The principal mosque of Acheh at Kutaraja. The panglima of the Meuseugit Raya administered the surrounding mukims and had important political functions. During the war against the Dutch, the Imeum of Lueng Bata was said to have been fatally wounded by soldiers occupying the mosque of Ulee Lheue, but the real cause of Teuku Asan’s death was traced to soldiers near this mosque. Habib Abdurrahman, upon returning from his journey to the West, worked on restoring the Meuseugit Raya. The sadati kisah mentions: ‘Near the Meuseugit Raya there is a mounted warrior of great bravery who there performed tapa (penance with seclusion). He did tapa there in the olden days when our country (Acheh) began its existence…’ The Panglima Meuseugit Raya appears as a relative of Teuku Uma who undertook a mission to negotiate with him regarding the release of a European captive (Mrs. Hansen / the ‘nyonya’) for a ransom.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Meuseugit Raya of the capital
The Meuseugit Raya of the capital — literally the “Great Mosque” of Banda Acheh — was, in The Achehnese, the chief of those Achehnese mosques whose erection was ascribed to Sultan Meukuta Alam (1607–1636) and which enjoyed the title of “great mosques” (meuseugit raya) both on account of their size and of their being the work of a sovereign prince. They were further regarded as the head mosques of a great number of mukims, and the Meuseugit Raya of the capital was the great mosque par excellence — “from which the whole district surrounding the ancient seat of royalty takes its name.”
Snouck Hurgronje enumerates the four great mosques attributed to Meukuta Alam: the Meuseugit Raya of the capital, that of Indrapuri (which still existed in his day) for the XXII Mukims, that of Indrapeurua in the VI Mukims of the XXV for the XXV Mukims, and that of Indrapatra, almost where Ladong now stood, for the XXVI Mukims. Of the last two, “scarcely any trace remains.” In Pidie, too, there were a number of mosques reputedly built by Meukuta Alam and thus also called meuseugit raya. The Meuseugit Raya of the capital was therefore not an isolated foundation, but the metropolitan member of a system of royal mosques through which the sultan extended religious supervision over the sagis and dependencies of his kingdom.
The Achehnese mosque, like the smaller meunasah or prayer-house of the gampong, was built of planks and rested not on posts but on a raised stone foundation, with a stone niche (mihrab), a pulpit (mimbar, from Arabic minbar), a traditional staff (tungkat) held by the preacher, and mats for the worshippers. The Meuseugit Raya was thus architecturally modest in comparison with the great stone mosques of the western Islamic world; its pre-eminence lay in its royal foundation, its central position beside the Dalam and its metropolitan jurisdiction over the surrounding mukims.
The religious life of the Meuseugit Raya is described by Snouck Hurgronje as notably feeble. “Should a mosque fall into disrepair, the greatest difficulty is experienced in collecting the necessary funds and building materials for its restoration. The general co-operation for the re-building of the Mensetigit Raya or principal mosque of Acheh, which took place in the prime of Habib Abdurrahman’s activity, is always quoted as an exception to the rule.” Such an unusual personality, “revered by many and dreaded by the rest”, was required in order that even the most moderate demands of religion might be satisfied. The true Achehnese, if he did not entirely neglect the calls of his creed, “takes part with more zeal in the religious or quasi-religious gatherings in the meunasah than in the assemblages at the mosque, where he feels himself but half at home.”
The imeum of each mukim, whose title connects him with the mosque, was in theory the religious head of his sphere, “should be for the mosque what the teungku is for the meunasah,” and was charged with enforcing God’s law and ensuring that the prescribed rites were not neglected. In practice, however, the office “speedily degenerated”; the imeum “went the way of all Achehnese offices which have not sprung up of their own accord from the needs of the people”, and the great mosque of the capital thus presided over a religious establishment more honoured in tradition than actively sustained.
The Storming and Rebuilding of the Mosque
The Meusigit Raja — the Royal Mosque — is the Mohammedan place of prayer in the capital of Aceh, Koeta Radja, built on the site where the first mosque of Koeta Radja was said to have been built during the reign of the Acehnese sun-king Sultan Iskandar Muda. The Meusigit Raja is the set-piece of the chapter on the mosque in Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947): its history — the original mosque, the great fire of about fifty years later, the rebuilding, the historic storming by the Dutch troops in April 1873, the burning-down and demolition, the rebuilding by the conqueror of the Acehnese, Van Swieten as a gift to the Acehnese population, and the Snouck Hurgronje judgement that the mosque was “an empty monument of our folly” — is the book’s set-piece of the colonial state’s religious politics in Aceh.
