The year 1415 is the date of the Chinese reports cited in Dr. Van Naerssen’s chapter De oudste cultuurstroomen in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946) as confirming that, by the early fifteenth century, Islam had spread over the whole north coast of Sumatra — including the future territory of Atjeh — and was also established on the east coast as far as the little sultanate of Aru. Van Naerssen’s wording: “According to Chinese reports from 1415, Islam has already spread over the whole north coast of Sumatra and is also established on the east coast as far as the little realm of Aru with its own Sultan. As the preserved tombs show, Goedjarat remained here the source of culture.”
The 1415 Chinese reports
The 1415 Chinese reports cited by Van Naerssen are part of the wider corpus of Ming-dynasty accounts of the tribute missions to the Sumatran coast — accounts that constitute, alongside the 1297 Cambay-type tombstone of the founder of Samudra and the 1419 grave of Malik Ibrahim at Gresik, the principal external documentary evidence for the early Islamisation of the archipelago. The 1415 reports confirm that, by the early fifteenth century, the religious geography of the Sumatran coast had been transformed: where Marco Polo in 1292 had found only Perlak to be Muslim, by 1415 the whole north coast — including the future Atjeh — had been Islamised, and the east coast sultanate of Aru had its own Muslim Sultan.
Atjeh connection
For the Atjeh-focused reader, the 1415 date marks the moment at which the territory of Atjeh can be documented as lying within the wider Islamic world. The three centuries between the 1297 grave of the founder of Samudra and the 1550 conversion of the Minangkabau via Atjeh are, on Van Naerssen’s account, the period of Atjeh’s gradual rise to dominance over the north Sumatran coast — a rise that the 1415 reports confirm was already well under way by the early fifteenth century.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- oudste cultuurstroomen — oldest cultural streams
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Sumatra — Sumatra
- Goedjarat — Gujarat
- Cambay — Khambhat
- Perlak — Peureulak
- Samudra — Samudra
- Pasei — Pasai
- Pase — Pasai
- Aru — Aru
- Minangkabau — Minangkabau
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
- Acheh
- Aru
- Samudra
- Pasei
- Goedjarat
- Cambay
- 1297
- 1419
- 1550
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- F. H. van Naerssen
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), p. 81 (chapter De oudste cultuurstroomen door Dr. F. H. van Naerssen).