Dokarim — also identified by Snouck Hurgronje as Abdulkarim of Glumpang Dua — was an Acehnese poet and the composer of the Hikayat Prang Gompeuni (also known as Prang Kompeuni, “the War of the Kompeuni”), the great Acehnese heroic poem of the Dutch war. He is identified by Snouck Hurgronje as an illiterate oral composer who orally composed the work over five years, adding fresh material as eyewitnesses provided new information; formerly a director of sadati-performances and master of ceremonies at marriages, he recited the poem to Hurgronje, who produced from it the first complete written copy. Zentgraff cites him as an Atjeher of Lamteungah who left the most remarkable Atjehsche poetical verdict on general Van der Heyden.
The oral composition and Snouck Hurgronje’s account
The Hikayat Prang Gompeuni was orally composed over five years. Dokarim, formerly a director of sadati-performances and master of ceremonies at marriages, recited the poem to Hurgronje, who produced from it the first complete written copy. Snouck Hurgronje’s account, in Vol. II of The Achehnese, preserves this first written version of the poem.
Account from Atjeh by H.C. Zentgraff (1938)
Zentgraff cites Dokarim as the Atjehsche voice that testifies to the brief three-year period of rest under general Van der Heyden. His heldendicht (epic poem), the Prang Kompeuni, is cited in Atjeh as follows:
“Nu brak een driejarig tijdperk van rust aan, waarin de éénoogige Generaal zijne veroveringen bevestigde. De Radja Moeda: Teukoe Moehamad, spande alle krachten in om de hoofdplaats en Oeleë Lheuë tot welvaart te brengen, en dit gelukte hem zoo wel, dat de allerwegen gevluchte bevolking in niet te stuiten stroomen naar de hoofdplaats kwam en zich met de kafirs verbroederde. Het was, als leefde men voortdurend in feesten; groot voordeel werd met den handel behaald, vergeefs trachtten onze krijgsoversten nog volk te vinden dat hen wilde volgen. Alles ging den éénoogigen Koning hulde brengen. Toen de éénoogige Generaal weg was, eindigde de rust…”
That is: “Now began a three-year period of rest, in which the one-eyed General confirmed his conquests. The Radja Moeda, Teukoe Moehamad, bent every effort to bring the capital and Oeleë Lheuë to prosperity… everyone went to pay homage to the one-eyed King. When the one-eyed General was gone, the rest ended. The brave warrior Teukoe Asam, still very young, asked in Pidië his father, Teukoe Raja, who had fled thither, leave to go and harry the Kompeuni; gladly this gave him the parental blessing on that pious work.”
Zentgraff cites this passage to make the point that the colonial reader does well to step outside self-satisfaction and listen for once to judgement from the enemy’s camp. Dokarim is also cited by Zentgraff for an Atjehsche judgement on the new korps maréchaussée: “De Kompeuni is nu bezig met allen invoer te verhinderen, tot groot ongerief van de lieden binnen de linie” — “The Kompeuni is now busy preventing all importation, to the great inconvenience of the people inside the line” — and, in a verse-parody, for the Atjehsche pronunciation masoesé for the word maréchaussée.
See Also
- Hikajat prang
- Van der Heyden
- Oeleë Lheuë
- Pidië
- Lamteungah
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Aceh War
Sources
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia.