Sulṭāna Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah (1612 – 23 October 1675; born Putri Sri Alam) was the fourteenth ruler of Aceh.
[1] Putri Sri Alam ascended the throne and took the title Sultana Taj ul-Alam Safiatuddin Syah.
The enthronement of Taj ul-Alam has been seen as an effort of the Acehnese nobility to weaken royal power following Iskandar Muda's administrative reforms aimed to undermine them.
Meanwhile, real power was held by the hereditary rulers of outlying districts (the uleëbalang set up by Iskandar Muda) and the religious leaders (imam or ulama).
However, it has also been suggested that old Southeast Asian tradition, which acknowledged inheritance on the female line, was more important here than orthodox Muslim principles.
Closer analysis of the age of queens has furthermore pointed out that the period should not necessarily be seen as one of societal decline, that it was ruled by softer and more flexible hands than before 1641, and that Aceh after all was able to withstand Western pressure to the extent that it preserved its independence.
[2] In the rest of the East Indies, once-powerful indigenous states such as Mataram, Ternate, Banten and Makassar lost their autonomy or became heavily dependent on the VOC in the late seventeenth century.
In the next year 1664, Jacob Couw appeared with an armada of 300 men and expelled the Acehnese from the coastal area, from Indrapura in the south to Tiku in the north.
The west coast Malays nevertheless often preferred the rule of Aceh before the VOC "protection", so that Acehnese influence endured for a long time.
[4] The chronicle Bustanus Salatin characterized her as virtuous and pious, implying that her qualities made Aceh peaceful and prosperous.