Potjoet Moehamat (also Pötjoet Moehamat, modern Atjehnese Putjut Muhammad or Hikayat Putjut Meukat) was the famous Atjèhnese heroic epic poem describing the prang Rawa — the war between Atjèhers and Maleiers (Menangkabaus) in the Meulaböh region over pepper-cultuur dominance. It is one of the two oldest Atjèhnese hikajat’s, alongside the Hikajat Malém Dagang. Snouck Hurgronje called it “a jewel of Atjèhnese, indeed Inlandsche, literature” — “een sieraad van Atjèhsche, ja Inlandsche letterkunde.”
The prang Rawa
The prang Rawa (“Rawa war”) was a conflict in the Meulaböh region between Atjèhnese pepper-planters and the earlier Menangkabau (Maleier) colonists over dominance in pepper cultivation. The war ended in complete Atjèhnese victory and led to the Atjèhnese colonisation of Meulaböh at the expense of the Kawaj XII federation.
The plot
The Potjoet Moehamat tells of Pötjoet Moehamat’s struggle — he was the brother of Sultan Ala ad-Dïn Djohan Sjah (1735–1760) — against the deposed Sultan Djamaloel-alam (who had fled in 1726), who was seeking restoration. The poem thus belongs to the mid-18th century, composed — in Kreemer’s dating — “omstreeks het midden der 18e eeuw” (around the middle of the eighteenth century).
Literary form and significance
The poem is approximately 2,500 verses and is on firmer historical ground than the Hikajat Malém Dagang. It is one of the two oldest Atjèhnese hikajat’s — narrative poems in sandja-meter (rhyming prose). Each verse has 4 parts: the 2 middle parts rhyme with each other, and the end-word rhymes with the end-word of other verses. The hikajat’s are sung (beuét) on specific melodies.
The koeta djaq attestation
Kreemer cites the Potjoet Moehamat in his De Karbouw (1956) (p. 146) — drawing on his Atjèh (vol. I, p. 307) — as the earliest literary attestation of the koeta djaq (“wandelende fort” — walking fort), the mobile buffalo-hide siege-shelter used in the inter-tribal wars of the Atjèh cultural sphere:
“Een in de Archipel veel toegepast belegeringsmidel in de onderlinge oorlogen was het z.g. ‘wandelende fort’, in Atjeh koeta djaq genoemd. De belegeraars traden daar in troepjes vooruit, verscholen achter omgebogen lappen buffelhuid, die dus als grote schilden voor enige personen tegelijk dienst deden. Van zulke wandelende fortjes is reeds sprake in het bekende, omstreeks het midden der 18e eeuw opgestelde, Atjehse epos Potjoet Moehammat.”
This passage fixes the koeta djaq as a mid-18th-century military technology in Atjèh, attested in the epic as a recognised part of the Atjèhnese military-technological tradition.
See Also
- Prang Rawa
- Meulaböh
- Kawaj XII
- Hikajat Malém Dagang
- Sandja
- Koeta djaq
- Sultan Ala ad-dïn Djohan Sjah
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Aceh War
- Atjeh bloeitijdperk ([[1607-1636)]]
- Kreemer’s Atjeh (1922-23)
- Kreemer’s De Karbouw (1956)
- Sultan Iskandar Muda
- koeta djaq
Sources
Atjèh. Algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden, door J. Kreemer, Archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut. Tweede Deel. Leiden: N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill, 1923. Vol. I, p. 307. Identifier: Delpher MMKB02B:000001798.
De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), p. 146.
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906. Atjèh, by J. Kreemer, vol. I (1922), p. 307.