Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The early description of Malacca

It is important to know how Malacca looks like before this project can start. There are several earliest recorded history that is available now written by travelers from east and west.

I shall start by a travel log by Ma Huan.

He was a Muslim voyager and translator who accompanied Admiral Zheng He on three of his seven expeditions to the Western Oceans. The title of the log is

"Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan: ’- The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores’ (1433) "

The dates this log was written is 1433. It is the most earliest recorded history of how Malacca looks like during those time.

Malacca Reloaded

Back to 15th century, it was the largest port in the world. The port turned into a city is named as Melaka. In English, it is called Malacca. In China, it is known as Ma-lan-chia. In Arab, they called it Malakat.

For 100 years, it stood there, until in 1511 when the Portuguese attacked and occupied Malacca for 130 years. The Sultan Palace was burnt down. The Great Mosque was destroyed. Even the tomb are torn into pieces. The history of Malacca was erased and Portuguese then built one of the most strongest bastion from the remaining destroyed building. It is named as A Famosa.

This is a individual project by me to rebuilt the Malacca City at her glory time during the Sultan Muzaffar rules. The first thing to do is to gather all information by trailing back the history of Malacca from various sources.

Lets begin.