Barus

Barus, called Fansur in Arabic sources, was a port kingdom on the west coast of northern Sumatra. Its camphor was prized by merchants, and a Tamil inscription of 1088 attested a trading community there.

The Nagarakretagama of 1365 listed Barus among Majapahit's Malay vassals. Around the mid-sixteenth century Aceh absorbed the port and posted a governor; in 1668 the Dutch East India Company ousted him and took control. The Malay poet Hamzah Fansuri took his name from the town.