Panglima Polem

Note on nomenclature. The hereditary office discussed here is variously spelt in the sources as Panglima Polem, Panglima Polim, and (when referring to the Sultan’s wartime commander) Panglima Prang Polim. The Dutch colonial records transliterate it as Panglima Pólém or Panglima Polém. All forms denote the same title and the same lineage of bearers. Several distinct historical persons held the office; the article treats the title and lineage as a single entity, with separate sections for each prominent bearer whose career is documented in the sources.

Panglima Polem (“Lord Elder Brother”) is the hereditary title of the chief (panglima sagi) of the XXII Mukims of Great Aceh, and the doyen of the three sagis surrounding the Achehnese capital on account of the antiquity of his lineage, the bravery of the men of his sagi, and its wealth. The bearer is the senior of the three panglima sagi — the guardians of Acheh — and from at least the early nineteenth century to 1941 the title was held by a succession of warrior-statesmen whose careers span the Aceh War and the colonial period. The best-known bearers are the Panglima Polim who held the balance of power during the Acheh succession dispute of 1802–1819 and resisted the Raffles–Coombs Commission of 1819; the Panglima Polim who led the war-party of 1875 and was driven from his fortress of Gléiëng in 1879; Teukoe Panglima Polém Sri Moeda Perkasa Moehamad Daoed, who came into conflict with the encroaching Dutch troops in 1896; Teukoe Panglima Polém Moehamad Ali, who surrendered to Captain H. Colijn on 15 May 1903 and was later one of the three principal Achehnese chiefs who wrote the letter of 1910–1911 urging the Tiriō Teungkoes to submit; and the last Panglima Polem, who died in 1941 decorated with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Oranje Nassau. Kreemer’s Atjèh (Tweede Deel, 1923) records the seventh bearer — Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt — under the heading Panglima Pölém, with the full genealogy of the seven holders of the title from the mid-seventeenth-century Teukoe Moeda Sa’ti (Lam Tjot) onwards, and adds the kawöm affiliation, the kinship with the Keumala pretender-sultanate line through Teungkoe Ratna and Pö Tjoet Meurah, and the patronage of the Lam Sië school in the XXII Moekim’s.

The title and its legend of origin

A tradition represents the Polems as sprung from the sultans. The legend, as given in Vol. I of The Achehnese, runs that the great Meukuta Alam once suffered from a venereal disease, and in order to cure it had recourse to the remedy — held in much repute among natives — of having intercourse with a healthy woman. For this purpose he employed a black slave, and did in fact recover; the slave however became pregnant. As in Acheh great weight is given to descent from the mother’s side, the sultan was distressed at the prospect of having to acknowledge as his son the child of a black woman, and sent her forth into the jungle — that is, into the district of the XXII Mukims. According to the legend, the son, whose life was spared by the highlanders, became the first Panglima Polem, chief of what is in many respects the most important sagi of Acheh.

Snouck Hurgronje dismisses this tradition — of which there are also other versions less insulting to the honour of the Polem — as containing “not a single grain of historic truth.” The title of “elder brother,” he suggests, probably typified the original relation between the powerful sagi-chief and the sultan; just as the official title of “grandfathers” (ne) was borne by Teuku Ne’ Raja Muda Seutia of Meura’sa and Teuku Ne’ Peureuba Wangsa of the IX Mukims of the XXV. The Dutch staff history of *Nederlands-Indië contra Japan* glosses the title in the same sense: the special position of this sagihoofd is already evident from his title Polem, which means “elder brother” (namely, of the former Sultan of Atjeh). The title thus marked the sagihoofd of the XXII moekims as the elder brother of the former sultan, and the sagihoofd’s authority rested on this claim of royal kinship — a claim that was both a political and a dynastic institution.

Place in the marriage with the State

The three panglima sagi were the guardians of Acheh, which was represented as a bride that continually renewed her youth. They gave her in marriage to whom they would after mutual consultation, usually selecting the bridegroom from the family of his predecessors; yet they did not shrink upon occasion from the introduction of a new dynasty or even the choice of a foreigner, as in the case of the Sultans of Arab descent. The bridegroom had to pay to each of the chiefs a sum of 500 dollars as a wedding gift (jinamee or peunamee). The three guardians, however, “did not succeed in retaining the supremacy over the federate dominions which they had possessed when this metaphorical marriage-contract was concluded.”

The Panglima Polem is repeatedly cited as the type of the powerful sagi-chief who, while owing nominal allegiance to the sultan, treated him with studied contempt. The father of the lately deceased Panglima Polem, like the father of the present Teuku Nanta Seutia, chief of the VI Mukims of the XXV, entered the royal dwelling in foul clothing and addressed the sultan as gata (the equivalent of tuan ku, “my lord”), remarking “we are not wont to say deelat.” Of the Panglima Polem it is said that he often disregarded for months all invitations to the Dalam, and finally, as a token of goodwill, journeyed to the Sultan’s frontier and had a heavy gong beaten to announce his presence, after which he returned home.

The kali of the sagi

The hereditary kali of the XXII Mukims — Teungku Tanoh Abee — by reason of his learning esteemed himself too highly to act as a sort of acolyte of the Panglima of his sagi, and refused to appear at the call of the Panglima Polem. This powerful uleebalang was thus constrained, when need arose, to seek the help of teungkus of inferior qualifications — the chief of those who rendered service in this way being Teungku di Lheue, an ulama of inferior repute — while his hereditary kali devoted his time to study and the instruction of his disciples.

In Pidie there are federations of the same kind as that of the Panglima Polem; just as Acheh has its XXII Mukims of Panglima Polem, so we find in Pidie the XXII Mukims of Bentara Keumangan.

