Samudera Pasai Sultanate

For the town in Burma see Pasai, Burma

Samudera Pasai Sultanate
Samudera Darussalam
1267–1521 →   →
Map of Pasai, at today's Lhokseumawe of Sumatra, Aceh province.
Capital		Pasai
Languages		Malay language
Religion		Sunni Islam
Government		Monarchy
Sultan
•	1267–1297	Malik ul Salih (founder)
•	1514–1517	Zainal Abidin IV (last)
History
•	Coronation	1267
•	Portuguese invasion	1521
Currency		Dirham coins
Today part of		Indonesia

Samudera Pasai, also known as Samudera and Pasai sometimes called Samudera Darussalam was a Muslim harbour kingdom on the north coast of Sumatra from the 13th to the 15th centuries CE. It was believed the word Samudera derived from Samudra meaning ocean in Sanskrit. According to Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai, it was said Merah Silu saw an ant as big as a cat, he caught it and ate it and he named the place Samandara. King Merah Silu later converted to Islam, known as Malik ul Salih, he was the sultan in year 1267 CE.

Little evidence has been left to allow for historical study of the kingdom.^[1]

History

Pasai exported its culture, and most importantly its language — an early form of Malay written in the Jawi alphabet — to a number of islands. Later, this language became the lingua franca among traders in what is now Indonesia and Malaysia.

Arab and Indian Muslims had traded in Indonesia and China for many centuries. A Muslim tombstone in eastern Java bears a date corresponding to 1082. But substantial evidence of Islam in Indonesia begins only in northern Sumatra at the end of the 13th century. Two small Muslim trading kingdoms existed by that time at Pasai and Peureulak or Perlak. A 1297 royal tomb at Samudra is inscribed entirely in Arabic. By the 15th century several harbour kingdoms developed, all ruled by local Muslim princes, from the north coast of Java and elsewhere to as far east as Ternate and Tidore in Maluku. Marco Polo spent five months here, he had Ferlec, Basma, and Samara (Samudera) mentioned in his travel story. Another famous traveller Ibn Battuta on his way to China stayed 15 days at Samudera.

The establishment of the first Muslim centres in Indonesia was probably a result of commercial circumstances. By the 13th century the collapse of Srivijayan power, drew foreign traders harbours on the northern Sumatran shores of the Bay of Bengal, safe from the pirate lairs at the southern end of the Strait of Malacca. Northern Sumatra had a hinterland rich in gold and forest produce, and pepper was being cultivated at the beginning of the 15th century. It was accessible to all the merchants of the archipelago who wanted to meet ships from the Indian Ocean.

Cakra Donya bell was a gift from Zheng He during his voyage to Pasai.

In the year 1345, Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller visited Samudra Pasai where he notes in his travel log that the ruler of Samudera Pasai was a pious Muslim, who performed his religious duties in utmost zeal. The madh'hab he observed was Imam Al-Shafi‘i. At that time Samudera Pasai was the end of Dar al-Islam for no territory east of this was ruled by a Muslim ruler. He praised the kindness and hospitality demonstrated by the sultan of Samudera Pasai. Here he stayed for about two weeks in the wooden walled town as a guest of the sultan, and then the sultan provided him with supplies and sent him on his way on one of sultan's own junks to China.^[2]

By the end of the 14th century, Samudra-Pasai had become a wealthy commercial centre, giving way in the early 15th century to the better protected harbour of Malacca on the south-west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Majapahit attacked and looted the place in the middle of the 14th century.

Pasai's economic and political power depended almost entirely on foreigners. Muslim traders and teachers probably participated in its administration from the beginning and were bound to introduce religious practices that made them feel at home. The first Muslim beachheads in Indonesia, especially Pasai, were to a considerable extent genuine Muslim creations that commanded the loyalty of the local population and encouraged scholarly activities. Similar new harbour kingdoms formed on the northern coast of Java. Tomé Pires, author of the Suma Oriental, writing not long after 1511, stresses the obscure ethnic origins of the founders of Cheribon, Demak, Japara, and Gresik. These Javanese coastal states served commerce with India and China and especially with Malacca, an importer of Javanese rice. The rulers of Malacca, despite their prestigious Srivijayan origin, accepted Islam precisely to attract Muslim and Javanese traders to their port.

The Portuguese occupied Pasai in 1521, 10 years after their conquest of Malacca. Through the Portuguese, the place become known in Europe as Pacem.^[3] Later, the Acehnese took control of Pasai.

List of rulers

Part of a series on the
History of Indonesia
Timeline
Prehistory Java Man 1,000,000 BP Flores Man 94,000 - 12,000 BP Buni culture 400 BCE
Early kingdoms Kutai 300s Tarumanagara 358–669 Kalingga 500s–600s Melayu 600s Srivijaya 600s–1200s Sailendra 800s–900s Sunda 669–1579 Medang 752–1006 Bali 914–1908 Kahuripan 1006–1045 Kediri 1045–1221 Dharmasraya 1183–1347 Singhasari 1222–1292 Majapahit 1293–1500
Rise of Muslim states Spread of Islam 1200–1600 Ternate Sultanate 1257–1914 Samudera Pasai Sultanate 1267–1521 Pagaruyung Kingdom 1347–1833 Brunei Sultanate 1368–1888 Malacca Sultanate 1400–1511 Sulu Sultanate 1405–1851 Cirebon Sultanate 1445–1677 Demak Sultanate 1475–1548 Aceh Sultanate 1496–1903 Banten Sultanate 1526–1813 Kalinyamat Sultanate 1527–1599 Mataram Sultanate 1500s–1700s Surakarta Sunanate 1745–1946 Yogyakarta Sultanate 1755–1945 Siak Sultanate 1725–1946 Deli Sultanate 1814–1946 Riau-Lingga Sultanate 1824–1911
European colonisation Portuguese 1512–1850 Dutch East India Company 1602–1800 French and British interlude 1806–1815 Netherlands East Indies 1800–1942 1945–1950
Emergence of Indonesia National Awakening 1908–1942 Japanese occupation 1942–1945 National Revolution 1945–1950
Independence Liberal democracy 1950–1957 Guided Democracy 1957–1965 Transition 1965–1966 New Order 1966–1998 Reformasi 1998–present
By topic Currency Economy Military
Indonesia portal

These are the list of rulers who ruled the Samudera Pasai Sultanate:-^[4]

See also

• Malikussaleh
• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

References

Further reading

• Hall, Kenneth R. (1981). "Trade and statecraft in the Western Archipelago at the dawn of the European age". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 54 (1): 21–47. JSTOR 41492897. 
• Hall, Kenneth R. (2010). A History of Early Southeast Asia: Maritime Trade and Societal Development, 100–1500. Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-6761-0. 
• Hill, A.H. (1963). "The coming of Islam to North Sumatra". Journal of Southeast Asian History 4 (1): 6–21. JSTOR 20067418.