Documents on sixteenth-century Ottoman contacts with Aceh

Abstract

The relations between the Ottoman empire and the sultanate of Aceh in the sixteenth century have attracted considerable attention from scholars, starting with the pioneering studies of Reid (1969a; revised version in Reid 2005: 69–93). More recently see Göksoy 2004: 11–56, Casale 2010: 117–51, Göksoy 2011, Lambourn 2011, Alves 2015. However, as Casale (2005: 44–5) has pointed out, it has rarely been based on a thorough un-derstanding of the surviving Ottoman documents. All the sixteenth century documents to have come to light are Ottoman summaries of their dealings with the Acehnese with the problematic exception of our first document TSMA E.8009. It should be noted that the relationship predates the earliest references in the Turkish sources, probably to around 1538, and there were certainly other embassies beyond those documented in the Istanbul archives (Reid 1969a: 401–2, Reid 2005: 75–7; Göksoy 2004: 31–2). New light has recently been shed on some of these activities by the discovery of a mühimme defteri in Vienna covering the period 1563–4, which confirms that Alauddin Kahhar sent several embassies requesting help (documents transcribed, translated and discussed in Römer and Vatin 2015)