Teuku Muda Lathief (also spelt Latief) was a cousin of Panglima Polem, the hereditary panglima sagi of the XXII Mukims of Great Acheh. He is known to readers of The Achehnese as the subject of one of the portrait plates illustrating Vol. I, where he is identified simply as “TEUKU MUUDA LATKH, A COUSIN OF PANGLIMA PoLftM.” Like the other Achehnese chiefs depicted in this series of plates, he is introduced to convey a visual impression of the highland aristocracy of Great Acheh.
The qualifier Muda (“young”) in his title is a court-derived style distinguishing the holder from senior members of his house, of the same character as that which appears in the style of Teuku Muda Ba’et of the VII Mukims or Teuku Muda Dawot of Seulimeum. The personal name Lathief is the Achehnese form of the Arabic ‘Abd al-Latif, one of the names of God adapted as a personal name throughout the Mohammedan world.
The portrait of Teuku Muda Lathief is set in a passage of The Achehnese that treats of the relations between the house of Panglima Polem and the sultans of Acheh. Snouck Hurgronje describes the continual proofs of the respect commanded by the powerful chief of the highlands, and the various stories that were told about the father of the lately deceased Panglima Polem, who, on the few occasions on which they complied with the summons of the sultan to come and discuss affairs of state, entered the royal dwelling in foul clothing and addressed the sultan as gata (“thou”), remarking “we are not wont to say deelat.” Of the Panglima Polem himself it was 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 without entering the court.
The members of the Polem kindred, of whom Teuku Muda Lathief was one, shared to some extent in the reflected prestige of the sagi-chief, and were naturally called upon to assist him in the discharge of his office. The plate that depicts him preserves the features of one of the lesser members of a house which, more than any other in Great Acheh, embodied the hereditary spirit of highland independence.
See Also
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.
Teuku Muda Lathief (also spelt Latief) was a cousin of Panglima Polem, the hereditary panglima sagi of the XXII Mukims of Great Acheh. He is known to readers of The Achehnese as the subject of one of the portrait plates illustrating Vol. I, where he is identified simply as “TEUKU MUUDA LATKH, A COUSIN OF PANGLIMA PoLftM.” Like the other Achehnese chiefs depicted in this series of plates, he is introduced to convey a visual impression of the highland aristocracy of Great Acheh.
The qualifier Muda (“young”) in his title is a court-derived style distinguishing the holder from senior members of his house, of the same character as that which appears in the style of Teuku Muda Ba’et of the VII Mukims or Teuku Muda Dawot of Seulimeum. The personal name Lathief is the Achehnese form of the Arabic ‘Abd al-Latif, one of the names of God adapted as a personal name throughout the Mohammedan world.
The portrait of Teuku Muda Lathief is set in a passage of The Achehnese that treats of the relations between the house of Panglima Polem and the sultans of Acheh. Snouck Hurgronje describes the continual proofs of the respect commanded by the powerful chief of the highlands, and the various stories that were told about the father of the lately deceased Panglima Polem, who, on the few occasions on which they complied with the summons of the sultan to come and discuss affairs of state, entered the royal dwelling in foul clothing and addressed the sultan as gata (“thou”), remarking “we are not wont to say deelat.” Of the Panglima Polem himself it was 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 without entering the court.
The members of the Polem kindred, of whom Teuku Muda Lathief was one, shared to some extent in the reflected prestige of the sagi-chief, and were naturally called upon to assist him in the discharge of his office. The plate that depicts him preserves the features of one of the lesser members of a house which, more than any other in Great Acheh, embodied the hereditary spirit of highland independence.
See Also
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.