Tuanku Ibrahim was a son of Tuanku Abdomajet (Husain, or Abdulmajid) of the Kuala Batee branch of the Achehnese royal family. He is depicted, together with his brother Tuanku Muhamat, in a photograph caption reproduced in The Achehnese, which preserves the likeness of the younger generation of a family whose chequered relations with the Sultan of Acheh form one of the recurring episodes of late-sultanate history.
The Kuala Batee Branch of the Royal House
In Kuala Batee, in the district of Pidie, there was settled in recent times — that is, in the decades before the Acheh War — a branch of the royal family which was on bad terms with the Sultan. 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. The family of pirates to which Tuanku Ibrahim belonged is the same as that of the Tuankus Usen and Abdomajet (Husain and Abdulmajid) who subsequently submitted to the Dutch Government. The marriage alliances of the family were of the first political importance: the Sultan himself wedded a daughter of Tuanku Abdomajet, an alliance which, however, did not prevent the continued bad blood between the court and the Kuala Batee branch.
Place in the Royal Genealogy
Although the photograph caption does not, in the absence of an extended biographical notice, allow Tuanku Ibrahim to be placed in any detailed history, his inclusion in the iconography of the book is itself significant. He represents that younger generation of the Kuala Batee house which, after the submission of his father and uncle to the Dutch, stood at the meeting of two worlds: the old order of the sultanate, in which his family’s piracies had made them at once feared and protected by their royal blood, and the new order of colonial administration, under which the family’s distinct political existence was gradually absorbed. His portrait, taken with that of his brother, is one of the few pictorial records of the lesser branches of the Achehnese royal house that Snouck Hurgronje was able to reproduce.
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 Ibrahim was a son of Tuanku Abdomajet (Husain, or Abdulmajid) of the Kuala Batee branch of the Achehnese royal family. He is depicted, together with his brother Tuanku Muhamat, in a photograph caption reproduced in The Achehnese, which preserves the likeness of the younger generation of a family whose chequered relations with the Sultan of Acheh form one of the recurring episodes of late-sultanate history.
The Kuala Batee Branch of the Royal House
In Kuala Batee, in the district of Pidie, there was settled in recent times — that is, in the decades before the Acheh War — a branch of the royal family which was on bad terms with the Sultan. 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. The family of pirates to which Tuanku Ibrahim belonged is the same as that of the Tuankus Usen and Abdomajet (Husain and Abdulmajid) who subsequently submitted to the Dutch Government. The marriage alliances of the family were of the first political importance: the Sultan himself wedded a daughter of Tuanku Abdomajet, an alliance which, however, did not prevent the continued bad blood between the court and the Kuala Batee branch.
Place in the Royal Genealogy
Although the photograph caption does not, in the absence of an extended biographical notice, allow Tuanku Ibrahim to be placed in any detailed history, his inclusion in the iconography of the book is itself significant. He represents that younger generation of the Kuala Batee house which, after the submission of his father and uncle to the Dutch, stood at the meeting of two worlds: the old order of the sultanate, in which his family’s piracies had made them at once feared and protected by their royal blood, and the new order of colonial administration, under which the family’s distinct political existence was gradually absorbed. His portrait, taken with that of his brother, is one of the few pictorial records of the lesser branches of the Achehnese royal house that Snouck Hurgronje was able to reproduce.
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.