Sultan Buyung or Ali Ri'ayat Syah II (died 28 June 1589) was the ninth

sultan of Aceh The Sultanate of Aceh, officially the Kingdom of Aceh Darussalam (; Jawi alphabet, Jawoë: ), was a List of Muslim states and dynasties, sultanate centered in the modern-day Indonesian province of Aceh. It was a major regional power in the 16th ...

in northern

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

. He had a short and contested reign from 1585/85 to 1589, ending with his violent demise.

Indrapura origins

Sultan Buyung did not belong to the sultan's family of Aceh but originated from Indrapura on the west coast of Sumatra. His background is known from epigraphic data: he was the son of Munawwar Syah, son of Muhammad Syah, son of Almalik Zainuddin. This indicates that Indrapura had been ruled by a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

dynasty since at least 1500. The sister of Sultan Buyung, Raja Dewi, was married to Sultan Mughal alias

Sri Alam Sultan Sri Alam, also known as Sultan Mughal (d. 1579), was the sixth sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra. He led a very brief reign in the year 1579 before being deposed and killed. Sultan Mughal was one of the five sons of Sultan Alauddin al-Ka ...

who was sultan of Aceh for a brief period in 1579. At a time the prince went to Aceh to be with his widowed sister. When he had stayed there for two months the current sultan

Alauddin Mansur Syah Sultan Alauddin Mansur Syah (died 1585 or 1586) was the eighth Sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra. He ruled Aceh from 1579 to 1585 or 1586 and was known as a pious Muslim ruler with cultural interests. His reign also saw some military expansion o ...

was murdered. This happened in early 1585 according to the chronicles but in 1586 according to a Portuguese account.

Contested reign

After the murder of Alauddin Mansur Syah, Sultan Buyung was raised to the throne with the throne name Sultan Ali Ri'ayat Syah. The precise reasons why he was selected are not known to us, but there was apparently a lack of grown-up candidates. The old sultan left a young grandson, Raja Asyem, who may have been supported by part of the ''orang kayas'' (grandees) but was too young to reign. Raja Asyem was protected by an old military of humble background, the later sultan Alauddin Ri'ayat Syah Sayyid al-Mukammal who had allegedly murdered the boy's grandfather. Thus Aceh appears to have been politically divided during Sultan Buyung's brief reign. Of political events, we only know that the hostilities with the Portuguese in

Melaka Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca. The state is bordered by Negeri Sembilan to the north and west and Johor to t ...

ceased in his reign. Relations between the Portuguese and the leading Malay kingdom

Johor Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore ...

deteriorated after 1585 and the Johorese suffered a disastrous military defeat in 1587. As a consequence of this an Acehnese envoy appeared in

and a peace was concluded. The result of all this was that the sea-roads between the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

and

became free and trade expanded greatly. The peace held on for the next 19 years. Finally, the sultan was murdered under unclear circumstances on 28 June 1589 by "all the grandees" of the kingdom. Thus he was the fourth ruler in succession to be killed. The throne was now taken by Alauddin Ri'ayat Syah Sayyid al-Mukammal, who claimed descent from the 15th-century rulers of Aceh. His accession made an end to ten years of violent political infighting.Encyclopaedie (1917), p. 74.

References

Literature

* ''Dagh-Register 1673'' (1901). 's Gravenhage & Batavia: M. Nijhoff & Landsdrukkerij. * Djajadiningrat, Raden Hoesein (1911) 'Critisch overzicht van de in Maleische werken vervatte gegevens over de geschiedenis van het soeltanaat van Atjeh', ''Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde'' 65, pp. 135-265. * ''Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch Indië'', Vol. 1 (1917). 's Gravenhage & Leiden: Nijhoff & Brill. * Penth, Hans (1969) ''Hikajat Atjeh: Die Erzählung von der Abkunft und den Jugendjaren des Sultan Iskandar Muda von Atjeh (Sumatra)''. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. {{s-end Sultans of Aceh 1589 deaths 16th-century Indonesian people