Stambul — known in Ottoman Turkish as İstanbul, in Achehnese as Esentaniboy, and in older European usage as Constantinople — was, in The Achehnese, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and the seat of the Sultan of Turkey, whom the Achehnese called the Raja Rom (“Lord of Rome”, i.e. of the eastern Roman dominions) and revered as the lord of all believers. Stambul features in Vol. I chiefly in the legendary account of the embassy sent from Acheh to the Sublime Porte in the sixteenth century, an embassy whose return brought to Acheh both the great cannon Lada Sichupa’ and a colony of skilled artisans from Syria who settled at Bitay near the Dalam.
According to the Achehnese tradition reported by Snouck Hurgronje, “in the course of the sixteenth century, when Acheh began to grow powerful, one of the Sultans — we know not which — thought that the time had come to bring his kingdom to the notice of the lord of all believers, the Raja Rom, i.e. the Sultan of Turkey.” The sultan caused one of his biggest ships to be laden with pepper, the principal product of the country, as an offering of homage, and either made the journey himself or sent an embassy of wealthy chiefs. “At Stambul (Esentaniboy) no one had ever heard of the existence of Acheh. So when the ambassadors arrived there, though they found it easy enough to get a lodging in return for their money, all their efforts to induce the officials to ask an audience for them of the Sultan proved of no avail.”
The Achehnese remained in Stambul a year or two, gradually selling their pepper to support themselves, until the Sultan espied them among the crowd of respectful spectators as he returned one Friday from the mosque to his palace. At the audience that followed, the Achehnese explained their errand and presented the remaining single chupa’ of pepper, “since, out of the whole cargo of pepper which they had brought with them, only a single chupa’ remained.” The Sultan accepted the gift graciously and “requested them to tell him all about affairs in Acheh, the distance of that kingdom from Stambul, the difficulties of the journey and so forth.” He then ordered a great cannon to be given them as a return present — the Lada Sichupa’ or “Pepper of a Chupa’” — and, in compliance with their request, “gave them a number of skilled artisans from his kingdom to instruct their fellow-countrymen in various arts hitherto unknown to them.” The Sultan of Turkey further “considered it unbefitting to bind his new vassal to the regular despatch of embassies or tribute, since the great length of the journey presented too many difficulties”, and instead prescribed the universal observance of the feast of the Prophet’s birth (Mo’lot) as Acheh’s tribute to the lord of the Faithful.
The embassy to Stambul is, in Snouck Hurgronje’s account, the legendary foundation of two enduring features of Achehnese religious life: the strict observance of the Mo’lot feast throughout the sultanate, and the cult of Tuan di Bitay as the patron of the cannon-casters and of the colony of Syrian artisans settled at Bitay. The story is “somewhat legendary”, and the historical facts behind it — the well-attested intercourse between Acheh and the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century, and the introduction by Turkish or Syrian artisans of new crafts, including the casting of cannon — are firmer than the details of the legend itself. The cannon Lada Sichupa’ was, before the coming of the Dutch, part of the defences of the Dalam, and was eventually destroyed or removed; the cult of Tuan di Bitay survived at Bitay down to Snouck Hurgronje’s own time.
See Also
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.