The Muslemin — also written Moeslemin, Muslimin — were those Atjehers who openly took part in the holy war against the Dutch, so called after the proclamation of the restoration of the Sultanate at Indrapoeri in 1885–1886. The term, designating those who had formally committed themselves to the resistance under the Sultan’s authority and the religious leadership of Tengkoe di Tirou and his successor Tengkoe Mohamed Amin, became the standard Dutch designation for the organised Atjehese resistance in the middle and late phases of the Atjeh-oorlog.
The Proclamation
In the period of the concentration system under Demmeni (1884–1886), Toeankoe Hasschim, guardian and father-in-law of the youthful pretender Toeankoe Mohamed Daoed, had the pretender declared of age and proclaimed and hailed as Sultan in the mosque at Indrapoeri. He further wrote everywhere that the Hollanders had been driven back, that the war would be vigorously continued, and, in concert with the religious leader Tengkoe di Tirou — whose influence ever increased — sent the principal leaders to the coastal statelets to stir up the population, to embroil the well-disposed, to destroy Dutch influence, to call all to the holy war against the Dutch, and to collect money and men.
Those who openly took part in this struggle were henceforth called Muslemin.
The Oath against the Dutch
The principal leaders of the Atjehese resistance bound themselves afresh under oath against the Dutch, among them the later Dutch “friends” Toekoe Oemar and Nja Makam. The oath was the formal renewal of the Atjehese resistance after the Dutch withdrawal into the concentrated stelling around Kota Radja. The Muslemin, as those who had taken the oath, were the organised body of the Atjehese resistance — as distinct from the general population, which might or might not actively participate.
The Muslemin under Tengkoe Mohamed Amin
Under Tengkoe Mohamed Amin — who succeeded his father Tengkoe di Tirou as head of the religious resistance in January 1892 and was appointed Kadhi by the Sultan in 1894 — the Muslemin continued the encirclement of the Dutch line, the ambushes of Dutch patrols, the smuggling of weapons and supplies, and the collection of money and recruits from the coastal statelets. The Muslemin’s exactions, extortions, and acts of violence against the population outside the Dutch line — which extended to the 4 and 6 Moekims — furnished the occasion for Toekoe Oemar’s opposition to them, and so for his submission to the Dutch and his arming as Panglima Prang Besar.
The Conflict with Toekoe Oemar
The conflict between the Muslemin under Tengkoe Mohamed Amin and the West Coast chieftain Toekoe Oemar — the former the head of the religious party, the latter the powerful chieftain whose submission to the Dutch was conditioned on his being armed to suppress the Muslemin — was the internal cleavage in the Atjehese resistance that the Dutch sought to exploit. The exploitation, however, would lead to the defection of 29 March 1896 and the final crisis of the war.
Kruijt’s Terminology
Kruijt uses Muslemin as the standard Dutch designation for the organised Atjehese resistance throughout his brochure. The term is contrasted with “kwadwilligen” (malefactors) — the term favoured by Pompe van Meerdervoort, who insisted that the Dutch had no enemy before them in Atjeh but only malefactors, totalling at most 800 men. The contrast between Muslemin — designating an organised religious-military body — and kwadwilligen — designating a few individual malefactors — is the contrast between the realistic assessment of Snouck Hurgronje and the optimistic assessment of Pompe.
Significance
The Muslemin are the organised body of the Atjehese resistance in the middle and late phases of the Atjeh-oorlog. Their formal constitution after the proclamation of the Sultanate at Indrapoeri in 1885–1886, their oath against the Dutch, their religious leadership under Tengkoe di Tirou and Tengkoe Mohamed Amin, and their encirclement of the Dutch line together mark the institutionalisation of the Atjehese resistance that would sustain it through the concentration system and the governorships of Demmeni, Van Teijn, Pompe, and Deijkerhoff. The Dutch’s eventual suppression of the Muslemin — under Van Heutsz after 1898, on the advice of Snouck Hurgronje — would be the principal means by which the war was brought to its conclusion.
Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)
The Moslemin were the members of the Achehnese religious war-party in Groot-Atjeh — also called by G. B. Hooijer geestdrijvers (“fanatics”) and, where they operated as armed bands, Sabilbenden (“sabil bands”) — against whom the whole system of Dutch outposts erected between 1893 and 1896 was directed.
Character in Hooijer’s account
Hooijer used the term to distinguish the party of religious warfare, led after the death of Teungkoe di Tiro by his son Mad Amin, from the territorial chiefs and their populations. He described them as roving, thieving and murdering; as smoking opium in the mosque of Masdjid Siem before its capture; and as champions who, excited by opium and shrieking and leaping like madmen, led their men in defending the last redoubt at Anagaloeng. At the same time he acknowledged repeatedly that de geestdrijvers had lost nothing of their courage when they entered the lists against the Kafirs, and that the Achehnese had not forgotten how to defend himself behind his walls met mannenmoed en doodsverachting.
Relations with the population
Hooijer’s political analysis turned on the distinction between the Moslemin and the settled population. While the Dutch line remained closed, the Moslemin could tease the garrison without risk; when the line was opened and the population began to profit, the Moslemin attacked what the population had gained, and thereby lost its support. It was this that allowed Toekoe Oemar to place himself at the head of a movement against them and drive them from his kampongs (villages).
Conversely, wherever a population dispersed — as around Toengkoeb after Toekoe Nja Banta removed Toekoe Tjoet’s wives to Lamreng — the Moslemin immediately reoccupied the abandoned terrain and cut Dutch communications. Hooijer noted that a soldier with war experience did not need to enter the kampongs to know that the Moslemin were again masters there: he saw it in the restless movements of black figures emerging from the shade, striding over the narrow dykes, standing in small groups on a rise and vanishing again beneath the palms.
Recruitment
Fighters streamed to the Moslemin from the coastal lands: from Samalanga alone an opponent of the pro-Dutch oeleebalang of that district crossed to Groot-Atjeh with two hundred followers to join Mat Amin.
See Also
- Heiligen Oorlog
- Restoration of the Sultanate (1885-1896)
- Indrapoeri
- Toeankoe Hasschim
- Toeankoe Mohamed Daoed
- Tengkoe di Tirou
- Tengkoe Mohamed Amin
- Toekoe Oemar
- Nja Makam
- Defection of Teuku Umar (March 1896)
- Pompe van Meerdervoort
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz
- Concentratie-stelsel (1884-1896)
- Demmeni
- General van Teijn
- Deijkerhoff
- 4 and 6 Moekims
- Groot-Atjeh
- Kota Radja
- Aceh War
- Atjeh-oorlog
- 1885
- 1886
- 1892
- 1894
- 1896
- 1898
- Kafir
- Sabil Allah
- Compagnie
- Teungkoe Koeta Karang
- Teungkoe Tanah Abée
- Teuku Umar
- III Moekims Kerkoen
- Lamkoenjit
- Siege of Lamkoenjit (29 March–8 April 1896)
- Main prang
- Mat Amin
- Tengkoe Sjech Saman di Tiro
- Prang sabi
- Teukoe Oemar
- Anagaloeng
- Masdjid Siem
- Geconcentreerde linie
Sources
ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 28, 45, 82, 111, 296.
De Atjeh-Oorlog: Kort Overzicht van Oorsprong, Verloop en Gevolg, door J. A. Kruijt. ‘s-Gravenhage: Loman & Funke, 1896. Chapter IX (the proclamation), Chapter XI (the Pompe terminology), Chapter XII (the conflict with Toekoe Oemar). OCR-filename: 20260716_140310_DLP-101-De_Atjeh_oorlog_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 49, 61–62, 68.
De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 9, 24, 26, 32, 40, 50.
Acknowledgement of sources. This article is a single consolidated account combining the material previously held in this entry with the account given in De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897) by G. B. Hooijer. Dutch terminology has been rendered in English, the original Dutch being retained only in direct quotations and in bibliographic citations.