Iskandar Thani Alauddin Mughayat Syah (1610 – 15 February 1641) was the thirteenth
sultan of Aceh, following the powerful
Iskandar Muda
Iskandar Muda (1583? – 27 December 1636Yusra Habib Abdul Gani, accessed on 4 January 2007) was the twelfth Sulṭān of Acèh Darussalam, under whom the sultanate achieved its greatest territorial extent, holding sway as the strongest po ...
. Iskandar Thani was the son of the 11th sultan of
Pahang
Pahang (;Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Pahang Hulu Malay: ''Paha'', Pahang Hilir Malay: ''Pahaeng'', Ulu Tembeling Malay: ''Pahaq)'' officially Pahang Darul Makmur with the Arabic honorific ''Darul Makmur'' (Jawi: , "The Abode of Tranquility") is a ...
,
Ahmad Shah II
Qutb-ud-Din Ahmad Shah II, born Jalal Khan, was a ruler of the Muzaffarid dynasty, who reigned over the Gujarat Sultanate from 1451 to 1458. He defeated invading Malwa forces at the battle of Kapadvanj. He tried to capture Nagor and came in co ...
, who was brought to Aceh in the conquest of Pahang in 1617 by Iskandar Muda. He married the sultan's daughter, the later Sulṭāna
Taj ul-Alam
Sulṭāna Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah (1612 – 23 October 1675; born Putri Sri Alam) was the fourteenth ruler of Aceh. She was the daughter of the sultan Iskandar Muda and the wife of his successor, Iskandar Thani. She became sulṭāna u ...
, and succeeded Iskandar Muda as sultan when he died in 1636.
Reigning in the wake of the rout of the Acehnese fleet in 1629, Iskandar Thani was not able to continue his predecessor's military successes. He was a strong ruler, able to suppress the ''orang kaya'' (Acehnese nobility) and working to centralize royal power as Iskandar Muda had done. His rule was too short to make major accomplishments, however, and after his death the elite re-asserted their influence, and placed his widow,
Taj ul-Alam
Sulṭāna Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah (1612 – 23 October 1675; born Putri Sri Alam) was the fourteenth ruler of Aceh. She was the daughter of the sultan Iskandar Muda and the wife of his successor, Iskandar Thani. She became sulṭāna u ...
, on the throne, the first of several weak sultans.
Like Iskandar Muda's, the court of Iskandar Thani was known as a center of Islamic learning. He was the patron of
Nuruddin ar-Raniri, an Islamic scholar from
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
who arrived in Aceh in 1637. Ar-Raniri denounced the work of earlier scholars from Iskandar Muda's court, and ordered their books to be burned while establishing literary and religious standards.
[Ricklefs, 51]
Notes
References
* J.M. Barwise and N.J. White. ''A Traveller’s History of Southeast Asia''. New York: Interlink Books, 2002.
* M.C. Ricklefs. ''A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300'', 2nd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.
Sultans of Aceh
1610 births
1641 deaths
17th-century Indonesian people
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