Toeankoe Hasjim — also written Toeankoe Haschim in Van Heutsz’s spelling, Tëngku Hasyim — was the Acehnese royal chief and political architect of the resistance in the middle phase of the Atjeh-oorlog who, after the fall of the Kraton on 24 January 1874, became the guardian (voogd) of the boy-sultan Tuanku Mohamad Daoed and the effective head of the fugitive Atjèhnese court at Keumala in Pidië. He is, in Kreemer’s narrative, the central political figure of the early war period — the figure who supplied the institutional mechanism by which the Atjèhnese sultanate survived the loss of its capital. He is, in Van Heutsz’s 1893 tract De onderwerping van Atjeh, the zeer krachtige persoonlijkheid (very forceful personality) at the head of the tegenpartij (war party) at Keumala — the power behind the throne who, in the years of Dutch lijdelijkheid (passivity) after the dismissal of Generaal van der Heijden in early 1881, masterfully exploited the time to install his pupil Tuanku Mohamad Daoed as the recognised successor to the late Sultan Machmoed Sjah (d. 1874) and to use the royal installation at the Indrapoeri mosque — the emmedji Indrapoeri — to consolidate the resistance. He is, in Van Heutsz’s narrative, the political and dynastic counterpart of the religious leaders Tengkoe di Tirou and Habib Abdoel Rachman — the figure who supplied the constitutional form of the Atjehnese resistance by seating a sultan on the throne the Dutch had vacated.
Descent
Kreemer notes that Toeankoe Hasjim — “de vader van den bekenden, nu nog levenden Toeankoe Radja Keumala” — “the father of the well-known, still-living Toeankoe Radja Keumala” — was “een achterkleinzoon van Soeltan Ala ad-Dïn Moehammad Sjah (1824–1838)” — “a great-grandson of Sultan Ala ad-Din Mohammad Shah (1824–1838).” The genealogical placement made him a member of the former sultans’ family — the kinship basis on which his later claim to manage the sultan-candidate’s household at Keumala would rest.
The flight to Keumala
After the fall of the Kraton on 24 January 1874, the young Sultan Machmoed Sjah — “een paar dagen na de inname van zijn verblijfplaats aan cholera bezweken was” — “a few days after the taking of his residence had succumbed to cholera” — was succeeded by Tuanku Mohamad Daoed, who was placed under Toeankoe Hasjim’s guardianship. “Nadat het vluchtende hof te Keumala in Pidië een veilige schuilplaats had gevonden, ver van het tooneel des oorlogs, werd eigenlijk de toestand van het soeltanaat vrijwel dezelfde als vóórdat de oorlog begon, alleen met verplaatsing van het tooneel, waarop het rust” — “After the fleeing court had found a safe hiding-place at Keumala in Pidië, far from the theatre of war, the condition of the sultanate became virtually the same as before the war began, only with a shifting of the stage on which it rests.” The removal of the court to Keumala — deep in Pidië, far from the Dutch lines around Koeta Radja — preserved the formal continuity of the sultanate through the first years of the war.
Rise to prominence after the 1878 Habib submission
Kreemer records that Toeankoe Hasjim “na de overgave van Habib Abdoerrahman in 1878 op den voorgrond zou treden” — “after the surrender of Habib Abdurrahman in 1878 would come to the foreground.” The political structure of the fugitive sultanate thus centred, through the early war years, on the figure of Hasjim at Keumala, with the boy-sultan Mohamad Daoed as the nominal head of state; and the elimination of the Habib as the active military leader of the Groot-Atjeh interior resistance in October 1878 left Hasjim as the principal political figure with whom the Dutch would have to contend through the consolidation period and beyond. Van Heutsz’s portrait of the same period confirms and amplifies Kreemer’s reading: Hasjim was not merely the guardian of the boy-sultan but the chief of the tegenpartij — the war party — who, in the years of Dutch lijdelijkheid after the Van der Heijden dismissal of early 1881, masterfully exploited the time to do het tegendeel (the opposite) of what the Dutch had done.
The “zeer krachtige persoonlijkheid” at the head of the tegenpartij
Van Heutsz introduces Toeankoe Haschim in the context of the difficult inheritance that Gouverneur Laging Tobias took over in March 1883 — the inheritance of the Civiel Gouverneur (Civil Governor) regime of 1881–1883 that had followed the Van der Heijden dismissal. The political obstacle Laging Tobias faced was Haschim’s consolidated position at Keumala:
“vooral omdat Toeankoe Haschim aan het eene zeer krachtige persoonlijkheid hoofd der tegenpartij stond, die den tijd van onze lijdelijkheid, tweespalt en onterredenheid meesterlijk benut had om het tegendeel te doen van hetgeen bij ons geschiedde en in schijn zijn pupil, den jeugdigen Toeankoe Mohamad Daoed, op den voorgrond plaatsende, dien hij met behulp van andere voorname hoofden al vroeger als de wettige opvolger van den in 1874 overleden sultan Machmoed Sjah had weten te doen erkennen, zelf van Kemala uit overal bevelen zond, als komende van het eenig wettige gezag, van den sultan”.
