In the Hikayat Nabi Usoh: the merchant ‘lands at Baghdad (or Bitay Mukadih = Jerusalem). Here the king is converted to the true faith by Usoh, and the latter becomes such a favourite that in the end he has to fly with his master for fear of being forcibly withheld from further journeyings.’ Jerusalem also appears as the residence of Tamim ad-Dari after the death of the third caliph.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Jerusalem
Jerusalem — known in Arabic as Baitulmakdis (or Betal-makdis in Achehnese pronunciation) — is mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I as the native land whose name was given by a colony of Syrian artisans to the Achehnese gampong of Bitay, just outside the Sultan’s Dalam. The mention occurs in Snouck Hurgronje’s account of the legendary relations opened by a Sultan of Acheh in the sixteenth century with the Sultan of Turkey.
The Syrian Colony at Bitay
Snouck recounts how the Sultan of Acheh, having entered into relations with the Sultan of Turkey, received from him a body of artisans to instruct the Achehnese in arts hitherto unknown to them. “It is said that a number of these instructors who came from Syria, settled in a gampong close to the Dalam, and in remembrance of their native land gave the village the name of Bitay (Ach. pronunciation of Betal, an abbreviation of Betal-makdis = Jerusalem). In Bitay may still be seen the grave of a saint, Teungku di Bitay, who according to the tradition belonged to this colony of strangers.”
The Sultan of Turkey, Snouck adds, “also considered it unbefitting to bind his new vassal to the regular despatch of embassies or tribute,” since the great Ottoman ruler was busy elsewhere.
The Tomb of Teungku di Bitay
The tomb of Teungku di Bitay in the VI Mukims of the XXV Mukims is described elsewhere in Vol. I as the scene of the great kurabeu’en feasts in the month of Haji. Snouck writes that “before the coming of the Dutch to Acheh, great (though in many respects profane) kurabeu’en feasts used to be held in the gampong of Bitay. People assembled there in crowds from the 10th to the 13th of the month Haji, and even for a couple of days longer. They came from the capital and the whole of the surrounding district.” The tomb of Tuan di Bitay, “who taught the Achehnese among other things the art of casting cannon, and the mosque which stands beside the grave are revered as sacred up to the present day.”
Significance
Although Jerusalem itself is mentioned in Vol. I only through this etymological legend, the reference illuminates an important strand of Achehnese cultural memory: the consciousness that some of the higher arts of the sultanate — and particularly the casting of cannon — had been introduced by Syrian craftsmen sent from the court of the Sultan of Turkey in the great days of the sixteenth-century alliance.
See Also
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.