Barus

Barus is a kecamatan (district) in Central Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Historically, Barus was well-known as a port town on the western coast of Sumatra where it was a regional trade center from around the 7th or earlier until the 17th century. It is also known by other names, namely Fansur and Barusai. The name Fansur or Pansur means "spring of water" in the local Batak language. Barus was well-known for its produce camphor. In the 16th century, Barus came under attack from the rising power of Aceh, and became absorbed into the Aceh Sultanate. The earliest known Malay poet Hamzah Fansuri may be from Barus as indicated by his name.

Barus was an significant settlement on the west coast of Sumatra widely recorded in many historical documents. Other related sites in Sumatra includes Lamuri in Aceh and Pannai in North Sumatra. The second century Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy in his work Geography recorded the name Barusai (or Baroussai) as a group of five islands. The Indian text Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa makes a reference to a Warusaka that may be Barus. In 4th Chinese records, the name "Po-lu" is found, suggested to mean Barus and the northern part of Sumatra. During the Tang dynasty, the Chinese traveller Yijing mentioned the island of Polushi (婆魯師洲) to the west of Palembang where Mulasarvastivada Buddhism was practiced. Arab sources use the name Fansur or Pansur, the 9th century Arab geographer Ibn Khurdadhbih also used the term the "island of Bālūs", although the Arabs may consider Bālūs to be different from Fansur. Around 900 Ahmad ibn Rustah called Fansur "a well known country in the Indies" and wrote about its jurisdiction.

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