The North Coast is, in The Achehnese, the stretch of coast along the northern shore of Sumatra which formed one of the three principal coastal dependencies of the Achehnese sultanate — the others being the East and West Coasts. Together with Great Acheh proper, these coastal dependencies constituted the loose sphere of the sultan’s authority, and the North Coast in particular contained the important dependency of Pidie (vulgo Pedir) and the territories of Samalanga and other uleebalangships.
Snouck Hurgronje uses the North Coast chiefly in two contexts. First, in his account of the religious-political agitation conducted by Teungku Tiro in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the dependencies of the North, East and West Coasts are described as the field on which Teungku Tiro raised his contributions for the holy war (haqq sabīl, the portion of the zakāt set apart for that purpose). “He urged all the chiefs at least to give him money contributions towards the good cause, even if they would take no personal part in the conflict”, and his war-chest was “replenished by contributions from the whole of Great Acheh and a great part of the dependencies in the North, East and West Coasts.” After Teungku Tiro’s death in 1891, his sons Teungku Beb (died 1900) and Teungku Mahidin or Ma’ Et, together with their kinsman Teungku Chot Plieng (died 1901), “continued to do their utmost to maintain the collections of the sabil contributions in the dependencies on the North Coast. Great Acheh no longer furnishes a field for the labour of these men and their fellows.”
Second, in his chapter on navigation and fisheries, Snouck Hurgronje describes the seasonal conditions of trade between the capital and the coastal dependencies. “The voyage from the capital to the West Coast may be made without danger in Achehnese vessels (prahus and sampans) from keunong 5–17, and to the North and East Coast during the rest of the year, i.e. from keunong 17–5; also that there occur intervals of from 5 to 7 days in the prevalence of the N.E. and S.W. monsoons.” These intervals were of great practical importance to Achehnese sailors and traders in pre-steam times, and the interval in keunong 11 was considered “especially advantageous to those who could predict its coming beforehand.” The North and East Coasts were better supplied with all necessaries than the wild rantos of the West Coast, so that the interval in the N.E. monsoon was of less commercial importance there.
The fishermen of the North Coast of Java — cited by Snouck Hurgronje as a comparative case — have “whole lists of words which are prohibited at sea and have to be replaced by others”, a custom also found to some extent among the Achehnese. This comparative notice illustrates the wider Malay-Indonesian pattern of which the North Coast of Acheh forms a part.
In a final notice, the North Coast appears as one of the regions to which Achehnese men go in search of work, and from which news of a death must be conveyed to the wife or parents of the deceased. “It often happens in Acheh that a man dies on the North, East or West Coast, or at least at a great distance away from his wife and children or his parents. It is then an adat-duty for those in whose house the death occurs to notify it to the wife or parents of the absent man.”
See Also
Source
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.