The Tiro ulama — the Tiro-Oelama’s of Dutch colonial sources — was the hereditary family of Acehnese religious leaders (teungkoes) of Tiro in Pidie in eastern Groot-Atjeh who provided the principal religious leadership of the Acehnese resistance to the Dutch throughout the Atjeh-oorlog. The Tiro ulama is the principal religious-political antagonist of the Dutch in eastern Groot-Atjeh in ATJEH ‘96 (1913).
Origin and role
The Tiro ulama family were the hereditary religious leaders of the Tiro country in Pidie. The family provided a succession of teungkoes who led the religious resistance to the Dutch throughout the Atjeh-oorlog, propagating the doctrine of prang sabi (holy war) and providing the religious-ideological motivation of the resistance. The Tiro ulamas were the principal religious-political antagonists of the Dutch in eastern Groot-Atjeh, and their pursuit and destruction was one of the principal objectives of the marechaussée operations in the residency throughout the war.
The 1896 campaign
The 1e Deel of ATJEH ‘96 records that Teungku di Tiro of the Tiro ulama family was, in 1896, the principal teungkoe of the Lam-Krak Moekims, and that his fortified house stood at Lambaroe within the concentrated line and that he had died there before the 1896 campaign. The Inleiding records that Na de concentratie was de later door ons bezette benteng de hoofdverblijfplaats van Tengkoe di Tiroe, die daar ook gestorven is — after the concentration the later by-us-occupied fort was the chief residence of Tengkoe di Tiroe, who also died there. The conversion of the teungkoe’s fortified house into a Dutch military post is symbolic of the religious-political complex that the Dutch had to confront.
The destruction of the last Tiro ulama (1911)
The closing Overzicht van onzer vroegere betrekkingen met Atjeh of ATJEH ‘96 records that:
In December 1911 werd in Pidie de laatste telg der Tiro-Oelama’s neergelegd. De speurtochten naar deze weerspannige geestelijken door de maréchaussée, onder den toenmaligen 1en luitenant H. J. Schmidt, liggen nog versch in het geheugen.
— In December 1911 the last scion of the Tiro ulamas was laid low in Pidie. The hunts for these obstinate clerics by the marechaussée, under the then-1st Lieutenant H. J. Schmidt, still lie fresh in the memory.
The destruction of the last of the Tiro ulamas was the closing event of the religious resistance in eastern Groot-Atjeh and the symbolic end of the Atjeh-oorlog in Pidie. The hunts were conducted by the marechaussée under 1e Luit. H. J. Schmidt — the same officer who would later co-author Marechaussée in Atjeh with du Croo.
Significance
The Tiro ulama is the principal religious-political antagonist of the Dutch in eastern Groot-Atjeh in ATJEH ‘96 and the principal religious leadership of the Acehnese resistance throughout the Atjeh-oorlog. The family’s pursuit and destruction was one of the principal objectives of the marechaussée operations in the residency throughout the war, and the destruction of the last of the Tiro ulamas in 1911 marked the closing of the religious resistance in eastern Groot-Atjeh.
See Also
- ATJEH ‘96 (book by A. Kruisheer)
- 1896
- 1911
- Tiro
- Toekoe di Tiroe
- Teungku Tiro
- Teungku Muhamat Amin
- Schmidt
- Lambaroe
- Lamkrak Moekims
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Teungku
- Prang sabi
- Pidie
- Aceh War
Source
ATJEH ‘96. 1e Deel, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L. (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913), Inleiding, p. 22: Na de concentratie was de later door ons bezette benteng de hoofdverblijfplaats van Tengkoe di Tiroe, die daar ook gestorven is.
ATJEH ‘96. Tweede Deel (2c Deel), door A. Kruisheer (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913), Bijlage XXII — Overzicht van onzer vroegere betrekkingen met Atjeh en van den huidigen toestand in dat gewest, p. 287: In December 1911 werd in Pidie de laatste telg der Tiro-Oelama’s neergelegd. De speurtochten naar deze weerspannige geestelijken door de maréchaussée, onder den toenmaligen 1en luitenant H. J. Schmidt, liggen nog versch in het geheugen.