Jamal ul-Alam Badr ul-Munir

Jamal ul-Alam Badr ul-Munir
Sulṭān of Acèh Darussalam
Reign	1703 – 1726
Predecessor	Perkasa Alam Syarif Lamtui
Successor	Jauhar ul-Alam
Died	after 1736
Dynasty	Jamal ul-Lail
Father	Badr ul-Alam Syarif Hasyim Jamaluddin
Religion	Islam

Jamal ul-Alam Badr ul-Munir (died after 1736) was the twentieth Sulṭān of Acèh Darussalam in northern Sumatra and the third ruler of the Arabic Jamal ul-Lail Dynasty. He ruled from 1703 to 1726 when he was deposed.

The future sultan, originally called Alauddin, was the son of Sultan Badr ul-Alam Syarif Hasyim Jamaluddin who was deposed in 1702 and died shortly after. Alauddin arose as a dangerous rival to his uncle Perkasa Alam Syarif Lamtui who had taken the throne. Perkasa Alam was deposed in June 1703. After an interregnum of two months Alauddin was acknowledged as sultan under the name Jamal ul-Alam Badr al-Munir. The beginning of his reign was prosperous and the sultan stood out as a righteous ruler. A lot of rich merchants stayed in Aceh and the wealthiest was reportedly a Dutchman called Daniël. The sultan did not have the right to conduct trade, but could harvest 10% of the value of imported goods. He first stayed in fortress Dar ud Dunya in the capital Kutaraja, but in 1706 he moved the court to Melayu.

According to the Dutch East India Company, which dominated part of the west coast of Sumatra, the sultan planned to regain Dutch possessions that had once belonged to Aceh. In 1712 he supposedly prepared an armada which would subjugate the coast land down to Padang. In the same year he vainly asked the sultan of Johor to assist him in attacking Dutch Melaka. Nothing came out of these plans; Aceh no longer possessed the military capacity of the days of Iskandar Muda. With improved security in the Acehnese homeland the sultan strove to expand commercial relations with the British who had posts in Madras in India and Bengkulu on Sumatra. At this time many Acehnese traders visited the coasts of India. In 1709 Jamal ul-Alam invited British merchants from Madras to come to Aceh. The suggestion was favourably received and many British ships appeared there in the next years. However, the British trade on Aceh declined from 1716 to 1730. One reason was that the Chinese had begun to avoid Aceh in favour of the more attractive Riau Archipelago south of the Malay Peninsula. With decreasing incomes from trade Jamal ul-Alam tried to tighten control over commerce and port duties all over Aceh. This would soon lead to serious internal turbulence.

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