Ancient Kedah’s Iron Ore Abundance Due to Meteoric Shower?

 

Arabic linguistic specialist-turned-historian without credentials, Prof Dr Solehah Yaacob is back! She has another mind-boggling archaeological revelation –iron ore found in Kedah is related to meteors! Gunung Jerai is among the areas that received meteoric impacts in the past. Her latest findings also debate the relatively sloping terrain of Kedah.

 

This could well be the latest of eight if not more controversial claims by the former International Islamic University Malaysia’s (IIUM) senior academician. It defies modern day historical, archaeological, anthropological and sociological knowledge realms.

 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

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. 

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 district) and Jeniang (in the Kuala Muda district). 

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. 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”. 

She needs attention. And Arabic studies do not give her that. She has no background or clue of history but propagates messages that may be helpful to insecure people. 

Reference:

Prof Solehah: Ancient Kedah’s iron ore abundance due to meteoric shower, not natural formation, Focus Malaysia, 20 August 2026