Alauddin Muhammad Da'ud Syah II
Sultan of Aceh
Sultan Alauddin Muhammad Da'ud Syah II (1864 – 6 February 1939) was the thirty-fifth and last sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra. He reigned from 1874 to 1903. Despite long lasting resistance his rule ended up being conquered by the Dutch colonial state (Dutch East Indies). Tuanku Muhammad Da'ud was the son of Tuanku Zainul Abidin and the grandson of Sultan Alauddin Ibrahim Mansur Syah. When his father and grandfather died in rapid succession in 1870, the throne went to a prince from another branch, Alauddin Mahmud Syah II. This was a period of strong colonial expansion in Southeast Asia. Dutch fear of involvement by some other foreign power in northern Sumatra led them to pursue an aggressive policy vis-à-vis the hitherto independent Aceh, which resulted in the outbreak of the Aceh War on 26 March 1873. During the Second Aceh Expedition in 1873-74, the capital Kutaraja was occupied by the colonial troops. Alauddin Mahmud Syah was evacuated by his retainers but died of cholera on 28 January 1874. Three days later the commanding general Jan van Swieten declared Aceh's inclusion in the Netherlands Indies state territories, believing the war had come to an end. However, the Dutch immediately met with continuing resistance from all strata of society. After the death of Alauddin Mahmud Syah the
fugitive state administration was dominated by Tuanku Hasyim, Panglima Polem of the XXII Mukims, the Panglima of the XXVI Mukims, and Sri Setia Ulama. The first two were descendants of earlier sultans but not proper claimants to the throne. In their communication with the ulamas (religious leaders) and uleëbalangs (chiefs) they strongly appealed to the religious duty of fighting the "infidel" Dutch, combined with an emerging Acehnese patriotism. In conformity with the customary laws, the elite appointed Tuanku Muhammad Da'ud as the new sultan on 4 March 1875. His name on the throne was Sultan Alauddin Muhammad Da'ud Syah Johan Berdaulat. The enthronement ceremony took place in the mosque of Lam Teungoh in Aneuk Galong. This was an important step as it seemed to show that Aceh still had a central government. Tuanku Hasyim acted as mangkubumi (regent) for the young sultan who took up residence in Kota Dalam (Keumala Dalam) in the Pidië area. He was eventually declared of age in 1883. His principal wife was Tengku Gambang Gading, daughter of his kinsman Tuanku Abdulmajid; he was also married to Pocut Manyak Cot Murong and Tengku Jam Manikam. Meanwhile, the war continued unabated. The common enemy united many of the elite of the old capital, chiefs, religious leaders and other people in an unprecedented way. For long periods the Dutch-occupied area was restricted to 20 square kilometers around Kutaraja. Among the most important resistance fighters was Teungku Chik di Tiro who gained the sultan's trust and received a royal seal. After his death in 1891 the Acehnese attacks on the Dutch position decreased. In the 1890s the Dutch tried two ways to come to grips with resistance: either to co-opt local leaders, or to apply new and efficient anti-guerrilla tactics. These strategies slowly gave effect and the sultan and Panglima Polem had to move further towards the north-west coast of Aceh to avoid capture. The sultan was described as a cheerful and handsome man with a royal demeanour towards his chiefs, while at the same time being polite and attentive towards the people with whom he came in contact. He appealed to Russia to grant the sultanate protectorate status and aid it in repelling the Dutch East India Company. The Sultan's request was rejected, and Aceh was eventually conquered by the Dutch. At his court he kept some Dutch and Indonesian deserters from the colonial army who were trusted to undertake errands and even taught the sultan some Dutch songs. It was still his distant kinsman Tuanku Hasyim who exerted most of the power at the court while serving as viceroy. As long as Tuanku Hasyim was alive there was no question of surrendering to the colonial troops. The sultan's cousin and father-in-law Tuanku Abdulmajid surrendered to the Dutch in 1887, but this did not have any effect on the devotion of the sultan and viceroy. The well-known resistance fighter Teuku Umar was appointed sea commander (amirul bahri) of the west coast by the sultan but made a deal with the Dutch in 1893 and began to actively fight the Acehnese troops. The sultan sent a letter to Teuku Umar accusing him of apostasy. This, together with other factors such as the influence of his wife Cut Nyak Dhien, caused Teuku Umar to return to the sultan's party after a short while. Tuanku Hasyim died in 1897 and Teuku Umar was killed in 1899. In the same year General J. B. van Heutsz attacked Pidië and forced the surrender of many leaders. After a bloody defeat at Batei Ilie in 1901, the sultan and Panglima Polem fled to the Gayo highlands where the Dutch troops had not yet set foot. Van Heutsz sent the ruthless Major Van Daalen after them with a Marechausse Corps. They were unable to capture the sultan, however. In 1902 the Dutch Army officer Hans Christoffel managed to capture the principal wife of the sultan, followed a month later by his second wife Cot