The Ottoman Empire was no doubt an incredible conquering power throughout multiple centuries,
and it expanded its reach over multiple continents during its peak. Generally,
the empire’s expeditions were for the means of expansion and growth. But, one campaign,
in particular, was actually aimed more at preserving a friendship than seizing land…
During the 16th century, the Ottoman Turks formed a somewhat unlikely alliance with the Sultanate
of Aceh, all the way over in the Indonesian archipelago. The friendship was a bit unusual
given the fact that the Ottomans, at that time, had only really extended their authority as far
as parts of the Arabian Peninsula in the direction of Aceh. Additionally, even to reach Aceh from the
Arabian Peninsula itself, despite Constantinople being much farther northwest, the Ottomans
would’ve had to cross the Arabian Sea, through the Laccadive Sea, and into the Indian Ocean.
Luckily for them, Aceh was on the closer tip of its archipelago, but still, it sparks curiosity
as to why the Turks would care to form any kind of relations with a state so far from their borders.
For Aceh, on the other hand, the alliance was quite understandable. With the Portuguese
having recently taken control of Malacca, too close to Aceh for comfort, relations with the
Ottomans could mean support in an effort to push the colonizers out of the region, or at a
minimum could provide aid if the Portuguese ever attempted to extend their authority over to the
Aceh Sultanate. Additionally, Sultan Alauddin of Aceh was eyeing some expansion of his own,
hoping to make some moves toward Sumatra, and potentially do so with Ottoman assistance.
According to Portuguese Admiral Fernao Mendes Pinto, the first Ottoman fleet was said to
have visited Aceh carrying 300 Ottoman troops of varying ethnicity from within the empire’s
territory and arrived in 1539. In 1564, the Ottoman Sultan, most famously known as Suleiman
the Magnificent, received an embassy from the Acehnese Sultan, Alauddin Riayat Syah al-Kahhar.
Alauddin also sent a letter to the Ottoman leader, referring to him as the “Caliph of Islam”. Sultan
Suleiman died only two years after receiving the embassy from Aceh though, which left the potential
alliance in the hands of his son and successor, Selim II. Thankfully for Sultan Alauddin, Sultan
Selim was eager to strike up further friendly relations with Aceh and ordered an expedition to
be sent to their allies consisting of soldiers, engineers, weaponry, ammunition, gunsmiths, and
15 galleys. Before they could reach the Indonesian archipelago though, the ships had to be redirected
to deal with a rebellion in Yemen, and only two ever arrived in Aceh. The Ottomans would go on to
send multiple fleets in addition and continued to improve their ties with the Acehnese. Oddly
though, when Sultan Alauddin decided to besiege the Portuguese-controlled Malacca, Sultan Selim
does not seem to have sent any reinforcements. The Ottomans did, however, supply the Acehnese
with cannoneers, but that was all that they could provide due to their current endeavors in both
Cyprus and Aden. The Acehnese, maybe because they lacked Ottoman support, were unsuccessful
in their incursion on Malacca, although they did manage to weaken the Portuguese enough that the
Sultan of the Moluccas would later push them out. Despite not receiving as much military support
from the Turks as they had hoped, the Sultan of Aceh and his men did accept beneficial aid
from the Ottomans in the form of teachings on how to forge impressive cannons, which were
becoming increasingly important in Maritime Southeast Asia. Thanks to Ottoman help, Aceh
was able to possess roughly 1,200 medium-sized bronze cannons by the end of the 16th century.
Ottoman-Aceh relations did not end with the expulsion of the Portuguese from Malacca either,
even though that goal may have played a significant role in the Acehnese Sultan’s
eagerness to form the alliance at the start. The friendship between the sultanate and the empire
grew through military aid, commercial relations, cultural connection, and shared religion.
The ties became so strong that the Ottoman Empire even allowed the Acehnese to fly the
Ottoman flag on their ships. A three-pronged trade alliance also formed between the Turks,
the Acehnese, and the Venetians, which proved to be a serious obstacle for the Portuguese,
who were hopeful about re-entering the region, at a minimum for the purpose of trade. The ultimate
goal of the Portuguese was to establish a trade monopoly, essentially, throughout the Indian
Ocean, which meant that they would have to somehow break up the current system between Aceh, Venice,
and the Ottoman Empire. Portugal made plans for an assault on both Aceh and the Red Sea to target the
Ottomans. Thankfully for the latter, the Portuguese were unable to gather enough
men to support such a campaign and eventually had to call it off. Aceh remained a major commercial
threat to Portugal and at one point may have even controlled a larger portion of the region’s
spice trade than their European adversary. During this time, the Ottomans had also been
facing some conflict with the Portuguese on the side, including the recapture of Aden,
which pushed the Portuguese out of the Red Sea entirely, hence why an attack on the area by
the latter could have helped in their quest to resecure trade authority. The admiral from Aden,
Piri Reis, also made attempts to seize more territory from the Portuguese and managed to
capture Muscat and Qatar, but decided to retreat after hearing word of a nearby Portuguese fleet.
Piri Reis was eventually executed on the order of the sultan in 1553 for his actions,
and Murat Reis became his replacement and commanded the next expedition. Murat was
intending to retrieve the Ottomans troops who had not yet returned back to Suez, but on their way
out of the Persian Gulf, the Turks crossed paths with a large Portuguese fleet and the
largest open-sea conflict between the Ottomans and Portuguese broke out, ending in a defeat for Murat
and the Ottomans and forcing them to flee back to Basra. Due to his failure against the Portuguese,
Murat was replaced by Seydi Ali Reis, who first went to assess the situation in Basra.
He found galleys in desperate need of repair and maintenance, and the work had to be completed
before he could launch another expedition. He eventually set sail and made his way through
the Strait of Hormuz before clashing with the Portuguese a couple of times.
Seydi and his men were eventually forced to dock at the harbor of Surat but thankfully were happily
welcomed by the governor of Gujarat. The Turks were able to stay in Gujarat fairly safely, and
even when the Portuguese attempted to strongarm the governor into giving up his Ottoman guests,
he refused - although he did instead agree to destroy their ships as a consolation.
The Turks subsequently had to journey back to their home across the land from India.
Seydi put a pause on their travel to visit the royal court of the Mughal Empire, and took his
time leading his men back to Turkey due to the ongoing war between the Ottomans and Persia,
making the last part of the journey remarkably dangerous. The troops did return home eventually,
after the Treaty of Amasya was signed between Persia and Turkey in 1555,
and war between the Ottomans and Portuguese seemed to be no longer on the horizon.
Still, the Turks never entirely left the Indonesian region, or at a minimum never
pulled out their support completely. In 1873, a struggle erupted between the Dutch and the
Sultanate of Aceh. When the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 had been signed, it essentially had
confirmed Aceh’s independence, and its position as an Ottoman protectorate was reiterated, but,
after the 1871 Anglo-Dutch Treaty of Sumatra sent the British out of Sumatra and left space
in the region for Dutch expansion, the situation became complicated. The Kingdom of the Netherlands
made multiple attempts to occupy Aceh, beginning in 1873 with a sudden incursion, which failed,
and was followed by a naval blockade, utilization of a series of forts, passive containment, and
enough strategies that the cost of these endeavors began to severely impact the kingdom’s economy.
Throughout these encounters, the Ottomans had intended to send military aid to Aceh,
but once again the ships they sent had to be diverted to Yemen to deal with yet another
rebellion. The war carried on anyway into the 20th century, and while the main portion of
the conflict had eventually fizzled out, resistance to the Dutch influence in the
archipelago from the Acehnese stretched until 1942 when the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies.
Throughout the centuries, the Ottoman-Acehnese alliance proved to be extremely beneficial for
the Sultanate of Aceh, even if they did not receive the military aid to the extent that
they had hoped. For the Ottomans, the friendship was maybe less helpful in terms of military and
political aid, in addition to the effort the Turks had to make simply to reach the archipelago, but,
nonetheless, it allowed for a positive trade alliance with not only Aceh but Venice as well,
and provided a loyal ally all the way in Southeast Asia. While the alliance
may serve as a geographical and maybe otherwise oddity, it undoubtedly had a
major impact on Acehnese history, and at least a noticeable one on Ottoman history as well.