An ancient and famous gampong in Pidie. ‘Tiro, which has in these latter days acquired a widespread celebrity from the two teungkus of that place who took a prominent part in the war against the Dutch, was from ancient times less famed for the teaching given there than for the great number of learned men whom it produced and who lived there. Tiro was as it were sanctified by the presence of so many living ulamas and the holy tombs of their predecessors. None dared to carry arms in this gampong even in time of war; and the hukom or religious law was stronger here than elsewhere, while its enemy the adat was weaker.’ The foremost family of pandits there was headed by Teungku Muhamat Amin (died 1886), and his relative Cheh Saman (Teungku Tiro), who led the holy war against the Dutch. Mat Amin (son of Cheh Saman) was the military commander under Teungku Tiro. Teungku Kuta Karang disparagingly referred to Cheh Saman as ‘Leube Saman’ rather than by the honoured title Teungku Tiro.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Tiro
Tiro is a gampong (village) in Pidie that gave its name to a succession of distinguished ulamas, the most prominent of whom — Teungku Tiro — was the dominant religious-political figure in Great Acheh from the beginning of the Dutch “concentration” policy in the early 1880s until his death in 1891. Tiro is treated at length in The Achehnese Vol. I as the type of an Achehnese community whose authority derived wholly from religious learning and sanctity.
A Sanctuary of Learning
Snouck Hurgronje explains the reputation of Tiro by two causes: “Tiro, a gampong in Pidie, owes its reputation partly to the teaching in sacred subjects of which it is the seat, and partly to the number of distinguished ulamas whom it has produced. The latter, if not drawn elsewhere by marriages with women of other gampongs, returned to their native place in their declining years, so that many of them lie buried there.” The sanctity of these tombs and the constant presence of influential ulamas gave the place “the peculiar privileged position generally designated by the word bibeueh” — a place of sanctuary. “Here the neighbouring chiefs have made over to the ulamas the maintenance of law and order, so that the adat has in this place had much less significance than elsewhere. These same chiefs have made no claim on the services of the people, they have respected Tiro as a place of refuge for such as had become involved in internal feuds, and refrained from hostilities in the neighbourhood of its meunasah. Even members of hostile parties could meet one another there without fear of a disturbance.”
The Teungku Tiro
The most prominent ulama of Tiro, “to distinguish him from the other teungkus in the place, was usually called Teungku Chi’ (the Old) and was elsewhere known simply as Teungku di Tiro or Teungku Tiro. As a rule blood relations or collaterals succeeded each other in this position.” When Teungku Tiro Muhamat Amin — the then Teungku Chi’ di Tiro — died in December 1885, he was succeeded by his collateral relative Cheh Saman (Shaikh Samman), “who had long been his right-hand man. As the son of the deceased, although a good scholar, was still too young to take his father’s place, the designation of the Teungku Tiro passed to Teungku Saman.”
Favoured by the progress of the war, Teungku Saman (whose story is the principal subject of Snouck’s chapter on the ulamas) “gained for himself a unique position.” He established a never-empty treasury for the holy war, raised a sort of standing army, and stamped even the Sultan’s chah sikureung (nine-fold seal) with officialdom on power he had already won. “Teungku Tiro did not concern himself about the insignificant Sultan, nor, except in so far as was absolutely necessary, about the uleebalangs. As the representative of religious law he could assume full powers, and none dared to show him open hostility.”
Rivals and Successors
Snouck notes that, after Teungku Tiro’s death in 1891, “the friends of Habib Samalanga succeeded in obtaining for him from the court a nine-fold seal similar to that which had been in the possession of the deceased ulama.” Yet “this chah sikureung could not however raise this sayyid to the elevation which Teungku Tiro had attained without any such symbol of authority.” Teungku Tiro’s son Mat Amin did not follow in his father’s footsteps and was killed in action in 1896. Two other sons — Teungku Beb (died 1900) and Teungku Mahidin — together with their kinsman Teungku Chot Plieng (died 1901), “much respected for his piety and learning, continued to do their utmost to maintain the collections of the sabil contributions in the dependencies on the North Coast.”
See Also
- Cheh Saman
- Idi
- Pidie
- Teungku Kuta Karang
- Teungku Muhamat Amin
- Teungku Tiro
- Habib Samalanga
- Mat Amin
- Teungku Beb
- Teungku Chot Plieng
- Teungku Mahidin
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.