The Panglima Polim of 1819: the Raffles–Coombs Commission

By the end of the seventeenth century the Achehnese sultanate had effectively fallen under the tutelage of the chiefs of the three sagis surrounding the capital — the XXII Mukims, the XXV Mukims and the XXVI Mukims. A Calcutta-government report of 7 October 1820 to London observed that authority was exercised “in name by the council of the Sagis, but in reality by Panglima Polim assisted by his adherents.” Polim’s hereditary title “Lord Elder Brother” designated the chief of the XXII Mukims and made him first among equals in the federation of the Three Sagis.

In the protracted Acheh succession dispute between Sultan Jauhar Alum and Sultan Saif ul-Alum (Syf), Polim held the balance of power. When the joint commission of Raffles and Captain Coombs arrived off Acheh on 14 March 1819, no sultan was present in the capital. The commission summoned the chiefs to an assembly; Polim replied from his XXII Mukims that the assembly would be held in eight days and that the commission should not come ashore until then, directing any matters to the Shahbandar. The Bengal report described Polim’s conduct as a display of “his entire disregard for both the competitors and of his own undisguised supremacy at the capital.” Polim subsequently took residence in the sultan’s palace, leading the Bengal government to conclude that he alone was the real ruler, that Jauhar Alum was not recognised, and that the pretender Syf was “merely a tool” in the hands of the parties. Polim showed “no inclination to acknowledge in him any real sovereignty.”

The warning of treason and Raffles’s withdrawal

On the appointed day a chief of the Jauhar party warned Raffles of a possible treason. Holding the casting vote, Raffles judged it wiser not to venture ashore and claimed illness, thereby dissolving the assembly. The Calcutta government later disapproved, noting that “courtesy and decorum” required the commissioners to attend a meeting they themselves had requested. With the assembly dissolved, Polim retained mastery of Acheh; after seven fruitless weeks on the roadstead the commission sailed for Pedir to treat with Jauhar Alum.

Continued supremacy and the 1822 letter

Polim’s supremacy survived the treaty of Pedir. In a letter of 15 April 1822 Jauhar Alum wrote to Governor Phillips of Penang that he hoped “in two or three months” to meet “Pangleema Polim” and to re-establish “the laws of Government in some degree.” On 4 December 1822 the Three Sagis sent a “brutal” letter to Governor Phillips refusing further recognition of Jauhar Alum and demanding the return of Syf; the letter reflected Polim’s policy. A Bengal review of 28 January 1825 still reported that “the whole power at Acheen was in the hands of Panglima Polim.”

After Jauhar Alum’s death in November 1823, the Queen-Mother together with the three Sagis exercised power in practice with Polim. Governor Fullerton’s minute of 21 March 1825 noted that the present occupier of the throne was not the legitimate heir and that a disputed succession would likely ensue when the legitimate son (then in the custody of the Queen-Mother) came of age — an indication that Polim’s faction had installed a nominee. Throughout this period the British at Penang recognised that the treaty of 1819 remained a dead letter chiefly because Polim would not permit either sultan to rule.

The Panglima Polim of 1875–1879: the first phase of the Aceh War

The political constitution of Acheh divided the realm into three sagis — XXV, XXVI and XXII — and the coastal Onderhoorigheden. The sultan’s authority was nominal; real power lay with the hereditary chiefs (hoeloebalangs), the most eminent being the panglimas of the three sagis, “among whom the panglima polim, the head of the XXII moekims, took the first place.” Thus the name functioned both as a title and a personal designation.

The war-party of 1875

In a note of 30 April 1875 to the Governor-General, General Pel described the war-party as consisting largely of men from the Sagi XXII, Kerkoen, Silang in the Sagi XXVI, and other regions, motivated by religious zeal, love of war, or insecurity. He listed the chief leaders as “Panglima Polim, Imam Longbatta, Toekoe Rajoet Lamkapang and others.”

Campaigns of 1879

After the submission of Habib Abdurrahman on [[13 October 1878 and the start of the campaign against the XXII Moekims on 23 March 1879, the capture of Indrapuri on 24 March 1879 failed to secure submission. Heavy fighting followed at Djerreek, Redep and Panteh Karang; on 6 May and 7 May 1879 the Dutch suffered great losses at Panteh Karang, and the fortress fell only on 7 May with reinforcements. On 31 May 1879 troops advanced on Gléiëng, Polim’s fortified chief place, which was finally taken on 9 July 1879 after a tiring march and repeated fights. The campaign in the XXII Moekims was then considered complete.

Flight to the Pedir upper lands

Following the campaign against the XXVI Moekims of early July 1879 and the Selimoen expedition of August 1879, Polim, his son Radja Koelala, Imam Longbatta, Toewankoe Haschim and others retreated to the interior south of Pedir, “namely at Kemala”, beyond Dutch reach.

Account from De onderwerping van Atjeh (Van Heutsz, 1893) — the March 1877 submission feelers

In the 1893 tract De onderwerping van Atjeh, Van Heutsz gives a sustained account of the March 1877 submission feelers of Panglima Polim and Tekoe Moeda Baid — the feelers that confirmed Gouverneur-Generaal van Lansberge in the verzoeningspolitiek (policy of conciliation) of March 1877 — and of their failure. The Panglima Polim of Van Heutsz’s narrative is the Sagi-head het Sagi hoofd der XXII Moekims — whose March 1877 feelers of submission, reported to the Gouverneur-Generaal in Batavia by the sayyid Habib Abdoel Rachman, were one of the three converging signals that confirmed Van Lansberge in the verzoeningspolitiek, and whose territory was finally subdued in the July–October 1878 XXII Moekims campaign of Generaal van der Heijden.

