Tawalisi

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Tawalisi (ca. 1350 C.E - 1400 C.E.) is a Southeast Asian kingdom described in the journals of Ibn Battuta.^[1] Ibn Battuta said he reached Tawalisi after a sea voyage of 71 days, 34 of which were spent rowing due to no wind. He said he reached China from Tawalisi after a voyage of 17 days. The commentators have never been able to decide the port of departure for the 71-day voyage, and so have concentrated on the 17-day voyage from Tawalisi to China.^[2]

A long list of guesses to the location of Tawalisi have included Pangasinan, Luzon, Sulu, Celebes (Sulawesi), Cambodia,^[3] Cochin-China, the mainland Chinese province of Guangdong, and practically every island in South Asia beginning with ta. The most known location, however, is Pangasinan in the Philippines.^[4]

Ibn Battuta's description

Thereafter, we reached the land of Tawalisi, it being their king who is called by that name. It is a vast country and its king is a rival of the king of China. He possesses many junks, with which he makes war on the Chinese until they come to terms with him on certain conditions. The inhabitants of this land are idolaters; they are handsome men and closely resemble the Turks in figure. Their skin is commonly of a reddish hue, and they are brave and warlike. Their women ride on horseback and are skillful archers, and fight exactly like men.

— Ibn Battuta

Fiction theory

Both Sir Henry Yule and William Henry Scott consider Tawilisi and its warrior-princess Urduja to be "fabulous, fairy-tale, fiction".^[5]

Java theory

Based on linguistics and considering the Chinese perspective in the 13th-14th centuries A.D., Tawalisi might be a Chinese pronunciation of jawa rsi which could mean Kingdom of Java or King of Java. While the original name of the duchess of the said land was actually spelled in Arabic by Ibn Battuta as WHR DJ in his Rihlah which might be misread as Urduja instead of reading it as Wahre Daja (Bhre Daha) due to the lack of geographical perspective and the lack of knowledge in the Arabic script congruent to the period when it happened. Bhre Daha was a title given to Dayah Wiyat (literally means "princess vagina"), the twin sister of Bhre Kahuripan, as duchess of Daha (also known as Kediri). Both duchesses were daughters of Raden Wijaya and Gayatri. After the death of Kala Gemet both duchesses assumed power as rajah kembars (twin rulers) and both were given the title Tribhuana tongga dewi (meaning Majapahit empress). Java had been attacked by Mongols they called Tatars for several times, first in the last part of the 13th century A.D. (the 1293 invasion), second during the reign of Kala Gemet. and few more unrecorded invasions.^[6] Hence, it is very clear that Java at that time especially the royal court had also been linguistically influenced by the Turkic speaking Tatars. Thus, the Bhre Daha could talk in Turkic as been observed by Ibn Battuta during his visit in her court.^[7]

Pangasinan theory

In the Philippines, it is widely believed that Tawalisi is in present-day Pangasinan Province. See Urduja for detail.

References