Malay river-mouth ports (a colour, not a state)

Who rules

Title

Port chiefs and river-mouth headmen, none named

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

A colour, not a state. It stands for the river-mouth ports whose overlord no source names in 1200: Kedah to Johor on the peninsula, Aceh to Siak and Kota Cina on Sumatra, and Barus on the camphor coast.

Overlord

None named. Some ports may pay Jambi (the Zhufan zhi of about 1225 lists Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan, Kampar and Lamuri among San-fo-ts'i's dependencies), some pay nobody.

What the realm holds

• Pilotage over river bars, and the right to charge harbour dues
• Landings where upriver gold, tin, resin and camphor change hands
• Fresh water and shelter on the long crossings
• Locally, market tolls

How it was acquired

Not applicable.

Allies and rivals

The Orang Laut who pilot and escort; the Chinese shipmasters who winter; the Tamil, Arab and Persian traders; the paramount court of Sanfoqi, if it exists.

The realm that morning

No state. The ports act for themselves; some pay a distant court a tribute whose terms no source gives. The Muslim traders in the northern ports are guests, not rulers; no Muslim ruler is attested before 1211 (a disputed stone) and 1297.

Wealth

Tin, gold, camphor, benzoin, pepper (north, doubtful for 1200), aloeswood and eaglewood, iron; bird's nests are not shown for the age.

Military

Boats and the goodwill of the sea peoples; no fortress of the age is known on the straits.

Threats

• Raiding by sea peoples who are not on the port's side
• The monsoon and the bar
• A new paramount court

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. 1211The Lamreh gravestone of Sulaiman ibn Abdullah ibn al-Basir (608 AH), if read as dated 1211, is the earliest Muslim ruler's grave in the region.Depends on: The reading of the stone, which is disputed; the stone is a question only. Stopped by: A later reading.
2. 1292 to 1297Marco Polo finds Muslim Perlak, Basma (Samudra) and Lambri; Malik al-Salih's stone is dated 696 AH (1297).Depends on: Conversion of the northern ports during the thirteenth century. Stopped by: No conversion.
3. about 1400Melaka is founded.Depends on: A Malay prince leaving Temasek and the Ming court's favour; both are far off. Stopped by: No such prince.

Places of note

• Kota Cina: Excavated trading settlement behind the Deli mouth.
• Pengkalan Bujang: Wharf site of old Kedah.
• Barus: Camphor port of the western coast.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board (powers.txt) says 'Muslim traders are in the northern ports. There is no Muslim state, and will not be for eighty years.' This record agrees: guests, not rulers.
• The campaign board gives Kota Cina and Lobu Tua as 'secure'. Kota Cina's dated life is the twelfth to fourteenth century (McKinnon); Lobu Tua is reported abandoned about the turn of the twelfth century (Miksic): see the town records.

Evidence: The one place where thin is the honest word for the whole class: ceramics, a few stones, later lists.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Seeds only; each small disc stands for the near land of one port. The ground between is the peoples' or contested.

Primary sources for this realm

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