The March 1877 submission feelers

Panglima Polim enters Van Heutsz’s narrative in the context of Gouverneur-Generaal van Lansberge’s March 1877 visit to Atjeh — the visit undertaken, “ten einde na persoonlijke aanschouwing van den toestand en plaatselijke overtuiging van den stand van zaken, de verdere gedragslijn te kunnen vaststellen in rechtstreeksch overleg met de autoriteiten te Atjeh” (in order, after personal observation of the situation and local conviction of the state of affairs, to be able to establish the further course of action in direct consultation with the authorities at Atjeh). Before his departure from Java, the Gouverneur-Generaal had been told by Hadji Abdoel Rachman — the sayyid from the IV Moekims of Groot-Atjeh — that the two great Sagi chiefs were willing to submit. Van Heutsz records the report and its political consequence:

“Vóór zijn vertrek van Java, had Z. E. te Batavia nog van een zekere Hadji Abdoel Rachman uit de IV Moekims vernomen, dat zoo- wel het Sagi hoofd der XXII Moekims Panglima Polim- als het Tekoe Moeda Baid zich wilden onder- hoofd der VII Moekims, werpen, doch dat de aanraking van die hoofden met ons bestuur werd tegengewerkt door de hoofden uit Marassa, die belang hadden bij be- stendiging van den tegenwoordigen toestand”. — Before his departure from Java, His Excellency had learned at Batavia from a certain Hadji Abdoel Rachman from the IV Moekims, that as well the Sagi-head of the XXII Moekims, Panglima Polim, as the Tekoe Moeda Baid, under-head of the VII Moekims, wished to submit, but that the contact of those heads with our administration was being counteracted by the heads from Marassa, who had an interest in the maintenance of the present state of affairs.

The Habib’s report was one of three converging signals — the others coming from Singapore and Johore, and from Toeankoe Pangeran Hoesin’s presentation at Pedir — that confirmed Van Lansberge, after his mid-March 1877 arrival in Atjeh, in the verzoeningspolitiek. And, Van Heutsz notes, the report seemed at first to be confirmed by the conduct of the two Sagi chiefs themselves: “werkelijk openden toen Panglima Polim en Tekoe Moeda Baid onderhandelingen tot onderwerping” — Panglima Polim and Tekoe Moeda Baid did in fact then open negotiations for submission.

The opening of negotiations with Tekoe Moeda Baid

The negotiations themselves were conducted chiefly through Tekoe Moeda Baid, the under-chief of the VII Moekims of the Sagi XXII, who met twice with the Dutch bestuursambtenaren at Telok-Kroet on the Westkust. Panglima Polim’s role, in Van Heutsz’s account, is that of the senior Sagi-head whose name is invoked as the political authority behind the negotiations — the Sagi hoofd der XXII Moekims — even as the operational conduct of the talks is carried by his under-chief. The arrangement was, on the Atjehnese side, the conventional one: the Sagi-head speaks through his territorial under-chiefs, and the negotiation is conducted at the under-chief level even as the Sagi-head’s name is invoked. On the Dutch side, however, the arrangement was read as direct evidence of Panglima Polim’s willingness to submit — a reading Van Heutsz would later dismiss as naive: “de door de Atjehsche hoofden aangeknoopte onderhandelingen moesten slechts dienen om tijd te winnen” — the negotiations opened by the Atjehnese chiefs served only to gain time.

The failure of the submissions

The submissions of both Panglima Polim and Tekoe Moeda Baid did not, in fact, materialise. Van Heutsz records the failure with characteristic economy:

“Nu dit echter niet geschiedde, was het natuurlijk gevolg dat van onderwerping niets kwam, want bij den vijand ontstond geen gebrek, noch aan geld, noch aan krijgsbehoefte, noch aan levensmiddelen en van den oorlog hadden vele rijke, zoo niet de rijkste streken, nog niets geleden. Een vrijheidlievend en krijgshaftig volk onderwerpt zich niet anders dan gedwongen. De onderwerping van Tekoe Moeda Baid kwam niet tot stand, evenmin die van Panglima Polim”. — Now, however, since this did not happen, the natural consequence was that nothing came of submission, for on the enemy’s side there arose no want, neither of money, nor of war matériel, nor of food, and many rich, or rather the richest, regions had as yet suffered nothing from the war. A freedom-loving and war-like people does not submit other than by force. The submission of Tekoe Moeda Baid did not come about, no more than that of Panglima Polim.

The diagnosis is double. The first failure is the operational one — the closure of Groot-Atjeh from the sea had not produced, by 1877–1878, the deprivation that would have forced the Sagi-heads to submit; the Atjehners still had “geen gebrek, noch aan geld, noch aan krijgsbehoefte, noch aan levensmiddelen” — no want of money, of war matériel, or of food. The second failure is the anthropological one — “een vrijheidlievend en krijgshaftig volk onderwerpt zich niet anders dan gedwongen” — a freedom-loving and war-like people does not submit other than by force. The verzoeningspolitiek had been premised on the assumption that the Atjehners could be conciliated by negotiation; the failure of the Panglima Polim and Tekoe Moeda Baid submissions demonstrated, in Van Heutsz’s reading, that no such conciliation was possible without the prior application of force.

The October 1878 subdual in the XXII Moekims campaign

The reversal of policy came in June 1878, when Habib Abdoel Rachman’s inval (incursion) into the Dutch-occupied territory triggered Generaal van der Heijden’s decision to abandon the coastal expeditions and attack the Sagi federations directly. The XXII Moekims campaign opened in July 1878, and within three months produced the submissions of the two figures whose March 1877 feelers had inaugurated the verzoeningspolitiek. Van Heutsz records the timing:

“Hoe reeds binnen drie maanden na den aanvang van den eersten veldtocht in de XXII Moekims, de onderwerping van Habib Abdoer Rachman en van Tekoe Moeda Baid op den 13em October 1878 volgde”. — How already within three months of the beginning of the first campaign in the XXII Moekims, the submission of Habib Abdoer Rachman and of Tekoe Moeda Baid followed on the 13th of October 1878.

