Rengat

Rengat lies on the Indragiri River in eastern Sumatra, where the waterway from the Minangkabau interior approaches the coastal lowlands. It became a seat of the Indragiri kingdom, a Malay polity whose history was closely tied to the river. Boats travelling upstream reached communities of the Kuantan country; downstream lay the routes to the straits and the Malay Peninsula.

The kingdom's court shifted between several centres in the course of its history. By the late seventeenth century Indragiri at Rengat and the Kuantan region were known to merchants across the peninsula for forest products including rattan, resin, honey and aromatic wood. The river carried traders and their goods inland, while Islam spread among communities connected to these routes. The court's authority was rooted in a landscape of riverside settlements rather than in a single walled city.