The portrait is precise. Haschim is the chief of the tegenpartij — the war party — seated at Keumala, the inland seat of the resistance. He had used the years of Dutch lijdelijkheid (passivity), tweespalt (division), and onterredenheid (irresolution) to do het tegendeel of what the Dutch had done: where the Dutch had drifted, Haschim had consolidated; where the Dutch had changed governors and policies, Haschim had built a single constitutional authority. He had placed his pupil Tuanku Mohamad Daoed — in schijn (in appearance) — at the front, having “with the help of other prominent chiefs” secured the pupil’s early recognition as the lawful successor to Sultan Machmoed Sjah (who had died in 1874), and he himself, from Keumala, “zond overal bevelen, als komende van het eenig wettige gezag, van den sultan” — sent orders everywhere, as coming from the only lawful authority, from the sultan.
The manipulation of Tuanku Mohamad Daoed
The arrangement was that of a regent and his pupil. Tuanku Mohamad Daoed was the jeugdige (youthful) pupil whom Haschim had placed in schijn at the front: the appearance of authority was the pupil’s; the substance of authority was the regent’s. The recognition of Mohamad Daoed as the lawful successor to Sultan Machmoed Sjah had been secured “met behulp van andere voorname hoofden” — with the help of other prominent chiefs — and the recognition had been obtained al vroeger (already early), i.e., before the Dutch Civiel Gouverneur regime of 1881–1883 had had time to register the political situation. The Dutch governorship of Laging Tobias thus inherited, in March 1883, an Atjehnese constitutional settlement that had been made without Dutch participation: a sultan-candidate recognised by the chiefs, seated at Keumala, and issuing orders in the sultan’s name through the agency of his regent.
The emmedji Indrapoeri installation
The constitutional settlement was completed, after Laging Tobias’s failed overtures of June and October 1883, by the formal installation of Mohamad Daoed as sultan in the Indrapoeri mosque — the emmedji Indrapoeri, the great mosque of Indrapuri — and by the establishment of the sultan’s household at Keumala “voor zoover dat mogelijk was naar de aloude gebruiken” — as far as that was possible according to the ancient customs. Van Heutsz records the installation and its strategic purpose:
“in weerwil, dat het voornaamste hoofd van de tegenpartij Toeankoe Haschim door de [meerderjarigheidverklaring] van Toeankoe Mohamad Daoed en diens uitroeping en huldiging in den [emmedji] Indrapoeri tot sultan van het rijk, gevolgd door de inrichting van des sultans huis te Kemala … voortdurend meer eenheid en samenhang in het Inlandsche bestuur des lands zocht te brengen”.
The installation had two strategic effects. The first was the constitutional unification of the Atjehnese resistance under a single sultan-candidate recognised by the war party — a sultan whose household was established at Keumala, the seat of the resistance, and whose authority was consecrated by the emmedji Indrapoeri, the great mosque at which the sultans of Atjeh had been installed for centuries. The second was the consolidation of the Inlandsche bestuur — the indigenous administration — of the country: Haschim zocht voortdurend meer eenheid en samenhang te brengen — sought continually to bring more unity and coherence — to the indigenous administration of the country. The Dutch lijdelijkheid of 1881–1883 had been turned, by Haschim’s agency, into an Atjehnese constitutional consolidation.
Dispatch of orders from Keumala as if from the only lawful authority
The operational expression of the consolidated authority was the dispatch of orders from Keumala “als komende van het eenig wettige gezag, van den sultan” — as coming from the only lawful authority, from the sultan. The formula is Van Heutsz’s: the orders were issued in the sultan’s name, by the regent, and were received by the chiefs of the Sagi (federation) federations and the Onderhoorigheden (Dependencies) as the orders of the only lawful authority in the country. The Dutch governorship in Kota-Radja was, by this device, reduced to one of two competing authorities in the country — and the Atjehnese authority, seated at Keumala and consecrated by the emmedji Indrapoeri, had the political and dynastic form the Dutch authority lacked. The arrangement would persist, in Van Heutsz’s narrative, until the Van Teijn governorship of 1886–1891 began to dismantle the Keumala settlement by the closure of the Noord- en Westkust; and it would be finally broken only by the campaigns Van Heutsz himself would lead, as Governor of Atjeh after 1898, against the inland seat of the resistance.
