The four female sultanas of Atjèh — in Kreemer’s history, the 58-year period from 1641 to 1699 during which the Atjèh sultanate was ruled by four successive women — is, in Kreemer’s periodisation, the moment at which “de eerste stap naar het verval” — “the first step towards decline” — was taken. The four sultanas were the daughter, the daughter-in-law, and the two successors of Iskandar Muda and Iskandar Thani, and their reigns span the period of Atjèh’s territorial contraction from its golden-century peak to the eve of the eighteenth-century dynastic wars.
The four sultanas
Kreemer lists the four sultanas in a single compressed passage: “Met haar [the widow of Iskandar Thani, daughter of Iskandar Muda] zijn we in de geschiedenis van Atjèh gekomen tot het 58 jarige tijdperk der vier achtereenvolgende vrouwenregeeringen: 1° Tadj al-Alam Safiat ad-Din Shah (1641–1675). 2° Noer al-Alam Naqiat ad-Din Shah (1675–1678). 3° Inajat Shah Zakiat ad-Din Shah (1678–1688). 4° Kamalat Shah (1688–1699).”
The significance of the female succession
Kreemer’s judgement on the female succession is severe: “Kan men de jaren van ongeveer 1500–1550 het tijdperk van opkomst en die van 1550–1650 de gulden eeuw van Atjèh noemen, met het ten troon komen eener vrouw was de eerste stap naar het verval gedaan. Het territorium van Atjèh begon meer en meer aan uitgestrektheid te verliezen, waardoor het rijk tot zijn oude grenzen werd teruggebracht. De bezittingen buiten Soematra (zooals Pahang) en ook die op het eiland zelf, moesten successievelijk worden prijsgegeven” — “If one can call the years from approximately 1500–1550 the period of rise, and those of 1550–1650 the golden century of Atjèh, with the accession of a woman the first step towards decline was taken. The territory of Atjèh began more and more to lose extent, by which the realm was brought back to its old borders. The possessions outside Sumatra (such as Pahang) and also those on the island itself had to be successively given up.”
The abolition of 1699
Kreemer records that the female government was “in 1699 voorgoed afgeschaft” — “in 1699 abolished for good.” He notes in a footnote that, according to the Malay chronicles, “een politieke partij in Atjèh zich in het laatst [der 17e eeuw] in zake de al dan niet wettigheid eener vrouwenregeering om advies tot den kadhi van Mekka hebben gewend” — “a political party in Atjèh, in the last [years of the 17th century], in the matter of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of a female government, sought advice from the kadhi of Mecca.” See P. J. Veth, t.a.p., blz. 82 vg., and Dr. Hoesein, t.a.p., blz. 191.
Kreemer also notes that the meaning of the Atjèhnese women’s government “van Mohammedaansch standpunt bekeken” — “considered from the Mohammedan standpoint” — is discussed in Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjèhers dl. II p. 364 en 370, and in the same author’s Een Mekkaansch gezantschap naar Atièh in 1683.
Significance
The four female sultanas are, in Kreemer’s narrative, the hinge between the golden century of Atjèh and the long decline of the eighteenth century. Their abolition in 1699 — under the influence, Kreemer suggests, of a Mecca-issued opinion on the illegitimacy of female rule — opened the period of “onafgebroken reeks van dynastieke oorlogen” — “unbroken series of dynastic wars” — whose “eentonig verhaal alle aantrekkelijkheid mist” — “monotonous narrative lacks all attraction,” and during which the sultanate progressively lost its territorial possessions and its political coherence.
See Also
- Acheh
- Sultana of Atjeh (Taj ul-Alam)
- Sultana of Atjeh (Nur al-Alam)
- Sultana of Atjeh (1641)
- Iskander Muda
- Iskander Thani
- Pahang
- Mecca
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- H. Djajadiningrat
- P. J. Veth
- 1641
- 1699
Source
Atjèh. Algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden, door J. Kreemer, Archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut. Eerste Deel. Leiden: N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill, 1922. Hoofdstuk I, A (“Oudste geschiedenis tot 1824”), blz. 7–8, met noten.