Habib Long — identified in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 as a former Bengaloesche koewachter (Bengali cattle-keeper) — was the leader of a bandit group encamped at the kampong of Lamkrak in 1896, whose presence in the sector immediately south of the Dutch geconcentreerde linie became one of the immediate occasions of the 1896 crisis. He is named in the album’s narrative of the events leading up to Toekoe Oemar’s defection as the chief enemy of Toekoe Djohan Pahalawan in the Lamkrak sector, and his refusal to be dislodged by Djohan — and Djohan’s subsequent refusal to dislodge him — was the proximate cause of the breach between Djohan and the Dutch.
Background
The Atjeh-Album introduces Habib Long as a zekere Habib Long, vroeger een Bengaloesche koewachter — “a certain Habib Long, formerly a Bengali cattle-keeper” — who, by early 1896, had gathered a bende (gang) at Lamkrak. The album does not record how a former Bengali cattle-keeper came to bear the honorific Habib — properly a descendant of the Prophet — nor how he came to be at the head of an armed band in the XXII Moekims of Groot-Atjeh. The inconsistency is itself notable: the Atjehnese usage of Habib as an honorific could, by the late nineteenth century, be applied to figures whose claim to Prophetic descent was dubious or manufactured, and the album’s identification of Long as a Bengaloesche koewachter is a deliberate Dutch deflation of his religious pretensions.
Operations in the Lamkrak sector
The album records that Habib Long and his bende had, in the months preceding Djohan’s defection, carried out a series of attacks in the territory of Nja Din — the wife of Toekoe Oemar who effectively governed the VI Moekims. In these attacks Long’s band burned houses, murdered a village head and his wife, and killed several of Oemar’s best fighters. The incursion was, in the Dutch reading, a provocation by the religious-party Moslemin against the oeloebalang party that Oemar represented — and it was the immediate occasion of Oemar’s appointment by the Dutch to “purify” the XXV Moekims of Moslemin bands.
The breach with Toekoe Djohan
The immediate occasion of Djohan’s defection was his refusal to march on Lamkrak. The Atjeh-Album records that, after the Dutch had decided that Habib Long must be dislodged from Lamkrak, Djohan vond redenen, te weigeren, op te trekken tegen Lamkrak — “found reasons to refuse to march on Lamkrak.” The album characterises the refusal as te onbegrijpelijker — the more incomprehensible — given that Habib Long’s band had recently carried out the outrages in the territory of Nja Din and had killed several of Oemar’s own fighters. The refusal was, however, the proximate signal of the defection: it was followed by Djohan’s flight, the desertion of the Dutch-allied hoofden, and the siege of the Dutch outposts at Anagaloeng, Senelop, Biloel and Lamkoenjit.
Significance
Habib Long’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the catalyst — perhaps inadvertently — of the 1896 defection. His presence at Lamkrak, and the Dutch decision to use Djohan to dislodge him, placed Djohan in a position where his refusal to act became the open signal of his defection. The album’s deflation of his religious status — its identification of him as a Bengaloesche koewachter rather than as a true Habib — is also a document of the Dutch colonial practice of distinguishing “genuine” Habibs such as Habib Abdoe’r Rachman from the broader class of self-styled religious adventurers who operated on the fringes of the Atjehnese war.
See Also
- Lamkrak
- Toekoe Oemar
- Toekoe Oemar’s defection (1896)
- Toekoe Nja Din
- VI Moekims
- XXII Moekims
- XXV Moekims
- Anagaloeng
- Senelop
- Biloel
- Lamkoenjit
- Habib Abdurrahman Zahir
- Aceh War
- 1896
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 4, 7 (Toekoe Oemar — Zijn Verraad; De Poeassa — Atjehers en Kafirs).