Seal of Sultan Alauddin Riayat Syah of Aceh (r.1589 – 1604).
Ottoman influence can be seen in the decorative knots and
in the use of both intaglio and relief carving on the same Financial guarantee
seal, which gives black lettering against a white background issued by Sultan Mansur Syah of Aceh
in the middle, and the reverse in the border. Bodleian Library, for his envoy to Istanbul, Muhammad Ghauth, 1849.
MS Douce Or.e.4 (detail)
BOA �.HR 73/3511
Islam, Trade and Politics
across the Indian Ocean
Southeast Asia has long been connected by trade,
religion and political links to the wider world across
the Indian Ocean, and especially to the Middle East
through the faith of Islam. However, little attention
has been paid to the ties between Muslim Southeast
Asia – encompassing the modern nations of Indonesia,
Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and the southern parts of
Thailand and the Philippines – and the greatest Middle
Eastern power, the Ottoman empire.
The research project Islam, Trade and Politics across
the Indian Ocean set out to investigate all forms of
interaction between these two regions, from political,
religious, literary and commercial exchanges to mutual
influences in material culture. Documents recently
discovered in archives in Istanbul have shed new light
on links between the lands of the Ottoman empire and
Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520 – 1566). It was in his
early republican Turkey, and the Muslim peoples of
reign that direct contact was established between Aceh Southeast Asia, from the 16th to 20th centuries.
and the Ottoman empire. British Library, Add.7880, f.53v.
Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean is a research project funded by the British Academy over the period 2009 – 2012, and administered
by the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) and the Association for South East Asian Studies in the UK (ASEASUK). This exhibition is based on
research by Ali Akbar, Azyumardi Azra, Vladimir Braginsky, Giancarlo Casale, William Clarence-Smith, Oman Fathurahman, Chiara Formichi,
Annabel Teh Gallop, İsmail Hakkı Göksoy, Michael Hitchcock, Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells, Midori Kawashima, Fiona Kerlogue, Carool
Kersten, Mohd. Zahamri Nizar, Andrew Peacock and Anthony Reid.
Images used in this exhibition are reproduced with the kind permission of the institutions named, with special thanks to Başbakanlık Osmanlı
Arşivi (BOA), Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives, Istanbul, and photographer Burak Bulut Yıldırım.
ASEASUK
ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN
STUDIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
The Indian Ocean, from an Italian Portolano, 16th century. British Library, Harley 3450, no.6
The Indian Ocean World:
Trade and Warfare
The 16th century saw fierce competition between the
Portuguese and the Ottomans in the Indian Ocean for
control of the spice trade. It has long been thought that
each side used completely different vessels, with the
Portuguese in tall-sided sailing ships while the Ottomans
favoured galleys, lightly-armed warships rowed by
oarsmen. Yet recent research shows that both fleets were
in fact more varied, for the Ottomans also initially tried
out European-style sailing ships, while the Portuguese
eventually turned to smaller but more flexible galleys.
Ottoman records confirm that during the reigns
of Süleyman I and Selim II, cannon, gunners and
gunsmiths were sent to Aceh in Sumatra. Every
Acehnese knows the story of an
iconic Turkish cannon called
Lada Secupak, ‘One Measure of
Pepper’. Sultan Iskandar Muda
is said to have sent an embassy
Sultan Selim II (r.1566 – 1574). Selim Han Name, by from Aceh to Istanbul to buy
Seyyid Lokman, 1687. British Library, Or.7043, f.14r
guns, accompanied by rich gifts
of pepper and spices. After a long and arduous journey, by the
time the envoys gained a royal audience all that was left of their
grand cargo was one cupak (measure) of pepper. The Ottoman
sultan magnanimously accepted this gift and rewarded the envoys
with a great gun. The gun known as Lada Secupak was captured by
the Dutch in Aceh in 1874, and is now held in a military museum
in the Netherlands.
