Lombok

Lombok lies between Bali and Sumbawa, separated from each by a strait. Mount Rinjani rises above its northern lands, while smaller islands dot its coasts. The island's Sasak communities were long governed by local princes, and the fourteenth-century Nagarakretagama names “Lombok Mirah” among the places associated with Majapahit.

Before the seventeenth century Lombok was divided among competing small states. Balinese rulers took advantage of their divisions to establish control in the west, while Makassarese forces from Sumbawa entered the east. The Dutch first visited in 1674 and concluded a treaty with a Sasak princess. By the middle of the eighteenth century Balinese rulers had extended their power across the island, but quarrels among them divided it into rival kingdoms. Sasak village institutions survived under the new rulers, even as local aristocrats lost land and authority.

The later city of Mataram lies here.