. Gildemeister, Joannes (ed.) Al-Mukhtār fī bilād al-Hind wa 'l-Sind wa māyalīhā min al-jazā'ir, Selection from Qazwīn';s Athār al-Bilād wa Akhbār al-'Ibād, p. 58, Bonn. 1838. Qazwīnī's words are ‘in the middle of the equator’, Ferrand perhaps rightly interprets it as meaning, ‘exactement sur l'equateur’ (exactly on the equator), Relations, Vol. II, p. 312.

35. Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. II, p. 463.Google Scholar

36. Arabic text quoted in Lith, Van der, Marvels, , op. cit., p. 258Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. II, p. 343.Google Scholar The original text of Ibn Sa'īd has not yet been published Ferrand had access to the MS preserved in Bibliotheque Nationale, which he has translated in his Relations, Vol. II, pp. 321–352. The relevant passages on Kalah and its neighbouring places have some verv valuable information for us which will be discussed later on. The text under reference will be also reexamined in the light of that information.

37. Reinaud, M. and de Slane, , (ed.) Geographie D' Aboulfeda, p. 374. Paris, 1840Google Scholar; Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. II, p. 403.Google ScholarSarkar, J.N., (ed.) Jarrett's translation of Aīn-i-Akbarī of Abul Fazl-i-'AIlāmi, Vol. III. p. 57, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, 1948.Google Scholar

39. See Boilot, D.J. article on al-BIRUNI, E.I., Vol. I (New Edition, 1960) pp. 1236–1238Google Scholar and Sarton, Vol. I, op.cit., for the bibliography on this versatile genius, who was the first fruit of the Muslim contact with India and yet remained the best to date, rather a sad commentary on Indo-Muslim relations!

40. Sarton, . op.cit., Vol. I, p. 707.Google Scholar

41. Quoted by Memon, M.M., Al-Beruni and his Contribution to Medieval Muslim Geography, in I.C., Vol. XXXIII, No. 3, 07 1959, pp. 213–218.Google Scholar

42. al-Ma'udī, Al-Qānun, Vol. II, p. 547Google Scholar, Dā'irah Ma'ãrif al-'Uthmãniyah, Haydarabad, India. Also, ibid., p. 546.

43. Al-Bīrunī had his own method of calculating the longitude of a place. Briefly, having determined accurately the shortest linear distance between two points, the latitudes of each and their mutual bearings, he proceeded to calculate the difference in longitude from the data thus acquired. By this method al-Bīrunī got his celebrated result: ‘the difference in longitude of Baghdād and Ghazna is 24° 20'’ Actually the difference is 23° 50'. The degree of error in this calculation and that of Kalah is the same, which is remarkable. The matter, if pursued further, should make the understanding of al-Bīrunīs calculations clearer.

44. As note 42, above.

45. See Note 37, above.

46. Togan, A. Zaki Validi (ed.) Tadhãkīr Dīwīn al-Athār al-Hindivah al-Qadīmah. Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 53, Biruni's Picture of the World, p. II, footnote.Google Scholar

47. Spies, Otto, An Arab Account of India in the 14th Century, being a translation of the Chapters on India from al-Qalqashandīs Subh al-A'shã fi Sanã'at al-inshā, p. 44, Stuttgart, 1936.

48. Kramers, in E.I., op. cit., Supplement, p. 63 (b).Google Scholar

49. Ferrand, , Relations, Vol. II, pp. 600–601Google Scholar, also see Note 33, above, p. 100.

50. Pope, Arthur Upham, Alberuni as a Thinker in Al-Birunī commemoration Volume, Iran Society, p. 281, Calcutta, 1951.