of the later Malacca Rajas. These names (with the dates attached to them) make it clear that their reigns fell within the 15th. century and did not extend to the abnormal lengths that the ordinary chronology makes out. Thirdly, there is no mention of Malacca anywhere, in any authority that has hitherto come to light, prior to the early years of the 15th century.[1] This negative evidence, for what it is worth, sup- ports the view that Malacca was not founded (or at any rate did not rise to the position of an important commercial empor- ium) much before the beginning of that century. On the other hand we find mention of the State of Pasei (better Pase) in Sumatra at an earlier date. An abstract of its history is inserted in the Sĕjarah Mĕlayu as a sort of episode just before the account of the fall of Singapore. According to this account, with which the Hikayat Raja-raja Pasei in the main agrees, the first Muhammadan ruler of Pasei was a person who on bis conversion to Islam took the name of Malik-al-Salih. His successor was his son Malik-al-Dzahir. Now the last named was reigning and was already a fairly old man when he was visited by the celebrated Arab globe-trotter Ibn Batutah in 1345 or 1346 A.D. The inference is that Muhammadanism became the established religion in Pasei somewhere about the year 1300 A.D). The Commentaries of Alboquerque record a native tradition that Iskandar Shah, one of the early Rajas of Malacca, was converted from Hinduism to Islam on the occa- sion of his marriage with a daughter of a Raja of Pasei. Whether that be so or not, the general trend of tradition goes to show that Pasei was regarded as being an older state than Malacca. All this evidence combined negatives the ordinarily received view that Malacca became Muhammadan in the reign of a Raja whose accession according to the commonly accepted chronology took place in 1276 A.D. or thereabouts. Fourthly, the Hikayat Raja-raja Pasei, which however is a work of un- certain and probably rather late date, speaks of a Javanese expedition of conquest successfully directed against Pasei, Jambi and Palembang, and shortly afterwards speaks of the
- ↑ A possible exception, which I had not at that time seen, is dealt with in the present paper. It does not affect the argument.