The submission of 13 October 1878 — of the Habib and of Tekoe Moeda Baid — closed the operational core of the XXII Moekims campaign. The Sagi of the XXII Moekims itself, whose Sagi-head was Panglima Polim, was thereby subdued: the territorial federation whose chief had feigned submission in March 1877 had been, by October 1878, conquered by the Van der Heijden campaigns. The campaign would be followed, in 1879, by the XXVI Moekims campaign and the tocht naar Selimoen of September 1879, culminating in the dagorder of 5 September 1879 declaring geheel Groot-Atjeh ten onder gebragt (all of Groot-Atjeh subdued).

Significance (per Van Heutsz)

Panglima Polim’s significance in Van Heutsz’s narrative is that of the Sagi hoofd der XXII Moekims — the senior Sagi-head whose March 1877 submission feelers, reported by the sayyid Habib Abdoel Rachman, were one of the three converging signals that confirmed Van Lansberge in the verzoeningspolitiek; whose negotiations for submission were conducted through his under-chief Tekoe Moeda Baid of the VII Moekims, and whose submission — like that of Tekoe Moeda Baid — “niet tot stand” came, providing Van Heutsz with the documentary proof that the verzoeningspolitiek had been premised on a misreading of Atjehnese political convention; and whose territory was finally subdued in the July–October 1878 XXII Moekims campaign of Generaal van der Heijden, the campaign that produced the 13 October 1878 submission of the Habib and of Tekoe Moeda Baid and that closed the first phase of the Atjeh-oorlog. His role in the resistance is, in Van Heutsz’s narrative, the territorial-authority counterpart to the active military leadership of the Habib: where the Habib supplied the operational command of the resistance in the Groot-Atjeh interior, Panglima Polim supplied its constitutional Sagi-form — the form of the Sagi-head of the XXII Moekims, the largest and most politically significant of the three Sagi federations of Groot-Atjeh.

Teukoe Panglima Polém Moehamad Daoed: the 1896 conflict

In the account given by Dr. A. J. Piekaar in Atjèh and the War with Japan, Teukoe Panglima Polém — in full Teukoe Panglima Polém Sri Moeda Perkasa Moehamad Daoed — was the Panglima Sagi of the XXII Mukims of Great Atjèh, “one of the great figures of the Aceh War,” whose conflict with the encroaching Dutch troops in 1896 made him a central figure of the late Atjèhnese resistance. Piekaar introduces the old Polém as a representative of the traditional Atjèhnese resistance: “Being a good Mohammedan, for the old Pedém in his youth the acceptance of the authority of the infidel (Atj. kaphé) had been an abomination and the conduct of the holy war (Atj. prang sabi) a religious duty.”

In 1896, the old Teukoe Panglima Polém “came into conflict with the encroaching Dutch troops” and soon, “through his descent and position, belonged to the foremost figures in the struggle against the Dutch.” The conflict placed him at the head of the Atjèhnese resistance in Great Atjèh at the moment when the Dutch — under the system of van Heutsz and his flying columns — were beginning the final subjugation of the residency. His decision to take up arms in 1896 marked the entry of the Polém house into the front line of the anti-Dutch struggle.

Kreemer’s genealogy of the Pölém-geslacht (see below) records this same bearer — the seventh in Kreemer’s list — under the personal name Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt, with the regnal dates 1891 onwards. The identification of Piekaar’s “Teukoe Panglima Polém Sri Moeda Perkasa Moehamad Daoed” with Kreemer’s “Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt” is supported by the coincidence of the personal name (Moehamad Daoed / Moehamat Dawöt), the office, and the late-nineteenth-century date — Kreemer’s “Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt” is thus almost certainly the same bearer as Piekaar’s Moehamad Daoed and as the Moehamat Dawöt who is, on this Wiki, treated under the pretender-sultan article as the last holder of the Pölém title before the colonial reorganisation.

The Panglima Polém of the next generation

After the death of the old Teukoe Panglima Polém Moehamad Daoed and of “the equally powerful oelèëbalang of Ba’ét,” the younger generation — the son, Teukoe Panglima Polém Moehamad Ali — “continued the struggle,” though Piekaar notes that “the later events justify the impression that Teukoe Panglima Polém Moehamad Ali in this strongly predominated.” The transition from father to son, and the continuation of the struggle in a new key, marked the passage from the armed resistance of the Atjèh War to the political-religious agitation of the colonial and Japanese periods.

The political role of the Polém house in the colonial period is illustrated, Piekaar records, by “the refusal of these oelèëbalang to, on the occasion of the hari raja puasa, offer their congratulations to the sagi head with the termination of the fast.” The hari raja puasa — the feast marking the end of the Ramadan fast — was the occasion on which the oelèëbalang’s of the sagi would traditionally pay their respects to the Panglima Sagi. The refusal to do so was a public repudiation of the sagi head’s authority, and an assertion of the independent political standing of the Polém house.

The surrender of 15 May 1903 to Captain H. Colijn

By the final phase of the Aceh War the bearer of the title — referred to in Dispereert Niet (Deel XI) simply as Panglima Polem — had become the principal Acehnese military leader and the most prominent figure in the resistance after the capture of Kutaradja and the deaths of Teukoe Oema and other leaders. As the Dutch military campaign intensified under J. B. van Heutsz, Panglima Polem became the principal target of Dutch operations. He organized resistance in the interior, coordinating with other leaders such as Teukoe Oema and the pretender sultan. His forces fought in the battles of Batêê Iliê and other fortified positions.

The Battle of Batêê Iliê (1901)

Batêê Iliê was a heavily fortified position in Samalanga that had successfully resisted Dutch attacks for twenty years, including an earlier attempt by General Van der Heyden. Van Heutsz personally led the assault, and after a hard struggle, Batêê Iliê fell. Panglima Polem was forced to flee into the interior.

