Iskandar Muda (1583?^[1] - December 27, 1636^[2]) was the twelfth sultan of Aceh, under whom the sultanate achieved its greatest territorial extent, and was the strongest power and wealthiest state in the western Indonesian archipelago and the Strait of Malacca. "Iskandar Muda" literally means "young Alexander," and his conquests were often compared to those of Alexander the Great.^[2] In addition to his notable conquests, during his tenure Aceh became known as an international center of Islamic learning and trade. December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (362nd in leap years). ... Events February 24 - King Christian of Denmark gives an order that all beggars that are able to work must be sent to Brinholmen Island to build ships or as galley rowers March 26 - Utrecht University founded in The Netherlands. ... This wide-angle map of south-east Asia shows that the Strait is the most direct route from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. ... For the film of the same name, see Alexander the Great (1956 film). ... Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the Quran, its principal scripture, whose followers, known as Muslims (مسلم), believe God (Arabic: الله ) sent through revelations to Muhammad. ...

Conquests

The successes of Iskandar Muda were based on his military strength. His armed forces consisted of a navy of heavy galleys each with 600-800 men, a cavalry using Persian horses, an elephant corps, conscripted infantry forces,^[3] and more than 2000 cannons and guns (of both Sumatran and European origin),^[4] and conscripted infantry forces. Upon gaining power, he began consolidating control over northern Sumatra. In 1612 he conquered Deli, and in 1613 Aru and Johor. Upon the conquest of Johor, its sultan Alauddin Riayat Syah II and other members of the royal family were brought to Aceh, along with a group of traders from the Dutch East Indies Company. However, Johor was able to expel the Acehnese garrison later that year, and Iskandar Muda was never able to assert permanent control over the area. Johor further built an alliance with Pahang, Palembang, Jambi, Inderagiri, Kampar and Siak against Aceh.^[3] A French galley and Dutch men-of-war off a port by Abraham Willaerts, painted 17th century. ... Charging elephants caused terror and panic, and their thick hides made them difficult to injure or kill. ... The Sultanate of Johor (or sometimes Johor-Riau) was founded by Malaccan Sultan Mahmud Shahs son, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah in 1528. ... Dutch colonial possessions, with the Dutch East India Company possessions marked in a paler green, surrounding the Indian Ocean plus Saint Helena in the mid-Atlantic. ... State motto: no State motto Capital Kuantan Royal Capital Pekan Sultan Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Chief Minister Dato Seri Adnan Yaakob Area 35,964 km2 Population  - Est year 2005 1,372,500 State anthem Pahang State Anthem Pahang (Jawi: Ú¨Ù‡Ú ) is the largest state on Peninsular Malaysia, occupying the huge Pahang... Location of Palembang Palembang is a city in the south of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. ... Jambi is a province of Indonesia located on the east coast of central Sumatra, which contains a city also named Jambi, located at . ... Kampar can refer to: Kampar, Perak - a town in Perak, Malaysia. ... Siak is a regency (kabupaten) of Riau, Indonesia. ...

Iskandar Muda’s campaigns continued, however, and he was able to defeat a Portuguese fleet at Bintan in 1614. In 1617 he conquered Pahang and carried its sultan Ahmad Syah to Aceh, and thus achieved a foothold on the Malayan peninsula.^[3] This conquest was followed by Kedah in 1619, in which the capital was laid waste and the surviving inhabitants were brought to Aceh.^[5] A similar capture of Perak occurred in 1620, when 5,000 people were captured and left to die in Aceh.^[4] He again sacked Johor in 1623 and took Nias in 1624/5. At this point Aceh’s strength seriously threatened the Portuguese holding of Melaka. In 1629, he sent several hundred ships to attack Melaka, but the mission was a devastating failure. According to Portuguese sources, all of his ships were destroyed along with 19,000 men. After this loss, Iskandar Muda launched only two more sea expeditions, in 1630/1 and 1634, both to suppress revolts in Pahang. His sultanate maintained control over northern Sumatra, but was never able to gain supremacy in the strait or expand the empire to the rich pepper-producing region of Lampung on the southern part of the island, which was under the control of the sultanate of Banten.^[6] Bintan Bintan Island or Negeri Segantang Lada is an island of 1,866 square kilometer located about 48 km (30 miles) southeast of Singapore. ... State motto: no State motto Capital Kuantan Royal Capital Pekan Sultan Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Chief Minister Dato Seri Adnan Yaakob Area 35,964 km2 Population  - Est year 2005 1,372,500 State anthem Pahang State Anthem Pahang (Jawi: Ú¨Ù‡Ú ) is the largest state on Peninsular Malaysia, occupying the huge Pahang... State motto: no State motto Capital Alor Star Royal Capital Anak Bukit Sultan Tuanku Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Chief Minister Dato Hj Mahdzir Bin Khalid Area 9,426 km2 Population  - Est year 2003 1 778 188 State anthem Allah Selamatkan Sultan Mahkota Kedah (Jawi:قدح, pop. ... Pulau Nias, off Sumatra, Indonesia Nias (Indonesian: Pulau Nias, Nias language: Tanö Niha) is an island off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. ... State motto: Bersatu Teguh (Malay, United We Stand) Capital Malacca Town Governor Tun Datuk Seri Utama Mohd Khalil Yaakob Chief Minister Datuk Seri Haji Mohd Ali Mohd Rustam Area 1,650 km² Population  - Estimated 648,500 State anthem Melaka Maju Jaya This article is about a state in Malaysia. ... Binomial name Piper nigrum L. Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. ... Lampung is a province of Indonesia, located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. ...

Economy and administration

The economic foundations of the sultanate was the spice trade, especially in pepper. The conflicts between Aceh and Johor and Portuguese Melacca, as well as the numerous pepper-producing ports in the sultanate's domain, were the main causes of the military conflict.^[7] Other major exports included cloves and nutmegs, as well as betel nuts, whose narcotic properties bypassed the Muslim prohibition of alcohol. Exports, encouraged by the Ottoman Sultans as an alternative to the "infidel" (i.e. Portuguese)-controlled route around Africa, added to the wealth of the sultanate. Iskandar Muda also made shrewd economic decisions that supported growth, such as low interest rates and the widespread use of small gold coins (mas).^[8] However, like other sultanates in the area it had trouble compelling the farms in the hinterland to produce sufficient excess food for the military and commercial activities of the capital. Indeed, one of the aims of Iskandar Muda’s campaigns was to bring prisoners-of-war who could act as slaves for agricultural production.^[9] Spices at the central market of Agadir, Morocco in May 2005 The spice trade has been of major economic importance throughout human history and it particularly helped spur the Age of Exploration. ... Binomial name Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merrill & Perry A single dried clove flower bud Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum, syn. ... Species About 100 species, including: Myristica argentea Myristica fragrans Myristica malabarica The nutmegs Myristica are a genus of evergreen trees indigenous to tropical southeast Asia and Australasia. ... Binomial name Areca catechu Linnaeus Areca nut, or pinang, more commonly known as betel nut, is the seed of the betel palm or Areca catechu, a species of palm tree which grows throughout the Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. ... The Osmanli Dynasty, also the House of Osman, ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1281 to 1923, beginning with Osman I (not counting his father, Ertuğrul), though the dynasty was not proclaimed until 1383 when Murad I declared himself sultan. ... Austro-Hungarian POWs in Russia; a 1915 photo by Prokudin-Gorskii A prisoner of war (POW, PoW, or PW) is a combatant who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ... Wiktionary has related dictionary definitions, such as: slave Slave may refer to: Slavery, where people are owned by others, and live to serve their owners without pay Slave (BDSM), a form of sexual and consenual submission Slave clock, in technology, a clock or timer that synchrnonizes to a master clock...

