Abhiroop Das
Created by Luca Bernabei, ‘Sandokan‘ follows the eponymous pirate’s adventures through the high seas, as he clashes with colonial forces at the height of his powers. However, following a fated encounter with Marianna Guillonk, daughter of a British Consul, Sandokan is thrust into a dangerous game of chess, one that ends with him reconnecting with his past as the son of a tribal warrior. While he once fought and raided in his self-interest, Sandokan now leads an army of revolutionaries against the oppressors, ultimately succeeding in his conquest. In the final moments of the first season of this Italian action-adventure series, Sandokan and his crew, now several times larger and wealthier, realize that they need a new place for themselves.
Enter Mompracem, a mysterious island that exists completely off the map and is thus the perfect den for the swashbuckler’s new era as a leader. Based on the ‘Sandokan’ novel series by writer Emilio Salgari, the show introduces the island of Mompracem as its central setting, in many ways embodying Sandokan’s identity as a rebel who strikes from the shadows.
Mompracem is a Mythical Secret Island Featured in Emilio Salgari’s Sandokan Series
Mompracem is a semi-fictional island that has largely existed within the realm of mythology before being brought into popular fiction by Italian writer Emilio Salgari, the creator of the ‘Sandokan’ novel series. Starting with the first book in the series, titled ‘The Tigers of Mompracem,’ the island serves as the pirates’ base of operation, specifically chosen for its inaccessibility. This detail is directly adapted to the screen by the show’s writing team, spearheaded by Alessandro Sermoneta, Davide Lentieri, and Scott Rosenbaum. Both the novel and TV series present Mompracem as an enigmatic location with no well-mapped coordinates, and that also happens to be true about the real-life information surrounding the island, which is touted to be situated somewhere around Borneo.
Across historical maps developed between the 16th and 19th centuries, Mompracem finds several mentions, but hardly as many geographical pinpoints. Described as a large, exotic island, it is stated to exist somewhere close to the island of Labuan, though its placement with respect to Borneo’s north-west coast has been contested. Writer Salgari famously used the maps by Friedrich von Stülpnagel as his reference, which placed the island of Mompracem about 75 miles west of Labuan. In the present, Labuan, along with six smaller islands, comprises the federal territory of Labuan, which is likely the best estimate for a modern-day equivalent of the island featured in Salgari’s works.
The Real-Life Island of Kuraman in Malaysia Was Originally Called Mompracem
Notably, most modern maps of the region do not include any island or geographical location known as Mompracem, suggesting that either the island was imaginary to begin with or had already been discovered and renamed by the time the new maps were being created. Robert Nicholl, a cartographer who spent several years researching and developing historical maps of the Borneo region, most likely refers to the real-life Kuraman Island, which is located about 3 miles southwest of Labuan Island. Early Portuguese maps confirm that Kuraman Island was originally called Mompracem, which roughly translates to “breeding grounds,” which might be in reference to the region’s beaches serving as a nesting ground for certain turtle and bird species.
The contradictory narratives about the actual size and location of Mompracem sparked historical debate and speculation, with various cartographers seeking to reconcile the discrepancies. One such cartographer, Johannes van Keulen, reportedly tried to do so in 1740 by drawing the island twice on the same map, once as the smaller island of Mompracem, and then again as the larger shoal region labelled Monphraly. In the present day, the latter location corresponds to the real-life region between Kuala Baram and Muara in Malaysia. Still, the absence of a clear geographical anchor for Mompracem meant that Salgari could fully explore its potential in a fictional story, without requiring geographical accuracy.
While Mompracem may be the name of a real-life island, its depictions within Salgari’s novels are markedly more dramatized. The island that Sandokan calls home in the fictional story is much larger and, more importantly, much more well-hidden than the real-life counterpart, which is less than 0.6 square miles in size, and easily visible from the island of Labuan. Moreover, Kuraman Island finds a separate mention in Salgari’s other novel, ‘Return to Mompracem,’ which clearly estabilishes it as a region distinct from Salgari’s conception of Mompracem. Thus, while the island may have a partial basis in reality, its description, both in the novel and in the show, puts it closer to fiction than fact.
Read More: Sandokan Ending Explained: Does Sandokan Become the Tribe Leader?
