Early conception located in
Kampar Regency,
Indonesia, a heritage from the
Melayu Kingdom (a kingdom centered in eastern Sumatra which is the origin of the formation of the Malays). The epic literature, the
Malay Annals, associates the etymological origin of "Melayu" to
Sungai Melayu ('Melayu river') in
Sumatra,
Indonesia. The term is thought to be derived from the
Malay word
melaju, a combination of the verbal
prefix 'me' and the
root word 'laju', meaning "to accelerate", used to describe the accelerating strong current of the river.
As a place name (toponym) based on
Sumatra. •
Malayadvipa, "Malaya
Dvipa", is described in chapter 48,
Vayu Purana as one of the mountainous provinces in the eastern sea that was full of gold and silver. The exact modern location befitting with this term is disputed. Some scholars equate the term with
Sumatra, while several Indian scholars associating it with the mountainous
Malay Peninsula. Other scholars even suggested
Sri Lanka's possibility. while Sumatra is more correctly associated with
Suvarnadvipa (an ancient name referred to Sumatra) which means "The Gold Land" and the
Barisan Mountains which is the mountainous range scattered from north to the south Sumatra hemisphere. •
Maleu-kolon – a location in the
Malay Peninsula, from
Ptolemy's work,
Geographia. •
Mo-lo-yu – mentioned by
Yijing, a
Tang dynasty Chinese Buddhist monk who visited the Southeast Asia in 688–695. According to Yijing, the
Mo-Lo-Yu kingdom was located at a distance of 15 days sailing from Bogha (
Palembang), the capital of Sribhoga (
Srivijaya). It took a 15-day sail as well to reach Ka-Cha (
Kedah) from Mo-lo-yu; therefore, it can be reasoned that Mo-Lo-Yu would lie halfway between the two places. A popular opinion as espoused by Coedes, relates
Mo-Lo-Yu with
Jambi in Sumatra, thus creating the theory of a '
Melayu Kingdom'. However, the geographical location of Jambi contradicts with Yi Jing's description of a "half way sail between
Ka-Cha (
Kedah) and
Bogha (
Palembang)". •
Malayur – inscribed on the south wall of the
Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Tamil Nadu. It was described as a kingdom that had "a strong mountain for its rampart" in Malay Peninsula, that fell to the Chola invaders during
Rajendra Chola I's campaign in the 11th century. •
Bhūmi Mālayu – (literally "Land of Malayu"), a transcription from
Padang Roco Inscription dated 1286 CE by Slamet Muljana. The term is associated with
Dharmasraya kingdom. •
Ma-li-yu-er – mentioned in the chronicle of
Yuan Dynasty, referring to a nation of Malay Peninsula that faced the southward expansion of
Sukhothai Kingdom, during the reign of
Ram Khamhaeng. The chronicle stated: "
..Animosity occurred between Siam and Ma-li-yu-er with both killing each other ...". In response to the Sukhothai's action, a Chinese envoy went to the Ram Khamhaeng's court in 1295 bearing an imperial decree: "Keep your promise and do no evil to Ma-li-yu-er". •
Malauir – mentioned in
Marco Polo's
account as a kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula, possibly similar to the one mentioned in Yuan chronicle. •
Malayapura – (literally "city of Malaya" or "fortress of Malaya"), inscribed on the
Amoghapasa inscription dated 1347 CE. The term was used by
Adityawarman to refer to
Dharmasraya. Territorial identification of Malay is of ancient origin. Various foreign and local records show that
Melayu (Malay) and its similar sounding variants appear to apply as an old toponym to the ancient
Straits of Malacca region in general. {{quote box|salign=right|width=35% In the 15th century, the term gradually developed into an
ethnonym throughout the consolidation of
Melaka Sultanate as a regional power.
Tome Pires, an apothecary who stayed in Melaka from 1512 to 1515, after the
Portuguese conquest, explained how the former Melaka classified merchants calling its port into four groups, of which the Malays or
Melayu did not appear in the list, suggesting they were not then regarded as category outside the Melaka itself. Another term,
Malayos or the 'Sea of Malayu' was espoused by the
Portuguese historian,
Manuel Godinho de Erédia to describe areas under
Malaccan dominance. The area covers the
Andaman Sea in the north, the entire
Strait of Malacca in the centre, a part of
Sunda Strait in the south and the western
South China Sea in the east. It was generally described as a
Muslim centre of international trade, with
Malay language as its
lingua franca.
Erédia's description indicates that
Malayos was a geo-religio-sociocultural concept, a concept of geographical unity characterised by the common religious belief and cultural features. An identical term,
Tanah Melayu (literally 'Malay land') is found in various Malay texts, of which the oldest are dating back to the early 17th century. It is frequently mentioned in the
Hikayat Hang Tuah, a well known classical work that began as oral tales associated with the legendary heroes of Melaka Sultanate.
