Sayyid (Acehnese sayét or sayéd; also Habib for those of the Hadrami Sayyid families) was the honorific title given in Acheh — as throughout the Islamic world — to descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. Their status commanded automatic reverence based on religious feeling, even where their personal conduct was far from devotional.
Status in Acehnese Society
Not by any means all of the sayyids of Acheh were theologians or pandits. Most devoted themselves to trade or in later generations to agriculture, but enjoyed nonetheless the customary reverence based on religious feeling. The same was often “more than ordinarily pronounced, as they are excessively spoilt from their earliest youth,” as Snouck Hurgronje observed.
The title teungku was also applied to the sayyid, along with the leubë, haji, malém, além, and ulama — making sayyids part of the broad teungku class of religious leaders.
Sayyids from Arabia
Some Sayyids from Mecca and from Arabia (including Hadramaut) found their way to Acheh in the guise of random adventurers, quickly making their own of Acehnese manners and — unfortunately — of Acehnese vices. These born-in-Acheh sayyids often had the vices “usually more than ordinarily pronounced.”
Some members of Sayyid families settled in Pidie and made occasional journeys to Keumala, where the young sultan Muhammad Dawot Shah treated them with the highest honour.
Sacred Tombs (Kramat)
The most honoured tombs (kramat) in Acheh were those of Sayyids. The most venerated at the time of Snouck Hurgronje’s writing was the tomb of Sayyid Abu Bakar bin Husain Bil-Faqih in Gampong Jawa — the Teungku Anjong kramat. Another famous Sayyid tomb was that of a member of the ʿAidarus family buried at Luar Batang in Batavia, widely venerated.
The ʿAidarus Family
Among the notable sayyid families in Acheh was the ʿAidarus (ʿAydarus) family — a famous Hadrami Sayyid lineage. A half-crazy young man, son of Teungku di Bukét (the late raja of Idi), was the habib kramat (living saint) of this family at the time of Snouck Hurgronje’s writing.
Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
Habib — beloved — is an Arabic honorific used in Atjeh in place of the older Teungkoe by those who claim sajet (sayyid) ancestry. As Snouck Hurgronje notes, ‘Teungkoe sajet zijn woorden, die in Arabië en ook wel eens in Atjeh worden vervangen door habib, dat geliefde beteekent. De sajjids of sajets hadden godsdienstigen adel en grooten invloed’ — Teungkoe and sajet are words which in Arabia and also sometimes in Atjeh are replaced by habib, meaning «beloved». The sajjids or sajets possessed religious nobility and great influence. The title is borne, for example, by Teungkoe habib Moehamat bin Sajet Oesoeih of Peudawa Rajeu, whose weidsche naam — wide-sounding name — announces his Arabic descent.
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapter VI, ‘Oeléebalang’s volkshoofden’, p. 43, note 2. Also Het Achehnese, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje (Leyden 1906), for the sajet/habib nomenclature.
See Also
- Dr. Snouck Hurgronje
- Gampong Jawa
- Keumala
- Mecca
- Muhammad Dawot Shah
- Pidie
- Sajet (title)
- Tengkoe (honorific)
- Teungkoe habib Moehamat bin Sajet Oesoeih
- Teungku
- Teungku Anjong
- Sayyid Abu Bakar bin Husain Bil-Faqih
- Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
Sources
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. Chapter I, §§ 5, 9, pp. 70–71, 156–160.
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923); Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon (1932), where applicable.