Names of Java

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The island of Java has been referred to by a variety of names throughout its history. These names reflect the changing knowledge about Java of peoples throughout Eurasia, sometimes drawing on legendar

Kota Kapur inscription, issued in 686 AD, contains an early attestation of the toponym Jawa.

Java rendered as 爪哇 Zhǎowā (bottom left) in Ma Huan's 15th century The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores

Java rendered as Iava Maior in Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1603 Latin edition.

Al-Wakwak

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Al-Wakwak, also spelled al-Waq Waq, Wak al-Wak or just Wak Wak, is the name of an island, or possibly more than one island, in medieval Arabic geographical and imaginative literature.

Names of Java

…writers; after Ibn Khordadbeh, "no more is heard of Jāba, unless the name is echoed in the later name of Jāwa". Another name used in Arabic sources is Wāqwāq (Arabic: واق واق), which was used as a label for certain islands of maritime southeast Asia in maps such as Tabula Rogeriana by Al-Idrisi. Like Zābaj…

The Queen of the island of Waqwaq, folio from Walters manuscript W.659

Derived ultimately from a conflation of medieval Persian and Qur'anic sources, including descriptions of the mythical island of Waq-waq inhabited by half-plant/half-animal creatures, this painting depicts a plant that brings forth animal life in multiple forms. Early 1600s, Mughal India. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Waqwaq tree illustration, Book of Wonders (14th century manuscript) by Abu l-Hasan al-Isfahani