ARABIC linguistic specialist-turned-historian historian without credential Prof Dr Solehah Yaacob is back with yet another mind-boggling archaeological revelation – the iron ore found in Kedah is related to meteors and that the Gunung Jerai surrounding is among the areas that received meteoric impacts in the past.
Her latest findings also debate the relatively sloping terrain of Kedah to geological structures in relation to the existence of iron resources found within the Sungai Batu vicinity in the Kuala Muda district near Merbok and Bedong.
This could well be the latest of eight if not more controversial claims by the International Islamic University Malaysia’s (IIUM) senior academician that defies modern day historical, archaeological, anthropological and sociological knowledge realms.
Political commentator and the inaugural director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania Prof James Chin in a recent assessment of his IIUM academic peer following the list-down of her so-called “8 controversial claims” by the SEA History and Heritage site passed this remark:
I’ve nothing meaningful to add, I’m simply not operating at her level. All I can share is that this poster has already been viewed 800K times as of this morning.
She’s clearly gaining significant traction among the Malay community and is now running paid boat-cruise tours that she personally leads.
These cruises are specifically designed to demonstrate and validate her research findings by taking passengers to the very locations that support her claims. I’m not joking.
No unique meteoric shower recorded in Ancient Kedah
For context, Kedah is historically and naturally rich in iron ore with the state having emerged as a major iron mining and smelting centre in Southeast Asia more than 2,000 years ago.
Excavations at the Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex revealed old smelting workshops, furnaces and raw iron ore dating back as early as the sixth century BCE.
Researchers also found large ancient smelting furnaces and processing sites in inland areas like Jeneri (in the Sik dustrict) and Jeniang (in the Kuala Muda district).
This provides valid evidence that Ancient Kedah exported iron ingots and steel weapons to China, India and the Middle East
However, the formation of iron ore in Kedah – particularly around the Gunung Jerai and Bujang Valley region – has been attributed to ancient geological processes involving sedimentary deposition coupled with heat and fluid injection from underground granite intrusions.
This explains how iron minerals like magnetite and hematite accumulated within older metasedimentary rocks such as the quartzites and schists of the Jerai Formation and shales of the Sungai Petani Formation.
As to “meteoric impact”, there has not been any specific ancient texts or local artifacts that documented massive meteor storm during the Ancient Kedah age.
Suffice to say – perhaps – that Ancient Kedah which is touted as the home to the early historical Bujang Valley civilisation shares the same skies over Malaysia that regularly experience annual meteor showers like the Perseids.
To reiterate, there are no specific historical or archaeological records from ancient Kedah (dating from the fifth century onward) documenting a unique or “meteoric shower” event that significantly altered its history or local records.
To believe or not to believe
Interestingly, not everyone takes Prof Solehah’s words at par value despite her clip on Facebook having amassed 5.8K likes, 829 comments, 772 shares and viewed 179K times at the time of writing.
One pious Indonesian commenter even chided the academician who has in numerous occasions made Malaysia a laughing stock that “iron comes from the Kursani, the seat of Allah, not from the sky”.
“The Kursani is the seat of Allah in Srearulmontha, taken by Allah SWT and placed in Adam’s spine, when he was first created. The rest of the Kursani iron was scattered by Allah SWT into the earth and mountains. Not (fallen) from the sky.”
Another, however, wondered if “the Quranic phrase that ‘we sent down iron (to earth)’ mean that iron came from space”.
A seemingly archaeological nerd disputed Prof Solehan’s “meteoric shower” notion by justifying that “the Sungai Batu iron ore is local hematite and magnetite from around Bukit Tupah, the result of weathering of the Jerai formation which is hundreds of millions of years old, not meteoritic material”.
“The USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) team (Mokhtar Saidin et al.) has tested the XRF of the ore samples and the results are consistent with ordinary minerals – there are no traces of nickel-iron or the widmanstätten structure that is characteristic of iron meteorites,” he argued.
Well, Prof Solehah who hails from Pasir Mas, Kelantan does have her share of loyal fans who would praise her for her profound intellectual knowledge.
However, it seems that the number of her deemed ‘secular’ critics overwhelm that of her ‘rightist’ supporters. – Aug 20, 2026
