IN QUEST OF KALAH

SOURCE : SUNGAI BATU 788 BC : THE GREAT KINGDOM OF KEDAH TUA

The “In Quest of Kalah”, written by Prof SQ Fatimi (1960), he mentioned the two major commodity that have attracted the traders from west and east to come to Malay Peninsula. Apart of a meeting point and trade exchange, the local commodity that meant by SQ Fatimi were spices and aromatic stuff. Nusantara was renowned as the origin of spices such as cinnamon, clove, pepper etc. Though, some of the spices not native to Malay Peninsula, but ports along the Malacca Straits were the hub of those commodity that collected from nearby island and region. Meanwhile, aromatic was the stuff such as agarwood, sandalwood, camphor etc. that known as the source to produce incense and fragrance. Both spices and aromatic were used in medication, culinary, religious ritual, enbalming, cosmetic, perfumary etc by ancient cicvilisation.

Depart from the points written by SQ Fatimi, we have broaden the scope given by him, where we concluded that it was the commodity of AROMATIC, EXOTIC and METALLIC that had attracted the foreign traders compete to reach the Malay Peninsula. Our conclusion based on peer study on the trade goods recorded by past traveller and the tributary goods that presented to Chinese Emperor. Those three commodity have shaped the maritime kingdom, international relation and affair as well as the aggression and battle for thousand of years.

In school text book, the aromatic and exotic stuff were categorised as forest resources (hasil hutan) that sounds less important and value, but in reality it’s value as par as gold. At one time, black pepper and camphor were exchange equivalent to gold.

Exotic stuff meaning material that usually unique and rare such horn, ivory, birds feather, tortoise shell and others that obtained from deep forest and sea.

Unlike SQ Fatimi that distinguished spices and aromatic, our book, ‘Sungai Batu Civilisation the birth-place of Kedah Tua’, defined aromatic as all spices, fragrant woods, resin (damar) and any aromatic plant or derived from .Exotic stuff is same as defined above. Metallic, in this case are gold, tin and iron. These are the metal that strongly associated to Malay Peninsula. Aureus Chersonese is clearly meant Golden Peninsular. Aureus mean gold in Greek and in chemistry Periodic Table called Aurum. In Sanskrit Malay Peninsula was called Suvarnadvipa or Suvarnabhumi. Tin was mined and probably traded since 500 – 400 BC based on finding by Theresa Leong in 80’s (if not mistaken). Perhaps there was a connection to Dong Son culture since they required tin as to produce their bronze drum and bell. Bronze is an alloy, a combination of copper and tin.

In his writing, Fatimi insist that Kalah which was debated since 1700’s was located in Klang. His argument can be understood based on evidence of massive ancient iron foundry and iron artefact discovered 1940's nearby Bukit Badak, Klang that next to the river. The reason that Fatimi relates the iron industry and Kalah because he knew about the ancient weapon trade, sword in particular, between Arab country and Kalah thru ancient accounts such as al-Kindi, al-Idrisi, Arabs poem, athar and others historical facts. We believe if the late SQ Fatimi still around, he would not be hesitate to admit that Kedah is Kalah if he knew and see the discovery of Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex.

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21/10/2023 > 6 Rabiulakhir 1445H: 10.42 am