The death of Sultan Jauhar Alum in November 1823 marked the effective end of the settlement imposed on Acheh by the Treaty of Pedir of 22 April 1819 and precipitated a fresh phase of the Acheh succession dispute. The sultan died, according to Van der Kemp, in December 1823 — the text gives “11 December 1823” — at Pedir, where he had resided for years without ever being able to take effective possession of the capital Acheh.
The sultan’s last years had been miserable. The 1819 treaty had recognised him as sovereign in exchange for commercial privileges, the expulsion of his rival Saif ul-Alum (Syf), and a formal apology for outrages against the British flag. None of these stipulations had been carried into effect. The supremacy of Panglima Polim at the capital, the continuing refusal of the three Sagis to acknowledge him — expressed in their letter of 4 December 1822 to Governor Phillips — and his own penury and military weakness had combined to keep him a sultan only in name. The minute of Governor Fullerton of 21 March 1825 later observed that “the remaining years of his life were spent in one stockade at the mouth of the Acheen river without commanding influence or even respect”.
Jauhar Alum left legitimate descendants, and his death at once “de verdeeldheid in zijn geslacht doen toenemen” — increased the divisions within his house and weakened the sultan’s party still further. The Queen-Mother, who exercised considerable authority over the legitimate heir, took the young prince into her custody, and a disputed succession was foreseen by British observers. Fullerton noted in 1825 that “the present occupier of the throne is not the legitimate heir” and warned that a contested succession would probably ensue when the queen-mother’s ward came of age — a prospect that, in his view, would invite Dutch interference.
The sultan’s death also coincided with a sharp turn in British policy. The Penang government, which had long pressed Calcutta for a more vigorous intervention, submitted in February 1824 a fresh proposal for military force; but the Bengal government declined to act, and the matter was overtaken by the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 17 March 1824. Under that convention Britain withdrew from Sumatra altogether, and the Treaty of Pedir (1819) was acknowledged in the London dispatch of 4 August 1824 to be a “dead letter”, to be revised or commuted for a mere commercial arrangement. By the time of Jauhar Alum’s death, then, the political foundation of his sultanate had already disappeared, and his passing merely confirmed that no restoration was possible.
See Also
- Sultan Jauhar Alum
- Queen-Mother of Acheh
- Three Sagis
- Panglima Polim
- Sultan Saif ul-Alum
- Treaty of Pedir (1819)
- Three Sagis’ letter to Penang (4 December 1822)
- Ibbetson’s intervention proposal (February 1824)
- Fullerton’s minute on Acheh (21 March 1825)
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Acheh succession dispute (1802-1819)
- Acheh
- Pedir
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.