Murong and one of his sons. Alauddin Muhammad Da'ud Syah was presented with an ultimatum: if he did not surrender within a month his family would be exiled from Aceh. The sultan finally gave in. He inquired to the Dutch authorities whether he would be exiled if he surrendered. This presented a dilemma for Van Heutsz who had previously agreed with his main political advisor Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje that the sultan should be ignored and that consequently no negotiations should take place with him. Van Heutsz nevertheless gave a grudgingly approving reply to the sultan's question: "Well, goddammit, what should I now answer to that?" (Ja, godverdomme, wat moet ik daar nou op antwoorden?). After instructing his principal chiefs to keep on fighting, the sultan met with the Dutch in the forest of Merasa Ië Leubeuë on 10 January 1903 and was taken to Kutaraja. Van Heutsz arranged for a highly publicized ceremony of surrender where a life-size photo of Queen Wilhelmina was displayed in the hall, and he received the sultan from a podium. Panglima Polem followed suit in September in the same year. Snouck Hurgronje was furious with Van Heutsz for disregarding his advice. However, these two surrenders broke much of the remaining resistance, although the Aceh War continued on a lower scale until about 1910-12. The Dutch provided the sultan with a comfortable house and a monthly allowance of 1,200 guilders. In 1907 it was revealed that the sultan had secretly helped plan attacks on Dutch positions. The colonial authorities therefore resolved to exile him to Java and then to Ambon Island.
The baltacı or baltadji (plural baltacılar, "axemen") corps was a class of palace guards in the Ottoman Empire from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Also known by the equivalent Persian title tabardar, the baltadji corps dates to the early days of the Ottoman Empire: recruited from the devshirme, they served as sappers and pioneers of the Ottoman army. Already in the early 15th century, however, a number were posted as guards in the Sultan's palace at Edirne. After the Fall of Constantinople and the establishment of various palaces in the new capital, separate companies of baltadjis were created for service in each palace: the Old Palace or Eski Saray, the New Palace or Topkapi Palace, the Galata Palace, and the Palace of Ibrahim Pasha. Since the Topkapı Palace was the principal imperial residence, the men of its baltadji company held special status: while the men of the other companies were enrolled, after a period of service, in the Janissary infantry regiments, the men of the Topkapı Palace had the privilege of being enrolled in the sipahi and silahdar cavalry regiments. The Topkapı baltadjis were commanded by a kahya or kethüda, who was under the authority of the Sultan's principal page, the Silahdar Agha. The company was also responsible for supplying firewood to the Imperial Harem. In order to avoid inadvertently seeing the harem's ladies, the baltacıs were outfitted with special blinkers of cloth or lace and jackets with very high collars, whence they were commonly known as the "blinkered axemen" (zülüflü baltacılar). In
addition, twelve subalterns (kalfas) of the Topkapı Palace company, chosen for their literacy, fulfilled ceremonial duties: they brought the Sultan's throne during his enthronement ceremony and on other festivals, they guarded the sacred standard of the Prophet on campaign while reciting verses from the Quran, guarding the belongings of the harem ladies when the court moved out of the Topkapı during the summer, and, after the 17th century, with presenting the preachers at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque with sharbat, rosewater and incense on the Prophet's Birthday. Further baltadjis of the Topkapı company were also attached to the chief palace officers, while two kalfas of the company served as the head cook and deputy head cook of the imperial kitchen. The company guarding the Old Palace, which following the construction of the Topkapı was relegated to a residence of the sultans' mothers, was originally responsible to the Kapi Agha, but after the 17th century to the Kizlar Agha. The latter often used educated members of the Old Palace baltadji company as personal secretaries or as clerks in the administration of the pious endowments of the Holy Cities. Other men of this company were appointed as chief coffee-makers (kahvedji bashi) to the valide sultanas and various princesses. By the middle of the 17th century, the baltadji companies were no longer drawn from the devshirme recruits (acemi oghlans), but chiefly from Anatolian Muslims and, occasionally, relatives of palace servants. In 1675, the palaces of Galata and of Ibrahim Pasha were closed down, and their baltadji companies were abolished. Sultan Mustafa III (reigned 1757–1774) abolished the Topkapı company as well, but it was restored by his successor, Abdülhamid I (r. 1774–1789), and survived until the entire palace was reorganized during the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839). Several members of the corps rose to become Grand Viziers, such as Baltacı Mehmet Pasha and Nevsehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha.