The cannon known as Lada Secupak. Research
on decorative motifs on cannon found in Aceh
provides clear evidence of Ottoman influence in
certain designs and suggests that some may have
been made by Ottoman gunsmiths in Gujerat.
Museum Bronbeek, No.27. Photo Fiona Kerlogue
The earliest known Ottoman map of the Indian Ocean, 16th century.
Deniz Atlası, Walters Art Museum, Ms. W.660, ff.2v-3r.
Below a Portuguese fleet with sailing ships faces an Ottoman fleet of galleys in the Indian
Ocean; and right, a larger and better-armed Portuguese ship is outflanked by smaller,
lighter Ottoman galleys. Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu, 16th c. Pierpont Morgan Library, MS 525
Imagining the Other:
Rum and Southeast Asia
The Ottoman lands were known in Southeast
Asia as Rum, as the Arabs called the Roman
empire and its eastern heir Byzantium. Rum
has long loomed large in the Southeast Asian
imagination, and the Raja Rum occupies a fabled
position in Malay, Acehnese and Javanese epics.
A royal edict in Malay with three seals, representing the Sultan
of Minangkabau flanked by his elder brothers the Emperor of
Rum and the Emperor of China,19th c. Leiden University Library,
Cod.Or.4818.a.IV (detail)
Despite the reverence accorded the
Raja Rum, Southeast Asian story
tellers naturally privileged their own
patrons. In the Hikayat Aceh, the
sultan of Rum falls ill, and his doctors
advise that the only cure is camphor
and oil from Aceh. Turkish envoys are
sent to Sumatra for this medicine, and
return to Istanbul with such stories of
the grandeur of the court of Aceh that
the Ottoman emperor exclaims, ‘God
has created two great rulers in this
world: in the west ourselves and in the
east Sultan Perkasa Alam [of Aceh]’.
I n Turkey similarly exotic imaginings
existed in parallel with concrete
The surviving western half of the first world map by the Ottoman cartographer
geographical knowledge.
Piri Reis, 1513. Topkapı Saray Museum, R.1633 Well into the 18th century
Ottoman artists continued
to illustrate medieval texts
describing winged nymphs
and hairy human fruit-
eaters from Southeast
Asia.
Winged tree-dwellers of
Zabaj, referring probably to
Sumatra or Java, from ‘Aja’ib al-
makhluqat by Qazvini, Persian
text with Ottoman paintings,
1654/5. British Library, Or.13935,
f.76r
Below Hikayat Si Miskin, Malay romance
in which Raja Rum joins a cast of gods and A woman from the ‘East Indies’
heroes with magical powers. Lithographed (Hind-i Şarki). Zenanname,
in Singapore, 1857. Turkish work on the merits and
British Library, 14625.e.3
defects of women of various
countries, 1776. British Library,
Or.7094, f.8r
Intellectual
Networks
From the 16th to the early 20th centuries, the two holy cities
of Islam, Mecca and Medinah, were under Ottoman control.
The annual hajj pilgrimage strengthened Ottoman links with
Southeast Asia. Many Muslims from the Malay archipelago
lived for long periods in Mecca, where they were known as
the Jawi community. They studied and wrote in Malay and
Arabic, and sometimes
commissioned new texts.
One such work in Arabic
composed in Mecca in the
17th century is Ithaf al-dhaki
bi-sharh al-tuhfah al-mursalah ila
al-nabi, ‘The bestowal dedicated
to one of discriminating
An Indonesian haji (pilgrim),
intelligence, in explanation by C W Mieling. Nederlandsch
of ‘The Gift addressed to the Oost-Indische typen (The Hague,
1853 – 62). British Library, 1781.c.23
Spirit of the Prophet’’. It was
written by the Kurdish scholar Ibrahim al-Kurani
at the request of an Acehnese scholar, ‘Abd al-Ra’uf
bin ‘Ali. Of the 31 manuscript copies known, nine
Letter in Arabic from Southeast Asian religious scholars
in Mecca to Hasib Pasha, Ottoman governor of the Hijaz,
are held in Istanbul, evidence that a work written
thanking him and the Sultan for facilitating the hajj, 1849/50. by a scholar in Arabia for a Southeast Asian
The seals and signatures include those of Ahmad Khatib
Sambas, Abdul Ghani of Banten, Muhammad Ayad of audience became very popular in Ottoman circles.
