* Professor Kenneth R. Hall, Dept.

* Professor Kenneth R. Hall, Dept. of History, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
47306, USA, khall2@gw.bsu.edu.
1 This study is a substantial retrospective of my paper, ÒThe Coming of Islam to the
Archipelago: A Reassessment,Ó in Economic Exchange and Social Interaction in Southeast
Asia: Perspectives from Prehistory, History, and Ethnography, ed. Karl L. Hutterer (Ann
Arbor: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1977), 213-31. It is a product of my
work in a National Endowment for the Humanities sponsored cross-regional seminar on ÒThe
Origins of the Islamic StateÓ that was organized by University of Chicago Professors Fred
Donner, Walter Kaegi, and Donald Whitcomb, which met at the Oriental Institute, University
of Chicago during June and July 2000, as well as follow-up archaeological site work on the
transitions from pre-Islamic to Islamic in Jordan, under the auspices of the American Center
for Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan in February and March 2001. I thank the National
Endowment for the Humanities and Ball State University for their research grants, and the
helpful comments and critique of the seminar leaders and participants, the scholars-in-residence
at the American Center in Amman, and the JESHO reviewers.
UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM UNIFICATION IN SOUTHEAST
ASIAÕS FIRST ISLAMIC POLITY: THE CHANGING SENSE OF
COMMUNITY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
HIKAYAT RAJA-RAJA PASAI COURT CHRONICLE1
BY
KENNETH R. HALL*
Abstract
This study on the thirteenth and fourteenth century emergence of Southeast AsiaÕs earliest
Islamic state examines how the . fteenth century Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai court chronicle can
be used to understand the Samudra-Pasai port-polity and its legitimation. The local pre-
Islamic north Sumatra order is . rst portrayed in the Hikayat, which highlights the sovereignÕs
mythical attributes. Indian Ocean commercial and diplomatic channels then provided access
to imported textiles, which became the centerpiece of the monarchÕs ritualized redistributions,
as well as the opportunity to enter membership in the community of Islam. Samudra-PasaiÕs
newly converted sultans successfully linked disparate upstream and downstream population
clusters under the leadership of their port-centered court, in ways that were not only consistent
with local beliefs, but also appropriate to an Islamic society.
Cette . tude, sur lÕ. mergence du premier . tat islamique en Asie du sud-est aux treisime et
quatorzime si cles, considre comment la chronique de la cour de Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai,
datant du quinzime si cle, peut  tre utilis.e pour comprendre le port-r.gime de Samudra-
Pasai et sa l. gitimation. LÕordre local et pr. -islamique de Sumatra du nord est repr. sent.
dans le Hikayat, un texte qui souligne les attributs mythiques du souverain. En particulier, le
r. seau commercial et diplomatique, centr. sur lÕoc. an indien, a permis lÕacc s aux textiles
import. s, qui sont devenus la pi ce ma”tresse du systme monarchique de r. distribution
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2001 JESHO 44,2
UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM UNIFICATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 199
rituelle, et lÕoccasion dÕentrer comme membre dans la communaut. dÕislam. Les souverains
de Samudra- Pasai a reli. avec succ s les populations disparates en amont and en aval de la
rivi re sous la direction de la cour, centr. sur le port, par les moyens qui conforment non
seulement aux croyances locales mais aussi qui conviennent ˆ une soci. t. islamique.
Keywords: Samudra-Pasai, Melaka, Majapahit, Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai, Minangkabau
This study addresses the uni. cation of Samudra-Pasai into Southeast AsiaÕs
. rst Islamic polity. It also demonstrates how a traditional Malay court text, the
. fteenth century Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai, with a high degree of ÒmythicalÓ elements,
can still reveal much about the capacity of local polities and the reasons
for their acceptance of Islam. While the Pasai chronicle is undoubtedly less than
precise in its record of historical detail, it clearly records local values and common
perceptions held at the time of the Islamic conversion, or what archipelago
populations would graphically allude to as the body beneath the cloth.2 In
the chronicleÕs account, the thirteenth and fourteenth century initiatives of Samudra-
PasaiÕs earliest rulers linked disparate upstream and downstream population
clusters of northeast Sumatra under the authority of their port-centered court, in
ways that were not only consistent with local beliefs, but also appropriate to an
Islamic society.
