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And in this channel, if you like learning about history, culture, and everything in between from the Philippines across Southeast Asia and beyond,
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don't forget to like, share this video, comment down below, and please, please, subscribe!
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So March is Women's History Month, and in today's video, we'll be digging deeper into the many secrets of the legendary warrior princess Urduja.
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And this is actually one of my most requested topics throughout this year of all time. So without further ado, let's begin!
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In the mid-1340s, as part of his quarter of a century-long travels around the known world, the Arab explorer and scholar Ibn Battuta visited Southeast Asia.
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Now, while most of the places he visited between the mid-1320s and early 1350s were clearly identified in his eventual account of his travels,
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known as the Rihala, one element of Ibn Battuta's travels in Southeast Asia has always perplexed readers and historians throughout the centuries.
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So this is the section where Ibn Battuta describes his arrival in the land of Tawalisi, a region that he describes as a vast country, the rulers of which rival China.
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And he goes on to discuss a separate polity found within Tawalisi, known as Kailukari, which according to Ibn Battuta, is ruled by a female warrior queen called Urduja.
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Now, it's important to note that Urduja is the Filipino pronunciation of her name, and this is not the way Ibn Battuta himself wrote or pronounced the name.
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But I'm choosing to use the pronunciation Urduja because many of my viewers are from the Philippines, and this is actually the most popular way to pronounce her name, although it's not the most accurate.
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Anyways, back to our topic. As Tawalisi, Kailukari, and Urduja are not clearly identifiable amongst the historical states, kingdoms, and historical female rulers of Southeast Asia in the middle of the 14th century,
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Ibn Battuta's account has unsurprisingly generated considerable debate as to where Tawalisi and Kailukari were located, and who Urduja might have been.
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And today, we examine the legends and see what history has to say about this fierce warrior princess from the land of Tawalisi.
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Pero wait lang, who exactly was Ibn Battuta?
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Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Alawati Al-Tanji Ibn Battuta, aka Ibn Battuta, was one of the world's greatest travelers and explorers.
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Now, many in the West would refer to him as the Muslim Marco Polo, yet his three-decade-long journey of over 75,000 miles far surpasses that of Marco Polo's 15,000 miles,
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and even that of the legendary Muslim Chinese admiral Zheng He, who traveled 31,000 miles.
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So from his homeland in Morocco, Ibn Battuta would travel to 40 modern-day countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.
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And all of these journeys were well-recorded in the book A Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling, or simply known as the Rihala, or in English, the Travels.
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Now, before reaching China in 1345, Ibn Battuta traveled around Southeast Asia, visiting places like Sumatra, Melaka, and eventually the kingdom of Kailukari in the land of Tawalisi, where he met the legendary warrior ruler named Urduja.
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Ibn Battuta's visit to Tawalisi was just one element of a remarkable series of voyages and explorations that he undertook over more than a quarter of a century.
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Ibn Battuta hailed from the city of Tangiers in northern Morocco, in northern Africa, where he was born in 1304.
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Now, his early life was seemingly uneventful, but in 1325, Ibn Battuta set off on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, which all Muslims are obliged to undertake at least once in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able to do so.
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So, Ibn Battuta arrived to Mecca in the autumn of 1326, but having completed the Hajj, he did not stop there, and instead, he spent the next six years traveling around the Middle East, north towards eastern Turkey, and then south to the Horn of Africa, and eastern Africa as far south as Zanzibar, and modern-day Tanzania, before returning north to Oman.
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It was then in the early 1330s that his truly epic travels began, as he headed north to Constantinople, and then east, traveling through Central Asia to India, reaching India by the early 1340s, then to Sri Lanka and onwards throughout the East Indies, a.k.a. Southeast Asia, then towards China in the mid-1340s.
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And it was this leg of his travels that brought him to the land of Tawalisi, and from which we get his descriptions of the fierce warrior-ruler Urduja.
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And after meeting Urduja, Ibn Battuta went on to China, before retracing his steps back to the Middle East, stopping by places like Sardinia, in what is now Italy, on his way back to Morocco, where he finally arrived home 24 years after departing for the Hajj.
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Wanderlust still filled him, and in the early 1350s, Ibn Battuta took a brief short trip south, traveling as far south as Guinea, Mali, and Niger.
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Overall, he traveled a distance of about 117 kilometers, or over 75,000 miles, which again is nearly five times as far as Marco Polo ever did.
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So the accounts of Tawalisi that has come down to us is derived from his book Darihala, an immense account of his travels which Ibn Battuta dictated to a scholar, Ibn Juzay, from Granada in Spain, back in the 1350s, after returning to Morocco following his epic travels.
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Ibn Juzay wrote it up, and it is more commonly known today as Darihala, meaning The Voyage, but the longer title was A Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling.
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So in this book, Ibn Battuta gave the following description of Tawalisi, and this is the English translation.
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Thereafter, we reach the land of Tawalisi, it being their king who is also called by that name. It is a vast country, and its king is a rival of the king of China.
