Materials for the Medieval History of Indonesia

The king of Zabaj is called Pungawa, and the king of the islands of the eastern sea is called the Maharaja.(1) […]

Among the mountains of Zabaj are enormous serpents which devour men and buffaloes; and some of them even devour elephants. This country produces tall camphor trees,(2) there are some which extend the shade of their leaves over a hundred persons. In order to obtain the camphor, they make near the top of the trunk an incision through which the water of the camphor escapes in a quantity large enough to fill several jars. When this has been collected, they make another incision below in the middle of the tree and here pieces of camphor flow out. The camphor is the sap [gum] of this tree, but it is also found in the wood itself. After this operation the tree becomes useless and dries up.

If one wishes to go to China one leaves Bullin and leaving Sirandib on the right goes Alankabalus, which is situated at the distance of ten to fifteen days from Sirandib. The inhabitants of this island are naked and live on bananas, fresh fish and coconuts. Iron is a precious metal to them. They are visited by foreign merchants. From Alankabalus to the island of Kilah [i.e. Kalah] is six days. This island belongs to the kingdom of Jabat-al-Hindi.(3) It contains famous mines of al-Qal’i tin and plantations of bamboo. To the left and at two days from [the island of Kilah] is the island of Balus, inhabited by cannibals. It produces excellent camphor, bananas, coconuts, sugar cane and rice.

From there to the islands of Jaba, Salahir, and Harang, two parasangs.(4) [The island of Jaba] is large. The king wears ornaments (a chlamys) of gold, and a tiara of gold. He worships Buddha.(3)

The products of the island are coconuts, bananas and sugar cane. The products of Salahit are sandalwood, Indian nard and cloves. There is in Jaba a small mountain with fire on its summit stretching for the distance of a hundred cubits but having only the height of a lance. One sees its flames at night but only smoke during the day. From these islands after fifteen days one reaches the Spice islands [?]. The distance between Jaba and Ma'it is small.

The kings and peoples of India abstain from drinking wine but consider adultery as legal with the exception of the King of Qmar who forbids both adultery and the use of wine.

The king of Zabaj is called the Maharaja: in his country there is an island called Bartayil. In another island there are monkeys with the tail of an ass. The Maharaja receives every day the revenue of two hundred mann of gold. He melts down this money into the form of a brick and throws it into the water saying, ‘There is my treasure’. Part of this money to the amount of fifty mann comes to him from cockfights. One of the legs of the winning cock belongs by right to the king and the owner buys it back by gold.

On leaving Ma’it one finds, to the left, the island of Tiyuma, which produces aloeswood of the sort called Hindi, and camphor. From there one goes in live days to Qmar.(5) This latter country produces Qmari aloeswood and rice. [...]

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(1) i.e. King of Kings, suggesting overlordship over other rulers (mentioned from time to time).
(2) this applies to Borneo or North Sumatra rather than to Java.
(3) perhaps distinction between two Zabaj or Jaba by religion, one Hindu, the other (and then probably modern Java) already Buddhist; but this may also be simply an error by Ibn Khurdadhbih.
(4) about 3½ miles.
(5) probably Cambodia (Khmer).