The thirteenth century marked an age of expansion in the East-West maritime
trade.3 Samudra-Pasai came into existence due to its access to northern
SumatraÕs pepper production and its strategic position in the Straits of Melaka,
adjacent to the major international sea route between India and China. While
the material rewards of membership in the international marketplace were substantial,
the local societal networks that emerged as a consequence of, or along
with, the heightened external trade contacts were also foundational to Samudra-
PasaiÕs success.
Research so far has failed to adequately consider the origins of this earliest
Southeast Asian Islamic polity, and especially the interaction between Islam and
local politics, culture, and commercial enterprise. Since there was a decided
commitment to Islam by Samudra-PasaiÕs court leadership, the focus here is on
2 Kenneth R. Hall, ÒThe Textile Industry in Southeast Asia, 1400-1800,Ó JESHO 39,2
(1996): 91-9.
3 Janet Abu-Lughod, ÒThe World System in the Thirteenth Century: Dead-End or
Precursor?Ó in Islamic and European Expansion, The Forging of a Global Order, ed.
Michael Adas (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), 75-102. For an account of Samudra-
PasaiÕs history, the historical documentation of its existence other than its Hikayat, and its
place in the international trade from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century see Kenneth R.
Hall, ÒTrade and Statecraft in the Western Archipelago at the Dawn of the European Age,Ó
Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 54, 1 (1981): 21-47.
200 KENNETH R. HALL
the role that Islam assumed in the local expression of political legitimacy. This
commitment involved a rich new cultural synthesis between local practice and
the fundamental demands of the Islamic religious tradition. Entry into the community
of Islam had both an internal as well as an external dimension. Internally,
acceptance of Islam was signi. cant relative to local issues of sovereignty
and cultural expression, as for example the superceding of earlier tribalism or
self-indulgent behavior by a stronger sense of communal responsibility. Members
of the society who made this commitment accepted common laws of societal
conduct as appropriate to an inclusive Islamic community. Those who did
not withdrew to a periphery to avoid subjugation by the authority of Islam and
its political and religious leaders. Externally, the commitment to Islam offered
diverse opportunities for bene. cial participation in an international Islamic
political, cultural, and economic network, which in turn enhanced local expression
of power.
The sources of Islamic history are often at odds with what traditional
Western historians are accustomed to using in their investigations. They intentionally
convey cultural values appropriate to Muslims and local values that are
not ÒpoliticalÓ in the Western understanding of the word, or contain ideas and
symbolism not easily recognized by Western-oriented scholars. For example,
traditional Western historians have addressed the origin of states with emphasis
(and consistent with Western documents that place value) on the development
of administrative capacity and/or an ability to raise and collect revenues.
Alternatively, as demonstrated in the Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai, many non-
Western sources are more concerned with expressions of power that are based
on an eliteÕs capacity to de. ne and bestow social rank and sustain ritual performance,
which in the local view uni. ed a society more than any bureaucratic
administration. By learning how to read such sources correctly, historians can
gain greater understanding and appreciation of Islamic ideas concerning the
original Islamic polities and their legitimation.
This study begins by addressing Samudra-PasaiÕs pre-Islamic order as portrayed
in the Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai, and how would-be monarchs could satisfy traditional
expectations as an initial step toward gaining hegemony. Indigenous
self-de. ned entitlement emphasized genealogy, a sense of magical empowerment
that was in part ancestral, as well as the capacity to externally situate the
community: to place the local polity on at least an equal if not a superior diplomatic
footing relative to its immediate neighboring port-polities on the Sumatra
coast, and the major Asian civilizations with which it traded in Java, China, and
India. The magically-endowed ruler was in turn the source of his subjectsÕ spiritual,
material, and societal well-being. This is symbolized in an initial Hikayat
episode in which the successful . rst monarch was said to have the capacity to
UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM UNIFICATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 201
miraculously transform worms into gold, which in combination with the rulerÕs
other initiatives guaranteed local success. The monarchÕs mythical capacity to
bring his subjects material reward was reinforced by periodic rituals that highlighted
symbolic redistribution of spiritual and tangible bene. ts4 at the downstream
court as well as in the upstream communities that the monarch regularly
visited.
This earliest ruler-centered ritual was reinforced by the bene. ts of Samudra-
PasaiÕs participation in the international trade. The Hikayat proclaimed these to
be the consequence of the rulerÕs successful initiatives, speci. cally those that
brought access to imported textiles, which became the centerpiece of the
monarchÕs ritualized redistribution. The