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Taj ul-Alam

Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah
Sulṭāna of Acèh Darussalam
Reign 18 February 1641 - 23 October 1675
Predecessor Iskandar Thani
Successor Nurul Alam Naqiatuddin Syah
Queen consort of Acèh Darussalam
Tenure 27 December 1636 - 15 February 1641
Predecessor Kamaliah of Pahang (Putroe Phang)
Born Putri Sri Alam
1612
Died 23 October 1675
Spouse Iskandar Thani
Regnal name
Sri Sulṭānah Ratu Safiatuddin Tajul-‘Alam Syah Johan Berdaulat Zillu’llahi fi’l-‘Alam
Father Iskandar Muda
Mother Kamaliah of Pahang (Putroe Phang)
Religion Islam
Regnal name
Sri Sulṭānah Ratu Safiatuddin Tajul-‘Alam Syah Johan Berdaulat Zillu’llahi fi’l-‘Alam

Sulṭāna Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah (1612 – 23 October 1675; born Putri Sri Alam) was the fourteenth ruler of Aceh. She was the daughter of the sultan Iskandar Muda and the wife of his successor, Iskandar Thani. She became sulṭāna upon the death of her husband and ruled from 1641 to 1675, being the first of four women to hold the position in succession.

The future sultana was originally named Putri Sri Alam Permisuri. In 1617, her father Iskandar Muda conquered Pahang on the Malay Peninsula. A son of the defeated sultan, the future Iskandar Thani was brought as a prisoner to Aceh where he was raised as the foster son of Iskandar Muda. In 1619, when he was 9 years old, he was married to Putri Sri Alam Permisuri. The couple was provided with a palace next to that of the sultan, called Sri Warna. After the death of Iskandar Muda, Iskandar Thani succeeded to the throne but died after a short reign on 15 February 1641. The news of his demise created grave disturbances among the grandees of the kingdom and some people lost their lives. However, after three days it was agreed that the sultan's widow would be enthroned.

Putri Sri Alam ascended the throne and took the title Sultana Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah. Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin literally meaning "world crown, purity of the faith". She became first of four queens regnant or sultanas who sat on the throne in the period 1641-1699. Given the strongly Muslim profile of Aceh, this has evoked considerable debate among historians. The enthronement of Taj ul-Alam has been seen as an effort of the Acehnese nobility to weaken royal power following Iskandar Muda's administrative reforms aimed to undermine them. According to this view, these efforts were largely successful. From her reign on the sultanate became a weak symbolic institution, whose authority was limited to capital city itself. Meanwhile, real power was held by the hereditary rulers of outlying districts (the uleëbalang set up by Iskandar Muda) and the religious leaders (imam or ulama). However, it has also been suggested that old Southeast Asian tradition, which acknowledged inheritance on the female line, was more important here than orthodox Muslim principles. This would have been the reason for the enthronement of Taj ul-Alam, rather than a conscious strategy by the grandees to weaken the power of the court. Closer analysis of the age of queens has furthermore pointed out that the period should not necessarily be seen as one of societal decline, that it was ruled by softer and more flexible hands than before 1641, and that Aceh after all was able to withstand Western pressure to the extent that it preserved its independence. In the rest of the East Indies, once-powerful indigenous states such as Mataram, Ternate, Banten and Makassar lost their autonomy or became heavily dependent on the VOC in the late seventeenth century.


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