Pursuit and surrender

Following the fall of Batêê Iliê, Panglima Polem was hunted relentlessly by Dutch forces. Captain H. Colijn and Lieutenant Christoffel led repeated pursuit operations. The pretender sultan surrendered in January 1903, but Panglima Polem continued to resist. On 15 May 1903, Panglima Polem was surrounded by Dutch forces. He surrendered to Captain H. Colijn at Lhokseumawe. The event received minimal attention in the Dutch press, appearing as a small item among “mixed news,” but it was understood by military officers as a decisive moment.

Aftermath

After his surrender, Panglima Polem was reinstated as head of the XXII moekims and served as a reliable Dutch ally. He proved to be an effective administrator, overseeing the reconstruction and development of his region. His surrender marked the end of organized military resistance in Aceh. Although skirmishes continued until 1913, the loss of its principal leader effectively ended the Aceh War as a unified conflict.

The 1910–1911 letter to the Tiriō Teungkoes

In the account given by G. W. T. Dames in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. (1954), the Panglima Polem — there styled Panglima Prang Polim, “war-commander Polim,” and described as the former legeraanvoerder van de Sultan (commander-in-chief of the Sultan of Aceh’s army) — was one of the three voornaamste Atjehse hoofden who, at the request of General Swart, wrote the letter urging the Tiriō Teungkoes to submit. Polim had “zich tenslotte had gemeld bij kapitein Colijn” — that is, had eventually reported to Captain Colijn, the same officer to whom the surrender of 15 May 1903 had been made.

At General Swart’s request, “de drie voornaamste Atjehse hoofden” wrote the Tiriō Teungkoes a letter urging submission. The three were “two members of the Sultan’s family, Toeankoe Machmoed Radja Keumala, together with Panglima Prang Polim, the Sultan’s former army commander, who had finally reported to Captain Colijn.” The letter is the clearest example of Swart’s preferred method — to bring moral and political pressure on the remaining resisters through the most authoritative Acehnese leaders.

The Teungkoes “bespraken de brief, doch besloten tot het einde te vechten; hen zou geschieden naar Allah’s wil” — “discussed the letter, but resolved to fight to the end; what should happen to them would be according to Allah’s will.” The refusal is doctrinal: the religious resisters would not accept the authority of the former Sultan’s army commander to override their doctrine of prang sabi. The letter therefore failed — but its existence marks the moment at which the formal Acehnese political establishment had come over to the Dutch side, leaving the religious resisters alone. In Dames’s reading, the episode marks the political closure of the Acehnese Sultanate: the Sultan’s own army commander, having surrendered to Colijn, now urges the last resisters to surrender — and is refused on doctrinal grounds. The Aceh War, in its last phase, was no longer a war between states (the Sultanate was gone) but a war between a colonial army and a religious doctrine.

The last Panglima Polem (d. 1941)

Panglima Polem — the last of the Panglima Polem line of sagihoofden (sagi heads) of the XXII moekims of Groot-Atjeh — was the Atjehnese chief whose conduct as a “legendary hero” sustained Dutch authority in the Seulimeumse through the consolidation of the pacification, whose death in 1941 placed the Dutch government before a great problem, and whose eldest son’s succession as sagihoofd — politically almost outspokenly anti-Dutch in orientation — was the principal Dutch political risk of 1941 and the immediate political context of the F. beweging rising of February 1942. In the Dutch staff history’s account (Deel VI, Hoofdstuk V), this Panglima Polem is the principal Dutch political anchor of the sagi der XXII moekims, and the staff history’s principal instance of the loss of a loyal Atjehnese chief on the eve of the Japanese invasion.

Conduct as a “legendary hero”

The staff history records that Panglima Polem’s conduct as a legendarische held — a legendary hero — had sustained Dutch authority in the Seulimeumse through the post-pacification consolidation. The staff history does not elaborate on what specific actions are referred to as legendarisch, but the designation suggests that his cooperation with Dutch authority had acquired a semi-mythological quality in the colonial administrative tradition — the sagihoofd whose prestige among the Atjehnese population of the XXII moekims had functioned as a legitimating proxy for Dutch rule in the interior.

The death of 1941 and the Dutch political problem

The staff history records: “De dood van Panglima Polem in 1941 (hij was o.a. gedecoreerd met de Ridderorde van Oranje Nassau wegens zijn grote steun aan ons bestuur) plaatste ons Gouvernement voor een groot probleem.” The death of Panglima Polem in 1941 placed the Dutch government before a great problem. The problem was not primarily one of civil order — the Seulimeumse had been administratively stable through the post-pacification period — but of political legitimacy: the sagihoofd whose prestige had sustained Dutch authority in the XXII moekims was gone, and his successor’s orientation was hostile.

The decoration with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Oranje Nassau

Panglima Polem had been decorated, among other things, with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Oranje Nassau — the Dutch state’s formal acknowledgement of his “great support to our administration.” The decoration is the staff history’s principal instance of the Dutch colonial state’s formal recognition of Panglima Polem’s political value, and establishes the contrast with his eldest son’s anti-Dutch orientation.

The eldest son’s succession and the Dutch political risk

The staff history records that Panglima Polem’s eldest son succeeded him as sagihoofd of the XXII moekims, and that this successor was “politiek practisch openlijk anti-Hollands ingesteld” — politically almost outspokenly anti-Dutch in orientation. The eldest son enjoyed a poor reputation and had often had to be corrected by his father; politically he was almost outspokenly anti-Dutch in orientation, and during a stay on Java he had sought contact with extremist nationalist circles. On his return to Atjeh he showed great interest in the Poesa movement, whose anti-Dutch character he saw through clearly. The Dutch government nonetheless accepted his succession under the principle that the eldest son was in the first place predestined to succeed — though the staff history records that those who placed no confidence in the new sagihoofd had, in the event, seen correctly. The eldest son’s succession is the staff history’s principal instance of the loss of the Dutch political anchor in the Seulimeumse, and the immediate political context of the F. beweging rising of February 1942: it was in the sagi der XXII moekims around Seulimeum that the F. beweging sabotage wave broke on the night of 19 February–20 February 1942.

