Tuanku Abdomajet — also rendered Tuanku Abdomajid, and identified by Snouck Hurgronje by the personal names Husain and Abdulmajid — was a scion of the royal house of Acheh belonging to the Kuala Batee branch settled in Pidie. Together with his brother Tuanku Usen he was, in the years before their submission to the Dutch Government, the head of one of the most troublesome pirate families of the late sultanate. Like all male descendants of the Achehnese royal house, he bore the title Tuanku, and enjoyed that extraordinary reverence which led the people of Acheh to suffer many an injury at the hands of the tuankus rather than risk the danger and dishonour of assailing a scion of the reigning family.
The Kuala Batee family had been settled in Pidie “in recent times” as a branch of the royal house which was on bad terms with the Sultan at Keumala. These tuankus had been “repeatedly declared outlaws by the latter on account of piracies committed even on Achehnese prahus and to the detriment of the Sultan himself”, yet none dared to assail them, “being well assured that there was much danger and little honour to be gained by the slaughter of scions of the royal house”. Snouck describes the situation as “this exceedingly burdensome feudal system”, a relic of past history rather than a deliberate political arrangement.
Following the Dutch advance, both Tuanku Abdomajet and Tuanku Usen “submitted to the Dutch Government”, a step that Snouck treats as politically insignificant so far as the people were concerned: the Achehnese had always preferred to avoid the tuankus as much as possible, and their submission changed nothing in the structure of native authority. The submission did, however, become one of the causes of friction between the Kuala Batee family and the fugitive court. Snouck notes that “the family of Kuala Batee is on bad terms with the court”, and that although one might be disposed to attribute this to the family’s submission to the Gompeuni (Dutch government), the reality was that even without the Dutch question, “unpleasant relations would still have arisen with this other branch of the reigning house”.
The Kuala Batee family retained, despite its outlawry, sufficient standing to be sought in marriage by the pretender sultan. Snouck records that “the Sultan has wedded a daughter of Tuanku Abdomajet” — a marriage alliance by which the Keumala court endeavoured to strengthen its slender following among the members of the royal house. Such marriage alliances between rival branches of the family were, in Snouck’s view, unable to keep the peace: “the members of the royal family, though comparatively few in number, are far from living in harmony with one another, in spite of the critical position of the country”. Tuanku Abdomajet thus exemplifies the dissensions of the late Achehnese royal house, whose internal rivalries contributed in no small measure to the collapse of organised resistance during the Achehnese War.
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.
Tuanku Abdomajet — also rendered Tuanku Abdomajid, and identified by Snouck Hurgronje by the personal names Husain and Abdulmajid — was a scion of the royal house of Acheh belonging to the Kuala Batee branch settled in Pidie. Together with his brother Tuanku Usen he was, in the years before their submission to the Dutch Government, the head of one of the most troublesome pirate families of the late sultanate. Like all male descendants of the Achehnese royal house, he bore the title Tuanku, and enjoyed that extraordinary reverence which led the people of Acheh to suffer many an injury at the hands of the tuankus rather than risk the danger and dishonour of assailing a scion of the reigning family.
The Kuala Batee family had been settled in Pidie “in recent times” as a branch of the royal house which was on bad terms with the Sultan at Keumala. These tuankus had been “repeatedly declared outlaws by the latter on account of piracies committed even on Achehnese prahus and to the detriment of the Sultan himself”, yet none dared to assail them, “being well assured that there was much danger and little honour to be gained by the slaughter of scions of the royal house”. Snouck describes the situation as “this exceedingly burdensome feudal system”, a relic of past history rather than a deliberate political arrangement.
Following the Dutch advance, both Tuanku Abdomajet and Tuanku Usen “submitted to the Dutch Government”, a step that Snouck treats as politically insignificant so far as the people were concerned: the Achehnese had always preferred to avoid the tuankus as much as possible, and their submission changed nothing in the structure of native authority. The submission did, however, become one of the causes of friction between the Kuala Batee family and the fugitive court. Snouck notes that “the family of Kuala Batee is on bad terms with the court”, and that although one might be disposed to attribute this to the family’s submission to the Gompeuni (Dutch government), the reality was that even without the Dutch question, “unpleasant relations would still have arisen with this other branch of the reigning house”.
The Kuala Batee family retained, despite its outlawry, sufficient standing to be sought in marriage by the pretender sultan. Snouck records that “the Sultan has wedded a daughter of Tuanku Abdomajet” — a marriage alliance by which the Keumala court endeavoured to strengthen its slender following among the members of the royal house. Such marriage alliances between rival branches of the family were, in Snouck’s view, unable to keep the peace: “the members of the royal family, though comparatively few in number, are far from living in harmony with one another, in spite of the critical position of the country”. Tuanku Abdomajet thus exemplifies the dissensions of the late Achehnese royal house, whose internal rivalries contributed in no small measure to the collapse of organised resistance during the Achehnese War.
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.