1. Introduction : Sumatra as a frontier -- 2. The identity of "Sumatra" in history -- 3. Inside out : the colonial displacement of Sumatra's population -- 4. The Turkish connection -- 5. Trade and the problem of royal power in Aceh : three stages, c. 1550-1700 -- 6. Elephants and water in the feasting of seventeenth-century Aceh -- 7. The transition from autocracy -- 8. The French connection -- 9. Chinese migration into north Sumatra -- 10. Nineteenth-century pan-Islam below the winds -- 11. Merchant imperialist : W. H. Read and the Dutch consulate in the straits settlements -- 12. The Japanese occupation and rival Sumatran elites -- 13. Indonesianizing Sumatra : the birth of the republic -- 14. Social revolution in three Sumatran locales -- 15. Conflicting histories : Aceh and Indonesia
Summary
"This book is the fruit of forty years' study of Sumatran history, from the sixteenth century to the present. While seeking patterns of coherence in the vast island frontier, it focuses on Aceh, which has both the most illustrious state history and the most troubled present of any Sumatran region."--BOOK JACKET
