Tuanku Usen (also called Tuanku Husain) was a member of the Kuala Batee branch of the Achehnese royal family, a notorious family of pirates whose members had been repeatedly declared outlaws by the Sultan. He and his brother Tuanku Abdomajet (also called Husain and Abdulmajid) are the principal figures named by C. Snouck Hurgronje in his account of this “family of pirates”, which had “now submitted to the Dutch Government” by the time of his writing.
The Kuala Batee branch of the royal house was settled in Pidie in recent times, and was on bad terms with the Sultan at Banda Acheh. These tuankus — that is, scions of royal blood — “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 traditional reverence of the Achehnese for the rajas and their race expressed itself, as Snouck Hurgronje observes, “in a somewhat peculiar manner, finding vent in words and empty forms rather than in deeds”. The immunity of the piratical Tuankus of Kuala Batee is one of the most striking examples of this empty reverence. The people “suffered many an injury to pass unnoticed, preferring to avoid the tuankus as much as possible. This exceedingly burdensome feudal system is simply a relic of past history”. The tuankus, in common with the other scions of the royal house, “were (and still are) convinced that they stood superior to the adat poteu meureuhom and all other adats which place a restraint upon human passion and wickedness; they often led lives of the most savage immorality. They used to take from their subjects all that pleased their fancy, and death was a light punishment for opposition to their boundless license”.
The submission of Tuanku Usen and his brother to the Dutch Government marks the end of the period during which this particular branch of the royal house could operate with impunity along the coast of Pidie. The submission is one of a number of such submissions that punctuated the Acheh war: the practical effect of the Dutch conquest was gradually to strip the royal house of the territorial power — even in its piratical form — that it had once possessed. Tuanku Usen is shown in the plate facing page 142 of The Achehnese, alongside Tuanku Muhamat and Tuanku Ibrahim (the sons of his brother Tuanku Abdomajet), as one of the exiled scions of the Achehnese royal house.
See Also
- Tuanku Abdomajet
- Tuanku Muhamat
- Tuanku Ibrahim
- Kuala Batee
- Pidie
- Achehnese War
- Dalam (Sultan’s Court)
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 Usen (also called Tuanku Husain) was a member of the Kuala Batee branch of the Achehnese royal family, a notorious family of pirates whose members had been repeatedly declared outlaws by the Sultan. He and his brother Tuanku Abdomajet (also called Husain and Abdulmajid) are the principal figures named by C. Snouck Hurgronje in his account of this “family of pirates”, which had “now submitted to the Dutch Government” by the time of his writing.
The Kuala Batee branch of the royal house was settled in Pidie in recent times, and was on bad terms with the Sultan at Banda Acheh. These tuankus — that is, scions of royal blood — “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 traditional reverence of the Achehnese for the rajas and their race expressed itself, as Snouck Hurgronje observes, “in a somewhat peculiar manner, finding vent in words and empty forms rather than in deeds”. The immunity of the piratical Tuankus of Kuala Batee is one of the most striking examples of this empty reverence. The people “suffered many an injury to pass unnoticed, preferring to avoid the tuankus as much as possible. This exceedingly burdensome feudal system is simply a relic of past history”. The tuankus, in common with the other scions of the royal house, “were (and still are) convinced that they stood superior to the adat poteu meureuhom and all other adats which place a restraint upon human passion and wickedness; they often led lives of the most savage immorality. They used to take from their subjects all that pleased their fancy, and death was a light punishment for opposition to their boundless license”.
The submission of Tuanku Usen and his brother to the Dutch Government marks the end of the period during which this particular branch of the royal house could operate with impunity along the coast of Pidie. The submission is one of a number of such submissions that punctuated the Acheh war: the practical effect of the Dutch conquest was gradually to strip the royal house of the territorial power — even in its piratical form — that it had once possessed. Tuanku Usen is shown in the plate facing page 142 of The Achehnese, alongside Tuanku Muhamat and Tuanku Ibrahim (the sons of his brother Tuanku Abdomajet), as one of the exiled scions of the Achehnese royal house.
See Also
- Tuanku Abdomajet
- Tuanku Muhamat
- Tuanku Ibrahim
- Kuala Batee
- Pidie
- Achehnese War
- Dalam (Sultan’s Court)
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.