[3] Its natural products and strategic position made Perlak develop as a commercial port that advanced in the 8th century, visited by ships which included Arab and Persian origin.
The Hikayat Aceh text reveals that the spread of Islam in northern Sumatra was carried out by an Arab scholar named Sheikh Abdullah Arif in 1112.
The book Zhufan Zhi (諸蕃 志), written by Zhao Rugua in 1225, cited the record of a geographer, Chou Ku-fei, in 1178 that there is a Muslim country with only five days of voyage from Java.
The Shiites won the war and in 302 H (915 CE) and Sultan Alaiddin Syed Maulana Ali Mughat Shah from the Shi'ite stream ascended.
Sunni Islam became popular by the reign of Sultan Alaiddin Syed Maulana Abbas Shah and both sects flourished and at times influenced each other.