The state of Aceh, founded in the northern part of Sumatra in the early 16th century, was the most powerful Moslem country (especially in the second half of the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries) in the Far East until it was taken over by the Dutch in 1873. This state offered the most stubborn resistance to the Western powers, particularly Portugal which established a base in Malacca at the beginning of the 16th century.
And like the Maldives and other Islands, also here there was a strong matriarchal tradition before the arrival of Islam. However, the role of the female rulers of Aceh was more passive than it was the case on the Maldives. It was during this period that the Sultanate of Aceh was founded and then established by the appointed ruler Ibrahim. It is reported that Ibrahim, who took the title Ali Mugâyet Shah, was poisoned by his wife, the daughter of the governor of Dyah, who thus avenged her father’s fate (1528).