Significance
Toeankoe Hasjim’s significance in the Aceh Wiki History record rests on three things: he was the zeer krachtige persoonlijkheid — the very forceful personality — at the head of the tegenpartij at Keumala, the political chief of the Atjehnese war party and the principal political obstacle to the policies of Gouverneur Laging Tobias in 1883–1884; he was the regent who, in the years of Dutch lijdelijkheid after the Van der Heijden dismissal of early 1881, manipulated his pupil Tuanku Mohamad Daoed — placing him in schijn at the front, having him recognised as the lawful successor to Sultan Machmoed Sjah (d. 1874) “met behulp van andere voorname hoofden”, and dispatching orders from Keumala “als komende van het eenig wettige gezag, van den sultan”; and he was the constitutional architect of the emmedji Indrapoeri installation — the meerderjarigheidverklaring (declaration of majority) and uitroeping en huldiging (proclamation and homage) of Mohamad Daoed as sultan in the great mosque of Indrapuri, followed by the establishment of the sultan’s household at Keumala “voor zoover dat mogelijk was naar de aloude gebruiken”. The installation was the constitutional settlement the Dutch Civiel Gouverneur regime of 1881–1883 had not been able to prevent, and its effect was, in Van Heutsz’s reading, to give the Atjehnese resistance “voortdurend meer eenheid en samenhang in het Inlandsche bestuur des lands” — continually more unity and coherence in the indigenous administration of the country. In Kreemer’s earlier narrative, Hasjim is the institutional mechanism by which the Atjèhnese sultanate survived the loss of its capital: the removal of the court to Keumala — deep in Pidië, far from the Dutch lines around Koeta Radja — preserved the formal continuity of the sultanate through the first years of the war, and made Hasjim the principal Atjèhnese political figure with whom the Dutch would have to contend in the consolidation period (April 1874–July 1878) and beyond. Hasjim’s role in the resistance is, in Van Heutsz’s narrative, the political and dynastic counterpart to the religious authority of Tengkoe di Tirou and the active military leadership of Habib Abdoel Rachman: where they supplied the religious sanction and the Groot-Atjeh command, Hasjim supplied the constitutional form.
See Also
- Acheh
- Tuanku Muhamat Dawot
- Sultan Machmoed Sjah
- Keumala
- Pidië
- Kraton Atjeh
- Indrapoeri
- Capture of the Kraton (24 January 1874)
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873-1874)
- Submission of Habib Abdurrahman (13 October 1878)
- Laging Tobias
- Van der Heijden
- Van Teijn
- Tengkoe di Tirou
- Habib Abdoel Rachman
- Groot-Atjeh
- Sagi
- Onderhoorigheden
- De onderwerping van Atjeh (Van Heutsz, 1893)
- Aceh War
- 1874
- 1878
- 1881
- 1883
- 1884
- Sultan Mahmut Shah
- Teungku Tiro (Muhamat Amin)
- Teuku Uma
- Death of Tuanku Asem (Hashim)
- Restoration of the Sultanate
- Sultanate of Aceh
- Toeankoe Mohamed Daoed
- Toeankoe Abdul Medjid
- Toeankoe Ibrahim
- Panglima Polim
- Demmeni
- General van Teijn
- Madjapait
- Kemala
- Kwalla Batoe
- Pedir
- Gayo
- Langsar
- Langkat
- Muslemin
- Heiligen Oorlog
- Kota Radja
- Telok Semawé
- Perlak
- Atjeh-oorlog
- 1885
- 1886
- 1887
- 1891
- 1892
- 1894
- Toewankoe Daoed
- Toewankoe Hoesin
- Toewankoe Abdoel Madjid
- Panglima Polim
- Imam of Longbatta
- Radja Koelala
- J. L. J. H. Pel
- Selimoen Expedition (August 1879)
- Acheh Succession Dispute
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Became the Pretendent-Sultan’s guardian after the fall of the Dalem; one of the most hostile of the royal family. Later fell out with his former ward.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 359, 360.
Sources
Atjèh. Algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden, door J. Kreemer, Archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut. Eerste Deel. Leiden: N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill, 1922. Hoofdstuk I, C (“Atjèh-oorlog (1873—1910)”), Tweede tijdvak, blz. 16, n. 2.
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. 26, 40. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-107-De_onderwerping_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.
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.
Tuanku Asem — also called Hashim — was a member of the royal family of Acheh and the guardian and regent of the young Sultan Muhamat Dawot during the first portion of the war with the Dutch. He figures in Vol. I as the ablest and most intelligent member of the Keumala court, and as the man whose influence kept alive the semblance of a royal government after the loss of the Dalam. He died in January 1897 at Padang Tiji in the Mukims VII.
De Atjeh-Oorlog: Kort Overzicht van Oorsprong, Verloop en Gevolg, door J. A. Kruijt. ‘s-Gravenhage: Loman & Funke, 1896. Chapter IX (the restoration of the Sultanate and the holy war letters), Chapter X (the Van Teijn negotiations), Chapter XI (Toeankoe Ibrahim’s journey). OCR-filename: 20260716_140310_DLP-101-De_Atjeh_oorlog_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 49–50, 56, 61.
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. 71, 108.
Toewankoe Haschim (also written Tuanku Hasyim) was one of the family members of the former sultans of Atjeh who, together with Toewankoe’s Hoesin and Abdoel Madjid, attached himself to the war-party against the Dutch, and who was named by General Pel in 1875 as one of the influential leaders of the resistance. He was the keeper of the young pretender Toewankoe Daoed, destined for the sultan’s rank in 1874, and after the Selimoen expedition of August 1879 fled with him and the other irreducible hostile chiefs to Kemala in the interior south of Pedir.
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. 359, 360.