Palembang and Muhammad Arsyad of Wajo’ in Sulawesi.
BOA İ.DH 211/12286
e 17th century Meccan scholar Muhammad
Th
ibn ‘Alan also composed several works at the
behest of the sultan of Banten in west Java,
including al-Mawahib al-Rabbaniyya, ‘The Divine
Gifts’, an adaptation of Nasihat al-Muluk, a popular
‘mirror for princes’ attributed to al-Ghazali. There
is evidence that some elements of Malay advice
literature often considered Persian may in fact
have been transmitted in Arabic through the
Ottoman empire.
Ithaf al-dhaki, by Ibrahim al-Kurani, a manuscript Nuzhat al-ikhwan, vocabulary in Arabic, Turkish, Malay and Acehnese, by Abdullah bin
copied in 1688, from the library of Tipu Sultan of Ismail al-Ashi, first published in Mecca in 1900 and reprinted in Cairo in 1930. Photo Oman
Mysore (1750 – 1799). British Library, I.O.Islamic 1180 Fathurahman.
Nasihat al-muluk, ‘Counsel for kings’, in Arabic with interlinear Javanese translation, 18th c. British Library, I.O. Islamic 252
Artistic
Connections
Ottoman cultural influences can be observed
in Southeast Asian manuscripts and art.
Pilgrims returning from the hajj brought The only known copy of the earliest Qur’an printed in Southeast Asia,
back as souvenirs Qur’ans and prayerbooks, lithographed in Palembang by Haji Muhammad Azhari in 1848. The
text layout and rectangular decorated frames reflect Ottoman influence.
which in some cases influenced local Collection Abdul Azim Amin, Palembang. Photo Ali Akbar.
production. The Ottomans had perfected a
system of text layout for Qur’an manuscripts with each thirtieth part of the text (juz’)
occupying exactly twenty pages, and every page ending with a complete verse. This
regular layout greatly helped those learning to recite the Qur’an by heart. Qur’an
manuscripts from Terengganu, Kelantan and Patani always follow this model, as
do some Qur’ans from Java, and the modern standard printed Indonesian Qur’an.
Large Vietnamese jar, probably Qur’an manuscript in the Sultan's Mosque in Penyengat, Riau,
made in Chu Dau kilns, Red River written by a scribe from Lingga named Abdurrahman Stambul, who
Delta, 1440 – 1460. This jar is said had travelled to Egypt to study Ottoman calligraphy. Photo Ali Akbar
to have been found in the Yemen.
British Museum 2009,3014.3 Tughra of the Ottoman Sultan
Murad III (r.1574 – 1595).
British Library Or.15504
Ottoman motifs encountered
in Southeast Asia include the
tughra or royal monogram, and distinctive
calligraphic styles such as zoomorphic and müsenna mirror writing. The two-bladed
sword of the Prophet named Dhu al-faqar, so evident in Ottoman war flags and pilgrim
banners, is also found on flags from Aceh, Siak, Riau and even Sulu in the southern
Philippines.
Keris with a Madurese hilt,
ca.19th c. Military Museum, Istanbul
Influences did not just flow from west to east. In the early 19th century, Ottoman
calligraphers found that for writing long texts such as the Qur’an, the best nibs came
from Southeast Asia, and they called these Cava kalemleri, ‘Javanese pens’. Vietnamese
and Thai ceramics have been found in Ottoman territories and archaeological sites,
and Indonesian weapons are held in museums in Istanbul.
Batik from Jambi, with stylized representations of the Ottoman tughra and the sword Dhu al-faqar, 19th c. Collection Rudolf Smend
Aceh: Eastern Frontier
of the Ottoman World?
