Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/39

 Our purpose differs from that aimed at by Mr. K. F. H. Van Langen in his essay on the system of government in Acheh under the Sultanate. He takes as his chief sources of information one or two manuscript documents, known in Acheh under the name of sarakata. They contain decrees having the force of law and are ascribed to Sultans Meukuta Alam or Iskandar Muda (1607–1636) and to Shamsulalam, who reigned for a period of one month only (1726–27) according to the Achehnese chronicles. The writer has illustrated and completed the contents of these documents from the oral tradition of the Achehnese.

To assign their true value to these documents we must allow ourselves a slight digression.

It is abundantly clear from all the sources of Achehnese history, be they native or European, that there has never been an opportunity in Acheh for a regulated and normal development of forms of government or administration of justice. In vain do we seek in any period of her history for order and repose. It is not to be found even during the reigns of those princes who shed the greatest prosperity and lustre over the land, such as Alaudin al-Qahar, known also as Sidi Mukamil or Mukamal (1540–67), Eseukanda (Iskandar) Muda or Meukuta Alam (1607–36) , not to mention their successors.

Examined closely, this show of royal grandeur is found to consist in some enlargements of territory, increase of authority over the ports (which are the seats of civilization and wealth in all Malayan countries) and consequent increase of revenue, which gave rise to greater splendour at court, but no serious effort towards the establishment of solid institutions such as survive the overthrow of dynasties.

The only attempts at centralization of authority, or reformation whether social, political or religious, are precisely these very edicts which we have just referred to. Of the contents of these by no means ample