Thread by @uglyluhan

After I tried to explain that Tanah Melayu was not the old name for Malaysia, I'm now getting retweets telling me that Melayu predates Melaka, as if I don't already know. I think this requires a thread on the origin of the term Melayu. Get ready, the racists won't like this

The first point that the alt-right will deny. Before Melayu was an ethnic term, it was locative. Contrary to what racialists believe, China was a country before the people were called Chinese, and Melayu was also a place before it was a people. This is important

It's important because the nature of the Malay language makes this ambiguous. A person from Melayu would be called orang Melayu, thus the beginning of the term in an ethnic sense. People in the Malay Archipelago tended to name their group or land after rivers or mountains

In the case of Melayu, its origin is traced back to Sungai Melayu, a Sumatran river mentioned in Sulalatus Salatin. It's believed that the Melayu kingdom was named after this river, and the ethnic group came to be referred to as Melayu. Seems logical right?

Melayu's exact location is debated. It's most commonly believed to be in Jambi since the two were nearly synonymous. But the Chinese monk Yijing says it was located between Kedah and Palembang, seemingly on the peninsula. In any case, I'll stick to just the word itself

There are a couple of origin theories desperately attempting to tie the word Melayu to some Indonesian language. Within only the last 10 years I've seen the rise in popularity of the Javanese theory. And to be fair, this is mentioned in the Suma Oriental

The story goes that the people were named Melayu because it means "run" in Javanese, and therefore denoted a refugee. Because this is easily countered, the revisionists then claimed that the Melayu river was named for its "running" current. Yeah that sounds reeeal likely

Now the second point that neocons deny: the word Melayu is almost certainly of Indian origin. This is one of those things that used to be taught in schools during my parents' time but is no longer well-known among today's youth and historian wannabes

It goes like this. Malai is the Tamil word for mountain. The Ramayana and Vayu Purana mention a Mahamalaya mountain and Malayadwipa ("Malaya island"). The latter is believed to be Sumatra, the former may be one of the numerous mountains along the west coast

So why mountains? Indian traders used mountains as a beacon when sailing to Southeast Asia. The most famous example is Gunung Jerai which was considered sacred by Kedah Malays until modern times. The allusion to mountains would indicate mountainous Langkasuka rather than Jambi

Now you may ask why I find the Indian origin more likely than Javanese. Well, we actually have records of it. The dubious Javanese theory mentioned by Tome Pires implies that the word Melayu didn't exist before Melaka, which we know to be false

The Indian term Malaiur is corroborated by Ptolemy's Maleu-kolon (from Sanskrit Malayakolam) and the Chinese Malayur (麻里予兒). The terminal R indicates Indian influence at the time of transcription since it doesn't exist in the Javanese or Mandailing word

In all these cases, Melayu represents a location rather than a people. The ethnic group was named after the place of origin, not vice-versa. Marco Polo himself mentions the city of Malaiur and refers to the people as Malaiurs

The Indian origin theory was accepted and taught in the 60s and 70s. Only in the last few decades has it been called into question by revisionist meleis. We don't want to admit that our precious term Melayu was brought by those "pendatang"