Documenting the memory of connections between Aceh and Turkey

What is it about?

The actual contacts between Turkey and Aceh in 16th and 19th centuries are best documented in Turkish records, but more vividly remembered in Southeast Asia, where 'Rum' stood for much more than simply Ottoman Turkey. This article is an overview of the literature.

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Why is it important?

For Aceh in the mid-16th century, the Ottoman Caliphate was an important reality - the most distant reach of Turkish influence. Subsequently it remained a mythic factor in Southeast Asian memory, until it again influenced Aceh's rejection of western overtures in the 19th century.