The old seat.
The Srivijayan inscriptions of 683 to 686 were cut in this bend of the Musi, and the ritual hill of Bukit Seguntang stands above it. The Chola raid of 1025 broke the monopoly. By 1200 it is one great port among several: it commands the Musi, the Bangka narrows and, by claim, the tin islands. The Song record writes the port Bo-lin-bang (Chinese Wikipedia) and the Zhufan zhi writes Pa-lin-fong among San-fo-ts'i's fifteen dependencies; the entry for San-fo-ts'i itself is the Zhufan zhi's description of a harbour kingdom which Hirth and Rockhill placed at Palembang and Wolters at Jambi.
The tide carries a ship up the winding river sixty miles from Sungsang, which is the port's defence and its weakness.
Who holds it
- Name
- Ruler of Palembang: not known
- Title
- Lord or headman of Palembang
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
Ruler of Palembang: not known
How things stand that morning
Not recorded. A great port whose ruler is not named.
Council
No headman, judge or council is named in any source.
Communities
Not recorded; excavated ceramics show Chinese and West Asian trade.
Fairs and markets
None known; trade follows the monsoon.
Militia
No source.
Walls and castle
The canals and artificial islands (Karanganyar) are the known works; the Zhufan zhi's iron chain across the harbour is hearsay of about 1225.
Trade and crafts
Tin of Bangka by claim, rice of the Komering, forest goods and iron down the Musi, ceramics.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board marks Palembang 'contested' (right). The English Wikipedia article on Melayu's statement that Jambi took the lead of Sanfoqi after Palembang weakened in the eleventh century is Munoz's (2006) reading, one reading among others.
Evidence: Fair archaeology (Manguin), thin politics.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
Primary sources for Palembang
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.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- 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
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. 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): Srivijaya
- P.-Y. Manguin, studies of Palembang (Karanganyar, Bukit Seguntang, ceramics), read from memory, not rechecked
- Chinese Wikipedia, San-fo-qi (paraphrase of the Zhufan zhi list of fifteen dependencies)
- F. Hirth and W. W. Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua: his work on the Chinese and Arab trade (1911), table of contents and chapter titles seen; text not reachable
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.