Samudera Pasai Sultanate

The Samudera Pasai Sultanate (Malay: كسلطانن سامودرا ڤاساي‎), also known as Samudera or Pasai or Samudera Darussalam or Pacem, was a Muslim kingdom on the north coast of Sumatra from the 13th to the 16th centuries.

Little evidence has been left to allow for historical study of the kingdom. The kingdom was believed to have been founded by Merah Silu, who later converted to Islam and adopted the name Malik ul Salih, in the year 1267 CE. After the 1521 Portuguese invasion, the garrison evacuated Pasai in 1524 and the first Sultan of Aceh, Ali Mughayat Syah, annexed the territory.

Based on the fourteenth century chronicle Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai, 'Samudera' can be inferred to have come from the word "Semudera" ([səmudəra]), which meant 'a very large ant'. The name was given by Merah Silu when he discovered an ant as large as a cat while hunting at a 'high ground'. Eventually, the place was cleared for the establishment of a new state and 'Semudera' was adopted as its name.

'Samudera' is also thought to be derived from the Sanskrit word Samudra, which means "ocean."

Literature also indicates the origin of the name 'Pasai' which came from Si-Pasai, the hunting dog of Sultan Malik al Salleh, who was Merah Silu after his conversion to Islam. The legend narrates that Malik, while hunting with the dog, encountered a deer which was not afraid of the dog's barking but instead barked back. He was bewildered by this and thought that this might be a good sign for the place to be established as a new state for his son, Malik Al Tahir. The dog died soon after the kingdom was founded, and Malik chose to bury him there, naming the kingdom Pasai after him.

In the 14th century, the Italian traveller Odoric of Pordenone used the name Sumoltra for Samudra, and subsequent European writers also used similar forms of the name to refer to the Sumatra island itself.

The earliest inscription found during this period is the tombstone of Ibnu Mahmud in Leubok Tuwe, Meurah Mulia, North Aceh. The tombstone dated from Dhul Hijjah 622 Hijri or 1226 CE. The inscription mentioned that Ibn Mahmud was a shahid.

Arab and Indian Muslims had traded in Indonesia and China for many centuries. A Muslim tombstone in eastern Java bears a date corresponding to 1082. But substantial evidence of Islam in Indonesia begins only in northern Sumatra at the end of the 13th century. Two small Muslim trading kingdoms existed by that time at Pasai and Peureulak or Perlak. A 1297 royal tomb at Samudra is inscribed entirely in Arabic. By the 15th century several harbour kingdoms developed, all ruled by local Muslim princes, from the north coast of Java and elsewhere to as far east as Ternate and Tidore in Maluku. Marco Polo spent five months here, he had Ferlec, Basma, and Samara (Samudera) mentioned in his travel story. Another famous traveller Ibn Battuta on his way to China stayed 15 days at Samudera.