The flight of the eldest son

When, on 23 February 1942, Palmer van den Broek’s Seulimeum-colonne restored outward calm in the Seulimeumse, the fled chiefs — including Panglima Polem’s eldest son — remained unfindable. The eldest son’s flight, together with that of the other fled chiefs of the Seulimeumse, is the staff history’s principal instance of the F-beweging’s penetration of the sagihoofd institution, and the principal Dutch political failure of the pre-invasion rising.

Genealogy

The Panglima Polem who died in 1941 was the last of the line who had actively supported the Dutch colonial administration. His grandfather or great-grandfather — depending on the genealogical account — was the Panglima Polem who had submitted to the Dutch in the early consolidation phase and been rewarded with the continuation of the sagihoofd position. The exact generation count is not given in the staff history’s account.

Kreemer’s account (Deel II, 1923) — the Pölém-geslacht

Kreemer’s Atjèh (Tweede Deel, 1923) records the seventh holder of the Pölém title — Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt — and supplies a full genealogy of the seven successive Panglima Pöléms of the XXII Moekim’s of Groot Atjèh. Kreemer’s record is the only colonial-period source that gives a continuous genealogy of the lineage from the mid-seventeenth century to the late nineteenth, and it preserves two further details that the Snouck Hurgronje and Piekaar accounts do not record in the same form: the kawöm affiliation of the lineage to Dja Sandang, and the kinship of the seventh bearer’s wife to the Keumala pretender-sultanate line through Pö Tjoet Meurah.

The seven Pöléms of Kreemer’s record

The line of successive Panglima Pöléms, as recorded by Kreemer, runs:

Teukoe Moeda Sa’ti (Lam Tjot) — the first head, mid-seventeenth century.
Teukoe Panglima Pölém — the eponymous second bearer.
Tjoet Kléng.
Tjoet Amat (d. 1845).
Tjout Banta (1845–1879).
Radja Koeala (1879–1891).
Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt (1891–).

The genealogy is the principal Atjèhnese-informant record of the Pölém line: it gives the personal names of seven bearers across some two-and-a-half centuries, with the regnal dates of the last four. The sixth bearer — Radja Koeala (1879–1891) — is almost certainly the same person as the Radja Koelala whom the Snouck Hurgronje account names as the son of the Panglima Polim driven from Gléiëng in 1879 and as the companion of his father in the retreat to “Kemala” south of Pedir. The seventh bearer — Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt (regnal dates 1891 onwards) — is the bearer whose conflict with the encroaching Dutch troops in 1896 is recorded by Piekaar under the name Teukoe Panglima Polém Sri Moeda Perkasa Moehamad Daoed (see above, ”## Teukoe Panglima Polém Moehamad Daoed: the 1896 conflict”). Kreemer’s “Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt” is thus the same person as Piekaar’s “Moehamad Daoed” and as the Moehamat Dawöt of the pretender-sultan article.

Role and connections: Teungkoe Ratna and the Keumala line

Kreemer records that, as sagi-head of the XXII Moekim’s, Panglima Pölém was one of the three most powerful territorial chiefs in Groot Atjèh. His wife was Teungkoe Ratna, sister of Toeankoe Radja Keumala (Moesa) — the geestelijk adviseur to the governor and son of Toeankoe Asém (Pangéran Asem), the fiercest opponent in the Atjèh-oorlog. This marriage connected the Pölém line to the Keumala pretender-sultanate line through Pö Tjoet Meurah, who was aunt to Toeankoe Radja Keumala.

The kinship network is, in Kreemer’s account, the political anatomy of the late nineteenth-century Atjèhnese resistance: the sagi-head of the XXII Moekim’s is brother-in-law to the geestelijk adviseur to the colonial governor, who is himself the son of the fiercest native opponent of the Dutch — and the connection runs, through Pö Tjoet Meurah, to the Keumala line that sustained the pretender-sultanate after the fall of the Dalam in 1874. The Pölém-Keumala alliance is thus both an inter-sagi and an inter-dynastic fact, and is one of the principal pieces of evidence for the integration of the territorial and the religious-political wings of the Atjèhnese resistance under the Polém house.

The kawöm Dja Sandang

Kreemer records that the seventh bearer — Teukoe Moehamat Dawöt — belonged to the kawöm (clan) Dja Sandang. The Dja Sandang lineage is recorded elsewhere in Kreemer’s corpus as the “old-fashioned” lineage (ouderwetse geslacht) of Groot-Atjeh among whom the prohibition on slaughtering the albino buffalo applied. The Pölém line’s affiliation to the Dja Sandang kawöm is, in Kreemer’s reading, a marker of its antiquity within the kinship structure of Great Atjèh — a marker consistent with the sagihead’s claim to be the “elder brother” of the sultan.

Patronage of the Lam Sië school

Kreemer records that Panglima Pölém was the patron of the Lam Sië school in the XXII Moekim’s — the only religious school (balè) in Groot Atjèh where the teungkoe’s received salaries: the main teungkoe ƒ40/month and the teungkoe-rangkang ƒ25/month. The patronage of the Lam Sië school made the Pölém line, in Kreemer’s reading, a significant patron of Islamic higher education in the region — and the only sagi-head whose patronage of a balè took the institutional form of a salaried teaching staff. The detail is the principal Atjèhnese-informant evidence for the integration of the Pölém house into the religious-educational infrastructure of Great Atjèh: the same sagihead who held the kinship alliance with the Keumala pretender-sultanate also sustained, at his own expense, the principal salaried religious school of the sagi.

