Bonus Episode | Excerpt from "The Rise and Fall of the Acehnese Queens, 1641-1699"

HERstory: Southeast Asia

PATREON EXCLUSIVE. Extremely excited to share this bonus episode with you on the 4 queens of Aceh who ruled from 1641 to 1699, beginning with Sultanah Safiatuddin or Taj al-Alam Safiatuddin Syah. Unlike the four queens of Patani, this was not an unbroken lineage.

EXCERPT:

Khan argues that maintaining peace and stability so commerce could thrive was an even bigger challenge than the ones faced by the male predecessors of the Acehnese queens. During the time of the queens, although the VOC might have controlled a larger share of the international trade in this region by the end of the century, Aceh’s regional trade continued to thrive and, as a trading port which served private traders from all over the world, Aceh’s international commercial networks continued to be resilient. By the end of the reigns of these women sovereigns, Malay writing and literature in Aceh had developed to a height unrivalled till today: this could be said to constitute the real golden age in Acehnese history. Sorry, Iskandar Muda. The book really goes into detail so I recommend reading it, the text is already up in our resource library under Episode 19.