Acehnese

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Scope note
The Acehnese are an ethnic group of mixed Malay, Arabic, and Indian ancestry inhabiting Aceh, a Special Autonomous Region located on the northwestern tip of Sumatra in western Indonesia, with a population estimated between 890,000 and 3.6 million. Historically, Aceh developed into a powerful Islamic sultanate that established a monopoly on the Sumatran pepper trade and maintained strong ties to the Arab and Indian Islamic world, reaching its cultural and political peak during the seventeenth century. The Acehnese speak a language belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family and practice a form of Islam more closely aligned with the traditions of the Arabian Peninsula and Indian subcontinent than with the moderate Islamic practices prevalent elsewhere in Indonesia.
Acehnese
Accepted term: 09-Mar-2026