Materials for the Medieval History of Indonesia

We begin by mentioning the town of Zabaj, which is situated opposite to China; but between them there is the distance of a month by sea; although it is less if the wind is favourable. The king [of Zabaj] bears the title 'Maharaja'.(1) They say that his capital is nine hundred parasangs(2) in area. This prince reigns over a large number of islands which extend over a distance of a thousand parasangs or even more. Among his possessions are the island called Sribuza(3) of which they say the area is four hundred parasangs and the island called Rami (i.e. Ramni) which is eight hundred parasangs in area. One finds in this last island brazilwood, camphor and other plants. Also counted among his possessions is the island of Kalah which is situated midway(4) between the lands of China and the country of the Arabs. The area of Kalah is eighty parasangs. Kalah is the centre of commerce for aloeswood, camphor, sandalwood, ivory, tin, ebony, baqamwood, spices of all kinds and a host of objects too numerous to count. lt is thither that the trading expeditions which start from Oman nowadays go, and from here trading expeditions start for the country of the Arabs.

The authority of the Maharaja it exercised over these various islands and the island in which he resides is extremely fertile, and patches of habitation succeed each other without interruption.(5) A very trustworthy man affirms that when the cocks crow at daybreak, as in our country, they call out to each other throughout the whole extent of a hundred parasangs or more, showing the uninterrupted and regular succession of villages. In effect there are no uninhabited places in this country and no ruins. He who comes into the country when he is on a journey if he is mounted he may go wherever he pleases; if he is tired or if his mount has difficulty in carrying on, then he may stop wherever he wishes.

One of the most singular things that we have been told about the island of Zabaj, is that which concerns one of its former kings. This king was called the Maharaja. His palace faced onto a thalaj which emanates from the sea; one means by thalaj an estuary resembling those which the Tigris forms when it passes by Baghdad and Basra, an estuary which the salt water of the sea invades at high tide and which is fresh at low tide.(6) This water formed a small lagoon adjoining the palace of the king. Every morning the steward is brought before the king and offers him an ingot of gold in the form of a brick. Each brick weighs a certain number of mann, the amount of which is not known to me.(7) Next, in the presence of the king, the steward throws this brick into the lagoon. At high tide, the water covers this brick and all the other bricks which are piled there, so that they cannot be seen, and when the water goes down, the bricks appear and shine in the sun. When the king gives an audience he sits in a room which overlooks the lake with his face turned towards the water. This custom must never be interrupted: every day a golden brick is thrown into this lake and as long as the king lives, the bricks are not touched.

At his death, however, his successor extracts the bricks without leaving any. They are counted and melted down, and the gold is distributed to the princes of the royal family, both men and women, to their children, their officers and their eunuchs, in proportion to their rank and the prerogatives attached to their various functions. Any which remains is given to the poor and the sick. They take care to make a record of the golden bricks and their total weight. It is written down that so and so, the king, had reigned so many years, and they had thrown so many bricks into the royal lake, and weighing so much; and that after his death these bricks had been divided up amongst the court and the royal family. lt was a great honour for the king who had reigned the greatest number of years and had amassed the greatest number of golden bricks.

One of the tales told about them in former times mentions a king of Qmar,(8) the country which produced aloeswood. This country is not an island but is situated on the coast which faces the land of the Arabs. No other kingdom has a population as numerous as Qmar. Everybody goes on foot there. They forbid loose living and various kinds of wine, and nothing of this sort is ever seen in their country or their empire. Qmar is in the direction of the kingdom of the Maharaja and the island of Zabaj and between the two kingdoms is ten days sea journey in latitude, but a little more, increasing to twenty days if the wind is variable. It was said that once the kingdom fell into the hands of a young and hasty prince. He was one day silting in his palace, which commanded a freshwater river like the Tigris in Iraq. Between the palace and the sea it was a day's journey. The chief minister was before the king and had been questioned on the empire of the Maharaja, his power, the number of his subjects and the islands which obeyed him. Suddenly the king addressed the Minister, "I have developped a craving which I wish to satisfy". The Minister who was sincerely attached to his master and who knew his recklessness, said to him, "And what is this craving, O king?" The prince replied. "I wish to sec before me, resting on a plate, the head of the king of Zabaj". The Minister guessing that it was jealousy which made the king speak thus, replied, "It is not pleasing that the king should nourish such thoughts. No hate should he shown between us and this people, either in actions or words. lt would only turn out ill for us. However he comes from a far isle and only has distant reports of us and has never shown a desire to injure our country. No one must be informed of what the king has said neither should the king repeat a single word."

This language irritated the king, and he did not take any notice of this good advice and he repeated his desire before the officers and all the principal persons of the court. This statement passed from mouth to mouth and spread so much that it came to the ears of the Maharaja. The latter was a man of strong character and active mind and endowed with experience; for he had reached middle age. He sent for his Minister and told him what he had heard, then added, "It is not right that we should ignore what has been reported about this fool, these senseless desires of his due to his youth and presumption, which are being circulated at the moment; for this is one of the things that a king should not do, for they lower and debase him". He commanded him to say nothing about what had passed between them, but, at the same time he gave orders for the preparation of a thousand ships of medium size together with their machines of war and for the furnishing of each with arms and as many warriors as each would hold.

The king made it appear that he was about to make a journey around some of the many isles which made up his kingdom. He wrote to the governors of these isles, to announce to them his idea of visiting and staying in their islands; all this was noised abroad and each governor set about preparing a suitable reception for [the Maharaja]. But when all the preparations were ready and everything set in order, the king embarked on his ships and went with his soldiers towards the kingdom of Qmar. The king and his warriors made use of the tooth-pick, each man cleaning his teeth several times a day, each carried his tooth-pick with him, and was never separated from it or at best confided it to his personal servant.

The king of Qmar had no knowledge of the danger which menaced him until the fleet entered the river which led to his capital, and the warriors disembarked.

The Maharaja then seized the king unawares, captured him and imprisoned him in his palace, the officers of the king of Qmar had all fled. The Maharaja then proclaimed a cessation of hostilities, and seated himself on the throne of Qmar. He then brought forth the king of Qmar whom he had taken prisoner, as well as his Minister. Then he said to the king, "Why did you form a desire which you were unable to carry out, and which if you had realised would not have given you any advantage nor would have justified the success?" But the king did not answer. The Maharaja then went on, “If besides wishing to see my head on a plate before you, you had wished to ravage my land, and to make yourself master of it, or to lay it waste, then I would have treated yours in the same manner; but as you only desire one thing in particular, I will apply the same treatment to you, then I will return to my country without having touched anything that belongs to you, great or small. That will serve as a lesson to those who come after you, that each one should only desire what his own force and means enable him to hold, then he will think himself happy to be safe". Then he cut off the head of the king. Next the Maharaja approached the Minister and said to him, "You have conducted yourself as a worthy Minister, be rewarded for your manner of acting, I know that you have given good counsel to your master had he only agreed to it. Look now for a man who is capable of occupying the throne after this fool and put him in his place".

The Maharaja re-embarked again at the same time for his own country without having touched anything that belonged to the king of Qmar. When he had returned, he sat on his throne with his face towards the lake and placed before him the plate on which was the head of the king of Qmar. Then he gathered together the elders of the land, and told them what had happened, together with the motives which had made him make the expedition. Then the people of Zabaj offered up prayers for him, wished for him all sort of good fortune.

Then the Maharaja washed the head and embalmed it, then put it in a vase and sent it to the prince who was on the throne of Qmar at that time.(9) With the head was a letter which read, "The only reason which caused me to treat your predecessor as I did, was the way he treated us unjustly and the necessity of teaching a lesson to others like him. Therefore we applied to him the treatment he would have given to us. We therefore think we ought to return to you his head, seeing that we have no use for it, nor do we attach any honour to the victory which we gained over him".