About Terengganu

Terengganu was the first Malay state to accept Islam, as attested to by a stone dated 1303 AD engraved with Roman Arabic inscriptions found in Kuala Berang. The Inscripted Stone (Batu Bersurat) discovered by Sayed Hussein Ghulam Al-Bukhari in 1902 in Kampung Buluh, Kuala Berang bore the word Terenkanu inscribed in Jawi, an Arabic Romanized version.

The stone tablet or famously known as the Batu Bersurat of Terengganu constitutes the earliest evidence of Jawi writings based on Arabic alphabets in the Malay Peninsula. The stone is also the testimony that Islam as the official religion in Terengganu, earlier than the Malacca Sultanate.

The archeological findings at Bewah and Taat caves in Hulu Terengganu were carbon dated to be from the Mesolithic era circa 16,000 years ago proves one of the earliest settlements in the Malay Peninsula. Terengganu was inhabited well before the turn of the first millennium.

There were conflicting versions of how Terengganu got her name. Some associated it to the discovery of an incisor tooth of an unknown origin at a river estuary by a group of royal hunters from a neighbouring state. Thus they called the place 'Taring Anu' where the tooth was found. Another version, the name Terengganu was derived from a very bright rainbow seen by a group of neighbouring royal fleet and proclaimed the land to be 'Terang Ganu (Bright Rainbow). Yet another version implies the river of Terenggan as an important trade route between the coastal settlements and those from inland. Trade flourished with the river as the main transportation link. Inland settlements goes to Sungai Terenggan nu (that way to the coastal) rather than to Sungai Terengganu ni (that way further inland)