Keuleebalangan Samalanga dan dinasti Ampon ChikThe uleebalang state of Samalanga and the Ampon Chik dynasty

The uleebalang state of Samalanga arose from Sultan Iskandar Muda's ordering of the territories on Aceh's east coast. Besides military conquest, the sultanate pursued soft strategies of politik meubisan (marriage alliances) and the rotation of rulers in subject territories to prevent overly powerful local lords. The appointment of Tun Sri Lanang, former bendahara of Johor, as the first uleebalang of Samalanga in 1615 can be read in this light, and also as an effort to advance Islam in the east. Local oral tradition, known as the Peristiwa Laut (Sea Incident), tells of opposition by twelve local notables led by Hakim Peut Misei and of its end through the sultan's punishment.

The genealogy copied from the compilation of the Lembaga Kebudayaan Atjeh of 1958, based on the original genealogy of T. Chik Samalanga and a sarakata of the Sultan of Aceh, records the succession of uleebalang as follows: Datuk Bendahara Tun Muhammad Sri Lanang (1022–1069 AH/1613–1659 CE, buried at Lancok); T. Cik di Blang Panglima Perkasa (1659–1697); T. Cik Idris (Rih) Perkasa (1697–1759); T. Chik Ja'far Alam Syah Poteh, or Teungku di Bayoe (1759–1819); T. Chik Keuleumbak Jauhar Perkasa (1819–1838); T. Chik Ali Jauhar Perkasa (1838–1873); T. Chik Muda Bugeh (1873–1896); T. Chik M. Ali Basyah (1896–1920); and T. Chik Mohd. Baharom Syah (1920–1948). The genealogy also records branch lordships such as the Uleebalang of Samalanga Baroh and the Uleebalang of Cut Jeunib.

A distinctive feature of the dynasty is its use of the title Bendahara inherited from its Johor ancestor. Tun Rembau, son of Tun Sri Lanang, who became an Acehnese commander and is known as T. Cik di Blang Panglima Perkasa, founded the Ampon Chik family of Samalanga, which still bore the title Bendahara at the end of their names in the twentieth century, as in Major General T. Hamzah Bendahara. The same genealogy records that Maharaja Lela Keujruen Cureh (Laweung) and T. Nek Meuraksa Panglima Nyak Doom were honoured for their services in the Sea Incident.

During the Aceh War Samalanga was one of the most important bastions of resistance. The Batee Iliek fortress withstood repeated Dutch assaults, including one in which General van der Heijden was wounded in 1877, before van Heutsz finally captured it in 1901. The genealogy records Pocut Meuligoe, styled the Heroine of Samalanga, from the generation that lived through the war. Batee Iliek was also Hasan di Tiro's exit route when he left Aceh on 29 March 1979.

Besides its role as a local political centre, Samalanga has been known as a town of santri since the time of Iskandar Muda. Dayah Meunasah Subung, founded in 1703, and the later great dayah of Samalanga carried on this tradition. The uleebalang state of Samalanga thus exemplifies how an elite of non-Acehnese origin was absorbed into the structure of the nanggroe and gave rise to a local dynasty rooted for more than three centuries.

Samalanga had a long history before Tun Sri Lanang. The Ma Sihe statue, measuring 3.60 × 1.10 metres, at Blang Dalam in Bandar Dua, is associated with the area's pre-Islamic past, and the opening of the Hikayat Raja Pasai tells of two brothers, Raja Ahmad and Raja Muhammad, who intended to found a settlement at "Samarlanga", so that Samalanga is regarded as part of Pasai's territory from the thirteenth century. William Marsden and J.R. Logan, as noted by Henry Yule (1871), identified Samarlanga with one of the towns visited by Marco Polo. The area entered the Aceh Sultanate after Sultan Ali Mughayat Syah conquered Pasai. As a kenegerian Samalanga comprised six mukim between the Krueng Ulim and the Krueng Jeumpa, delivered two bungkal and five mayam of gold and one hundred and twenty gunca of paddy each year, and had its own district kadi, Syekh Abdurrahim or Teungku Chik di Lueng Kubee. In the early period much of its population came from Batu Sawar, and tradition holds that Tun Sri Lanang ordered large boats to be built for communication and defence and restored a population depleted by war.

The dynasty's history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is also clearer. In 1868 a dispute among Tun Sri Lanang's descendants over the right to the office of uleebalang was settled by a sarakata of Sultan Sulaiman Ali Alaiddin Iskandar Syah affirming the right of the descendants of Orang Kaya Seri Paduka Tuan Seberang. When the Dutch attacked Aceh in 1873, Teuku Chik Ali sided with Sultan Alaidin Mahmud Syah, so the Dutch gave the office of uleebalang to his kinsman Teuku Chik Muda Bugeh, son of Teuku Chik Muda Hasan. According to oral history, Sultan Muhammad Daud Syah, the last sultan of Aceh, once took refuge in the palace occupied by Pocut Meuligoe, sister of Teuku Chik Muda Bugeh, while pursued by the Dutch. The eighth uleebalang, Teuku Chik Mohd Ali Basyah, was the father of, among others, Teuku Chik Mohd Baharom Syah (the ninth uleebalang), Teuku Ahmad Danoe (Uleebalang of Cut Jeunib) and Teuku Abdul Hamid Azwar, a figure of the independence struggle whose lineage, according to A.K. Jakobi (1998), goes back to Datuk Bendahara Tun Muhammad Sri Lanang. Samalanga's santri tradition remains alive today, and its dayah attract students from Peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand.