A small roadstead behind a bar that sells the most valuable forest product of the age.
Sumatran camphor crystallises inside the trunk of one tree that grows well in the Batak forests behind this coast and almost nowhere else, and it is priced by weight against silver from Cairo to Canton; benzoin goes out with it. Arabic writers know Fansur from the ninth century; the Zhufan zhi lists Pin-su among camphor lands. The Batak bring the camphor down and the buyers wait on the beach.
Whoever holds Barus holds a monopoly on a substance nobody can grow elsewhere, but no source says who holds it in 1200.
Who holds it
- Name
- Chief of Barus: not known
- Title
- Lord or headman of Barus
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
Chief of Barus: not known
How things stand that morning
A working roadstead. The Tamil guild town at Lobu Tua is probably in ruins; the later settlement lies on the hill at Bukit Hasang (mid-twelfth century).
Wealth
Camphor, benzoin.
Council
No headman, judge or council is named in any source.
Communities
Arab and Persian merchants lodge here in the Arabic sources of the ninth and tenth centuries; the Tamil guild of Lobu Tua (1088) just to the north; no Muslim ruler is attested.
Fairs and markets
None known; trade follows the monsoon.
Militia
No source.
Walls and castle
No wall or citadel is known.
Trade and crafts
Camphor and benzoin from the Batak, bought on the beach; salt, iron and cloth in exchange.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board's Muslim graves of Barus (Papan Tinggi, Mahligai) have no confirmed dates; the Wikipedia article gives none; later or unverified.
Evidence: Fair: Arabic and Chinese texts and excavation; no source names a lord of 1200.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
Primary sources for Malay ports
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
- The Grahi (Chaiya) Buddha inscription and the Tambralinga records, Various (the officers of Grahi and the kings of Tambralinga), edited by George Coedes (the Chaiya bronze Buddha inscription 1183; the Nakhon Si Thammarat records 13th century; edited 1929, revised 1961). The peninsula in 1200 has one near-contemporary dated text: the Old Khmer inscription on the base of a bronze Buddha from Wat Hua Wiang at Chaiya, dated 1183, which records the image's casting by order of the mahasenapati Galanai, governor of Grahi, under the king Srimat Trailokyaraja Maulibhusanavarmadeva, a name that is argued to be either a Malayu (Srivijaya) overlord or a local king.
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (English): Barus
- C. Guillot (ed.), Lobu Tua, Sumatra's oldest Tamil site (2003) and Histoire de Barus, read from memory, not rechecked
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.