Reigning in the wake of the rout of the Acehnese fleet in 1629, Iskandar Thani was not able to continue his predecessor's military successes.
He was a strong ruler, able to suppress the orang kaya (Acehnese nobility) and working to centralize royal power as Iskandar Muda had done.
[1] His rule was too short to make major accomplishments, however, and after his death the elite re-asserted their influence, and placed his widow, Taj ul-Alam, on the throne, the first of several weak sultans.
He was the patron of Nuruddin ar-Raniri, an Islamic scholar from Gujarat who arrived in Aceh in 1637.
Ar-Raniri denounced the work of earlier scholars from Iskandar Muda's court, and ordered their books to be burned while establishing literary and religious standards.