Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world located in Indonesia, with an area of 473,481 km². The population of this island is around 57,940,351 (census 2018). This island is also known by other names namely Percha Island, Andalas, or Suwarnadwipa (Sanskrit, meaning "golden island"). Then in the 1286 Padang Roco Inscription carved swarnnabhūmi (Sanskrit, meaning "golden land") and bhūmi mālayu ("Tanah Melayu") to refer to this island. Furthermore, in the Negarakertagama text from the 14th century, it also again called "Bumi Malayu" (Malay) for this island.
The origin of the name Sumatra originated from the existence of the Kingdom of the Ocean (located on the east coast of Aceh). Beginning with the visit of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan adventurer to the country in 1345, he recited the word Samudera into Samatrah, and later became Sumatra, then this name is listed in 16th-century Portuguese maps, to be referred to on this island, so later it was known to expand to the present. [1]
The origin of the name Sumatra originated from the existence of the Kingdom of the Ocean (located on the east coast of Aceh). Beginning with the visit of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan adventurer to the country in 1345, he recited the word Samudera into Samatrah, and later became Sumatra, then this name is listed in 16th-century Portuguese maps, to be referred to on this island, so later it was known to expand to the present. [1]
The original name of Sumatra, as recorded in historical sources and folktales, is "Golden Island". The term Ameh Island (Minangkabau language, meaning golden island) we find in the story of Cindua Mato from Minangkabau. In Lampung folklore, there is a name for the mas, to refer to the island of Sumatra. A traveler from China named I-tsing (634-713) who for many years settled in Sriwijaya (present-day Palembang) in the 7th century, called Sumatra by the name chin-chou which means "land of gold".
In various inscriptions, Sumatra is referred to in Sanskrit with the terms: Suwarnadwipa ("golden island") or Suwarnabhumi ("golden land"). These names have been used in Indian texts before Christ. Buddhist scriptures, including the oldest, the Book of Jataka, tell Indian sailors to cross the Bay of Bengal to Suwarnabhumi. In the Ramayana story the search for Dewi Sinta, Rama's wife who was kidnapped by Rahwana, reaches Suwarnadwipa.
Arab travelers refer to Sumatra as "Serendib" (precisely: "Suwarandib"), a transliteration of the name Suwarnadwipa. Abu Raihan Al-Biruni, a Persian geographer who visited Srivijaya in 1030, said that the country of Srivijaya was located on the island of Suwarandib. But there are also people who identify Serendib with Sri Lanka, which was never called Suwarnadwipa.
Among ancient Greeks, Sumatra was known as Taprobana. The name Taprobana Insula was used by Klaudios Ptolemy, the Greek geographer of the second century AD, precisely in 165, when he described the Southeast Asian region in his Geographical Hyphegesis. Ptolemy wrote that on the island of Taprobana there was the land of Barousai. Perhaps the country intended was Barus on the west coast of Sumatra, which was famous since ancient times as a producer of camphor.
The 70th Greek manuscript, Periplous test Erythras Thalasses, reveals that Taprobana is also nicknamed chryse nesos, which means 'island of gold'. Since ancient times traders from the area around the Mediterranean Sea have come to the archipelago, especially Sumatra. Besides looking for gold, they looked for incense (Styrax sumatrana) and camphor (Dryobalanops aromatica) which at that time only existed in Sumatra. On the contrary, even the archipelago traders had peddled their commodities to West Asia and East Africa, as stated in the Historia Naturalis script by Plini in the first century AD.
In the book of Jews, Melakim (Kings), chapter 9, explained that Prophet Sulaiman a. the king of Israel received 420 talents of gold from Hiram, the king of Tire who was his subordinate. The gold was obtained from the country of Ophir. The Book of Al-Qur'an, Surat Al-Anbiya '81, explains that the ships of the Prophet Solomon sailed to "the land that We bless upon him" (al-ardha l-lati barak-Na fiha).
Many historians argue that the Ophir country is located in Sumatra (Mount Ophir in West Pasaman, West Sumatra, which is now called Mount Talamau?). It should be noted, the city of Tire is a marketing center for goods from the Far East. Ptolemy also wrote a Geographical Hyphesis based on information from a Tire merchant named Marinus. And many European adventurers in the 15th and 16th centuries sought gold in Sumatra assuming that there lies the country of Ophir of Solomon a.s.
