Urduja is asteroid #5749 and also known as 1991 FV. Urduja was discovered by the American astronomer Eleanor Francis (or Kay because such details are close to impossible to be figured out) “Glo” Helin (née Francis) at the Palomar Observatory. Urduja is a member of the Hirayama-family Eos.

Urduja is named after a legendary warrior and princess from the Philippines. She is known from the Tuḥfat an-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār (تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار), also briefly called riḥla (رحلة), which is a travel report from Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (أبو عبد الله محمد بن بطوطة/ ⵉⴱⵏ ⴱⴰⵟⵟⵓⵟⴰ), who was a Berber jurist in Morocco and lived from 1304 until 1368 or 1369 or 1377. The authenticity of his travel report is doubted very much. It describes a pilgrimage to Mecca and all other important places in the Islamic world and also the most interesting places outside the Islamic world.

The scholars, who do serious research, believe that the travel reports plagiarizes several smaller and less known reports and fills the gaps with folklore and fantasy. The name Urduja is derived from the Sanskrit word ūrja (ऊर्ज​), which means breath, life, strength, power, effort, water, and/ or vigour. Most words derived from this word have something to do with power. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (by the way, Europeans aren’t confused by patronyms, but use patronyms themselves from Iceland down to Turkey and up again to Russia) reported to have met Urduja, who shall approximately have lived from 1350 until 1400, on his way from India over Sumadra (which nowadays is Sumatra) to China. Urduja was the daughter of Tawalisi, lord of Tawalisi. She herself was only princess and ruler of Kaylukari, a smaller territory within the land Tawalisi. Her father had a fleet and planned to use it for freeing China from the Mongols. Princess Urduja was multilingual, spoke Turkish perfectly, impressed Ibn Baṭṭūṭa with her wealth and with her beauty as well as with her generosity and with her braveness, and also commanded the Kinalakian, which was a troop of warriors. She gave a banquet for Ibn Baṭṭūṭa and his crew and then gave Ibn Baṭṭūṭa clothes and provisions for the travel to China. The Kinalakian was, depending on the interpreter, a female-only or a mixed troop of warriors. Urduja planned to lead them to India. Urduja had fought in previous battles. Urduja wished from any suitor to defeat her in battle. She had, according to Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, sworn to marry only the man, who would defeat her in battle. But no suitor ever dared to accept the challenge.

Urduja is the prototype of warrior princesses. Thanks to folklore tales of several cultures plenty of warrior princesses are known. Although even where the land Tawalisi could be located is disputed, Urduja could really have had a role model in reality. The tribe of the Ibaloi in the Philippines know a legendary Urdayan, who had united the provinces Pangasinan and Benguet in an alliance. The provisions, which Urduja gave to Ibn Baṭṭūṭa are also typical for the province Pangasinan, which is in the Ilocos region on the Philippine main island Luzon. But all of the commodities for those provisions are also found on the Indonesian main island Java, where people would be much more likely to support a Muslim crew. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa needed seventeen days from Tawalisi to China. This is the main hint to the location of Tawalisi, although the travel times are the least accurate part of a report, which got composed from other reports and folklore.

Because of the abundance of warrior princesses the need to represent such can hardly be denied. Female warriors were never seen as something unusual before feminists came and twisted history for the sake of their new narratives of the suppression of women. Much fewer women than men become soldiers nowadays or were warriors in the past. But not because women would be inferior! It is because on the one hand women are prone to war addiction and on the other hand because women can much simpler make much better choices in life. Women simply have a different purpose in life than men. But this adds only to the attractiveness of female warriors. It also is the reason why female warriors almost always are of noble rank and not just mercenaries. So Urduja is suitable for representing strong women, who are admired by other women as well as by men. Urduja isn’t representing the type of women, who confuse aggressiveness with strength, she isn’t a feminist (in the modern or postmodern sense)! Urduja instead is strong with grace!