The original mosque and Sultan Iskandar Muda
The Meusigit Raja is on the site where the first mosque of Koeta Radja was said to have been built during the reign of the Acehnese sun-king, Sultan Iskandar Muda (ruled c. 1607-1636). The original mosque — the book records — was destroyed in a great fire about fifty years later. The palace of the Sultan, with all the treasures that had been piled up in it, was on that occasion also a prey of the flames. The great fire of about fifty years after Iskandar Muda destroyed both the mosque and the Sultan’s palace with all its treasures.
The rebuilding and the storming of April 1873
The mosque was rebuilt much later on the same site, following the model of the mosque at Medan, but with the application of the primitive atap (sewn coconut-leaf) roof. At the historic storming of this mosque by the Dutch troops in April 1873 — the First Aceh Expedition — the building burned down, and later it was completely demolished.
The Van Swieten rebuilding
The new place of prayer — the Meusigit Raja — was built with the consent and cooperation of the Dutch colonial government. It was the conqueror of the Acehnese — Van Swieten — who brought about that the colonial government, entirely at its own cost, built a new mosque, which was given to the Acehnese population to make them forget the war’s suffering and to demonstrate, in the Islamic land par excellence, that the Netherlands perfectly respected the Mohammedan religion.
The war-hero General Van Swieten, in a missive of 8 February 1874 to some Acehnese chiefs, wrote the well-known lines: that the great mosque would be rebuilt and made into a true place of mercy, from which no more death and destruction, but prayers to the almighty God and works of love would go out.
The Snouck Hurgronje judgement
Dr Snouck Hurgronje called this house of God — intended as a proof of our reconciling disposition and generosity towards the Acehnese enemy — “one of the many expensive mistakes that marked the beginning of our Aceh interference,” and this eminent scholar qualified the mosque as “an empty monument of our folly.” The Snouck Hurgronje judgement — an empty monument of our folly — is the book’s — and the colonial state’s — sharpest critique of the Van Swieten rebuilding. One should, however, consider that one then lived in the raw reality of the war years.
The laying of the first stone and transfer
The first stone of the mosque was laid on 9 October 1879 in the presence of Governor-General Johan Willem van Lansberge, all the civil and military authorities, and many Acehnese chiefs and clergy. The mosque was completed in 1881 and on 27 December 1881 was solemnly transferred to the Acehnese people by the governor of Aceh and Dependencies, A. Pruys van der Hoeven, in the name of the Dutch government.
The B.O.W. and the Acehnese indifference
The maintenance of the Meusigit Raja always rested with the B.O.W. (Burgerlijke Openbare Werken — the Civil Public Works department). At the transfer it was determined that the mosque personnel would receive a monthly salary from the government: the imam f 75, the chatib (Friday sermon reader) f 50, and each of the two bilals f 35. This salary would cease at the ceasing-to-function of the then incumbents — but payment took place nowhere else in the Dutch East Indies.
The building — designed by the B.O.W. in Byzantine style, executed by the lieutenant of the Chinese at Koeta Radja — never enjoyed particular popularity with the population. On the contrary: both during the construction and later, the Acehnese stood at his most indifferent towards it. Not one Acehnese made himself available as a workman at the construction, which was entirely performed by Chinese workforce — that is, by pig-eating unbelievers — and the work was bitterly mocked by the Acehnese. They considered it the forced benefaction of the most unsympathetic unbeliever, the Hollander. They used to compare the mosque-dome to a bas (a kind of fish-trap). The prayers that rose from a temple built by unbelieving dogs they considered to be of no value whatsoever.
The grievances and restoration
The Acehnese grievances about the Meusigit Raja included: that the mosque at Koeta Radja was festively illuminated on the birthday of H.M. the Queen but that on the Mohammedan feast-days only the ordinary illumination was lit; that the presence of two hotels in the vicinity was anathema; that the place where the ritual washings must be performed was not covered; that it was so full on Fridays that some dared to say it would be better to hold the religious services on the football field.
The Meusigit Raja is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as the set-piece of the colonial state’s religious politics in Aceh. The book’s argument — that the Van Swieten rebuilding was intended as a proof of the colonial state’s respect for the Mohammedan religion, but that the Acehnese population had received it with indifference and mockery because it was the forced benefaction of the unbelieving Hollander, built by pig-eating unbelievers — is the book’s clearest example of the colonial state’s failure to understand the Acehnese religious politics. The Snouck Hurgronje judgement — an empty monument of our folly — is the book’s — and the colonial state’s — sharpest critique of the Van Swieten rebuilding. The Meusigit Raja is therefore the book’s marker of the colonial state’s religious politics in Aceh: the failure of the forced benefaction.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Meuseugit Raya
The Meuseugit Raya — literally the “great mosque” — is the principal mosque of the Achehnese capital, Banda Acheh. In The Achehnese Vol. I it is described as the religious centre of the city, and the gampongs around it — about twenty-four in number, on either side of the Acheh River — were administered by the hereditary Panglima Meuseugit Raya as an appurtenance of the mosque.
