Aja Bseutiri — more commonly Aja Eseutiri — was the consort of the great Achehnese saint Teungku Anjong of Banda Acheh. Her real name was Fatimah bint Abdarrrahman ʿAidid, and she was a daughter of a sayyid of the famous ʿAidid clan — an Arab lineage of Hadramī origin whose branches were scattered throughout the Indian Archipelago. The title Aja, Snouck Hurgronje notes in a footnote, “is really an abbreviated form of Raja = prince or princess”; Eseutiri means “the consort”, so that her popular name signifies simply “my lady the consort”.
She appears to have died on the 18th of Rajab in the year A. H. 1235 — that is, in May 1820 — and her tomb stands close to that of her husband in the dayah or prayer-house at Teungku Anjong. Her resting-place has become one of the three sacred centres of popular devotion in the capital of Acheh, alongside the tombs of her husband and of Teungku Anjong himself. The kanduri Aja Eseutiri held on the 18th of Rajab is one of the three principal annual kanduris celebrated at that sacred tomb, the other two being the kanduri on the 12th of Mo’lot (in honour of Teungku Anjong himself) and the kanduri on the 14th of Puasa.
Snouck Hurgronje describes the kanduri Aja Eseutiri as exactly resembling the two other great feasts at the same shrine: the faithful assemble at the dayah, recite the Quran over the food prepared for the occasion, and distribute it among the poor and the visitors. The observance forms part of the cycle of saints’ feasts in the Achehnese calendar, which Snouck treats as a typical example of the way in which “some of the ancient pagan feasts of the people, after throwing off certain of their more characteristic heathen features disguised themselves under the names of saints to avoid the extermination which threatened them”.
The fact that the consort of Teungku Anjong was herself the daughter of a sayyid of the ʿAidid clan throws an interesting light on the social and spiritual networks that linked the Achehnese saints to the wider Indian Ocean Muslim world. The ʿAidid sayyids, descendants of the Prophet through his grandson Husain, were among the most respected carriers of Islamic learning in the archipelago, and the marriage of one of their daughters to the saint of Anjong ensured that the spiritual capital of both lines flowed together into the cultus of the Achehnese capital.
See Also
- Teungku Anjong
- Sayyid Teungku Anjong
- Fatimah bint Abdarrhaman ‘Aidid
- Kanduri Aja Bseutiri
- Kanduri T’eungku Anjong
- Hadramaut
- Husain
- Acheh
Source
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.
Aja Bseutiri — more commonly Aja Eseutiri — was the consort of the great Achehnese saint Teungku Anjong of Banda Acheh. Her real name was Fatimah bint Abdarrrahman ʿAidid, and she was a daughter of a sayyid of the famous ʿAidid clan — an Arab lineage of Hadramī origin whose branches were scattered throughout the Indian Archipelago. The title Aja, Snouck Hurgronje notes in a footnote, “is really an abbreviated form of Raja = prince or princess”; Eseutiri means “the consort”, so that her popular name signifies simply “my lady the consort”.
She appears to have died on the 18th of Rajab in the year A. H. 1235 — that is, in May 1820 — and her tomb stands close to that of her husband in the dayah or prayer-house at Teungku Anjong. Her resting-place has become one of the three sacred centres of popular devotion in the capital of Acheh, alongside the tombs of her husband and of Teungku Anjong himself. The kanduri Aja Eseutiri held on the 18th of Rajab is one of the three principal annual kanduris celebrated at that sacred tomb, the other two being the kanduri on the 12th of Mo’lot (in honour of Teungku Anjong himself) and the kanduri on the 14th of Puasa.
Snouck Hurgronje describes the kanduri Aja Eseutiri as exactly resembling the two other great feasts at the same shrine: the faithful assemble at the dayah, recite the Quran over the food prepared for the occasion, and distribute it among the poor and the visitors. The observance forms part of the cycle of saints’ feasts in the Achehnese calendar, which Snouck treats as a typical example of the way in which “some of the ancient pagan feasts of the people, after throwing off certain of their more characteristic heathen features disguised themselves under the names of saints to avoid the extermination which threatened them”.
The fact that the consort of Teungku Anjong was herself the daughter of a sayyid of the ʿAidid clan throws an interesting light on the social and spiritual networks that linked the Achehnese saints to the wider Indian Ocean Muslim world. The ʿAidid sayyids, descendants of the Prophet through his grandson Husain, were among the most respected carriers of Islamic learning in the archipelago, and the marriage of one of their daughters to the saint of Anjong ensured that the spiritual capital of both lines flowed together into the cultus of the Achehnese capital.
See Also
- Teungku Anjong
- Sayyid Teungku Anjong
- Fatimah bint Abdarrhaman ‘Aidid
- Kanduri Aja Bseutiri
- Kanduri T’eungku Anjong
- Hadramaut
- Husain
- Acheh
Source
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.