Adi my flatmate is from Tel Aviv (begitu kehendak Tuhan).We are both shopaholics and sebab kampongnya Ithaca ni(tak macam Hamilton atau Adelaide), bas pun dari pukul 5 pm dah tak pergi ke Walmart.Jadi kami buat keputusan ambik taxi pergi ke Walmart pukul 8 pm (Walmart tutup pukul 11 pm tiap2 hari).Harga taxi USD8 and we split cost.Adi and I macam zaman gemilang Andalusia..Yahudi dan Muslim boleh akrab.
Kat Walmart, kami bahagia.It was May who said I'd be infected by Walmartritis kalau kat US.Memang every time I am in the USA, kalau nak cari barang murah, pi ukur Walmart.Satu macam addiction.Satu macam penyakit.But Adi and I felt at home walaupun takda la high fashioned clothes to buy (kita pun tak beli kat Walmart benda2 gini.Kena jaga std la juga, kan?)
I bought a new printer sebab byk benda nak print at home.Kat office takda printer and nak minta guna Prof Stan's, malu. Dia dah baik kasi kongsi bilik.
Semalam ada brown bag by a Historian from Ball State Uni.Dia pakar sejarah maritime SEAsia.Kat sini depa tak percaya dokumen penjelajah2 Arab dan lebih menggunakan accounts by the Chinese jadi byk perkara2 yang kita anggap the truth ditolak mentah2 oleh mereka ini e.g Cheng Ho (yang sekarang dieja Zheng He) bukan Islam.Kata Prof Ball ni, ini semua digunakan utk tujuan tertentu. Beliau sedang mengkaji kepentingan Brunei sebagai bandar pelabuhan sewaktu dgn zaman gemilang Melaka.
Jika para sejarahwan kita pun buat kajian kita sendiri tanpa bergantung akan findings dari Barat (mereka ni go back to findings from shipwrecks, fakta2 dari batu nesan, hasil2 archaelogy, etc utk mengiyakan sebarang claims tentang sejarah.Kita tidak harus biarkan sejarah kita dibentuk/diubah dari jauh)
1 comment:
A friend from Atlanta wrote this:
To the Muslims, China was never remote. Europe came across India
and China starting only in the 1400's and 1500's during the age of explorations, whereas people of the Middle East have ventured out to the East even before Islam. How do you explain the Horus ancient Egyptian symbol on on one of the deeper levels of Borobodur and the existence of ancient Egyptian words in Malay, such as 'hati' and 'hari'?
Please read Dr. Haji Yusuf Chang's
article in JMBRAS, Vol. 61, Part 2, 1988. The title of the article is,"The Ming Empire: Patron of Islam in China and Southeast-west
Asia." Officially Muslim presence in China started during the Omayyad
Caliphate(661-750 AD). During the rule of one of the Caliphs, diplomatic relations were established with the T'ang Dynasty (618-907 AD).The first mosque was established in the capital of X'ian and it still stands to
this day. Muslim communities flourished in the main cities and ports.One of the ports was called 'Zaitoon' which in Chinese was Tien Tzin if I am not mistaken. When Ibn Batuta visited China, Muslims had been
around for centuries. Muslims enjoyed special favors under Kublai Khan when China was under Mongol rule. A lot of the government officials and soldiers were Muslims from Central Asia and the Middle East.
When the Mongol dynasty collapsed in 1368, there was chaos with warlords ruling various parts of the country. The most important of the several regional armies were headed by Muslim generals. It was from one of these armies that Ming T'ai Tsu, a Muslim, emerged to become the unifier of China and the first emperor of the new Ming dynasty, which lasted until 1688.
We have a lot to discuss, especially about Ming China's relationship and role with the founding of Malacca.
Ma'assalam.
Z
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