Pasai
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Map of Pasai. (at today's Lhokseumawe of Sumatra, Aceh province.) |
Pasai, also known as
Samudera and
Samudera-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 Samandara, Semut Besar (big ant) in Malay. 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, his is the sultan in year 1267 CE.
Pasai exported its culture, and most importantly its language â€" an early form of
Malay written in the
Jawi alphabet â€" to a number of islands. Later, this language became the
lingua franca among traders in what is now
Indonesia and
Malaysia. Pasai is believed derived from
Parsi, Pase or Parsee, immigrants of Parsi-Indian to the west coast of India namely Gujarat, and later to northern Sumatra of today's Aceh province.
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. 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 in order to attract Muslim and Javanese traders to their port.
The
Portuguese occupied Pasai in 1521, 10 years after their conquest of Malacca.
*
Malik ul Salih*
Malaysian Mamak
