Histoire de Barus III : Regards sur une place marchande de l'océan indien (XIIe-milieu du XVIIe s.)

For a long time, the name of Barus, a town on the west coast of North Sumatra, has been associated with camphot trade and the famous mystic poet Hamzah Fansuri. After two previous volumes mostly focused on the 9th-11th centuries, the present publication is devoted to the history of Barus from the 12th until the mid-17th century.

The present book brings together sixteen studies based on archaelogical and epigraphic data, as well various sources of local foreign origin. Twelve articles relate to the archaelogical reserach program conducted between 2001 and 2005 by the École française d'Extrême-Orient in cooperation with the Indonesian National Centre for Archaelogical Research and Development.

This pubication presents the main results of surveys and excavations, a historical outline of settlement ine the Barus area and an elaborate catalogue of the finds. It also includes two laboratory studies on some 200 artefacts; a historical outline of the Islamic funerary art of Barus since the mid-14th century along with the deciphering of several previously unpublished arabic inscriptions; the first edition of a local text related to the history of Barus, as well as an epigraphic study of a 13th century Tamil inscription found in the neighbouring territory of Aceh.

Lastly, this publications presents a work of synthesis based on these sources and focused on several aspects of the history of Barus, especially the identification, evolution and general features of the settlements, various aspects of material culture and social life, the components and evolution of long distance trade, as well as non-commercial relations between Barus and the outside world, from the Middle-East to China.

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