The Sultanate of Aceh, officially the Kingdom of Aceh Darussalam (Acehnese: Nanggroë Acèh Darussalam), was a sultanate centered in the modern-day Indonesian province of Aceh. It was a major regional power in the 16th and 17th centuries, before experiencing a long period of decline. Its capital was Kutaraja, the present-day Banda Aceh. At its peak it was a formidable enemy of the Sultanate of Johor and Portuguese-controlled Malacca, both on the Malay Peninsula, as all three attempted to control the trade through the Strait of Malacca and the regional exports of pepper and tin with fluctuating success. In addition to its considerable military strength, the court
of Aceh became a noted center of Islamic scholarship and trade. In 1539, the Sultan of Aceh (Sumatra), Ala al-Din al-Kahar, signed a treaty of co-operation with the Beylerbey of Egypt. Turkish artillerymen and engineers were sent to Aceh. At the same time, 160 Aceh ships with a troop of warriors on board approached the shores of the principality of Aru in eastern Sumatra, an ally of the Portuguese. The Acehnese infantry that attacked Aru was commanded by an Abyssinian sent by the Ottoman Padishah, who was later killed in battle. Al-Qahar made campaigns against Timor Raja, the ruler of the neighbouring principality of Batta Siri, who refused to convert to Islam, in which Arabs from the Ottoman Empire participated. Many Batta Siri warriors died, including three sons of their ruler. The war became brutal. With the support of the Portuguese, the ruler of Batta Siri defeated the army of Al-Kahar, which had in its composition and 600 Turkish, 200 Abyssinian and Malabar warriors from India. Then approached the capital of Ache and besieged it for 23 days, suffered heavy losses and was forced to retreat when it became known that the Ache fleet had returned from a campaign in Siam. The expedition to Tewateri (Siam) was commanded by the nephew of the Ottoman Beylerbey of Egypt, the Almiral of the Ace fleet. In 1561, the Portuguese intercepted a 50-gun Ace ship carrying gold and jewellery worth 200,000 cruzedos, which were intended for the Ottoman sultan for Ace's military aid, and 500 soldiers, including Ottoman subjects - Turks, Arabs and Abyssinians - returning from northern Sumatra after fighting with the Portuguese. Later, Al-Qahar, asking the Ottomans for help against the Portuguese, also sent an embassy to Padishah Selim II. Along with the embassy, several ships laden with spices were sent to the Ottoman Empire as a gift. It was not until 1567 that the embassy reached Istanbul, but without the gifts, as they had to sell them during the long journey in order to secure their sustenance. During the ceremony of receiving the embassy by Ace Padishah Selim II, the ambassador, in great embarrassment and apologising, presented the Ottoman ruler with only a handful of tropical spices. But Selim II accepted them with great gratitude, assessing them as a gesture of friendship on the part of the ruler of the overseas co-religionists. The Ottomans responded to the request for military aid to Aceh. 19 military galleys and two barges under Kapudan Pasha Kurdoglu Hizir went to the coast of Sumatra island, but on their way they were overtaken by a new order to go to suppress the rebellion in Yemen. Nevertheless, two Ottoman warships from this squadron with 500 crew members, including artillerymen and military engineers, reached the Sultanate of Ace on distant Sumatra. The Ottoman ambassador Said al-Kamal, who arrived with these ships, was soon appointed commander of the forces of the Sultanate of Aceh, the Sultanate itself formally recognising Ottoman patronage. Several large cannons were brought to Aceh as gifts, which the arriving Ottoman artillerymen used to train the local warriors to fire. In 1567, Al Qahar sent warships against the Portuguese based on the Malacca Peninsula. Of the 15,000 Acehnese warriors who went on this campaign, 400 were Turks. Contacts between the two Muslim states continued under the successors of Ala-al-Din and Selim II. During the reigns of Sultan Mansur Shah of Aceh (1577-1588) and Abdul-Hamid I, Padishah of the Ottomans, the Turks gave many cannons of various calibres and guns to Aceh, sent military sailors, artillerymen and military engineers, specialists in fortress construction. And later, under the Ace sultans Ala-al-Din