Aceh Sultanate: State, Society, Religion and Trade (2 vols.)

Book excerpt: There are many excellent published collections of the indispensable Dutch documents for the History of Indonesia in the seventeenth century. However all of these have a Batavia-centred VOC view of the Archipelago and beyond, and show the relations of the Company with states which eventually fell within its orbit. Aceh, however, was the one state of the Archipelago that never fell within this orbit and maintained a defiant independence until 1873. It is therefore the most interesting state, but the least well known. Historians of Indonesia and of Islamic Asia in particular will need to consult this collection, but it will be of interest also to historians of Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian History more broadly in the early modern period.