Edi — with its capital Edi besar — was one of the small coastal states on the east coast of Atjeh, under Dutch influence since 1873. Its chief, the Radja of Edi, was one of the few princes of the coast states who kept openly to the Dutch side in the years of the Aceh War.
The Habib’s landing, March 1876
Edi’s place in the record of 1876 is the arrival of Habib Abdoer Rachman ben Zahir. Disguised as a sailor on a schooner from Penang, the Habib set foot on the Atjehnese shore at or near Edi about mid-March; and it was the Radja of Edi besar who — being sided with the Dutch — gave to the Dutch-appointed civil official there the momentous news that “Habib had set foot on shore in the little coast state near him”, whereby government circles at Kota Radja and the British agency at Penang both learnt where the escaped leader had gone. From Edi or its neighbourhood the Habib travelled west along the coast states, collecting money, fighters and influence for the renewal of the war on a grand scheme.
The place lies on the north-east coast of Sumatra, east of the great sultanate’s own lands — a passage landing well-known to the coasting schooners of Penang.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege records that with the new policy of the concentration, the garrisons of the coast states were given up; only at Edi and at Segli was the maintenance of a military garrison judged necessary — Edi remarked besides, in the account of a Dutch colonial official of December 1885 quoted by Verstege, as the East Coast land where for ten or so years everything had been so quiet that plantations had been laid out, then again coming “in beroering” (into commotion) after the Dutch retreat to the line (see Blokkade of 1884-1885).
See Also
- Habib Abdoerrachman el Zahir
- Radja van Edi
- Guerilla offensives in Groot-Atjeh (26 December 1875 - 4 September 1876)
- Aceh War
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, p. 153.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 87, 92-93. OCR: DLP-158.