The Atjeh court elephant-fight (c. 1613) is the early seventeenth-century staged combat of elephants before the court of the Sultan of Atjeh depicted in an English drawing — “Engelse tekening uit het begin der 17e eeuw” — reproduced as a gravure illustration in Nederlanders over de Zeeën. The image is one of the principal visual testimonies of the early seventeenth-century Atjehnese court cited in the source.
The illustration
The illustration caption in Nederlanders over de Zeeën reads: “Olifantengevecht aan het hof te Atjeh. Engelse tekening uit het begin der 17e eeuw” (Elephant-fight at the court of Atjeh. English drawing from the beginning of the seventeenth century). The drawing depicts a staged combat of elephants before the court of the Sultan of Atjeh in the early seventeenth century. The court context — the seat of the sultan, the assembled retinue, the elephants — places the image squarely within the reign of Sultan Iskandar Muda (r. 1607-1636), the “Roi soleil” of the Atjehnese sultans.
The English source
The drawing is identified as English, indicating that the image was made by or for one of the early English factors who visited Atjeh in the reign of Iskandar Muda. The English East India Company had opened relations with Atjeh in the early seventeenth century; the 1613 visit of Thomas Best to the Atjehnese court is the principal first-hand English account of the period.
The court context
The elephant-fight is the type-specimen of the staged animal-combat that was a standard spectacle of Southeast-Asian royal courts. The depiction of the Atjehnese court in the early seventeenth century — the seat of the sultan, the assembled retinue, the elephants — is the source’s principal visual record of the Atjeh sultanate at the height of its power.
Significance
The Atjeh court elephant-fight of c. 1613 is, in the source’s narrative, one of the principal visual testimonies of the early seventeenth-century Atjehnese court. It records the spectacle of the Iskandar Muda court at the height of the sultanate’s power, when Atjeh dominated both shores of the Strait of Malacca and brought the Portuguese fortress there repeatedly into dire straits.
See Also
Source
Nederlanders over de Zeeën: 350 Jaar geschiedenis van Nederland buitengaats, onder redactie van Dr. H. J. de Graaf, met medewerking van Prof. G. Gonggrijp, W. R. Menkman en Prof. Jhr Dr P. J. van Winter, 2e geheel herziene druk (Utrecht: W. de Haan N.V., MCMLV), gravure facing p. 154.