Teungkoe Sjech Saman di Tiri — in Kreemer’s spelling Teungkoe Tjhèh Saman di Tirö (also Tjhèh Saman, Sjaich Samman, Teungkoe Tirö) — was an Acehnese Mohammedaans wetgeleerde (Islamic jurist) and oelama, the spiritual leader of the Atjèhnese resistance from “de concentratie” (the Dutch concentrated stelling of 1884) until his death in December 1890/1891, and the patriarch of the family of religious resisters known to the K.N.I.L. as the Tiriō Teungkoes — the four sons and grandson whose band, operating out of the bergland ten Oosten of Tangsé against the colonne of luitenant Schmidt in 1910–1911, was the last organised armed resistance in Aceh. He belonged to the famous Tirö oelama’s of Pidië, a lineage of religious scholars centred in the gampöng Tirö that produced some of the most influential Islamic leaders in Atjèhnese history. He was the father of four sons — the eldest (and his successor) fell at the defence of Aneu Galong in 1896 as commandant; Tgk. Lambada was killed in a gevecht with a patrouille under Luitenant Darlang; Tgk. di Boekét and Tgk. Tjhi Majét lived on as the two voornaamste Teungkoes of the resistance band. Saman di Tiri held the Aceh War to be a true prang sabi — a genuine holy war — and was followed in that conviction by his volgelingen and most of the bevolking.
The Tirö oelama lineage
The gampöng Tirö in Pidië was long famous as a centre of Mohammedan study, producing many oelama’s. The principal oelama bore the Tjhi praedicaat. The lineage of Tirö-teungkoe’s included:
- Teungkoe Tirö Moehamat Amin — the first to bear the Tjhi title (died c. 1886)
- Tjhèh Saman (Sjaich Samman) — succeeded Moehamat Amin; spiritual leader of the war (died 1890)
- Mat Amin (Teungkoe Mat) — son of Tjhèh Saman; killed 1896 at Aneu’ Galöng
- Teungkoe Ma’at — last of the Tirö-oelama’s; killed 8 December 1911 in Keumala
The four sons
“Van de vier zoons van Teungkoe Sjech Saman di Tiri was de oudste, tevens de opvolger, in 1896 gesneuveld als commandant bij de verdediging Aneu Galong.” The second, Tgk. Lambada, was killed in a gevecht with a patrouille under the luitenant Darlang. The third and fourth, Tgk. di Boekét and Tgk. Tjhi Majét, lived on as the two voornaamste Teungkoes of the bende. The fifth generation — Tgk. Tjhi Ma’at, son of the Tgk. Mat Amin who had fallen at Aneu Galong — was an infant when his father fell; in 1911 he was fifteen, and would lead the last stage of the resistance.
Leadership of the resistance
Tjhèh Saman became the spiritual leader of the Atjèhnese resistance during the period of Dutch “concentratie” — the fortified line around Koeta Radja established in 1884 with its ceintuurbaan (belt railway). His authority as oelama gave religious legitimacy to the djihad against the Dutch, and the sabil-gelden (holy-war contributions) collected through djakeuët (zakat) allocations sustained the resistance.
The doctrine of prang sabi
“Tgk. Sjech Saman di Tiri, was wel van die mening geweest en al zijn volgelingen, benevens het grootste deel van de bevolking, deelden die overtuiging ten volle.” The opinion — that the Aceh War was a true holy war — is one the book treats with respect even while noting the doctrinal difficulty: “Het is wel volgens de Koran aan te tonen, dat er in de hele Atjeh-oorlog geen sprake is geweest van een werkelijke heilige oorlog.” The distinction the book draws is between the doctrinal question of whether the war as a whole qualified as prang sabi and the lived conviction of the Tiriō family and their followers that it did. For Saman di Tiri, the colonial war in Aceh was a religious war in which a Muslim who fell became sjahid — a geloofsmartelaar — and went to the paradijs.
This conviction is what made the Tiriō bende so hard to break. When, at Generaal Swart’s request, the three voornaamste Atjehse hoofden — two Sultans-family members and Panglima Prang Polim — wrote urging submission, the Teungkoes “bespraken de brief, doch besloten tot het einde te vechten; hen zou geschieden naar Allah’s wil.” And when the widow of Teungkoe Asan Oeleë Toetooë went into the bergen to urge the young Tgk. Tjhi Ma’at to submit, the boy refused: “Zijn Vader was als geloofsgetuige gevallen, hij zou in diens voetstappen treden. Allah’s wil zou geschieden.”
Legacy
Tjhèh Saman’s death in 1890 did not end the resistance. His son Mat Amin continued until killed at Aneu’ Galöng in 1896, and the last of the Tirö-oelama’s, Teungkoe Ma’at, was not killed until 1911. The Tirö school’s tradition of religious-political leadership influenced later oelama’s, including Teungkoe Koetakarang, who was contemptuous of Tjhèh Saman (“Leubè Saman”) but carried on a similar role of religious-political pamphleteering.
Significance
Saman di Tiri is the patriarch of the last Acehnese resistance. The doctrine of prang sabi he held — and the family structure of religious authority he bequeathed to his sons and grandson — is what gave the colonne Schmidt campaign of 1910–1911 its particular difficulty: not a military difficulty (the bende was tiny) but a doctrinal and familial one, in which a fifteen-year-old boy could not surrender without denying the sjahid status of his father, uncles and great-uncles. His placement in the book is also Dames’s clearest statement of the religious dimension of the Aceh War — the dimension the K.N.I.L. could not, in the end, defeat by arms alone. Kreemer’s account, in turn, supplies the deeper lineage of the Tirö oelama’s — from Moehamat Amin through Tjhèh Saman to Mat Amin and Teungkoe Ma’at — that places the patriarch within the larger genealogy of Pidiësche religious leadership.
See Also
- Tgk. Tjhi Ma’at
- Tgk. Lambada
- Tgk. di Boekét
- Tgk. Tjhi Majét
- Tgk. Mat Amin
- Teungkoe Koetakarang
- Cheh Marahaban
- Habib Teupin Wan
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Battle of Aneu Galong (1896)
- Prang sabi
- Sjahid
- Pidië
- Tirö
- Oelama
- Djakeuët
- Aceh War
- Toeankoe Machmoed Radja Keumala
- Panglima Pölém
- Tangsé
- 1884
- 1890
- 1891
- 1896
- 1911
Sources
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.”
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.