Zabag (ancient territory)

Zabag (Arabic: الزابج az-Zabaj; Sanskrit: Javaka; Latin: Jabad; Chinese: 阇婆 or 闍婆 She-bó or Shepo) is thought to have been an ancient territory located south of China somewhere in Southeast Asia, between the Chenla Kingdom (modern-day Cambodia) and Java. Several historians have associated this kingdom with Srivijaya and thought its location was somewhere in Sumatra, Java or Malay Peninsula. Its exact location, however, is still the subject of debate among scholars. Other possible locations such as northern Borneo and Philippines have also been suggested. Etymology The origins of the toponym (), with alternative spellings () and (), are not very clear. Gabriel Ferrand suggested that the form may have originated from an original word Jāwaga, consisting of the Indonesian toponym with the suffix -ga, possibly in a Middle Indo-Aryan language. Michael Laffan questioned the plausibility of this theory, instead proposing a Sanskrit origin "land of Yava", which he supposed to have been borrowed into Old Malay as , before finally being rendered as .

Historical sources Abu Zayd al-Sirafi The main source of the existence of the kingdom of Zabag is the travelogue Accounts of China and India (). The term is mentioned in the first part of the work dated 237 AH/851–852 AD, which sometimes attributed to a certain Sulayman the Merchant of Siraf. While Sulayman is credited with supplying the information for this first part, it is not clear whether he is its author.A recent translator of the text, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, writes: "This Sulaymān the Merchant was undoubtedly one of the informants for Book One; he is the only one mentioned in it by name. [...] This is, in itself, no obstacle to the attribution of authorship to Sulaymān, but it is likewise not an argument for it. Much ink has been shed over the question, but, in the end, we have no incontrovertible evidence for Sulaymān or anyone else being the author of Book One." The second part of the text, which is reliably attributed to the authorship of Abu Zayd al-Sirafi, gives a more complete description of Zabag:

Abu Zayd goes on to report fantastic anecdotes about Zabag, which have a moralistic flavor and are therefore unlikely to reflect genuine historical information. One of these is the story of the Pool of Kings, in which gold ingots were said collected upon the orders of each king, to be distributed to the populace upon his death.

Another legend reported by Abu Zayd concerns a conflict between the king of Zabag and the ruler of Al-Qamār, which scholars have interpreted as a reference to the Khmer kingdom. Ibn Khordadbeh

The Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms), ascribed to Ibn Khordadbeh, was written around 870 CE, making it roughly contemporaneous with Abu Zayd's account. Ibn Khordadbeh's description of Zābag is remarkably consistent with that of Abu Zayd, including the same story of the Pool of Kings. It contains additional fantastical tales:

al-Mas'udi

The late 10th century polymath Al-Masudi, writing in 995 AD, repeated the known facts about Zabag "in grandiloquent terms":

Possible Locations

Srivijaya Many historians identify Zabag with Srivijaya, an empire centered in Sumatra. Wheatley bases the identification of Zabag with Srivijaya on the statement by Al-Biruni that "The islands of Zābaj are called by the Hindus Suwarn dib or Gold Island", since Wheatley holds that the Sanskrit refers to Srivijaya. The scope of the term Zabag in the various Arabic sources often covers the islands both north and west of Sumatra, which roughly corresponding with the maximum hypothesised extent Srivijaya's influence. The French scholar George Coedès noted that the Chinese references to , previously interpreted as the Sanskrit term , refer to the same polity as the toponym Śrīvijaya mentioned in inscriptions in Old Malay. Coedes argued that "it is certain in fact that in the tenth century Zābag corresponded to the San-fo-ch'i () of the Chinese, that is, to the Sumatran kingdom of Śrīvijaya". The phonetic resemblance of and (), mentioned by Abu Zayd as a vassal of the king of Zabag, strengthens the argument that Zābag was either the same as or the overlord of Śrīvijaya in the tenth century.

The Indonesian historian Slamet Muljana suggested that Zabag should be connected to the present day Muara Sabak area, the estuary of Batang Hari River in East Tanjung Jabung Regency, Jambi province. Michael Laffan acknowledges the association between Zabag and modern Sabak, but he suggests that the influence came into Malay from Middle Eastern sailors in relatively recent times.

Java

The toponym is alternatively identified with Java. Information from the first part of the Akhbār dated in 851–852 AD, possibly reported by Sulayman the Merchant, states that that (possibly Srivijaya) and Kalah (probably Kedah) were areas ruled by Zabag. This raises the possibility that Zabag should be identified not with Srivijaya, but instead with Java.

The writer Irawan Djoko Nugroho points out that the report by Abu Zayd in the second part of the Akhbār that the island of Zabag "is fertile in the extreme and is settled and cultivated in a most orderly manner" seems to accord better with the densely populated agrarian Java, than with the more sparsely settled and maritime-oriented Sumatra. However, another one of his arguments for identifying Zabag with Java on the basis of relative size is unreliable, as it is based on an apparent misreading of Abu Zayd's text. Nugroho claims that Abu Zayd gives Zabag's size as four hundred farsakhs, which is half the size of Ramani at eight hundred. Since Java is about half the length of Sumatra, Nugroho infers that Ramani must refer to Sumatra and Zabag to Java. However, this is based on an incorrect reading of Abu Zayd's text, which actually states that Sarbuza, not Zabag, was four hundred farsakhs in length.

The Akhbār states that "the sailing time between the two lands (namely, between China and Zabag) is a month, or less than that if the winds are favorable." This is comparable to the distance from Malacca to Majapahit as recorded by The Epic of Hang Tuah.Hikayat Hang Tuah, VI: 122. "Maka Titah Seri Betara, "Berapa lama-nya anak-ku datang ini di-laut?" Maka sembah Raja Malaka, "Patek ini empat puloh hari di-laut, banyak patek singgah. Jika patek berlayar sungguh-sungguh, dua puloh hari sampai-lah."

Other Indonesian scholars have sought to connect the toponym Zabag with the Sanskrit word , which means "meeting-place" or "assembly". However, besides the coincidental phonetic similarity there is no evidence to support this theory, as Java is not known to have been referred to by the Sanskrit name Sabhā.

Zabag (ancient territory)

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