Rayat Shah (1588-1604) and Iskandar Muda (the younger) (1607-1636), relations continued to develop. Ala-al-Din Rayat Shah was honoured with the highest Ottoman award, the Star of Honour, and Ottoman military experts arrived at Iskandar's door. The Ottoman Sultan authorised Acehnese ships to sail under the Ottoman flag. Iskandar sent a large embassy to Istanbul on three ships with rich gifts, which arrived at the court of the Ottoman Padishah two years later, sailing round Africa from the south at the Cape of Good Hope. After a sumptuous reception in Istanbul, the Ace embassy returned home with numerous military equipment, including heavy Ottoman artillery. In 1612, the Ottoman embassy visited Aceh, where it was given a grand reception at which the Ottoman Sultan declared that there were ‘only two great rulers’ in the whole world: in the West, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and in the East, the Sultan of Aceh. In the first half of the 17th century, Ace was at the height of its power and successfully fought its neighbours, using Turkish engineers in the sieges of fortresses. After the capture of Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641, the Dutch penetrate the coastal principalities vassal to Ace, and Ace's influence declines. The Ottoman Empire was by then no longer able to help its ally in Southeast Asia. As the colonial pressure on Ace intensified, Ibrahim, the ruler of the Ace sultanate, decided in 1850 to restore old ties with the Ottoman Empire and sent an embassy to Istanbul with a request to recognise Ace as an Ottoman province. The first of them officially restored the Ottoman protectorate over Ace, and the second confirmed Ibrahim's title as the ruler of Ace. As a token of gratitude, a few years later, the ruler of Ace sent $10,000 for military support to the Ottoman Empire, then at war with Russia in alliance with Britain, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia (the Crimean War). For this move, Ibrahim was awarded the highest Ottoman order. In 1873, when the Netherlands launched an offensive against Aceh, its ruler urgently sent an embassy led by Abd-al-Rahman to the Ottoman Empire asking for military and political support in opposing the Dutch forces. In doing so, the Ace ambassador, in his appeal to the Ottoman authorities, appealed to the treaty of 1567, concluded in such distant between the Sultans of Ace and the Ottomans. The Ottomans were only in a position to give the Ace only moral support. In the same year, the Ottoman authorities sent an official letter to the Dutch government, where, referring to the treaty of 1567, they declared themselves the defenders of Ace interests against any foreign interference. In 1853, the ruler of the Muslim Sumatran state of Jambi, Sultan Taha Safi-ud-Din, refused to sign a treaty with the Dutch limiting his power. Moreover, he asked the Ottoman padishah to issue him an official Ottoman document declaring Jambi an Ottoman possession, which would allow him to stop foreign interference. Sharif Ali, his envoy to the Ottoman court, reached Istanbul and obtained from the Ottoman sultan official documents declaring the principality of Jambi to be Ottoman territory. However, the Ottomans were unable to prevent the Dutch from seizing Jambi. A few years later, Sultan Taha again attempted to declare the principality part of the Ottoman Empire. There are reports that he received money and arms from the Ottomans for this purpose. Taha was overthrown in 1858 and took refuge with a group of adherents in the interior of Jambi in Sumatra until 1904, when the Dutch, having finished with the main centres of resistance in Jambi, hunted him down and killed him. In 1881, Dutch authorities uncovered a plot by local Muslims to revolt against Dutch rule in Sumatra. Among the main conspirators were arrested two former Ottoman officers who had arrived in Palembang shortly before, allegedly on trade business from Singapore, where there was an Ottoman consulate. In 1904, an anti-Dutch revolt in the Netherlands Indies was led by a former Ottoman army officer, Abdullah Yusuf, a Hungarian by birth whose pre-Islamic name was Karl Hirma. He claimed to be doing the bidding of the Caliph and Padishah of the Ottomans, but was captured by the Dutch and sent into exile.
Awards: Insignia, sash and star of the Order of Osmanieh.
