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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 April 2011
About the middle of the thirteenth century the great Arab scholar, Ibn Sa'id, compiled his Bast al-Ard or Geography, in which he collected many ancient texts; amongst them is the following, which may offer a clue to the early history of Brunei:
[The Khmers] lived with the Chinese in the eastern regions of the earth. Discord having broken out amongst them, the Chinese chased them towards the islands, and they remained there a certain time. The name of the King was Kamrun. Following this, discord broke out amongst them when they were in the islands, of which we shall speak later. Then those who did not form part of the Royal Family went away to the great island [Madagascar], and their Sultan dwelt in the city of Komorriya.
This is a slightly revised version of a paper read at the Eighth Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia at Kuala Lumpur (Aug. 1980) and published in the Brunei Museum Journal 4, no. 4 (1980).
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2 Ferrand, G., “Les îles de Râmni, Lâmery, Wâk-wâk et Komr des géographes arabes et Madagascar”, Journal Asiatique 10 (1907): 454ffGoogle Scholar.
3 Coedes, G., “On the Origin of the Sailendras of Indonesia”, Journal of the Greater India Society 2, no. 2 (1934): 67.Google Scholar
4 Ibid.
5 Coedes, G., The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (Honolulu, 1968), pp. 89, 108.Google Scholar
6 Ferrand, Relations, p. 344.
7 Ibid., p. 308.
8 There were other Mountains of Camphor, which were mentioned by Ibn Sa'id (Ferrand, Relations, p. 343). They ran from east to west through the northern Sumatran area of Fancur.
9 Nicholl, R., “Relations between Brunei and Manila,” Brunei Museum Journal 4, no. 1 (1977): 157Google Scholar.
10 Ferrand, Relations, p. 187.
11 Burkill, I.H., A Dictionary of Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, 2 vols. (Kuala Lumpur, 1966), vol. I, pp. 337, 553, 876Google Scholar.
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18 As quoted by the T'ai p'ing yu Ian, tr. Hsü Yün-ts'iao (unpublished manuscript). The same passage as quoted in the T'ai p'ing huan yu chi is translated by Wolters, O. W. in Early Indonesian Commerce (Ithaca, New York, 1967), p. 174.Google Scholar
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24 Ferrand in “Le K'ouen Louen”, p. 103, romanizes these characters as Ku or Gu and lun or run. If the sound expressed was Gu-run, then it is very close to Darun. Ki is a common prefix to toponyms in northwest Borneo: Kilanas, Kinarut, Kimanis, Kinabalu, etc. There is a possible link between these two characters and Kidurong.
25 Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce, p. 200.
26 Ferrand, G., “L'Empire Sumatranaise de Crivijaya”, Journal Asiatique (1922): 7.Google Scholar
27 Ferrand, Relations, p. 589. English translation in Tibbetts, G.R., A Study of Arabic Texts Containing Material on South East Asia (London, 1979), p. 46.Google Scholar
28 Groenveldt, W. P., Notes on Indonesia and Malaya (Jakarta, 1960), p. 63.Google Scholar
29 Ferrand, Relations, pp. 564–65. Tibbetts, Arabic Texts, p. 47.
30 The account of Sribuza is prefaced by the words: “I have already spoken of Sribuza, which is situated at the extremity of the Island of Lamuri, at one hundred zam from Kalah. God alone knoweth the truth!” Lamuri was the Arabic name for Acheh; see Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce, p. 179. A zam was an Arabic watch of three hours, equivalent to 12.05 nautical miles; see Mills, J.V.G., “Arabic and Chinese Navigators in Malaysian Waters”, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 47, 2 (1974): 58Google Scholar. Wherever Kalah was on the Malay Peninsula, and the matter is still much in dispute (see Wheatley, P., Golden Chersonese [Kuala Lumpur, 1966], pp. 217–24Google Scholar), this statement makes no sense at all. The caveat “God alone knoweth the truth!” shows that the author cannot youch for the veracity of what he has just said. As it conflicts with the Captain's narrative on several important points, it may fairly be dismissed as an interpolation, of which several can be detected; see Ferrand, Relations, vol. 2, p. 565.
31 Admiralty Tide Tables for Malaya and Singapore (London, published annually).
32 Corrections to Admiralty Tide Tables (Bandar Seri Begawan: Brunei Marine Department, published annually).
33 Rockhill, W. W., “The Relations and Trade of China with the Eastern Archipelago and the Coasts of the Indian Ocean in the Fourteenth Century”, T'oung Pao 16 (1915): 264CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
34 It must be stressed that not all Arabic references to Sribuza are to Sribuza-Brunei, any more than all references to Srivijaya or Vijayapura are.
