Pasai

Pasai stood on the north coast of Sumatra, near the modern Lhokseumawe, as the first Muslim port of the Indonesian archipelago that left lasting records. Its founder Merah Silu took the name Sultan Malik al-Salih, and a tomb of 1297 at Samudra is inscribed wholly in Arabic. The hinterland supplied gold and forest produce, and by the end of the thirteenth century the harbour met ships from the Bay of Bengal with merchants of the archipelago. Marco Polo, calling at Samara, and Ibn Battuta both passed through.

Ibn Battuta stayed about two weeks in 1345 in the wooden-walled town as a guest of the sultan, whom he praised as a devout follower of the Shafi'i school; the sultan then sent him on to China in one of his own junks. Pasai was then the easternmost land ruled by a Muslim. Majapahit raided it in the middle of the fourteenth century, and after about 1400 Malacca drew away much of its trade. The Portuguese, who knew the port as Pacem, occupied it in 1521, ten years after taking Malacca. Their garrison withdrew in 1524, and Ali Mughayat Syah of Aceh annexed the territory.