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He possesses many junks, with which he makes war on the Chinese, until they come to terms with him on certain conditions.
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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.
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Their women ride on horseback, and are skillful archers, and fight exactly like men.
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Ibn Battuta then goes on to explain that Urduja is a warrior queen or a warrior princess who rules over the land of Kailukari, or the kingdom of Kailukari, but who is also the daughter of the wider ruler of the wider kingdom of Tawalisi, whose name was also Tawalisi.
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So Ibn Battuta further describes Urduja as having beautiful golden brown skin, long black hair, and dark eyes, while usually carrying a sword.
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According to Ibn Battuta, Urduja was also recorded as the leader of a band of female warriors, fierce warriors, which Ibn Battuta recorded as the Kidalakian.
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So now the question is, where was Tawalisi? And who exactly was Urduja?
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But before we continue, here's a few reminders.
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Today's video is just an introduction to this fascinating topic, so if you want to dig deeper and learn more, check out the links below for a list of resources and recommended readings.
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And if you want to support my channel and my research, please be my patron on Patreon, or be a member of my YouTube channel, or get copies of any of my books, coloring books, and ebooks, or any of the merch linked down below.
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And actually, today's video is also an entire chapter in my book, The Fierce Women of Early Southeast Asia, where you can learn more about Urduja and meet over four dozen inspiring women from the histories and the oral traditions of our ancestors.
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So if you want to expand your knowledge and dig deeper, don't miss out and order your copies today!
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Now back to our topic, back to the legendary, unyielding warrior princess Urduja and the mystical land of Tawalisi.
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So numerous locations have been suggested over the years as the site or the location of Tawalisi.
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Now because the passages of the Rihala, which narrated Ibn Battuta's exploration in Tawalisi, occur between the time that he left India and before he arrived in China, it is understandably assumed that Tawalisi lies somewhere in Southeast Asia, as Ibn Battuta was traveling by sea.
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Consequently, everywhere from Java in Western Indonesia to Cambodia and even the province of Guangdong in China itself have been proposed as possible sites of Tawalisi.
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However, most scholars today tend to argue that Tawalisi was located somewhere in the East Indies, aka the islands of Southeast Asia, around places like Brunei or the Philippine archipelago.
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So many believe that the island chain known today as the Philippines is the most likely location as Muslims like Ibn Battuta would have had very little knowledge of this part of the world in the mid-14th century and would have been more likely to use unfamiliar names to describe it.
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So specific islands in the Philippines have been suggested as the possible location of Tawalisi.
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Historically, the most popular being Sulu, although today, the land which is most often claimed as Tawalisi is the province of Pangasinan, a coastal region north of Manila, on the island of Luzon.
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Yet there's virtually no substantive historical evidence to support this, and Ibn Battuta's description of Tawalisi as a rival to China certainly points towards a different location.
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Ultimately, the information Ibn Battuta provided us is too speculative to identify with any precision wherein Southeast Asia he was referring to.
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Similarly, when it comes to Urduja, there is a lack of specificity.
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Indeed, scholars have made much of the banquet Urduja held to honor Ibn Battuta as her guest, at which various tropical foods were served, such as ginger, pepper, lemons, rice, mangoes, and many more.
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Now, advocates of one theory or another have pointed towards these being commodities that were plentiful in places like Java or the Philippines or somewhere closer to India.
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But in reality, it would have been possible to find these commodities at the royal courts all over Southeast Asia, given the region's flourishing trade and cultural exchanges throughout the 14th century.
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Moreover, Urduja's statement, as recounted in the Rihala, that she hoped to lead an expedition, a military expedition to India, does not actually signify any particular geographical location either.
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Now, perhaps when Ibn Battuta told her that he had just come from India, Urduja talked about visiting India herself with her warriors.
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But some say that she might not have had any idea where or how far away India was.
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Now, equally, some have proposed that Urduja was a ruler from Java, pointing to Ibn Battuta's description of her skin tone and stating that this might indicate some Mongol heritage.
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Indeed, the Mongols have sent an expedition to Java in 1292, whose epic defeat led to the foundation of the Majapahit Empire.
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On the other hand, the fact that buffalo was served at the banquet Urduja held in honor of Ibn Battuta might suggest the Philippines, where carabao or water buffalo are native and plentiful.
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Now, other elements of his accounts of Urduja and her people are even harder to pin down.
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For instance, Ibn Battuta's description of Urduja as leading a band of warrior women might well have been a literary invention.
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Better to present a colorful picture of his journeys at the very edge of the known world.
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But then again, these are almost entirely speculative.
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One cannot be sure.
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So, does this mean that Urduja was entirely nothing but just a figment of imagination?
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Well, not exactly.
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Very little is truly known about the warrior princess Urduja of Tawalisi.
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In fact, we don't even really know if Urduja was really her name.
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I mean, even the way we pronounce it, Urduja, is not even the proper pronunciation of what Ibn Battuta actually recorded.
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Indeed, everything that we know for certain about Urduja came from the writings of the great Muslim scholar and explorer Ibn Battuta.
