His reign is important since it saw the arrival of three new European powers to the region of the Melaka Straits: the Dutch, English and French.

In spite of the murky circumstances of his rise, the chronicle Hikayat Aceh praises Sultan Alauddin as righteous and pious, and characterizes his reign as prosperous.

[2] A Frenchman who visited Aceh in 1601–03 noted the dynamic international flavour of his reign: "In the streets are a large number of ships belonging to merchants dressed in the Turkish style who come from the great lands of Negapatnam, Gujarat, Cape Comorin, Calicut, the island of Ceylon, Siam, Bengal and various other places.

They live in this place for some six months in order to sell their merchandise that consists of very fine cotton cloth from Gujarat, sturdy silk bolts and other textiles of cotton thread, various types of porcelain, a large number of drugs, spices, and precious stones.

[4] Dutch, English and French ships began to arrive in the area during Sultan Alauddin's reign.

This created a new strategic situation since these seafaring nations were rivals to the Portuguese with whom Aceh momentarily lived in an uneasy state of peace.

The communication between the Dutch and the court were initially friendly, but Portuguese intrigues caused the Acehnese to attack the ships.

In November 1600 the commander Van Caerden arrived with two ships and was friendly received by Sultan Alauddin.

[5] The sultan's friendship with the Portuguese cooled when they asked for permission to build a fort at the estuary of the Aceh River.

The sultan suppressed the mercantile elite, the orang kayas, who had gained undue influence in succession affairs in the period 1579–89, killing many of them and preventing them from asserting power.

His use of power symbols is seen from his cap (seal) from 1601, which reads: "Sultan Alauddin ibn Firman Syah; he who puts faith in God, who has chosen him to hold kingdoms and is pleased with him, Allah makes his glory endure and helps all his followers".