Kingdom of Aceh Darussalam Keurajeuën Acèh Darussalam (Acehnese) کراجاءن اچيه دارالسلام | |||||||||||||
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| 1496–1903 | |||||||||||||
 Map of the Aceh Sultanate in 1629 | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Kutaraja or Bandar Aceh Darussalam (modernBanda Aceh) (1496–1875) Pagar Ayer (1875–1878) Indrapuri (1878–1879) Keumala (1879–1898) Kuta Sawang (1898) Batee Illiek-Samalanga (1898–1901) Loyang Sekam-Laut (1901–1903) | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | Acehnese,Malay,Arabic | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||||||||||
| Demonym | Acehnese | ||||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||
| Sultan | |||||||||||||
• 1496–1530 | Ali Mughayat Syah | ||||||||||||
• 1607–1636 | Iskandar Muda | ||||||||||||
• 1875–1903 | Alauddin Muhammad Daud Syah II | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Coronation of the first Sultan | 1496 | ||||||||||||
• Aceh War | 1903 | ||||||||||||
| Currency | Native gold and silver coins | ||||||||||||
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| Today part of | Indonesia Malaysia Thailand | ||||||||||||
TheSultanate of Aceh, officially theKingdom of Aceh Darussalam (Acehnese:Acèh Darussalam;Jawoë:اچيه دارالسلام), was asultanate centered in the modern-dayIndonesian province ofAceh. It was a major regional power in the 16th and 17th centuries, before experiencing a long period of decline. Its capital wasKutaraja, the present-dayBanda Aceh.[1]
At its peak it was a formidable enemy of the Sultanate ofJohor andPortuguese-controlledMalacca, both on theMalay Peninsula, as all three attempted to control the trade through theStrait of Malacca and the regional exports ofpepper andtin with fluctuating success. In addition to its considerable military strength, the court of Aceh became a noted center ofIslamic scholarship and trade.[1]
The sultanate was founded byAli Mughayat Syah, who began campaigns to extend his control over northern Sumatra in 1520.[2] His conquests includedDeli, Pedir, andPasai, and he attackedAru. His sonAlauddin al-Kahar (d. 1571) extended the domains farther south into Sumatra, but was less successful in his attempts to gain a foothold across the strait, though he made several attacks on both Johor and Malacca,[3] with the support along with men and firearms fromSuleiman the Magnificent'sOttoman Empire.[4] The Ottoman Empire sent a relief force of 15Xebecs commanded byKurtoğlu Hızır Reis.
Aceh formed the northern tip of Sumatra at the southeast corner of theBay of Bengal. Ships from theBengal Sultanate transported diplomats from Sumatra andBrunei toMing China.[5]
On 21 June 1599 a Dutch captain,Cornelius de Houtman, arrived at "Acheen" aboard theLioness as the first of three planned voyages to theEast Indies. The crew stayed for three months arrogating pepper and other spices. British crew memberJohn Davis claims the party was subsequently attacked by the local warlord with the loss of 68 dead and captured. After they arrived, they were permitted by the sultan to purchase pepper, during the same year as representatives of the EnglishEast India Company under the command ofJames Lancaster. He returned in 1602 bearing a letter from English queenElizabeth I.[6][7]
The tenth sultan from 1589 to 1604 wasAlauddin Ri'ayat Shah. Internal dissension in the sultanate prevented another powerful sultan from appearing until 1607 when his grandsonIskandar Muda came to the position. He extended the sultanate's control over most of Sumatra. He also conqueredPahang, atin-producing region of the Malay Peninsula, and was able to force the sultans of Johor to recognise his overlordship, if temporarily. During his reign, he created a code of laws known asAdat Meukuta Alam (Adat meaning "customs", or "customary rules"). The strength of his formidable fleet was brought to an end with a disastrous campaign against Malacca in 1629 when the combined Portuguese and Johor forces managed to destroy all his ships and 19,000 troops according to Portuguese account.[8][9][7] Aceh's forces were not destroyed, however, as Aceh was able to conquerKedah within the same year and taking many of its citizens to Aceh.[9] The sultan's son-in-law,Iskandar Thani, former prince of Pahang later became his successor. During his reign, Aceh focused on internal consolidation and religious unity.
