The Bugis-origin dynasty is the line of kings which, according to tradition current in Acheh, has ruled the Sultanate with some interruptions since 1723. The tradition is recorded by C. Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese in his survey of the foreign elements that have contributed to the composition of the Achehnese race and ruling class. The dynasty represents the latest of the successive royal houses of Acheh and includes most of the princes whose sarakatas or royal edicts have survived.
The Tradition of Bugis Origin
In the capital and the coast towns of tributary states, Hurgronje observes, the foreign element in the population forms an item of greater importance than in the interior, for it is precisely the most influential families that are of foreign origin. All the holy men and most of the noted scholars of the law in Acheh were foreigners. So too with many great traders, shahbandars, writers, and the trusted agents of princes and chiefs. Nay, the very line of kings which has ruled with some interruptions since 1723 is, according to tradition, of Bugis origin.
The Bugis are a seafaring people of South Celebes (Sulawesi), renowned throughout the archipelago as traders, warriors, and political adventurers. Their penetration into the ports of northern Sumatra is consistent with the wider pattern of Bugis diaspora in the eighteenth century, which carried them to Johor, Selangor, Sumbawa, and elsewhere, often placing members of Bugis families in positions of political authority.
The Princes of the Latest Dynasty
The princes of the latest dynasty are those whose edicts and reigns are most fully attested in the surviving sarakatas. Amat Shah Juhan is named by Hurgronje as “the first prince of the latest dynasty”; he is followed by Alaedin Juhan, the second prince of the latest dynasty, who revived in 1752 the sarakata of Jamalul-Alam dated 1689. Other princes of the same line include Alaedin Mahmut (whose sarakata is dated 1766) and Badrudin Asem (Hashim).
The latest dynasty should be distinguished from the line of Sultan Meukuta Alam (Iskandar Muda, reigned 1607–1636), whose sarakatas are the most celebrated in Achehnese tradition, and from the four successive female rulers who occupied the throne from 1641 to 1699 — Sapiatodin, Tajul Alam, and others. The shift to the Bugis-origin dynasty in 1723 marks a major political reorientation in the Sultanate.
Significance for Achehnese Identity
The tradition of Bugis origin for the latest dynasty is one of several testimonies to the cosmopolitan character of Achehnese political life. As Hurgronje remarks, the foreign contributions to the Achehnese race — Arabs, Egyptians, Javanese, Bugis, Kling (Tamils from the Coromandel Coast), and others — are rightly regarded as having a merely incidental influence on the Achehnese race as a whole. In the capital and the coast towns, however, they form an item of greater importance, for it is precisely the most influential families that are of foreign origin. The Bugis-origin dynasty is the most striking instance of this principle: the very kings of Acheh, in its latest phase, were traditionally held to derive from a foreign stock.
See Also
- Sarakata
- Amat Shah Juhan
- Alaedin Juhan
- Alaedin Mahmut Shah
- Badrudin Asem
- Sultan Meukuta Alam
- Princess Sapiatodin
- Bugis
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.