In the 16th century Aceh established direct links
with the Ottoman empire. When in the mid-19th
century the Dutch began expanding aggressively
in Sumatra, Aceh once more turned to Turkey for help.
In 1849 Sultan Mansur Syah of Aceh (r.1838 – 1870)
sent a personal envoy to Sultan Abdülmecid with a letter
reaffirming Aceh’s historic status as an Ottoman vassal,
and pleading for help against the Dutch.
Sultan Abdülmecid I (r.1839 – 1861) on horseback. Hadikat ul-mülûk,
biographical notes of sultans, 19th c. British Library, Or.9505, f.72r
A
fter a year without news, in 1850 Mansur
Syah sent another letter to Abdülmecid,
this time in Arabic. Ottoman records show
that the Acehnese request was given serious
The Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul, c.1863, Photograph studios
of the Naval Press. Photo courtesy Berta Lledo, Ertugrul Project consideration in council, but concern over
Dutch reactions led to a cautious decision
only to send an envoy to Aceh to investigate its
claims of Ottoman suzerainty.
Aceh’s worst fears were realised in 1873 when
Dutch forces invaded the kingdom. Although
the Dutch were initially beaten back, the
following year they returned and captured the
palace. Over the next decades bitter fighting
continued, and the Acehnese sent further pleas
to the Ottoman consulate in Batavia. The arrival
of the Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul in Singapore
in 1889 en route to Japan raised
Acehnese hopes, but by the time
an Acehnese delegation arrived in
Singapore the ship had departed.
The long Dutch war in Aceh only
began to abate after 1903 with the
surrender of Mansur Syah’s
Malay letter and envelope of red songket cloth from Sultan successor, Muhammad Daud Syah.
Mansur Syah of Aceh to the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid, 1849.
BOA İ.HR 66/3208
Map of Southeast Asia presented by the Acehnese to the Ottomans, 1850, which tries both to
enhance Aceh’s importance whilst emphasizing the scale of the Dutch threat. This is the first known
map to represent Lake Toba in north Sumatra. BOA �.HR 73/3511
Ottomans in the Philippines
Petition in the Tausug language addressed to the Ottoman ambassador in Washington, requesting a teacher of Islam, signed by Haji Nuño and 57
other Muslim notables in Zamboanga, April 1912. The magic squares are talismans to ensure the letter’s safe delivery. BOA İ.MBH 12/1331/C-011
Many Ottoman subjects in the Philippines in the late 19th century were Christian
Arabs from the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. They mostly arrived as peddlers
of religious memorabilia from the holy land of Palestine, a lucrative trade in the
mainly Catholic Spanish colony.
The formal presentation of the letter from the Taluksangay Muslim leaders to Major Finley on 10 April 1912. In the middle is Haji Nuño. The
small figure in front of Finley is Panglima Diki-Diki, a hereditary chief from Sulu. US Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania
In 1898 the Americans won control of the Philippines, and like the Spanish
before them, were confronted by armed resistance in the Muslim south.
An American official, John Park Finley, became convinced that the best
way to end violence in Mindanao and Sulu was to transform Islam
in the area. He teamed up with Haji Abdulgani Nuño, a reformist
Samal-Balangingi Muslim leader who had established a mosque at
Taluksangay near Zamboanga. In 1912 Haji Nuño and other local
notables drew up a petition addressed to the Ottoman authorities,
asking for a teacher, and this was personally delivered to Istanbul
by Finley. The result was the appointment in 1913 of Sayyid Wajih,
from the office of the Shaykh al-Islam in Istanbul, as a teacher for the
Philippines. Sayyid Wajih arrived in Mindanao in January 1914 to a
warm welcome from the local Muslims. However, after only a month
nervous American officials forced Wajih to leave, and he died in the
US in 1916 while trying to raise support for his cause.
Sayyid Wajih al-Jilani, from Nazareth in
Palestine, sent from Istanbul as a teacher
for the Philippines in 1913. Tribune, 13 Arabic map of Southeast Asia, printed in Beirut in c.1860.