One reason for Iskandar Muda’s success, in contrast to the weaker sultans who preceded and succeeded him, was his ability to suppress the Acehnese elite, known as the orang kaya ("powerful men"). Through the royal monopoly on trade, he was able to keep them dependent on his favor.^[9] The orang kaya were forced to attend court where they could be supervised, and were prohibited from building independent houses, which could be used for military purposes or hold cannons.^[10] He sought to create a new nobility of “war leaders” (Malay language: hulubalang; Acehnese: uleëbalang), whom he gave districts (mukim) in feudal tenure. After his reign, however, the elite often supported weaker sultans, in order to maintain their own autonomy.^[9] He also sought to replace the Acehnese princes with royal officials called panglima, who had to report annually and were subject to periodic appraisal. An elite palace guard was created, consisting of 3,000 women. He passed legal reforms which created a network of courts using Islamic jurisprudence.^[10] His system of law and administration became a model for other Islamic states in Indonesia.^[7] The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, and parts of the coast of Borneo. ... Acehnese (also Achinese, Achehnese) or Aceh (formerly Atjeh) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Iskandar Muda’s reign was also marked by considerable brutality, directed at disobedient subjects. He also did not hesitate to execute wealthy subjects and confiscate their wealth. Punishments for offenses were gruesome; a French visitor in the 1620s reported "every day the King would have people’s noses cut off, eyes dug out, castrations, feet cut off, or hands, ears, and other parts mutilated, very often for some very small matter."^[10] He had his own son killed, and named his son-in-law, the son of the captured sultan of Pahang, as his successor, Iskandar Thani.^[9]

Culture

During Iskandar Muda’s reign, eminent Islamic scholars were attracted to Aceh and made it a center of Islamic scholarship. Iskandar Muda favored the tradition of the Sufi mystics Hamzah Pansuri and Syamsuddin of Pasai, both of whom resided at the court of Aceh. These writer’s works were translated into other Indonesian languages, and had considerable influence across the peninsula. Both were later denounced for their heretical ideas by Nuruddin ar-Raniri, who arrived in the Aceh court during the reign of Iskandar Thani, and their books were ordered to be burnt.^[11] Sufism (Arabic تصوف taṣawwuf) is a system of esoteric philosophy commonly associated with Islam. ...

The chronicle Hikayat Aceh ("The Story of Aceh") was probably written during the reign of Iskandar Muda,^[12] although some date it later.^[2] It describes the history of the sultanate and praises Iskandar Muda in his youth. It was apparently inspired by the Persian Akbarnama for the Mogul Emperor Akbar.^[12] The Akbarnāma (Persian: اکبر نامہ), which literally means History of Akbar, is a biographical account of Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, written in Persian. ... Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar (Persian: جلال الدین محمد اکبر), (alternate spellings: Jellaladin, Celalettin) also known as Akbar the Great (Akbar-e-Azam) (October 15, 1542 – October 27, 1605) was the son of Nasiruddin Humayun whom he succeeded as ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1605. ...

Legacy

Among the Acehnese, Iskandar Muda is revered as a hero and symbol of Aceh’s past greatness.^[13] Posthumously he was given the title Po Teuh Meureuhom, which means "Our Beloved Late Lord."^[2]

He has several buildings and structures in and near Banda Aceh named after him, including the Iskandar Muda International Airport and Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base. Kodam Iskandar Muda is the name of the military area commands overseeing Aceh Province. Location of Banda Aceh Banda Aceh is the provincial capital and largest city of Aceh, Indonesia, located on the island of Sumatra at , with an elevation of 21 m. ... Indonesias armed forces (Indonesian: Tentara Nasional Indonesia, abbreviated as TNI, formerly Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia, abbreviated as ABRI) total about 1,602,000 members, including the Army (TNI-AD), Navy(including marines), and Air Force. ... Aceh (IPA pronunciation: , pronounced approximately Ah-Cèh, but with [e], not [ei] at the end) is a special territory (daerah istimewa) of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. ...

Notes

References

• J.M. Barwise and N.J. White. A Traveller’s History of Southeast Asia. New York: Interlink Books, 2002.
• M.C. Ricklefs. A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300, 2nd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.