27 December is the date of the solemn transfer of the Meusigit Raja to the Acehnese people on 27 December 1881 — in the name of the Dutch government — by the Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies, A. Pruys van der Hoeven. In Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947), 27 December is the book’s marker of the solemn transfer of the Meusigit Raja.
The solemn transfer
“The mosque, whose first stone was laid on 9 October 1879 in the presence of Governor-General Van Lansberge, all the civil and military authorities, and many Acehnese chiefs and clergy, was completed in 1881 and on 27 December of that year was solemnly transferred, in the name of the Dutch government, by the Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies, Pruys van der Hoeven, to the Acehnese people.” The mosque — completed in 1881 — was on 27 December 1881 solemnly transferred to the Acehnese people by the Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies, Pruys van der Hoeven, in the name of the Dutch government. The 27 December solemn transfer is the book’s marker of the colonial state’s formal handover of the Meusigit Raja to the Acehnese people.
Significance
27 December is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as the date of the solemn transfer of the Meusigit Raja on 27 December 1881. The book emphasizes that this ceremony was conducted in the name of the Dutch government by the Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies, Pruys van der Hoeven — marking the colonial state’s formal return of the mosque to the Acehnese people. The date 27 December thus serves as the book’s marker for this pivotal act of colonial religious politics.
See Also
- Oost-Indisch Journael
- Meusigit Raja
- Pruys van der Hoeven
- Van Lansberge
- generaal Van Swieten
- 1881
- 1879
Source
Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), the chapter on the Meusigit Raja.