nd, failing to find another Muslim (i.e. another sober) partygoer with whom to compare and confirm, phonetically recording people’s names (the written Philippine Baybayin script of the time was in any event based upon a phonetic, sanskrit style alphabet) for future transcription.
The only argument that seems to be potentially in favor of the naysayers is the nevertheless huge question of whether Dr. Jose Rizal’s computation of the distances, detailed in Batuta’s travelogue, cause the Kingdom of Tawalisi to be headquartered in or near Pangasinan. Despite a thorough trawl of literature referenced on the subject of Princess Urduja and Tawalisi, it seems nobody has been able to use Batuta’s records to definitively relocate the Kingdom.
And what of the source: Ibn Batuta -- a Moroccan born, Islamic lawyer turned travel writer. Have his other words from the same and subsequent manuscripts been questioned for their accuracy? Whilst some have suggested that he may have added some color to certain items in his chronicles, nobody has discredited his texts to the point that
any of his work is dismissed as fanciful or fiction. In fact his work has been hailed in most quarters as a “valuable record” of South East Asia at that time. If final confirmation is necessary, the renowned Philippine artist Fernando Amorsolo famous for his vivid scenes of everyday rural life and depictions of the beautifully romantic countryside in oil on canvas, saw the Princess as a fitting subject for a number of works. We are pleased to be able to reproduce one here with the kind permission of the current owner, Ms. Dorothy Francy. Thus, without veraciously tested evidence being offered to the contrary, it is my belief that Tawalisi, Princess Urduja, her "red-breasted warriors” and their descendants are integral parts of this patchwork quilt of an archipelago that the Spanish deemed worthy and desirable as conquest.
Long live the Princess!