A river-mouth port on the east Aceh coast.
Marco Polo's Ferlec is the first dated outside sight of it, in 1292 (the English Wikipedia article on the Peureulak Sultanate says 1291): he finds Saracen merchants whose faith has made converts in the town. The same article gives a founding of the sultanate on 1 Muharram 225 AH (840) and a first sultan, but it cites no stone, coin or excavation, and its further support is the Hikayat Aceh, which has an Arab teacher spreading Islam in the north in 1112, and a Zhufan zhi passage that 'perhaps' means Peureulak; that date is tradition and is not used here. Arab and Persian merchants called on the coast long before 1200.
Whether any ruler already followed Islam on 1 January 1200 is not known.
Who holds it
- Title
- Lord or headman of Perlak
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
not known: no source names a lord, governor or headman for 1 January 1200
How things stand that morning
Not recorded. The place works; who speaks for it is not known. A Muslim merchant community is likely (inference), a Muslim ruler is not attested.
Where the sources disagree
- No board place exists for Perlak (the lord record Chief of Perlak and this record are our own). The tradition of a sultanate from 840 is rejected as legend.
Evidence: Thin: a tradition and a later traveller; no stone or dig that we could reach.
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): Peureulak Sultanate
- OMNIA board note (a lead only, checked against the sources above)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.