August 1915. US National Archives British Library, Maps 41.d.12
Southeast Asian Origins
of Ottoman Pan-Islamism?
Letter in Arabic from Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin Halim Syah of Kedah,
to the Ottoman emperor, asking for help against the Siamese who had uring the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid
D
invaded Kedah, 1825. The title of the Ottoman sultan has been ‘elevated’ II (1871 – 1909), the Ottoman empire
from its position in the letter, leaving a blank space, and placed on the
back of the paper, where it functioned as the address label when the formulated a policy of Pan-Islamism ,
letter was folded. BOA HAT 785/36657
positioning the Ottoman emperor as
Caliph and leader of Muslims worldwide
and promoting Muslim solidarity. Most
studies of this phenomenon have focused
on internal Turkish political developments.
It now appears that an important catalyst
may have been demands by Southeast Asians
for intervention by the Ottoman Empire
against European colonial presence and
expansion in the region.
Recent discoveries in the archives in Istanbul show that
from the early 19th century, requests from Malay rulers
for Ottoman protection employed all the elements of the
rhetoric later adopted in Pan-Islamist policies. In letters
from Kedah (1825), Aceh (1849, 1850), Riau (1857)
and Jambi (1858), the Ottoman sultan is addressed as
sultan of Islam and the Muslims, God’s vicegerent on
earth, leader of those who wage holy war, aider of the
sharia, and servant of the two holy shrines. This therefore
raises the question of whether these sentiments might
have had an impact on the formation of Ottoman
Pan-Islamist policies later on in the century. Ottoman medal presented to Sultan Taha Saifuddin
of Jambi. The medallion is dated 1880/81 and
inscribed in Ottoman ‘loyalty, devotion, zeal'.
Museum Negeri Jambi
Left Letter in Arabic from
Sultan Taha Saifuddin of
Jambi to the Ottoman Sultan
Abdülmecid, 1858, requesting
help against the Dutch. BOA
�.HR. 73/9431
Right Letter in Arabic
from Raja Ali, 5th
Yang Dipertuan Muda
(Viceroy) of Riau, to
Sultan Abdülmecid of
Turkey, 1857, with its
envelope of green silk.
BOA �.DH 368/24377
Flags of Aceh, showing the Ottoman flag adopted by the Sultan of Aceh
(top left). Dutch sketch, late 19th c. Museum voor Volkenkunde Leiden, 193-19a
Arab Go-Betweens:
Sayyids from Hadhramaut
lthough the Ottoman government avoided
A
granting the requests of Southeast Asian
sultanates like Aceh to be recognized as Ottoman
subjects, it maintained a close interest in the
region and established consulates in Jakarta
(Batavia), Rangoon, Manila and Singapore.
Disputes over the legal status of Ottoman
subjects there led to lengthy negotiations with
the European colonial authorities. Particularly
problematic were the Hadhramis originating
Seal of al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Safi bin ‘Ali bin Muhammad from southern Yemen, many of whom were
bin Ahmad al-Habshi al-‘Alawi. He wrote to the Dutch
official Eliza Netscher on 3 December 1865 announcing
merchants residing in Southeast Asia and who
his appointment as Turkish consul in Singapore, although claimed Ottoman nationality, despite the fact the
there is no record of this in the Ottoman archives.
National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia, Riouw 119 Ottomans had never controlled the Hadhramaut.
Many Hadhrami Arabs bore the title Sayyid, reflecting
their descent from the Prophet, and as such commanded
great veneration and respect all over the Muslim world.
Hadhrami Sayyids appear to have played a special role in
conveying Southeast Asian messages to the Ottoman court
through family ties with the Sayyids who lived in Arabia
and Istanbul. Among the most prominent was Sayyid Abdul
Rahman al-Zahir, Aceh’s envoy to the Ottomans prior to
the Dutch invasion of 1873. In Singapore, Sayyid Omar bin
Muhammad Alsagoff acted as Turkish Consul and aided
communication between
Aceh and Istanbul in the
late 19th century.
