Did Pharaoh Have a Palace in the Nusantara?

Problem Statement: Does the Qur’an Present Two Narratives That Seem to Contradict Each Other?

The Qur’an describes a major event in the history of the Children of Israel, namely their departure with Prophet Musa from the land of Pharaoh. Verses such as Surah ash-Shu‘arā’ 26:52–68, Surah Ṭāhā 20:77–78, and Surah al-Baqarah 2:50 emphasise that Allah commanded Musa to lead his people out until they crossed the sea and Pharaoh was drowned.

These verses, on the surface, give the impression that the entire Children of Israel left together with Musa. This general impression arises because the Qur’an highlights the command to leave and the journey towards the sea.

However, when readers examine other verses, they find that the Qur’an also states that the Children of Israel inherited the houses, gardens, land and buildings of Pharaoh after he was drowned. This raises a serious question. Not because the verses contradict one another, but because readers who do not examine the linguistic structure and context of the Qur’an may feel as though there are two different narratives that are difficult to reconcile.

One of the clearest examples is Surah ash-Shu‘arā’ 26:57–59:

فَأَخْرَجۡنَٰهُم مِّن جَنَّٰتࣲ وَعُیُونࣲ
“We drove them (Pharaoh and his people) out from gardens and springs”

وَكُنُوزࣲ وَمَقَامࣲ كَرِیمࣲ
“and from treasures and noble dwellings.”

كَذَٰلِكَ ۖ وَأَوۡرَثۡنَٰهَا بَنِی إِسۡرَ ٰ⁠ءِیلَ
“Thus We made the Children of Israel inherit all of that.”

Surah ash-Shu‘arā’ 26:57–59

This verse raises a major question:

How could the Children of Israel inherit the buildings and land of Egypt if they had all already left Egypt?

If the entire Children of Israel left together with Musa, then who remained behind to receive the physical “inheritance” mentioned by Allah? Moreover, the Qur’an emphasises that Pharaoh’s people were drowned in their entirety.

So who remained in Egypt?

Who, then, received that inheritance?

Besides Surah ash-Shu‘arā’ 26:57–59, another frequently cited verse on inheritance is Surah al-A‘rāf 7:137:

وَأَوۡرَثۡنَا ٱلۡقَوۡمَ ٱلَّذِینَ كَانُوا۟ یُسۡتَضۡعَفُونَ مَشَارِقَ ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَمَغَارِبَهَا

“And We made the oppressed people (the Children of Israel) inherit the eastern regions of the earth and its western regions…”

Surah al-A‘rāf 7:137

If this verse indicates that the Children of Israel inherited the eastern and western regions, then how does one explain the inheritance of the houses, gardens and buildings of Pharaoh located in Egypt, which lies in the central zone?

This leads us to several further questions:

• If only a portion of the Children of Israel left with Musa, then the common understanding of the Red Sea crossing must be re-examined.
• If the inheritance occurred in another region, why does the Qur’an mention Pharaoh’s buildings explicitly?
• If all the Children of Israel left, then the inheritance in Egypt becomes even more difficult to understand.

Furthermore, modern historical records show that the Children of Israel never ruled Egypt, even temporarily. This opens up additional questions:

• Is it true that all the Children of Israel believed in and followed Musa at the same time?
• Is it possible that some of the Children of Israel remained in Egypt or in other territories under Egyptian control?
• Could Pharaoh have had buildings, cities or colonies outside Egypt that fall under the category of this “inheritance”?

All these questions lead us to a much deeper intellectual inquiry. What appears to be a difference between two sets of Qur’anic verses may in fact be unveiling a new discourse about a major movement of the Children of Israel that has never been examined before.

If the inheritance occurred in Egypt, who inherited it?

If the inheritance occurred in the eastern and western regions, who moved into those regions?

If some of the Children of Israel remained in Egypt while others departed, what was the true purpose of that movement?

Was it an ordinary migration, or was it part of a historical mandate set by Allah?

At this point, one unavoidable question emerges:

Are these inheritance verses actually indicating that the movement of the Children of Israel did not end in the Sinai desert, but continued further east to take over territories that were once under the power of Pharaoh including the possibility of ancient Egyptian colonies in the Malay Archipelago?

This inquiry is not meant to alter Qur’anic revelation, but to open a research path suggesting that the history of the Red Sea event in the Qur’an may be far broader than the conventional interpretation. If Egypt possessed a network of colonies, ports or satellite territories to the east through the Punt trade route, then the inheritance mentioned in the Qur’an could refer to a region far larger than Egypt itself.

In other words:

Could the eastern movement of the Children of Israel be part of that inheritance, and could the Nusantara region be included within the eastern lands they were granted?

If so, then the chain of events in Musa’s story must be viewed through a wider lens. Musa’s flight before prophethood may not have been limited to the Sinai or Midian regions as commonly imagined. It may have been a far longer journey eastward toward Egyptian colonies within the Punt and Saba’ networks.

In this context, Musa’s meeting with Prophet Shu‘ayb and his two daughters may have occurred in one of these eastern territories under Egyptian influence — territories that later connected directly to maritime routes leading to the Nusantara. This also helps explain the location of Musa’s encounter with Khidr.

Believe that the information in the Qur’an is truly astonishing. It contains no deficiency and never misrepresents reality or history. We are the ones who must humble ourselves before it. What may appear to be contradictions usually arises from our incomplete understanding. This is why we must never belittle the verses of Allah, for when they are opened one by one, the history we once thought narrow becomes far broader than what the human mind ever imagined.

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