Ottoman expedition to Aceh

The Ottoman expedition to Aceh started from around 1565 when the Ottoman Empire endeavoured to support the Aceh Sultanate in its fight against the Portuguese Empire in Malacca. The expedition followed an envoy sent by the Acehnese Sultan Alauddin Riayat Syah al-Kahhar (1539–71) to Suleiman the Magnificent in 1564, and possibly as early as 1562, requesting Ottoman support against the Portuguese.

An informal Ottoman-Aceh alliance had existed since at least the 1530s. Sultan Alauddin wished to develop these relations, both to attempt the expulsion of the Portuguese in Malacca, and to extend his own power in Sumatra. According to accounts written by the Portuguese Admiral Fernão Mendes Pinto, the Ottoman Empire fleet that first arrived in Aceh consisted of 300 Ottomans, Swahilis, Somalis from Mogadishu and various city states, Sindhis from Debal and Thatta, Gujaratis from Surat, and some 200 Malabar sailors of Janjira to aid the Batak region and the Maritime Southeast Asia in 1539.

Following the 1562 embassy, Aceh appeared to have already received Ottoman reinforcements building its capacity and allowing it to conquer the Sultanates of Aru and Johor in 1564.

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