35 Ferrand, Relations, p. 319.
36 Ibid., p. 319. Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce, p. 153.
37 Ferrand, Relations, p. 399.
38 Ibid., p. 620 note.
39 The writer must record his gratitude to Dr. J. Népote of the Centre National des Récherches Scientifiques for having drawn his attention to this very important point. Dr. Pou's research will soon be published by the C.N.R.S. as “Notes Historico-linguistiques”.
40 Coedes, “Origin of the Sailendras”, p. 67.
41 Stanilas Julien noted that both the P'o character and the fo character found here were used for the first syllable of Buddha; Méthode pour Déchifrer et Transcrire les Noms Sanskrits (Paris, 1861), p. 298, n. 3, and p. 172 no. 1415. Thus, whichever pair of characters was used, the sound expressed would be “Bu-(r)-ni”.
42 Sweeney, A., “Silsilah Raja-Raja Berunai”, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 41, 2(1968): 51.Google Scholar
43 Lawrence, A.E., “First Brunei Conquests on the Sarawak Coast”, Sarawak Museum Journal 1 (1911): 120 ff.Google Scholar
44 Groenveldt, Notes, p. 84.
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48 There was another Muja on the borders of Yunnan and Szechuan; Sauvaget, J., Ahbar as-Sin wa l'Hind (Paris, 1948), p. 54 n. 31.Google Scholar
49 Ferrand, Relations, p. 333.
50 Ibid., pp. 189–92.
51 Yule, H. and Cordier, H., Cathay and the Way Thither, 4 vols. (London, 1915), vol. 1, p. 31 n. 3.Google Scholar
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53 Ferrand, Relations, p. 344.
54 Southeast Sumatra; Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce, p. 56.
55 Ferrand, Relations, p. 344.
56 Ibid., p. 185.
57 Ibid., p. 186.
58 Ibid., p. 78.
59 Ibid., p. 48.
60 Evans, I.H.N., Among the Primitive Peoples in Borneo (London, 1924), pp. 274–90.Google Scholar
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62 Ibid., p. 99.
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65 Ferrand, Relations, p. 582. Tibbetts, Arabic Texts, p. 44.
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68 Coedes, Indianized States, pp. 128, 132.
69 T'ai p'ing huan yu chi as translated by Wada, Sei, The Philippine Islands as Known to the Chinese before the Ming Period (Tokyo, 1929), p. 127, n. 3.Google Scholar
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71 Ibid., p. 344.
72 Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua, pp. 155–58, 193.
73 Brown, “The Eastern Ocean”, pp. 46–58.
74 There are many versions of Marco Polo's travels, but the most valuable for this purpose is Professor Jack-Hinton's, “Marco Polo in South East Asia”, The Journal of Southeast Asian History 5, 2 (1964): 48ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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81 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 100.
82 Groenveldt, Notes, p. 109.
83 Yule and Cordièr, Cathay, vol. 2, pp. 151–53.
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85 Ibid., p. 234.
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96 Ibid., pp. 451–54. Yule and Cordier, Cathay, vol. 4, pp. 103–108.
97 Pigeand, Java, vol. 3, p. 16, and vol. 4, p. 31.
98 Groenveldt, Notes, p. 112.
99 Ibid., p. 103.
100 When Chinese envoys visited Brunei in 1371, they found a sorry and impoverished place; see Brown, C., “An early account of Brunei by Sung Lien”, Brunei Museum Journal 2, no. 4 (1972): 219–31.Google Scholar
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102 The visit is described by Groenveldt, Notes, pp. 111–13. The missing passages are translated in Brown, “Two Ming texts”.
103 The tomb was discovered and restored in 1958. It was recently photographed by Dr. Paulo Koch of Zurich, who is preparing an illustrated article on the subject for the Brunei Museum Journal.
104 For a translation of the inscription, see Brown, “Two Ming texts”.
105 Hsi yang chau kung tien lu; see Rockhill, “Relations and Trade”, p. 264 n. 1.
106 Groenveldt, Notes, pp. 114–15.
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109 Ibid., p. 149.
110 Groenveldt, Notes, pp. 103–105.
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114 Both are in Artur Basilio de Sá, Insulindia: Documentaçāo para a Historia das Missōes do Padroado Português do Oriente, 5 vols. (Lisbon, 1951), vol. 1, p. 46. Nicholl, Also R. (ed.), European Sources for the History of the Sultanate of Brunei in the Sixteenth Century (Brunei, 1975), p. 4.Google Scholar
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116 Sweeney, “Silsilah”, p. 52.
