Tawalisi (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: طواليسي) is a Southeast Asian kingdom described in the journals of

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

. Guesses to the location of Tawalisi have included

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

Sulu Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago. It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...

, Celebes (

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

, Cochin-China, the mainland Chinese province of

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, and practically every island in South Asia beginning with ''ta''. In the Philippines,

was considered to be the most-likely location of Tawalisi, but this has since been disputed.

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

Theories on location

Java theory

Java had been attacked by Mongols they called Tatars in 1293. According to friar Odoric of Pordenone, the great khan of Cathay (Yuan dynasty) attacked Java ( Majapahit) many times but was always defeated. Hence, it is probable that Java at that time especially the royal court had also been linguistically influenced by the Turkic speaking Tatars. So it is possible that the ''Bhre Daha'' (the ruler of Daha) could talk in Turkic as was observed by Ibn Battuta during his visit to her court. At the time of Ibn Battuta's journey, Majapahit was being led by Queen Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi. This gave rise to speculation that Urduja was Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi. Majapahit also possessed a powerful navy of Javanese junks (''jong'') during its era. Each junk is able to carry 600–1000 men, was more than long, and could carry several hundred horses. The number of junks possessed by Majapahit is unknown, but the largest expedition mobilized 400 large junks. This matches the account of Odoric about the junk he boarded while traveling in Southeast Asia—which carried 700 men, and Ibn Battuta's description about Tawalisi having numerous junks that were used to fight the king of China.

Philippine theory

The location of Tawalisi, as well as the identity of its described warrior-princess Urduja, remains a part of Philippine folklore and history, in spite of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines finding the related Kalantiaw myth to be a hoax in 2005. Both the Kalantiaw and Tawalisi-

connections were called into dispute by historian William Henry Scott, but his findings were ignored by the Marcos regime, who had codified Kalantiaw and Urduja's place in Philippine history. Due to the political nature of historical education in the Philippines, both the Urduja and Kalantiaw legends continue to be a semi-historical part of Philippine education. Both Sir Henry Yule and William Henry Scott consider Tawilisi and its warrior-princess Urduja to be "fabulous, fairy-tale, fiction".William Henry Scott, ''Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History'', , p.83

References

{{reflist 14th century in Asia