Baiturrahman Grand Mosque was the monumental royal mosque of the Aceh Sultanate located immediately west of Kraton of Aceh in modern Banda Aceh, Aceh Province, Indonesia, which served as a major fortified citadel during the Aceh War.
Description and Architecture
In 1873, the mosque (Mesigiet) stood within a substantial walled stone and timber sanctuary enclosure surrounded by ditches and kampungs. Its defensive strength made it a formidable redoubt guarding the western approaches to the sultan’s palace.
Battle of the Mosque (April 1873)
During the First Aceh Expedition, invading troops of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army mistook the mosque enclosure for an outer redoubt of Kraton of Aceh. In the Battle of Baiturrahman Mosque, Dutch battalions stormed the sanctuary on 10 April 1873 but were driven back by Acehnese counterattacks.
On morning of 14 April 1873, Dutch forces recaptured the enclosure; while inspecting the courtyard, Commander-in-Chief General J. H. R. Köhler was shot and killed by an Acehnese sniper. His successor, General E. C. van Daalen, ordered the evacuation of the mosque and retreat of the army after 16 April 1873.
Occupation in the Second Expedition
During the Second Aceh Expedition, General J. van Swieten’s columns captured the neighboring redoubt of Lemboe during the Capture of Lemboe and reoccupied the Mesigiet in January 1874, incorporating it into the defensive perimeter of Kotta Radja.
Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)
The Missigit at Koeta Radja was the great mosque of the capital of Atjeh, built on the initiative of Governor Karel van der Heijden, whose first stone he laid in October 1879, and which was opened with great ceremony on 27 December 1882.
Construction and opening
“Met groote plechtigheid werd op 27 Dec. 1882 de nieuwe Missigit, waarvan de gouverneur van Atjeh in Oct. 1879 de eerste steen had gelegd, geopend” — “with great ceremony the new Missigit was opened on 27 December 1882, of which the Governor of Atjeh had laid the first stone in October 1879” — records author Joh. Langhout, adding that at the beginning of that year several clergy were attached to the Missigit at the cost of the Government. The measure answered to the Government’s striving to convince the Atjehnese that it respected the Mohammedan religion, wished to maintain the Atjehnese adat, and would further land and people economically — a policy which in those years of the civil experiment none the less failed to retain the population’s confidence. A photograph in the book shows the building with the caption: “Meuseugit te Koeta-Radja, gebouwd op initiatie van Gouverneur Karel van der Heyden” (“Missigit at Koeta Radja, built on the initiative of Governor Karel van der Heyden”).
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege records the first act in the mosque’s Dutch-sponsored building: after the example of a defeated sultan’s missigit van Swieten had had to burn, the first stone of the new Atjehsche missigit to be built in the vicinity of Kota Radja was laid by generaal van der Heyden in the midst of the year 1879 — on 9 October 1879, “tijdens eene indrukwekkende plechtigheid, in tegenwoordigheid van een groot aantal voorname hoofden van Groot-Atjeh, vorsten en bestuurders van de Vasalstaten, daartoe door generaal Van der Heyden opgeroepen, en mede in tegenwoordigheid van eene schare van ruim 6000 Atjehers, die, na afloop der steenlegging ook deelnamen aan het kendoerie-feest” (“during an impressive ceremony, in the presence of a large number of prominent heads of Groot-Atjeh, princes and regents of the vasal states, summoned thereto by general van der Heyden, and also in the presence of a crowd of more than 6,000 Atjehers, who after the stone-laying took part in the prayer-meal”) — ceremony and feast ending without any disorder (see Laying of the first stone of Meusigit Raja). The princes of the coast states being so ready to be present at it, in Verstege’s argument, showed how firmly the vasal bond answered to the fortune of Groot-Atjeh.
See Also
- Battle of Baiturrahman Mosque
- J. H. R. Köhler
- Kraton of Aceh
- First Aceh Expedition
- Lemboe
- Koeta Radja
- Karel van der Heijden
- Introduction of civil government in Atjeh (1881)
- Acheh
Source
Over de eerste expeditie tegen Atjeh: Een antwoord aan Generaal de Stuers, G. G. Booms, ‘s-Gravenhage: A. van Hoogstraten & Zoon, 1875, pp. 8-12, 21.
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 10, 47–48.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 63-64, 8. OCR: DLP-158.