Key Facts
- Period covered
- c. 200 CE – 1136 CE
- Key archaeological site
- Bujang Valley (Sungai Batu)
- Hindu settlement arrival
- c. 170 CE
- Became Srivijaya vassal
- After 7th century CE
- Islamisation tradition
- 1136 CE (early tradition)
- Primary trade goods
- Tin, ivory, rattan, resin, beeswax, elephants
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
By the 1st millennium CE, a settlement had formed on the northern bank of the Merbok River near Sungai Batu. Around 170 CE, Hindu groups arrived and were joined by peoples from nearby islands and the Mon-Khmer region. Indian, Persian, and Arab traders navigated the Malacca Strait using Gunung Jerai as a prominent landmark, establishing Kedah as an early maritime trading hub on the Malay Peninsula.
Phase II: Zenith
After the 7th century, Kedah came under the suzerainty of Srivijaya, functioning as a prosperous vassal port. The polity supplied tin and jungle products — including rattan, resin, honey, beeswax, elephants, ivory, and areca nuts — to regional and Indian Ocean networks. Revenue from port taxes further enriched Kedah, making it a notable node in the broader Srivijayan commercial system connecting South Asia, Persia, and Arabia.
Phase III: Decline
Kedah's early independent character dissolved as external powers successively absorbed it. Islamisation occurred by the 15th century, after which Malacca and then Ayutthaya held sway. The cession of Penang to Britain in 1786 weakened Kedah, which was subsequently invaded by Siam in the 1820s. Under the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909, Kedah was transferred to British jurisdiction, remaining part of British Malaya until Malaysian independence in 1957.