A town and territory on the North Coast. In the Hikayat Malem Dagang, ‘the fleet shapes its course for Meureudu, which the poet depicts as a sparsely-populated and almost desert land. The want of familiarity with the great of the land withheld the people of Meureudu from fulfilling their duty of waiting on the Sultan… a teacher from Medina who lived among them, called Ja Pakeh or Ja Madinah, went to plead the cause of these simple folk.’ The Sultan declared Meureudu a feudal freehold (wakeueh). In the sadati dialogue: ‘If that please thee not, little brother, I shall take thee to the land of Meureudu. Brothers, I will not live at Meureudu; the whole country is in tumult and war prevails.’ The Samalanga uleebalang Keuchi’ Ali ‘was actually driven out of house and home by his enemies from Meureudu.’ Gampong Meureuduati is also mentioned as a gampong within the ‘linie’ where the uleebalang Teuku Aneu’ Paya had a wife.
Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
Meureudoe — pronounced Merdoe — is the chief place (hoofdplaats) of the onderafdeeling of the same name in the afdeeling Pidië. The onderafdeeling, with its 25.000 souls, of whom the landschap Meureudoe alone has 12.000, lies in a land of padi, pepper, pinang and to a lesser extent coco-palm. Besides rice-cultivation, which in some years gives a surplus, there is a busy fishery at Pante Radja and in the landschap of that name the pepper-gardens are still maintained. Pinang and copra and whatever else is exported and imported find their harbour at Sigli and to a lesser extent at Lho’ Seumawe. The landschap Meureudoe has, despite its means of livelihood, no prosperity commensurate with those means, because trade is in the hands of Klings and Chinese and Arabs, who buy up for export to Penang.
See Also
Sources
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.
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim.