Under Sultan Iskandar Muda (ruled 1608-37), Acheh reached the height of its prosperity and importance in the Indian Ocean trade, encouraging Muslim learning and expanding Muslim adherence.

By the end of the 17th century, Acheh's Muslims were in touch with major intellectual centres to the west, particularly in India and Arabia, just as West African Muslims were tied to centres across the Sahara.

Because they could draw on many sources, often filtered through India, Sumatran Muslims may have been exposed to a wider corpus of Muslim learning than Muslims in many parts of the heartland.

Acheh's scholarly disputes over Ibn al-'Arabi were even significant enough to attract the attention of a leading Medinan, Ibrahim al-Kurani, who in 1640 wrote a response. The same kind of naturalization and indigenization of Islam that was taking place in Africa was also taking place here; for example, 'Abd ar-Ra'uf of Singkel, after studying in Arabia from about 1640 to 1661, returned home, where he made the first "translation" of the Qur'an into Malay, a language that was much enriched during this period by Arabic script and vocabulary. This phenomenon extended even to China. Liu Chih, a scholar born around 1650 in Nanking, created serious Islamicate literature in Chinese, including works of philosophy and law.". (Britannica Encyclopedia)