| Tóm tắt: | This Master's level Islamic archaeological study involves a site in Barus
located on the west coast of North Sumatra, which is facing the east of Nias Island and
the Indian Ocean. This study involves five ancient cemetery complexes, which are
Mahligai Cemetery, Papan Tinggi Cemetery, Tuan Ambar Cemetery, Tuan Ibrahim
Syah Cemetery and Tuan Machdum Cemetery. The main aim of this study is to
determine the is to determine the morphology of gravestones, to ascertain the cultural
inscriptions and decorative patterns, as well as to find out the historical background of
the beginning of Islam in Barus based on gravestones. Hence, literature review, survey
and mapping of each gravestones had been conducted in Barus in order to record all
pieces of evidence on the morphology, decoration and inscription of the gravestones.
The results of this study successfully recorded 670 gravestones that comprise 260
chiselled gravestones, 269 that directly used natural rocks as gravestones, and 141 with
damaged gravestones. Analyses in the laboratory towards the 260 chiselled
gravestones had determined that they can be categorised based on shape into flat (165),
cylindrical (92) and block (3). Classification of the origin of the gravestones based on
morphology revealed that 80.0% (208) gravestones in Barus had been carved and
designed based on local tradition. The inscription of the earliest date found, which is
AD 1350, shows that the early Islamic tradition of the region was more likely
developed due to local influences rather than foreign. It was only during the 15th
century that foreign influences had started to widely spread based on the discovery of
gravestones with Acehnese, Parsin and Indian influences
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