Sultan Malik at-Tahir of Pasej was the Pasej sultan who received the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta in 1345/1346 for fifteen days at his capital Sjemoe-t or Samatra, four miles inland from the port of Sarha. He is the first named ruler of the Pasej-Samudra sultanate — the north Sumatran polity whose absorption by the Atjehnese sultanate in the early sixteenth century extinguished the Pasej line — and his portrait in the Rihla is the only sustained Arabic-language picture of a pre-Atjehnese north Sumatran ruler.
Reception of Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta, arriving at Sarha from Bengal and proceeding inland to the capital Sjemoe-t, was hospitably received by Sultan Malik at-Tahir. The sultan, Ibn Battuta records, was “an zealous warrior of the holy war with the infidels in the interior”, whose slaving raids against the inland heathen brought him profitable spoil that sold well. He stayed with the sultan fifteen days before proceeding by junk to Moel Djawa.
Place in the Pasej-Atjeh succession
The Pasej-Samudra sultanate, of which Sultan Malik at-Tahir is the first named ruler in Arabic record, was the north Sumatran Islamic polity whose succession the Atjehnese sultanate extinguished in the early sixteenth century. The fall of Pasej to the Portuguese in 1521 — which drove the Paseier Faletahan to Java — and the Atjehnese sultanate’s absorption of the coast are the events that closed the Pasej line. Sultan Malik at-Tahir’s reception of Ibn Battuta in 1345/1346 is thus the high-point of the Pasej sultanate before its long decline.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Sultan Malik at-Tahir is the first named ruler of the Pasej sultanate — the polity whose absorption by the Atjehnese sultanate frames the early-modern history of north Sumatra. His reception of Ibn Battuta is the principal external witness to the Pasej court, and his reputation as a warrior of the faith fixes the Pasej sultanate’s self-image as a frontier Islamic state against the inland heathen.
See Also
- Pasej-Samodra
- Ibn Battuta
- Moel Djawa
- Faletahan
- Aceh Sultanate
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Over Sjahroe’n Noewi”, pp. 29-31.
Sultan Malik at-Tahir of Pasej was the Pasej sultan who received the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta in 1345/1346 for fifteen days at his capital Sjemoe-t or Samatra, four miles inland from the port of Sarha. He is the first named ruler of the Pasej-Samudra sultanate — the north Sumatran polity whose absorption by the Atjehnese sultanate in the early sixteenth century extinguished the Pasej line — and his portrait in the Rihla is the only sustained Arabic-language picture of a pre-Atjehnese north Sumatran ruler.
Reception of Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta, arriving at Sarha from Bengal and proceeding inland to the capital Sjemoe-t, was hospitably received by Sultan Malik at-Tahir. The sultan, Ibn Battuta records, was “an zealous warrior of the holy war with the infidels in the interior”, whose slaving raids against the inland heathen brought him profitable spoil that sold well. He stayed with the sultan fifteen days before proceeding by junk to Moel Djawa.
Place in the Pasej-Atjeh succession
The Pasej-Samudra sultanate, of which Sultan Malik at-Tahir is the first named ruler in Arabic record, was the north Sumatran Islamic polity whose succession the Atjehnese sultanate extinguished in the early sixteenth century. The fall of Pasej to the Portuguese in 1521 — which drove the Paseier Faletahan to Java — and the Atjehnese sultanate’s absorption of the coast are the events that closed the Pasej line. Sultan Malik at-Tahir’s reception of Ibn Battuta in 1345/1346 is thus the high-point of the Pasej sultanate before its long decline.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Sultan Malik at-Tahir is the first named ruler of the Pasej sultanate — the polity whose absorption by the Atjehnese sultanate frames the early-modern history of north Sumatra. His reception of Ibn Battuta is the principal external witness to the Pasej court, and his reputation as a warrior of the faith fixes the Pasej sultanate’s self-image as a frontier Islamic state against the inland heathen.
See Also
- Pasej-Samodra
- Ibn Battuta
- Moel Djawa
- Faletahan
- Aceh Sultanate
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Over Sjahroe’n Noewi”, pp. 29-31.