Alleredin Mahomet was the Atjehnese fleet commander who led the descent on Aroe in 1539 and so brought the Atjeh-Aru war to its crisis. He is named by Mendez Pinto as the beau frère du mesme Roy, marié avec une sienne coeur, “brother-in-law of the [Atjehnese] king, married to a sister of his”, and as holding the office of Gouverneur du Royaume de Baarros — i.e. governor of the kingdom of Baarros on the Sumatran west coast, a post that placed him in command of Atjeh’s western sphere at the same moment that the sultan was extending his power over the east coast.
Command of the Atjehsche vloot, 1539
Pinto’s account, retold by De Roo de la Faille, places Alleredin Mahomet in command of the fleet of about 130 vessels that arrived at the bay of Aroe three days after Pinto’s own arrival there. The fleet anchored in the river of Panetican, where the radja of Aroe had drawn up his 6,000 men. The military weight of the force — its size and the fact that its commander was the sultan’s brother-in-law — left Pinto in no doubt that Aroe would fall, and he sought leave to depart. After Pinto’s withdrawal, the end came quickly: the radja held out at first with success, but treason by an Atjeh-bribed Cacis opened the gates; the radja fell; panic ensued.
The Governorship of Baarros
The title Gouverneur du Royaume de Baarros ties Alleredin Mahomet to Barus — the great west-coast emporium of camphor and a long-standing node of Indian, Arabic and Chinese trade. His command of the Atjehsche vloot against Aroe, combined with his governorship of Barus, marks the breadth of the sultan of Atjeh’s design in 1539: not merely to chastise a single neighbour but to bring the whole circuit of Sumatran coast, west and east, under Atjehnese command — and so to close the Strait of Malacca to Portuguese shipping.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Alleredin Mahomet is the only Atjehnese commander of the Atjeh-Aroe War (1539) to be named by a European eyewitness, and the only high officer of the early-sixteenth-century Atjehnese sultanate whose portfolio — fleet command, royal kinship, and governorship of Barus — can be reconstructed from a single source. His name is thus the principal personal anchor for the Atjehnese side of the 1539 war.
See Also
- Atjeh-Aroe War (1539)
- Atjehsche vloot
- Sultan of Atjeh (16th century)
- Mendez Pinto
- Radja of Aroe
- Queen of Aroe
- Aroe
- Barus
- Aceh Sultanate
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Mendez Pinto op Sumatra”, p. 9.
Alleredin Mahomet was the Atjehnese fleet commander who led the descent on Aroe in 1539 and so brought the Atjeh-Aru war to its crisis. He is named by Mendez Pinto as the beau frère du mesme Roy, marié avec une sienne coeur, “brother-in-law of the [Atjehnese] king, married to a sister of his”, and as holding the office of Gouverneur du Royaume de Baarros — i.e. governor of the kingdom of Baarros on the Sumatran west coast, a post that placed him in command of Atjeh’s western sphere at the same moment that the sultan was extending his power over the east coast.
Command of the Atjehsche vloot, 1539
Pinto’s account, retold by De Roo de la Faille, places Alleredin Mahomet in command of the fleet of about 130 vessels that arrived at the bay of Aroe three days after Pinto’s own arrival there. The fleet anchored in the river of Panetican, where the radja of Aroe had drawn up his 6,000 men. The military weight of the force — its size and the fact that its commander was the sultan’s brother-in-law — left Pinto in no doubt that Aroe would fall, and he sought leave to depart. After Pinto’s withdrawal, the end came quickly: the radja held out at first with success, but treason by an Atjeh-bribed Cacis opened the gates; the radja fell; panic ensued.
The Governorship of Baarros
The title Gouverneur du Royaume de Baarros ties Alleredin Mahomet to Barus — the great west-coast emporium of camphor and a long-standing node of Indian, Arabic and Chinese trade. His command of the Atjehsche vloot against Aroe, combined with his governorship of Barus, marks the breadth of the sultan of Atjeh’s design in 1539: not merely to chastise a single neighbour but to bring the whole circuit of Sumatran coast, west and east, under Atjehnese command — and so to close the Strait of Malacca to Portuguese shipping.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Alleredin Mahomet is the only Atjehnese commander of the Atjeh-Aroe War (1539) to be named by a European eyewitness, and the only high officer of the early-sixteenth-century Atjehnese sultanate whose portfolio — fleet command, royal kinship, and governorship of Barus — can be reconstructed from a single source. His name is thus the principal personal anchor for the Atjehnese side of the 1539 war.
See Also
- Atjeh-Aroe War (1539)
- Atjehsche vloot
- Sultan of Atjeh (16th century)
- Mendez Pinto
- Radja of Aroe
- Queen of Aroe
- Aroe
- Barus
- Aceh Sultanate
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Mendez Pinto op Sumatra”, p. 9.