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Ottoman Naval Expedition to Sumatra

Hakan

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In 1565, Sultan Alaaddin of Aceh declared allegiance to the Ottoman Empire and sent a request for assistance to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent(which was received by the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmet Pasha due to the absence of Suleiman who was heading for the Battle of Szigetvár, his final military campaign) for defending his land from Portuguese aggression. Due to Suleiman's death in 1566, the Ottoman naval expedition to Sumatra was sent by his son, Selim II, who appointed Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis with the mission.

Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis was the Admiral-in-Chief of the Ottoman Indian Ocean Fleet based in Suez, with other homeports in Aden and Basra. In 1568 he set sail with a force of 22 ships carrying soldiers, military equipment and other supplies.
He visited Aden, Djibouti, Muscat, Hormuz, Debal, Surat, Janjira, Lanka (Sri Lanka) and then arrived at Aceh in 1569, an event which effectively marked the easternmost territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire, was noted by his Portuguese rival Fernão Mendes Pinto. Simultaneously, the Ottoman Empire informed Portugal that Aceh was from that time on an Ottoman territory and any attack against Aceh would be perceived as an attack against the Ottoman Empire, and the Portuguese fleet stopped its activities in the areas surrounding Aceh.

The Ottomans taught the Acehnese how to forge their own cannon, some of which reached considerable size; the craft of making such weapons had spread throughout the Maritime Southeast Asia. Famous cannons were made in Makassar, Mataram, Java, Minangkabau, Melaka and Brunei. By the beginning of the 17th century, Aceh boasted about 1200 medium-sized bronze cannons, and about 800 other weapons such as breech-loading swivel guns and arquebuses.

The relationship between Aceh and the Ottoman Empire was a major threat to the Portuguese and prevented them establishing a monopolistic trade position in the Indian Ocean. Aceh was a major commercial adversary for the Portuguese, especially during the reign of Iskandar Muda, who had a well equipped arsenal of 1200 cannons and 800 swivel-guns and muskets, possibly controlling more of the spice trade than the Portuguese. The Portuguese tried to destroy the Aceh–Ottoman–Venetian trade axis for their own benefit. The Portuguese established plans to attack the Red Sea and Aceh, but failed due to a lack of manpower in the Indian Ocean.

When Aceh was attacked by the Dutch in 1873, triggering the Aceh War, the region invoked the protection of its earlier agreement with the Ottoman Empire as one of its dependencies. The claim was rejected by Western powers who feared a precedent being set. Once again Aceh requested military reinforcements from the Ottomans, but the tasked fleet originally designated to help was diverted to Yemen to suppress the Zaidi rebellion there.

Aceh effectively remained as an Ottoman protectorate until the late 18th century, and an ally of the Ottoman Empire until 1904, when it largely went under Dutch control. The bells of several Dutch churches in Aceh are made from melted Ottoman cannons, and some of them still carry the Ottoman crest which were originally on these cannons.

Ottoman expedition to Aceh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

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