Merbok is a mukim in

Kuala Muda District The Kuala Muda District is a district in Kedah, Malaysia. Sungai Petani is the administrative center of the district. Kuala Muda district is in close proximity to the border of Kedah and Penang. Apart from Sungai Petani, other major towns in the ...

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman and historically as Queda, is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area of over 9,000 km2, and it consists of the mainland ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. The historical

Bujang Valley The Bujang Valley ( ms, Lembah Bujang) is a sprawling historical complex and has an area of approximately situated near Merbok, Kedah, between Gunung Jerai in the north and Muda River in the south. It is the richest archaeological area in Ma ...

is located here. It is also the location for the

Universiti Teknologi MARA The MARA Technological University ( Malay: ''Universiti Teknologi MARA''; Jawi: اونيۏرسيتي تيكنولوڬي مارا; abbr. UiTM) is a public university based primarily in Shah Alam, Selangor. It was established to help rural Mala ...

Campus (UiTM Merbok/Sungai Petani).

Etymology

The town derived its name from an archaic Langkasuka-Malay language, which means "the declaratory place". Based on the ancient

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa ( Jawi: حكاية مروڠ مهاوڠسا ), alternatively spelt Hikayat Marong Mahawangsa and also known as the Kedah Annals, is a Malay literary work that gives a romantic account of the history and tales relating ...

, the declaration of Islam being the state religion of the

Kedah Kingdom By around 788 BCE, a large settlement had been established on the northern bank of the Merbok River. The settlement was one of several in the Bujang Valley, covering the Merbok and Muda Rivers, about 1000 square miles. The Merbok settlement wa ...

was done in Merbok estuary port, which situated close to the kingdom's capital during the area, ''Bukit Meriam'' (Cannon Hill). This is in contrast from the popular belief that the name owed its origin from the local ''burung merbok'' ( zebra dove).

External links

Suara burung website

Suara burung website
Kuala Muda District Mukims of Kedah {{Kedah-geo-stub