Zainatuddin of Aceh facts for kids

Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah (died 1700) was an important ruler of Aceh Darussalam. She was the seventeenth leader of this kingdom. Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah ruled as a queen, or sultanah, from 1688 to 1699. She was the fourth and final queen to rule Aceh in a row.

Becoming Queen: Zainatuddin's Rise to Power

When the previous queen, Inayat Zakiatuddin Syah, passed away in October 1688, Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah took her place. We don't have clear records about how she was related to the queens before her. Some old writings suggest she was the daughter of a person named Syekh Muhammad Fadlil Syah. This information still needs more checking to be sure.

Not everyone in the kingdom agreed with her becoming queen. Some powerful leaders, called orang kayas, wanted a king instead of a queen. Four of these orang kayas even marched towards the capital city with their armies. However, their opposition did not last long. Soon, the queen was accepted by most people.

Her Time as Ruler: Challenges and Changes

After nearly 60 years of queens ruling Aceh, many people wanted a male sultan. A visitor from the Netherlands, Jacob de Roy, wrote in 1696 about the queen's power. He said that Queen Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah had great power. She could call meetings of the kingdom's leaders. However, she still needed their approval for many decisions.

De Roy also mentioned that groups of people would sometimes gather in the capital city, Kutaraja. They would hold demonstrations, showing they wanted a king. The person in charge of the harbor, called the syahbandar, had a plan. He wanted the queen to marry his son, who was a respected captain of the guard. He asked Jacob de Roy to help arrange this marriage. He knew that other powerful leaders might be jealous if the marriage happened. Another Dutch writer, Francois Valentijn, later wrote that the marriage did happen.

The End of Female Rule: A New Sultan

In 1699, a special religious opinion, called a fatwa, supposedly arrived from Mecca. This fatwa was said to be from a religious judge named Malik al-Adil. It's not certain if this fatwa was real or if it was used to make people believe it came from a high authority. The fatwa stated that it was against the rules of Islam for a woman to rule.

Because of this fatwa, Queen Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah was replaced. A new ruler, Badr ul-Alam Syarif Hasyim Jamaluddin, took her place. He was an Arab man from a respected family. Some people think he might have become her husband. Queen Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah passed away one year later, in 1700.

Literature

• 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.
• Hasjmy, A (1977). 59 tahun Aceh merdeka dibawah pemerintahan ratu. Jakarta: Bulan Bintang.
• Khan, Sher Banu (2009). Rule Behind the Silk Curtain: The Sultanahs of Aceh, 1641–1699. Ph.D. thesis, University of London.
• Khan, Sher Banu (2010). 'The sultanahs of Aceh, 1641-99', in Arndt Graaf et al. (eds.), Aceh: History, Politics and Culture. Singapore: ISEAS, pp. 3–25.
• Ricklefs, Merle C. (1994). A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300, 2nd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press.