Tanah Melayu in the text is consistently employed to refer to the area under Melakan dominance. In the early 16th century, Tomé Pires coins an almost similar term,
Terra de Tana Malaio for the southeastern part of Sumatra, where the deposed Sultan of Melaka,
Mahmud Shah established his exiled government. {{quote box|salign=right|align=left|width=35% The application of
Tanah Melayu to the
Malay Peninsula entered into the European authorship, when
Marsden and
Crawfurd noted it in their historical works published in 1811 and 1820 respectively. Another important term, the
Malaya, an English term for the Peninsula, was already used in English writings from the early 18th century. Due to the lack of available research, it is difficult to trace the development of the concept of the Malay world as a term which later refers to the
archipelago. However, thus classical territorial identifications are believed to have formed an important antecedent for the future conceptualisation of the Malay world. The term "Alam Melayu" itself did not exist before the 20th century.
Classical Malay literatures between the 14th century to the 20th century never mentioned "Alam Melayu" or any similar term. Instead, the term emerged along with the emergence of the Malay identity and nationality movement after 1930, mentioned in Malay
periodicals such as
Majalah Guru magazine,
Saudara newspaper,
Majlis newspaper, and
Puisi-Puisi Kebangsaan newspaper.
Malay as a racial category The broader concept of Malay world has its origin from the conceptualisation of Malay as a race by the German scientist
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. Blumenbach identified 'Malay' as a subcategory of both the
Ethiopid and
Mongoloid races, and expanded the term to include the native inhabitants of the
Mariana Islands, the
Philippines, the
Maluku Islands,
Sunda Islands,
Indochina, as well as
Pacific Islands like the
Tahitians. This broad conception of Malay was largely derived from the strong presence of
Malay cultural influence, particularly in
linguistic, throughout Southeast Asia at the time of European colonisation. The popularisation of Malay as a racial category was in essence a colonial product, the significant role of which played by the
Spanish since the 17th century and that of the
British since the 18th century in identifying
the Archipelago as the Malay world. The view held by
Thomas Stamford Raffles for example, had a significant influence on English-speakers, lasting to the present day. He should probably be regarded as the most important voice in projecting the idea of a 'Malay' race or nation, not limited to the traditional
Raja-Raja Melayu or even their supporters, but embracing a large if unspecified part of the Archipelago.
William Marsden, another British "merchant-scientist", classified the inhabitants of the Archipelago as Malays, based on religion (
Islam), language (
Malay) and origin.
Malay territoriality in three tiers In the late 19th century, an important innovation was introduced into the political vocabulary of the
Malay language. The word
kerajaan, which had in older times usually meant "king", "royalty" and "kingdom", began to be defined as "government". In the same period, the term
negeri was increasingly being used as a word equivalent to "state", in contrast to its earlier use in court texts more in the sense of a 'settlement' than of a political entity. With growing frequency, publications of the 1870s and 1880s employed the term to refer either to individual
Malay sultanates or any political state in the world beyond the Malay territories.
British historian,
Wilkinson, prefers the term "state" to refer to an administrative or territorial unit in the Malay Peninsula in his time, while he uses the word "kingdom" or "sultanate" for a Malay polity of older times. While Wilkinson often uses "the Peninsula" or "the Malay Peninsula", he also calls the Peninsula "
Malaya." His use of the word "Malaya" occasionally includes not merely the Peninsula under British rule but also its other parts under
Siamese rule. In referring to
the Archipelago, Wilkinson not only uses "the Archipelago" or "the Indian Archipelago", but also "the Malay world", which might have more sociocultural connotations.
Malay historian Abdul Hadi Haji Hassan, who cites
Winstedt's textbooks in his ''Sejarah 'Alam Melayu'' ('History of the Malay world'), had much in common with
Winstedt's view of the Malay world. According to him, the Malay territories are made up of the Malay states,
Malaya and the Malay world in general. Of the 12 chapters in the three volumes of Abdul Hadi's textbook, four chapters focus on the history of the
Malays in
Malaya, while other chapters deal with the history of the Malays in the Malay world generally. It ought to be added that the history of each colony or state (
negeri) in the
Straits Settlements and the
Federated Malay States is explained in the fourth and the fifth volumes of the book written by another Malay historian,
Buyong Adil in 1934 and 1940. Thus, both British and Malay authors conceptualised Malay territoriality in three tiers, that is, the
Malay states,
Malaya and the Malay world.
Malay nationalism The standardisation of geographical knowledge and systematic quantification, served to objectify the territoriality of the Malay community. Early authors in Malaya also developed a Malaya-centric view on the subject, proclaiming Malaya or
Tanah Melayu as the focal point of the Malay territories. This view reflected the substantialisation of the colonial territorial boundary and provided new objectification of space seems to have played an important role in conceiving a potential national territory. It is probable that these three territorial identities, namely, Malay states, Malaya and the Malay world had much to do with the strands of
Malay nationalism. On the one hand, in the late 1930s, Malay aristocrats and their supporters began to organize Malay state associations. For them, Malay states were the focus of territorial identity. In postwar Malaya, these state-based Malay associations were dissolved into a Malaya-based Malay political party, that is, the
United Malays National Organisation. Their territorial identity was gradually shifted from Malay states to Malaya or
Tanah Melayu. On the other hand, in the late 1930s, some Malay non-aristocrat intellectuals formed a pan-Malay-oriented association, that is,
Kesatuan Melayu Muda or Young Malay Union. As shown by its president,
Ibrahim Hj Yaacob, the territorial stretch of their imagined homeland covered the Malay world or the
Malay Archipelago as a whole. ==Modern conception==