Editing Chams (section)

===Early history===
[[File:National Museum of Vietnamese History18.JPG|thumb|The Chams decorated their temples with stone reliefs depicting the gods such as [[garuda]] fighting the [[nāga]] (12th-13th century CE)]]
Like countless other political entities of Southeast Asia, the Champa principalities underwent the process of [[Greater India|Indianization]] since the early common era as a result of centuries of socio-economic interaction adopted and introduced cultural and institutional elements of India. From the 8th century onward, Muslims from such regions as [[Gujarat]] began to increasingly appear in trade and shipping of India. Islamic ideas became a part of the vast tide of exchange, treading the same path as Hinduism and Buddhism centuries before. Cham people picked up these ideas by the 11th century. This can be seen in the architecture of Cham temples, which shares similarities with the one of the [[Angkor]] temples. [[Al-Dimashqi (geographer)|Ad-Dimashqi]] writes in 1325, "the country of Champa... is inhabited by [[Muslim]]s and idolaters. The Muslim religion came there during the time of Caliph [[Uthman]]... and [[Ali]], many Muslims who were expelled by the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyads]] and by [[Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf|Hajjaj]], fled there".{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

The ''[[Daoyi Zhilüe]]'' records that at Cham ports, Cham women were often married to Chinese merchants, who frequently came back to them after trading voyages.<ref name="Heng2009">{{cite book|author=Derek Heng|title=Sino–Malay Trade and Diplomacy from the Tenth through the Fourteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cLE_ToRyuLsC&pg=PA133|date=15 November 2009|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=978-0-89680-475-3|pages=133–}}</ref>{{sfn|Heng|2009|p=133}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%B3%B6%E5%A4%B7%E8%AA%8C%E7%95%A5|title=島夷誌略 - 維基文庫，自由的圖書館|website=zh.wikisource.org}}</ref> A Chinese merchant from [[Quanzhou]], Wang Yuanmao, traded extensively with Champa and married a Cham princess.{{sfn|Wicks|1992|p=215}}

In the 12th century, the Chams fought a series of wars with the [[Khmer Empire]] to the west. In 1177, the Chams and their allies launched an attack from the lake [[Tonlé Sap]] and managed to sack the Khmer capital of [[Angkor]]. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King [[Jayavarman VII]].