The eunuchs of the Atjeh court — eunuchen in Dutch — were the castrated male officers of the inner court of the Atjeh sultanate, who played a central role in the ceremonial and political life of the court, especially under the Sultanas of the seventeenth century. In Godee Molsbergen’s account of Soury’s embassy of 1641 the voornaamste eunuch (chief eunuch) of the Sultana appears repeatedly: at the river-mouth greeting, at the inspection of the ordered goods, at the summons to the “translation” audience, and as the bearer of the Sultana’s instructions throughout the negotiations.
The river-mouth greeting, 1641
When Commissaris Pieter Soury’s embassy reached the Atjeh river in 1641, the chief eunuch of the Sultana came out together with the Sabandaar (harbour-master) and the Dutch Opperhoofd of the lodge, bringing the tjap or passport required to come ashore. The chief eunuch was thus one of the three formal greeters of the legation — a striking arrangement, in that the inner-court officer came out to the river-mouth to greet the visitors.
Inspection of the ordered goods
The chief eunuch then came personally to inspect whether the goods ordered the previous year — when Justus Schouten had been in Atjeh — had been delivered according to specification. The order was for a gold-enameled beteldoos (betel-box) and gold rings. Satisfied, he was the one to whom the consignment was formally handed over, and it was through him that the Sultana’s return gift — a magnificent horse, a cow and a buffalo — was delivered.
The Sultana’s intermediary
Throughout the embassy, the chief eunuch acted as the Sultana’s intermediary. After the formal audience of 1 July 1641 (see Atjehsche ambassade ceremony (1 July 1641)), the chief eunuch conveyed the Sultana’s request that the legation come the following day to the house of the Opperbisschop (high priest) to “translate” the missive — although it had already been rendered into Malay. The unspoken purpose was to extract clarification on points obscure to the Sultana’s council. The chief eunuch was thus the channel through which the Sultana’s diplomatic agenda was transmitted to the Dutch legation.
The gift of the beteldoos
The chief eunuch also conveyed the Sultana’s supreme favour to Soury: her own golden beteldoos (betel-box), offered so that he might prepare a sirih-quid. The other gentlemen were given a silver box for the same purpose. The chief eunuch was thus the bearer not only of the Sultana’s words but of her personal effects — a measure of how intimate was his access to her person.
Significance
For Atjeh’s history, the eunuchs of the court — and especially the chief eunuch of the Sultana — are the principal institutional intermediaries between the inner court and the external world. The role of the chief eunuch in the Soury embassy of 1641 — greeting the visitors at the river-mouth, inspecting the consigned goods, conveying the Sultana’s instructions, bearing her personal effects — is a measure of how much power the office held, especially under the Sultanas of the seventeenth century. The institutionalisation of the eunuch’s office at Atjeh also testifies to the sultanate’s connections to the wider Indian Ocean court-culture — the same institution is found at the courts of the Mughals, the Ottomans, and the successor states of the Islamic world.
See Also
- Pieter Soury’s mission to Atjeh (1641)
- Atjehsche ambassade ceremony (1 July 1641)
- Sultana of Atjeh (1641)
- Atjeh-rivier
- Sabandaar
- Atjehsche feestjas
- Opperbisschop of Atjeh
- Tjap (passport)
- 1641
- Acheh
Source
Tijdens de O.I. Compagnie, by Dr. E. C. Godee Molsbergen, Oud-Hoogleeraar, Landsarchivaris te Batavia (Amsterdam: N.V. Swets & Zeitlinger Boekhandel en Uitgevers Mij., 1932), chapter XI (“Atjehsche ambassade. Inlandsche feesten. Maagden als losprijs”), pp. 39–43 of the numbered-letter sequence.