1550

Properties2
tagsyear, islamic, sumatra, precolonial
aliases1550 AD, year 1550, c. 1550

3 min read

The year c. 1550 is the date given in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946) for the rapid, wholesale conversion of the Minangkabau of central Sumatra to Islam, effected — in the account of both Prof. Dr. Kernkamp and Dr. Van Naerssen — under the direct influence of the Atjeh sultanate. See Conversion of Minangkabau via Atjeh (c. 1550).

The c. 1550 conversion

Kernkamp’s wording in the chapter De invloed van den Islam: “the Minangkabauers, who around 1500 were still heathens, were converted from Atjeh, after the realm of that name had arisen there. About 1550 they took up Islam in rapid tempo and in their entirety, and have remained fervent Muslims since.” The conversion marks the moment at which the Atjeh sultanate’s religious-cultural reach extended beyond its own territorial boundaries to the most populous interior people of Sumatra. The Minangkabau, in turn, became the principal agents of Islamisation for the southern Bataks — a process that, on Kernkamp’s account, “long continued to resist” and “was accompanied by violence and plunder.”

Significance for Atjeh

For the Atjeh-focused reader, the c. 1550 date fixes a specific moment at which the Atjeh sultanate’s wider religious influence is documented, some three centuries before the Dutch-Aceh war of 1873 and four centuries before the 1946 publication of Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk. The date brackets the 1415 Chinese reports (which document Islam on the whole north coast) and the 1297 grave of the founder of Samudra: by 1550, the long Atjeh-led Islamisation of northern Sumatra was effectively complete.

Dutch terms used in this article

  • Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
  • Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
  • invloed van den Islam — influence of Islam
  • Atjeh — Aceh
  • Acheh — Aceh
  • Sumatra — Sumatra
  • Batak — Batak
  • Gajo — Gayo
  • Alaslanden — Alas lands
  • Alasland — Alas land
  • Alas — Alas
  • Samudra — Samudra
  • Minangkabau — Minangkabau
  • Prof. Dr. — Professor Doctor
  • Dr. — Doctor

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Start of Atjeh’s golden age (1550-1650). Wealth from trade and traffic, scholars from Egypt/Syrië/Arabië, translations, encyclopedic works, fiqh books.1550–1650, the golden age of Aceh under the greatest of all sultans, Iskandar Moeda.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 28, 122.

Source

Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), p. 81 (chapter De invloed van den Islam door Prof. Dr. W. J. A. Kernkamp).

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 28, 122.

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