Malay Peninsula—Not the Home of Lehi - Part I

If you have been following the exchange of ideas with an unknown reader and supporter of the Malay Theory, we thought rather than continue the dialogue which seems to be one-sided on facts, references, and logic, we decided to write this final article to show that the idea submitted with the Malay Theory to be outside the scriptural record other than to relate to the sailing and landing of Lehi in general.    In a recent rebuttal, this reader claimed a geologic history of Peninsular Malaysia that is evidently taken from some ancient Arabic writings quoting Armenian and Russian writings (based on a submitted reference) in works that are unheard of and represent no mainstream thinking, writing, or scientific principles.
    He writes: “the Malay Peninsula was known as the island of Qumr or Komr until at least the 15th century AD.”

 The ancient island of Al-Qumr from Arabic writings dating to the 11^th century that called the great island of Madagascar al-Qumr 

It is one thing to make such claims, something else for the information to be accurate. As an example, it is true that ancient Arabic texts speak of an island called al-Qumr; however, not where this Reader claims it to be. Rather than looking in the Indonesia archipelago, to find al-Qumr we need to look far across the entire Indian Ocean to the west, 3600 miles from the Malay Peninsula, to the land called the “Great Island,” 228,900-square mile island of Madagascar (Madagasikara), that rises to 4,920 feet above sea level, with its highest point at 9,436 feet.
    As a matter of fact, Arab geographers from the twelfth and later centuries historically divided the eastern coast of Africa into several regions based on each region's respective inhabitants—specifically, Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply Al-Idrisi, an Arab Muslim geographer cartographer and Egyptologist who lived in Palermo, Sicily at the court of King Roger II, wrote in 1154 A.D., there were four littoral zones: 1) Barbar (Bilad al Barbar; "land of the Berbers") in the Horn of Africa, which was inhabited by Berbers and stretched southward to the Shebelle river; 2) Zanj (Ard al-Zanj; "country of the blacks"), located immediately below that up to around Tanga or the southern part of Pemba island; 3) Sofala (Ard Sufala), extending from Pemba to an unknown terminus, but probably around the Limpopo river; and 4) Waq-Waq, the shadowy land south thereof, though earlier geographers make no mention of Sofala. What is important is that after the Twelfth Century, these texts also called the great island of Madagascar al-Qumr, and include it as a part of Waq-Waq (J. D. Fage and Roland Oliver, The Cambridge History of Africa, Cambridge University Press, 1975, pp190–192; Walter Raunig, Afrikas Horn: Akten der Ersten Internationalen Littmann-Konferenze, 2 bis 5, Mai 2002 in Munchen, Academic Journal), Otto Harrassowit Verlag (GmbH) Publishing, Weisbaden, 2005).
    Also, as Walter Raunig notes: “It is also of note that these ancient Arabic texts used and had quite a fixed pattern in listing the countries from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean: These are: 1) al-Misr (Egypt); 2) al-Muqurra (or other designations for Nubian kingdoms); 3) al-Habasha (Abyssinia); 4) Barbara (Berber, i.e. the Somali coast); and 5) Zanj (Azania, i.e. the country of the "blacks"). Correspondingly all these terms also appear in ancient and medieval Chinese geography.” 
    It might also be noted that Al-Idrisi inspired Islamic geographers such as Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun and Piri Reis. His map also inspired Christopher Columbus and Vasco de Gama.
    The point being that ancient Arabic texts do not place the island of al-Qumr in or around the Malay Peninsula, or even anywhere in Indonesia, but across the Indian Ocean along the African coast. In addition, these ancient Arabic texts also speak of numerous other islands there, including the Comorous archipelago, with Comore and its capital city of Moroni, which some try to erroneously link to Cumorah and the angel Moroni, as we have shown earlier.

