Lamuri

Who holds it

Name

not known: the chief of Lamuri

Title

Lord or headman of Lamuri

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

Lord in 1200

not known: the chief of Lamuri

How things stand that morning

Not recorded. A working port whose chief is unnamed.

Council

No headman, judge or council is named in any source.

Communities

Arab and Persian merchants are probable here (the coast is known to Arab geographers from the ninth century); no quarter, no headman and no Muslim ruler is attested for 1200.

Fairs and markets

None known; trade follows the monsoon.

Militia

No source.

Walls and castle

A walled headland at Lamreh (board; the walls are not dated).

Trade and crafts

Sappanwood, ivory and white rattan (Zhufan zhi, about 1225); provisions for fleets from the Aceh plain; a wait for the wind.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1211 (608 AH)The gravestone at Lamreh read as dated 608 AH, of Sulaiman ibn Abdullah ibn al-Basir, would be the earliest Muslim ruler's grave in Southeast Asia, if the reading holds.Depends on: The reading of the stone, which is disputed, and a Muslim ruler of Lamuri; neither is shown for 1200. Stopped by: A different reading of the stone, or no such ruler. Treat it as a question, not a fact.
2. about 1225The Zhufan zhi of Zhao Rukuo lists Lan-wu-li among the fifteen dependencies of San-fo-ts'i.Depends on: Reports gathered from shipmasters; it describes the trade of the early 1200s. Stopped by: Nothing; it is a notice, not an event.

Places of note

• Lambaro (the Aceh river candidate): The other candidate site of Lambri, on the rice plain of the Aceh river.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board marks Lambri 'contested'; right. The brief reads Arabic Ramni as Lamuri. The Zhufan zhi lists Lan-wu-li among San-fo-ts'i's dependencies (names only; hearsay of about 1225), so the January position is open. Marco Polo's winter at Lambri is 1292 and later.

Evidence: Fair for the port (three foreign notices from 1025 to about 1225); nothing for 1200 itself.

"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