Historical note in Dutch marine corps historiography

An entry for “Panglima Polim” appears on page 116 of De geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Korps Mariniers van 1665–1945 (pages 485–488). Its inclusion among Dutch marine corps entries underscores his prominence in the resistance against Dutch incursions into Aceh and reflects the impact of Acehnese leaders on Dutch military planning.

The landschap Polém — the pretender sultan’s destination of late May 1896

As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, the name Polém — beyond its use as the personal title of the sagihoofd of the XXII Moekims — also designated an inland landschap (district) of Groot-Atjeh to which the pretender sultan was said to have arrived and gone in late May 1896, following the move of Toeankoe Machmoed and Toeankoe Brahim to Anao-Galong. The landschap of Polém was one of the inland districts of the sultanate of Atjeh that lay outside the immediate zone of Dutch operations, presumably under the authority of an Achehnese ulèëbalang prepared to receive the pretender sultan.

The exact boundaries of Polém are not detailed in ATJEH ‘96, but its mention as the destination of the pretender sultan’s journey in late May 1896 — following the move of Toeankoe Machmoed and Toeankoe Brahim to Anao-Galong — suggests that it lay in the direction of the inland mukims of the XXII Moekims or the XXVI Moekims. After the defection of 29 March 1896 and the three-day Dutch offensive of 23–25 May 1896, the pretender sultan moved through the inland mukims of Groot-Atjeh in an attempt to reconstitute Achehnese political authority. Toeankoe Machmoed and Toeankoe Brahim settled at Anao-Galong in late May 1896 after crossing the VII Moekims Baid, and the pretender sultan was said to have arrived at and gone to Polém following their move. The pretender sultan had been resident at Pedir on the west coast before his re-emergence in Groot-Atjeh in 1896, and Habib Lhong had restored the pretender sultan to his old residence at Keumala before Habib Lhong’s death at Senelop on 19 April 1896.

The mention of the landschap Polém as a destination of the pretender sultan is brief in ATJEH ‘96, but it indicates the continued vitality of the Achehnese political imagination in the inland districts associated with the Polém house, despite the Dutch military successes of the first semester of 1896. The landschap was presumably part of the broader Achehnese inland that remained outside effective Dutch control.

Legacy

The Panglima Polem title and lineage epitomise the hereditary military aristocracy of Acheh — the panglima sagi institution that mediated between sultan and uleebalangs and that produced, across three centuries, statesmen, war-commanders, and finally the principal Dutch political anchor of the late colonial period. The Panglima Polim of 1819, who held the balance of power in the succession dispute and treated the Raffles–Coombs Commission with undisguised contempt, set the type; the Panglima Polim of 1875–1879, driven from Gléiëng and into the Pedir upper lands, embodies the first phase of the prang Gompeuni — the war of the sultan, the uleebalangs, and the irregular chiefs. The Moehamad Daoed–Moehamad Ali succession carries the lineage through the high Aceh War and the surrender of 1903 to the political-religious agitation of the colonial period; the last Panglima Polem’s death in 1941 closes the line. The career of the lineage illustrates the complexity of Acehnese resistance, navigating between open opposition and strategic accommodation to colonial powers, and contrasts with the later religious leaders (teungkus and ulamas) who, after the concentration scheme, became the principal organisers of resistance. Kreemer’s record of the seven Pöléms from Teukoe Moeda Sa’ti onwards adds, to this picture, the genealogical and kinship depth that the Snouck-Piekaar-Dames tradition does not preserve in the same continuous form.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

Panglima Pòlém joined the pretender-sultan Toeankoe Mochamad Dawot and, from 1898, Teukoe Oemar in Pidië; on 1 June 1898 the resistance centre Garot, where he had gathered with them and with Teungkoe di Tjòt Plieng, fell to van Heutsz’s storm. When the tide turned and the Kompeuni struck back hard, “even a great resistance leader such as Panglima Pòlém gave up the struggle” — an event that du Croo notes as one of the causes of the submission of T. Tjhi’ Toenòng.

Nineteenth-Century Historiography & Campaign Analysis

Leadership of Acehnese Resistance (1874)

Following the occupation of Kraton of Aceh on 24 January 1874 during the Second Aceh Expedition, Panglima Polem refused to surrender. Organizing royal forces within his agricultural stronghold in the XXII Moekims, he rejected Dutch peace overtures and launched continuous guerrilla warfare against Dutch garrisons around Kotta Radja.

In early February 1874, false rumors circulated in Batavia that Panglima Polem and his eldest son Raja Abdullah of Aceh had died of disease, reports that briefly led General J. van Swieten to predict general peace (General van Swieten War Telegrams).

Battles Against General Pel (1875-1876)

Throughout 1875 and 1876, Panglima Polem commanded Acehnese forces against General J. L. J. H. Pel during General Pel’s Campaign in Aceh. In February 1876, during the March through the XXII Moekims, Dutch columns invaded his homeland. Despite heavy losses of sawahs and granaries (Sawah Cultivation and Supply in Aceh), Panglima Polem successfully preserved his guerrilla army in the interior.

Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)

Panglima Polim was the hereditary sagihoofd — head of the sagi — of the XXII Moekims in Groot-Atjeh, a minor during the period of the Dutch alliance with Teukoe Oemar, whose affairs were conducted by his guardian Toekoe Moeda Soleiman.

The minority

G. B. Hooijer referred to him only as de jonge Panglima Polim, Sagihoofd der XXII Moekims, whose guardian (voogd) was Toekoe Moeda Soleiman. It was upon the guardian, not the minor, that Dutch expectations rested: the hope that he would continue to lend support after being given the opportunity to ship his pepper out of the bay of Kroeng Raja proved, in Hooijer’s words, ijdel — vain.

Territory

The XXII Moekims of which Panglima Polim was sagi-head fringed the Dutch concentrated position on the south-east and bordered the XXVI Moekims. Within it lay Lam Barih, Lam Soet and Anagaloeng — the last called by the Achehnese the navel of the country and the granary of the XXII Moekims — all of which were taken by Toekoe Djohan in November–December 1893, garrisoned by the Dutch, and abandoned and burnt in April 1896.

Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)

Panglima Polem was the Atjehnese chief and former resistance commander whom General H. N. A. Swart, in his conversation with the journalist Joh. Langhout, named among the Atjehnese chiefs — with his sister and his brother-in-law Toeankoe Radja Keumala — whose confidential relations with the Dutch administration disproved the notion of a hereditary hatred of Atjehnese toward the Dutch.

Swart’s testimony

Speaking as old Governor of Atjeh and old Vice-President of the Council of the Indies in 1922–1923, General Swart cited what he “had experienced from his men” as the official grown grey in the service of Atjeh, and told of Teukoe Tjhi Peusangan, of Panglima Polem and his sister, of Polem’s brother-in-law Toeankoe Radja Keumala, of Pòtjoet Meurah and her husband Toeankoe Machmoed, and of so many other sultans’ kin and Atjehnese chiefs who found the kaphé not so bad and “entrusted to him all, their dearest and most secret thoughts”. Langhout reproduces the anecdote within his account of Swart’s governorship (1908–1918), under which the last effective resistance of the Acheh War ended by 1913.

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Famous Acehnese military resistance leader who surrendered to Kapitein Colijn at Lho Seumawe. Photographed at the surrender ceremony.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 325.

Sources

Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia. OCR-filename: 20260709_002148_DLP-81-Atjeh_OCR.txt.

ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 59, 82, 138, 143.

De Atjeh-Oorlog: Kort Overzicht van Oorsprong, Verloop en Gevolg, door J. A. Kruijt. ‘s-Gravenhage: Loman & Funke, 1896. Chapter VI, Chapter X, Chapter XI. OCR-filename: `20260716_140310_DLP-101-De_Atjeh_oorlog_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt`, pp. 28, 56, 58. Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Chapter I, § 3.

Teukoe Panglima Polém Moehamad Ali was the Panglima Sagi of the XXII Mukims of Great Atjèh from 1940/41 — succeeding his father, the old Teukoe Panglima Polém Sri Moeda Perkasa Moehamad Daoed, “one of the great figures of the Aceh War” — whose assumption of the sagi headship marked the entry of the new generation into the leadership of the religious-political struggle against the Dutch and whose role in the insurgency of early 1942 would prove, in Piekaar’s reading, to be the dominant one among the younger generation of oelèëbalang’s.

“Dispereert Niet: Twintig Eeuwen Historie van de Nederlanden”, Deel XI, by A. Algra and H. Algra (Franeker: T. Wever, 1946).

Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 7-10, 60-66.

Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Chapter I, § 3.

Atjèh. Algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden, door J. Kreemer, Archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut. Tweede Deel. Leiden: N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill, 1923. Identifier: Delpher MMKB02B:000001798; PPN 395084288. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.

De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872–1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 8, 70–71, 102–103, 108.

De geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Korps Mariniers van 1665–1945, OCR text, pages 485–488 (entry for Panglima Polim on 116).

De onderwerping van Atjeh, door J. B. van Heutsz, Majoor der Infanterie, gewezen Chef van den Staf in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. ‘s-Gravenhage: De Gebroeders van Cleef; Batavia: G. Kolff en Co., 1893, esp. pp. 13, 16, 18. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-107-De_onderwerping_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.

Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter III, X.

J.W. van Lansberge en de praktijk van art. 4 van de Geheime Instructie van 5 Juni 1855, by M. Boon, Academisch Proefschrift ter verkrijging van den graad van doctor in de letteren en wijsbegeerte aan de Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1943, Utrecht: N.V. A. Oosthoek’s Uitgevers-Maatschappij, pp. 39–48.

Nederlands-Indië contra Japan, Deel VI: De strijd op Ambon, Timor en Sumatra, bewerkt door C. van den Hoogenband en L. Schotborgh (‘s-Gravenhage: Staatsdrukkerij- en Uitgeverijbedrijf, 1959), Hoofdstuk V (“De strijd in Noord-Sumatra (Atjeh)”), pp. 113, 119–120, 127.

Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “De colonne Schmidt.”

Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.

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.

De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 49-50.

Acknowledgement of sources. This article is a single consolidated account combining the material previously held in this entry with the account given in De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897) by G. B. Hooijer. Dutch terminology has been rendered in English, the original Dutch being retained only in direct quotations and in bibliographic citations.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 325.

Account from Van Swieten (1879)

Lieutenant-General Van Swieten, in De waarheid over onze vestiging in Atjeh (1879), identified Panglima Polim as the most formidable military leader of the Acehnese resistance and the principal opponent of any accommodation with the Dutch. According to the testimony of Toengkoe Kali, given in Batavia after his submission, the Sultan’s willingness to accept a treaty with the Dutch was defeated by the opposition of the sagie chiefs, “and among these the most vehement was Panglima Polim.”

Van Swieten noted that the panglima of the XXII Moekims was the first among the sagie chiefs in power and influence. His revenues exceeded those of the Sultan, and his authority within his sagie was nearly absolute. He was, Van Swieten wrote, the chief obstacle to any peaceful settlement — not because the Sultan was unwilling to accept Dutch terms, but because Panglima Polim and the other sagie chiefs understood that Dutch sovereignty would extinguish their own quasi-independent authority.

After the departure of the main force in April 1874, Panglima Polim continued to lead the guerrilla resistance. According to informants cited in the Dutch press publication “De Patriot,” his residence was in the interior at the first mountain slope, reachable in two to three marches from the coast.

Source (Van Swieten account)

De waarheid over onze vestiging in Atjeh, door den Luitenant-Generaal J. van Swieten. Zalt-Bommel, Joh. Noman en Zoon, 1879, pp. 19–20, 461–462.

Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 96–97.

Explorer