The office of Panglima Meuseugit Raya was hereditary, and thus soon came to be distinguished from an ordinary uleebalangship only through the name and proximity of the Dalam. Its holder’s efforts at the acquisition of a territory which would make him an uleebalang in the full sense of the word were crowned with success at a favourable moment, and he wrested from the weak Panglima Meuseugit Raya the half of his territory, twelve gampongs on the right bank of the Acheh river. The two rival houses afterwards divided the district between them, and when a dispute arose as to the succession to the throne the Panglima Meuseugit Raya and the Teuku Kali Malikon Ade usually espoused opposite sides. The continued existence of this special territory of the sultans, which quickly dwindled in the hands of the uleebalangs, is one of the institutional peculiarities of the capital district.
The Meuseugit Raya of the capital must be distinguished from the meuseugit raya — “great mosques” — which are also found in the sagis and dependencies of Acheh. These were mosques enjoying the reputation of having been erected by Meukuta Alam (1607–1636). The meuseugit raya of the XXII Mukims is that of Indrapuri; that of Indrapeurua (in the VI Mukims of the XXV) for the XXV Mukims; and that of Indrapatra, almost in the very place where Ladong now stands, for the XXVI Mukims. Of the last two scarcely any trace remains. In Pidie too there were a number of mosques which enjoyed the reputation of having been erected by Meukuta Alam and which were thus also called meuseugit raya. It is impossible now to trace the extent of the supervision over the various districts of Acheh that was exercised by the sultans through these great mosques, but the institution itself was clearly of centralising design, even if the supervision was of very short duration.
After the loss of the Dalam and the death of Sultan Mahmut Shah, the political nullity of the sultanate revealed itself in the person of the pretender Tuanku Muhamat Dawot, who established himself at Keumala in Pidie. The latest product of the royal chancery translated in the book — a sarakata or sealed deed of appointment — is the deed of recognition of the present Panglima Meuseugit Raya by the pretender to the sultanate at Keumala. The document, like all the sultans’ edicts of appointment, is composed according to established models with slight occasional modifications, and is one of the last surviving evidences of the bond that once linked the great mosque of the capital to the person of the sultan.
Account from Vierhouverd jaren missie (1934) — the colonial-built mosque and the small Catholic church
The mission jubilee volume of 1934 records the contrast between the small wooden Catholic church of Verbraak — built from his own savings and the gifts of a few believers — and the great mosque, on which the colonial Government “tonnen gouds” (“tons of gold”) had been spent:
“Gezien de geringe middelen, waarmee het werk volbracht was, mocht de uitkomst alleszins bevredigend heeten, maar welk een poovere vertooning maakte dit houten hulpkerkje niettemin tegenover den weidschen Mohannedaanschen tempel, de Missigit Raja, waaraan door de regeering tonnen gouds waren besteed. Men wilde daarmee den fanatieken Atjeher beduiden, dat de Kompanie niet gekomen was om zijn geloof aan te randen en daarvoor het geld met volle handen uitgeven.”
The mosque is thus explicitly identified as a colonial-built structure — built by the Government, at great expense, with the political-theological purpose of signalling to the “fanatieken Atjeher” (“fanatical Atjehner”) that the Kompanie (the colonial state) had not come to assail his faith. The phrase “tons of gold” is the rhetorical measure of the asymmetry: the great mosque was a state investment, the Catholic church a private charity.
The Atjehnese priests’ verdict
The mission jubilee volume records the Atjehnese religious response to the colonial-built mosque — a response that subverted the colonial purpose:
“Het resultaat was twijfelachtig, want de Atjehsche priesters kwamen tot de uitspraak dat op een moskee, door ongeloovigen gebouwd, de zegen van Allah niet kon rusten.”
The Atjehnese priests’ verdict — that a mosque built by unbelievers could not bear the blessing of Allah — is the documentary witness of the religious-political limits of the colonial project. The Government’s investment, intended to demonstrate colonial respect for Islam, was thus nullified in the Atjehnese religious imagination by the very identity of the builder. The contrast between the great state-built mosque and the small privately-built Catholic church — fixed in the mission jubilee volume by Kalff’s sketch of Verbraak — is the most vivid single document of the asymmetry of the colonial religious investment in Atjeh, and a parallel to the Snouck Hurgronje judgement of the mosque as “an empty monument of our folly” recorded above.
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.
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.
Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), the chapter on the Meusigit Raja.
Vierhonderd jaren missie in Nederlandsch-Indië, 1593–1934 (Batavia: Algemeen Comité van Voorbereiding tot de Feestelijke Herdenking van 400 jaar Missie in Ned.-Indië, [1934]), p. 128, after S. Kalff, “Een trits Indische Pastoors,” in Koloniaal Missie Tijdschrift, Jaargang XII.