• Pre-Islamic Kedah-Arab Relations
• Arab Relations with Kedah After the Arrival of Islam
• Nusantara Goods Passed Through Kedah Port
• Kedah - Lankasuka Land Route
• "Kalah" or "Kalaha" was Found by Kurds from the Kalahar Tribe
• The Migration of Muslim Merchants from China to Kedah
• The 940 A.D. Kedah Visited by Abu Dulaf
• Observations made by Abu Zaid (916 A.D.) and Mas'udi (943 A.D.)
• Kedah had Embraced Islam Since 877 A.D.
• Traces of Early Islam in Kedah
• The War between Sri Rama and Andaman
• The First King of Pre-Islamic Kedah
• Details From "Al-Tarikh Salasilah"
• The Coming of Islam According to "Merong Maha Wanga"
• The Coming of Islam According to "Al-Tarikh Salasilah"
• How Sultan Muzaffar Shah Spread Islam
• How Islam Spread in Kedah
• Kedah's contribution to the Spread of Islam
• The Title Darul Aman
• Kedah and Samudera Pasai Relations Through Marriage
• Minye Stone Writing in North Acheh
• Early Writings in Kedah

Centuries before the Malaysian Peninsula became known to the West, trade between Arab and China had been going on briskly. This trade ties were done via land routes called the "silk road" and via sea routes known as the "spice route".

The route began from Aden or Haramaut to Gujerat and Cambay in India, and on to Sri Lanka and from there they sailed across the Bay of Bengal to the Malay Archipelago, or by hugging the Corromendal coast to Tamluk, at the estuary of River Ganges before heading for the Andaman Sea to Kedah and on to the Malay Archipelago.

The trade route overland began at Damascus to Bukhara, Smarkand, Kashgar and Khotan. The road crossed the Gobi Desert to Hansyhau and on to Peking. In Bukara there are junctions leading to Balkh, Kabul and Bengal and on to Arakan, Cambodia, Angkor and Champa. From here the traders could go on the Malay Archipelago or head on for China.

The Arabs who came to Nusantara (the Malay Isles) came mostly from south Arabia, along the coast of the Qazlam and Arabian Seas. They traded, as their own land was infertile. The forged trade relations with Damascus (Sham) and other towns around the Mediterranean. On their journey to and from their destinations, they stopped over in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. It was actually the Arabs who controlled both the land and sea routes to the Malay Archipelago and China.

Arab Relations with Kedah After the Arrival of Islam

The sea routes were originally used by merchants and travelers from India and Iran. When Iran was turned into an Islamic state by the Arabs, Arabic merchants then sailed the "spice route" to India, the Malay Archipelago, all of south-East Asia and on to "al-sin" (China).

This direct trade relations began ever since the 2nd century A.D. i.e. when Funan and Langkasuka still existed and influenced a large part of the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, leading to the use of such terms as the "Land Below the wind" and the "Land above the Wind". The west coast of the Peninsula was located at the "Land Below the Wind".

Arab and Iranian ships from Jeddah, Aden, Al-Syihr, Suhar, Muscat and Siraf, would arrive at Kedah port between the months of June and November and returned to India between the months of December to May, every year. The secret of a strong wind, which blew six here and another six months was a tightly kept secret by sailors of the East so that it would not reach the ears of Western sailors. Their knowledge on changes in season as well changes in wind direction, sea currents and movement of stars resulted in the production of a special calendar, which was jealously guarded.

According to two early Muslim historians in the 9th - 10th A.D., Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri in his book, "futuh al-Buldan", and Abu Jaafar Muhammad al Tabari in his "Tarikh al-Rasul wal Muluk", there existed Malay settlements in the Bay of Persia during the time of Caliph Sayyidina Umar ibn Khattab. These Malays were recruited to help Khalid ibn al-Walid in his conquest and subsequent Islamization of Persia. This occurred in 653 A.D. (Abdullah Abbas Nasution, 1963:3).

The Malays who were busy trading with the Arabs caught the attention of Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz (717-720) in Damascus, who then wrote a letter to Srivijaya, asking its King to embrace Islam. In 718 A.D., King Srindra Warman of Jambi embraced Islam (Abdullah Ishak, 1992: 128; Abdul Rahman Abdullah, 1985:64). In 726 A.D., Jay Sima, son of King Sima, and the reigning King of Kallinga of East Java also embraced Islam. The Arabs who had settled on the west coast of Sumatera also played a role in the spread of the religion (M.A. Rauf, 1967:103).

Nusantara Goods Passed Through Kedah Port

Ports in the Malay Archipelago or "Nusantara" in such places as Melayu (Jambi), Lamuri (Acheh), Pasai, Perlak, Barus in Sumatra, Taruma, Kediri, Mataram and Singgosari in Java, Nicobar Island and Andaman, Trang, Takuappa, Patani, Langkasuka, Senggora, Legor (Jakut), Patalung aand Kalah (Kedah) in the northern Peninsula were, in the 7th century A.D., busy with trade.

"Nusantara" had not only produced spices do desired by Arab and Iranian traders but also sandalwood, aloes' wood, camphor, musk, ginger and pearls. These items were much sought after by western traders and the Arabs sold them at their ports (Morley 1949:145).

Tin could be found in abundance in the Peninsula,and Kedah was the port that supplied the most tin to the world at that time and this remained true for centuries thereafter. (Moorhead, 1957: 60). Kedah became even better known when its jungle products such as rattan, resin, honey, beeswax, elephants and ivory, areca nuts, sepang wood and black woods were brought into port. Produce from Patani and Senggora, such as gold and quartz, were brought into Kedah.