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To this day, we really don't know for sure where the land of Tawalisi was exactly located.
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And again, there are quite a number of possible locations of this fabled kingdom.
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And perhaps the most popular theory of all of Tawalisi's location is the present-day province of Pangasinan in northern Philippines.
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Indeed, many, including Dr. Jose Rizal, who many consider to be the national hero of the Philippines and regarded across Southeast Asia as the pride of the Malay race,
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theorized that this fabled kingdom was indeed somewhere in northern Philippines, somewhere on the island of Luzon.
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And this was partly based on his analysis of Ibn Battuta's journeys from the 1300s.
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Now again, other possible locations put forward by scholars include present-day Cambodia and the island of Java in Indonesia.
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Nevertheless, Pangasinan remained the most widely claimed possible location of Tawalisi, at least in terms of popular memory over the last century.
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Now to this day, scholars are still debating the historical basis of the legendary warrior princess of Tawalisi.
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Yet Urduja nonetheless remains most popular amongst the Filipino people.
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Ultimately, we will almost certainly never know with complete certainty where Ibn Battuta was referring to when he mentioned the land of Tawalisi in the Rihala.
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Yet there is considerable circumstantial evidence to suggest that this was a reference to somewhere in the Philippine archipelago, and at least certainly somewhere in Southeast Asia.
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Now if you think about it, the appearance of Urduja in the Rihala as a fierce female warrior leader would actually not have been out of place.
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For this was at the beginning of a long period of several centuries during which female rule became extremely common in the Philippines and across the many kingdoms and ancient societies of Southeast Asia.
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So after this video, make sure to check out my playlist about the countless fierce women of ancient Southeast Asia.
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Now back to Tawalisi. As such, despite Ibn Battuta's failure to include identifiable names when referring to Tawalisi and his journey through that region, there is every reason to believe that this account was largely accurate.
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Now despite the uncertainties over her true identity and ethnicity, the legends of Urduja continue to be an empowering source of inspiration to millions of women in the Philippines and beyond.
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Urduja's legendary prowess on the battlefield, her excellence in statecraft, and courtly elegance continue to resonate with the people of the Philippines, particularly the people of Pangasinan and the indigenous communities of the Cordilleras.
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Indeed, Urduja's account matches that of the indigenous Ibaloi oral traditions about the legendary water queen who once ruled the lands now known to us as Pangasinan.
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Nevertheless, despite the historical uncertainties, we can never deny that Pangasinan is indeed a land of fierce women.
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For example, my own Lola, a native of Pangasinan and Manila, along with all of her sisters, were fearless guerrilleras, young Pangasinan women who bravely took part in defending and liberating the Philippines and our people during World War II.
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Women who valiantly joined the armed resistance that defended our motherland from the invaders.
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In fact, the Pangasinense women were not the only fierce Filipino women to bravely do so.
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But more on this in my book about the Fierce Women of Southeast Asia and in my other videos about the Pinay Guerrilleras of World War II.
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So make sure to check them out after this video.
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And again, regardless whether you believe Urduja was real historically or just a figment of someone's imagination or somewhere in between, we cannot deny the fact that Urduja remains a source of immeasurable empowerment for millions of our people.
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An icon of fierceness and heroic devotion to defending one's people.
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Now again, this is just an introduction into the world, the fascinating world of Urduja, the mystical world of Urduja.
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And there's so much more that I still want to share with you.
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Like how do you properly say her name and all these other theories of who exactly Urduja was or where Tawilisi really is.
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But for now, let's leave it here for today, just for today.
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And maybe in the future, we'll do a deeper dive into the secrets of Urduja, the secrets of Urduja.
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And you know, I actually also plan on making a future video, in the future, in the near future, a video about the pre-colonial history and culture of Pangasinan.
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So stay tuned for that as well.
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And yeah, let me know what you think about today's topic in the comments below.
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And if you have any other questions about Urduja, let me know in the comments below.
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And you know, if you want me to make a reaction video to GMA's Magalihim ni Urduja, let us know in the comments below.
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And again, if you like this video and learn a thing or two, don't forget to like, share this video, comment down below, and please, please subscribe.
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But of course, before we go, today's shout-out goes to Virginia Agudo, Mervyn Benalayo, and Angelo Landay from the Philippines.
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Shout-out to Chiquita Manis from Malaysia and Dawood Sadyo from Indonesia.
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And of course, special shout-out and special thank you to my patron and fellow author, fellow artist, fellow creator, fellow amazing person, Marielle Atanasio.
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Check out her amazing book and her amazing art in the links down below.
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This video and this channel will not exist, will not be possible without the love and the support of all my patrons, subscribers, and viewers like you throughout these years.
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Kaya naman, to all of you, maraming maraming salamat po, or in Kapampangan, gakal pong salamat, and in Pangasinense, balbaleg de salamat.
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See you next time, or in Tagalog, Kitakits, and in Kapampangan, Mikiteaks, and in Bahasa-Malayo, jumpa lagi!