Habib Abdul Rahman al-Zahir (1833 – 1896).
Born in the Hadhramaut and educated in
Egypt, Arabia and India, he moved from
Malabar to Mocha, Calcutta, Singapore,
Johor and Aceh, before ending his days in
Mecca. A Reid, The contest for North Sumatra,
(Oxford, 1969). British Library, T 29328
Petition from Acehnese ministers and notables, led by Habib
Abdul Rahman al-Zahir, to the Governor of Hijaz, requesting
Ottoman suzerainty [c.1872]. BOA MKT.MHM 457/55
Two passports granted by the Ottoman authorities in Singapore in 1902
and Batavia in 1911 to Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Majid, an Ottoman
Aden was the main Yemeni port for travellers from the Hadhramaut heading merchant born in Constantinople and resident in Mecca and Batavia.
for Southeast Asia. Aden, 1 January 1871, watercolour by Alfred Harcourt BOA HR.SYS 563/1 and BOA HR.SYS 562/2
(1836 – 1910). British Library, WD 2974
Modern Turkey
and Southeast Asia
With the rise of the vernacular press,
in the early 20th century political
developments in Turkey were followed
avidly in the Malay world. In Turkey,
scholarly interest in Southeast
Asia was awakened by nationalist
historians who wrote on the 16th
century connections.
The rise of the Young Turks inspired
intellectual debates among Indonesian An appeal by Sultan Abdul Aziz of Perak for donations to help fellow
thinkers and leaders such as Soekarno Muslims in Turkey following the Anatolian earthquake of 1939, printed
in Taiping in 1940. Photo Annabel Gallop
and Mohammad Natsir. But it was
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s reformism which received the most attention. Modernist
magazines praised Turkey for the advancement of women in society, and Soekarno
claimed that ‘Kemalism’ was meant to return Islam to its original state of ‘fire’ from the
‘ashes’ that the Ottomans had left, while Islamists called Kemalism ‘the religion of Satan’.
Sultana Khadijah, Turkish wife of Sultan Abu Bakar Mustafa Kemal depicted as the ‘Tiger of Islam’, captioned: Like a tiger ready to pounce, this
of Johor. Abu Bakar was the first Malay monarch to cartoon depicts Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as ever-ready to leap to defend every centimetre of his
visit Turkey. Na Tian Piet, Shaer almarhoem beginda country’s independence. Maisir Thaib, Sedjarah perdjoeangan Kemal Attatürk. (Fort de Kock
Sultan Abubakar di negri Johor (Singapore, 1896). [Bukittinggi], 1940), p.83. KITLV M hh 5422 N
British Library 14626.a.6
Since the year 2000 Turkish groups have increasingly forged
new connections in Southeast Asia, especially in intellectual,
humanitarian and educational circles. After the 2004 tsunami
in Aceh, Turkish agencies were prominent in rehabilitation
efforts. Nowadays, in both Ankara and Jakarta politicians
evince a similar outlook as they try balancing political
pragmatism, social conservatism, and manifestations of
cultural Islam in their attempts to grapple with internal
ethnic and religious pluralism and the external pressures
of globalization.
Early 20th c. geneaology of the ruling houses of pre-Islamic Persia, the Malay sultanates and Turkey,
joined by their common ancestor Yapit, son of Nabi Nuh. The left-hand branch shows the descent of the
sultans of Johor and Perak from Iskandar Zulkarnain and the kings of Persia and Melaka. The right-hand George Zaidan, Serikat Turki Muda, ‘The Young
branch shows the Turkish line, through mythical rulers to the Seljuks and Ottomans, ending with Sultan Turks’, translated by Joesoef Sou’yb (Djakarta,
Abdülhamid II (r. 1876 – 1909). School of Oriental and African Studies, MS 40334 1948). KITLV M hh 1200
