Hikayat Aceh

The Hikayat Aceh is a 17th-century history of the Aceh Sultanate, which is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Written in Malay (using the Arabic script) sometime after 1607 and before the end of the 17th century, it chronicles and eulogizes the Acehnese Sultan Iskandar Muda (1583–1636; reigned 1607–1636; national hero of Indonesia since 1993). The Hikayat Aceh is an indispensable tool for all interested in the history of Aceh and its exceptional political, cultural, and religious traits. The narrative of Sultan Iskandar Muda is told against the global background of Chinese, Portuguese, and Ottoman-Turkish influences and relations in the world. It is set in a context where also Southeast Asian regions like Siam, Cambodia, and Johor play a role. It is also though by Russian linguist, Vladimir Braginskiĭ, That the Hikayat Aceh were influenced by Mughal dynasty historiography, as he found out the literal structure similarities of Hikayat Aceh with Mahfuzat-i-Timuri, as the former has shared the similar theme with the latter about the lifetime and exploits of the protagonist of Mahfuzat-i-Timuri, Timur. Braginskiĭ also found the similarities in structure of both Hikayat Aceh and Mahfuzat-i-Timuri with Akbarnama manuscript.