The Mosque in Koetaradja — the Moskee te Koetaradja — was the substantial mosque constructed by the Dutch East Indies Government in the colonial capital of Atjeh in the late nineteenth century, described in the source DLP-84-Atjeh as a “much more robust building” (Dutch: veel robuuster gebouw) in contrast with the modest village prayer houses (Dutch: missigit) encountered elsewhere in the residency. The mosque, together with the Meusigit Raja that the colonial state had built at its own cost after the storming of April 1873, symbolised the colonial administration’s investment in religious infrastructure to legitimise its authority and to serve the Muslim population of the residency (Dutch: gewest) of Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden.
Architecture
The mosque reflected the Dutch colonial building techniques of the late nineteenth century, contrasting sharply with the simple, roofless village missigit that lacked walls and featured intricate wood carving (Dutch: snijwerk). The village prayer house (Dutch: missigit) — the basic religious structure of the Acehnese village (Dutch: kampung) — was, in the colonial description, an open structure of planks and atap (sewn coconut-leaf) roofing, with a stone niche (mihrab) and a pulpit (mimbar), but without the substantial walls, the domes, or the formal architectural programme of the colonial mosque at Koetaradja. The mosque at Koetaradja, by contrast, was designed by the B.O.W. (Burgerlijke Openbare Werken — the Civil Public Works department) in a Byzantine style, executed by the lieutenant of the Chinese at Koetaradja, and constructed with the substantial walls, the domes, and the formal architectural programme that the colonial state associated with a proper mosque. The contrast between the robust colonial mosque and the simple village missigit was, in the colonial description, a contrast between the architecture of the state and the architecture of the village — a contrast that the colonial state intended as a sign of its respect for Islam, but that the Acehnese received, according to the testimony recorded in the mission jubilee volume of 1934, with indifference and even mockery.
Significance
The construction of the Mosque in Koetaradja symbolised the colonial administration’s investment in religious infrastructure to legitimise its authority and to serve the Muslim population of the residency. The colonial state — having conquered the Sultanate of Acheh in the Atjeh-oorlog of 1873–1904 and having destroyed the original mosque at the storming of April 1873 — sought to demonstrate, by the rebuilding of the mosque at its own expense, that the Netherlands perfectly respected the Mohammedan religion. The Acehnese priests, however, as the mission jubilee volume records, “came to the conclusion that on a mosque built by unbelievers the blessing of Allah could not rest” — a verdict that subverted the colonial purpose and that was echoed by Dr. Snouck Hurgronje’s judgement of the mosque as “an empty monument of our folly” (Dutch: een leeg monument van onze dwaasheid). The colonial mosque at Koetaradja thus stands, in the wiki, as the principal instance of the colonial state’s religious politics in Atjeh — a politics that the Meuseugit Raya article treats at greater length under the headings of the storming, the rebuilding by Van Swieten, and the Snouck Hurgronje critique.
See Also
- Meuseugit Raya
- Koeta-Radja
- Dutch East Indies Government
- Aceh War
- Van Swieten
- Snouck Hurgronje
- Sultanate of Acheh
- Vierhouverd jaren missie in Nederlandsch Indië (1934)
- Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Missigit
- Snijwerk
- Kampung
- Sultan Iskandar Muda
Source
DLP-84-Atjeh.pdf, p. 9.