A funnel estuary that runs a tidal bore up its own channel twice a day, used by boatmen and fatal to strangers.
It is the sea end of the road to Muara Takus and the northern gold country. Hirth and Rockhill read Kien-pi, one of the fifteen dependencies of San-fo-ts'i in the Zhufan zhi (about 1225), as Kampar; the English Wikipedia article on Melayu reads it as Jambi. If it is Kampar, the shipmasters of 1225 thought of it as a place of its own.
Who holds it
- Title
- Lord or headman of The Kampar mouth
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Claimed by Jambi on the evidence of the Zhufan zhi list; no source of 1200 shows it.
Council
No headman, judge or council is named in any source.
Communities
Not recorded.
Fairs and markets
None known; trade follows the monsoon.
Militia
No source.
Walls and castle
No wall or citadel is known.
Trade and crafts
Gold and highland goods from Lima Puluh Kota; forest goods from the lowlands.
Where the sources disagree
- The later Malay chiefdom of Pekantua (board pelalawan-pekantua) is not yet; in 1200 it is a landing on a route.
Evidence: Thin: one Zhufan zhi name (about 1225), whose reading is disputed.
Primary sources for Malayu
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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Wikipedia (English): Melayu Kingdom
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.