After the reign of Sultan Iskandar Thani, Aceh was ruled by a series of female sultana. Aceh's previous policy of taking hostages from conquered kingdoms' population[9] made them eager to seek independence, the results were Aceh's control weakened while regional rulers gained effective power. The sultan ultimately became a largely symbolic title.[10] By the 1680s, a Persian visitor could describe a northern Sumatra where "every corner shelters a separate king or governor and all the local rulers maintain themselves independently and do not pay tribute to any higher authority."[11] As a result of these internal conflicts and the resurgence of Johor, Aceh transitioned from being the head of the Malay world to focusing inward, adopting a more prominent Acehnese identity.[12]
In 1699, Sultan Badr al-alam Syarif Hasyim Jamal ad-din ascended to the throne, the first male to rule in almost 60 years. He was succeeded by several short-lived rulers, and in 1727 a member of the Buginese dynasty, Sultan Ala ad-din Ahmad Shah took power. The coming to power of a Bugis dynasty strengthened Acehnese identity in-contrast to the Bugis of Johor, which emphasized their connections to Malay culture.[12] In the late 18th and early 19th centuries,Koh Lay Huan – the firstKapitan Cina ofPenang, had good contacts with the English-and-French-speaking sultan of Aceh,Jauhar al-Alam.[13] The sultan allowed Koh to gather pepper plants in Aceh to begin pepper cultivation in Penang. Later, about 1819, Koh helped Sultan Jauhar al-Alam put down a rebellion by Acehnese territorial chiefs.[13][14]
In the 1820s, as Aceh produced over half the world's supply of pepper, a new leader,Tuanku Ibrahim, was able to restore some authority to the sultanate and gain control over the "pepperrajas" who were nominal vassals of the sultan by playing them off against each other. He rose to power during the sultanate of his brother,Muhammad Syah, and was able to dominate the reign of his successorSulaiman Syah (r. 1838–1857), before taking the sultanate himself, under the title Sultan Ali Alauddin Mansur Syah (1857–1870). He extended Aceh's effective control southward at just the time when the Dutch were consolidating their holdings northward.[15]
Britain, heretofore guarding the independence of Aceh to keep it out of Dutch hands, re-evaluated its policy and concluded theAnglo-Dutch Treaty of Sumatra, which allowed for Dutch control throughout Sumatra in exchange for concessions in theGold Coast and equal trading rights in northern Aceh. The treaty was tantamount to a declaration of war on Aceh, and theAceh War followed soon after in 1873, with the Dutch making the unfounded excuses that Aceh was sponsoring piracy and preparing to conclude a treaty with theUnited States. As the Dutch prepared for war,Mahmud Syah (1870–1874) appealed for international help, but no one was willing or able to assist.[16]
In early 1874 the sultan abandoned the capital after the palace was captured on 31 January, withdrawing to the hills, while the Dutch announced the annexation of Aceh. He would die ofcholera, as did many combatants on both sides, but the Acehnese proclaimed a grandson of Tuanku Ibrahim sultan. The local rulers of Acehnese ports nominally submitted to Dutch authority to avoid a blockade, but they used their income to support the resistance.[17]
During this time, many Acehan politicians sought aid from the Ottoman Empire. Their efforts were futile, but they did serve to inspire resistance movements across south-east Asia. Local resistance in northern Sumatra then passed to the local lords and potentates, and then to the religious leaders. However, an adviser of the sultan, Abd al-Rahman al-Zahir, soon returned to take command of the independence movement, fell out with the revolutionary leaders, and promptly agreed to surrender himself to the Dutch in exchange for a lifetime pension in Mecca.
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The Dutch, now hounded by locals and cholera alike, fortified their coastal positions and began a slow siege of the entire country, conducted by General van Pel. The capital, in particular, was surrounded by forts connected by railways. The Dutch made another serious attempt to finally pacify the country in 1884, but it quickly slowed and suffered from popular criticism. Dutch armies were finally able to make progress between 1898 and 1903, with each local potentate in occupied territories being forced to sign "The Short Declaration", a pledge of allegiance to the Dutch colonial overlords. Because of their co-operation, the Dutch were able to establish a fairly stable government in Aceh and get the sultan to surrender in 1903. After his exile in 1907, no successor was named, but the resistance continued to fight for some time, until 1912.[21][14]
During the reign ofIskandar Muda (c.1538–1636), state centralization was carried out. This was done by removing or exterminating the present nobility and creating new ones that were friendly to the state. Besides this, the policy carried out the division of plots of land within the sultanate bymukim (similar to Christianparishes subdivisions), each of thesemukims would be headed by anuleebalang (leader) who was responsible for security. Some regions of Aceh, especially of the western-producing pepper regions, were controlled by appointedpanglima (governors) whose duty was to report on events and were rotated every three years.[22]
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Aceh saw itself as heir toPasai, the first Islamic kingdom in Southeast Asia, and succeeded the role of Islamic missionary work of Malacca after it was conquered by the CatholicPortuguese. It was called the "porch ofMecca", and became a center of Islamic scholarship, where theQur'an and other Islamic texts were translated intoMalay.[4] Its notable scholars includedHamzah Fansuri,Syamsuddin of Pasai,Abdurrauf of Singkil, and the IndianNuruddin ar-Raniri.[23]
It is also through the Russian linguist, Vladimir Braginskiĭ, that theHikayat Aceh from were influenced byMughal dynasty historiography, as he found out the literal structure similarities of Hikayat Aceh withMahfuzat-i-Timuri, as the former shared similar themes with the latter about the lifetime and exploits of the protagonist,Timur.[24] Braginskiĭ also found similarities in structure of both the Hikayat Aceh andMahfuzat-i-Timuri withAkbarnama manuscript.[24]
Aceh gained wealth from its export of pepper,nutmeg,cloves,betel nuts,[25] and alsotin once it conqueredPahang in 1617. Low-interest rates and the use of gold currency strengthened its economy.[26] Aceh tended somehow to be fragile economically, however, because of the difficulty in providing enough surplus food to support the military and commercial adventures of the state.[27] As Aceh lost political cohesion in the 17th century, it saw its trading importance yielded to theDutch East India Company, who became the dominant military and economic power in the region following the successful siege of Malacca in 1641.[11]
...author shares T. Iskandar's opinion that Hikayat Aceh was influenced by Mughal historiography..
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