Malagasy people of Madagascar whose ancestry reflects a blend of Austronesian (Southeast Asian) and Bantu (East African) roots

As stated in the ancient texts, near the coast of Africa, we find an area named al-Qumr, the great island which was peopled by primitive blacks but also by more refined Indonesians—immigrants from Sumatra of the second and fourth centuries, to which was added a new wave in the tenth century—who gave rise to the civilization of the Merinas (Hovas) of the high plateau of Malagache. Today, we know this area of al-Qumr as Madagascar, a large island off the east coast of Africa, whose people are referred to as Malagasy. In fact, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara [madaɡasʲˈkʲarə̥] with the island's appellation "Madagascar" not of local origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans when the island was called the Malagasy Republic.
    The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 B.C., with human settlement occurring between 350 B.C and 550 A.D. by Astronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around 1000 A.D. by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands, who are also known as the Imerina, Antimerina or Hova. The great island was settled by Malayo-Indonesians arriving before the 5th century A.D., then many centuries later by Arabs, Africans and other ethnic groups—this breakdown continued until the great island was conquered by the French and the Merina monarchy abolished in 1897.
    To make certain none want to try and claim these Merina were Hebrew in any way, they were sociallyh stratified with hierarchical castes, inherited occupations and endogamy (inbreeding reproduction).

As a stronghold of "Vajrayana" Buddhism, Srivijaya attracted pilgrims and scholars from other parts of Asia. Included in These was the Chinese monk Yijing, who in 671 and again in 695 A.D, made lengthy visits to Sumatra on his way to study at Nalanda in India. In 775 A.D, the last Srivijaya king retreated to east Java, in the face of the rising power of the central Javanese "Shailendra" kingdom, they were followers of Mahayana and Tantric forms of Buddhism.

It should be noted that Malaysia is considered a very young country archaeologically with a very recent prehistory. The first of the Indonesian kingdoms that we know anything about, is Srivijaya—which lasted to about 1400 A.D. (though some believe that the ancient kingdom of Bujang preceded the Srivijaya) and in the beginning brought Hinduism from India and Buddhism from China, which dominated early regional history, reaching their peak during the reign of the Sumatra-based Srijijaya. It was an ancient Malay kingdom on the island of Sumatra.
    At around 500 A.D, a new Srivijayan center began to develop around the present-day town of Palembang; however it is from Chinese records, that we gather much of what we know. It is also from these Chinese records, dated to about 600 A.D., that we learn that there are two Sumatran kingdoms, one based in Palembang and another based in Jambi. They also mention three other kingdoms on the neighboring island of Java.
    It seems that the kingdom of Srivijaya, which was a coastal trading center and a maritime power. But it did not extend its influence, much beyond the coastal areas of the various islands. People of the in-land areas of these islands, were pretty-much unaffected by the Srivijaya. However, for those in the coastal areas and river valleys, force was the dominant element in the Srivijaya Empire's relations with them.
    Shailendra (“Lord of the Mountain”), was a dynasty that flourished in Java from about 750 to 850 A.D. - After the fall of the Funan kingdom in Cambodia. This kingdom was marked by a great cultural renaissance associated with the introduction of Mahayana Buddhism. Java attained its highest level of artistic expression in the many temples and monuments built during this time. It was during the reign of one of its kings that the famous stupa of Borobudur was built.

 

At Prambanan, on the Island of Java. It is said that it was a king named "Dhaksa" of the Mendang-Mataram kingdom, who in the 10th century A.D. built the largest Siva temple in Indonesia the "Lara Jonggrang" meaning Slender Maiden. This name was affectionately given to a large statue of the Hindu goddess Durga (wife of Shiva), which stands in the temple. Local legend has it, that this statue is actually Javanese princess Loro Jonggrang, who was turned to stone by a spurned suitor. The Prambang complex originally contained 232 temples, many of which have already crumbled.
    One of the things all of this should show is that the history of Malay is also the history of Sumatra and Java, or stated differently, a much larger area than just the Malay Peninsula and therefore, once again, does not match the written scriptural record of the Land of Promise of separate islands or larger areas
(See the next post, " Malay Peninsula—Not the Home of Lehi - Part II," for more on this and the Reader's comments about Malay)