THE ACHEHNESE - Acehbooks.org

e in the pondok or pesantren" always carries with it in Java the notion
of being a stranger '). In Acheh the word meudagang 2 ), which originally
signifies "to be a stranger, to travel from place to place", has passed
directly from this meaning to that of "to be engaged in study."
Thus it happens that most of the learned in Great Acheh have spent
the greater part of their student life in Pidie, while vice versa, the
studiously inclined in Pidie and on the East Coast amass their capital
of knowledge in Great Acheh s ).
Achehnese In the territory of Pidie in the wider sense of the word 4 ), there were,
repute. before the coming of the Dutch to Acheh, certain places which were
in some measure centres of learned life, where many muribs (the Acheh­
nese name for "student", from the Arab, murld) both from the country
itself and from Acheh used to prosecute their studies. Such were Langga,
Langgb, Sriweue, Simpang, le Leubeue (== Ayer Labu). 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 5 ). 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. Growing up amid such surroundings, many
young men feel themselves led as it were by destiny to the study of
the sacred law.
i) In Banten this principle is pursued so far that boys are even sent for their elementary
studies (the recitation of the Quran) to a pondok outside their own village; but in other
parts of Java as well as in Acheh this is exceptional.
2) Urcueng dagang always means "stranger'' and is usually applied to foreign retail traders
and especially to Klings; meudagang has now no other meaning than that of "to study"
and urcueng meudagang means "a student."
3) Thus there is a teacher at le Leubeue (Ayer Labu) called Teungku di Acheh or
Teungku Acheh, since he pursued his studies for a long time in Acheh. Others generally
take their names from the gampong in which they reside or were born, even though they
may have travelled elsewhere to seek instruction.
4) The Achehnese give the name of Pidie to the whole of the territory which formerly
belonged to the kingdom of that name, i. e. almost the whole of the North Coast with its
hinterland, and include under the name Timu (the East, as reckoned from the capital of
Acheh) all that we call the North and East Coast.
5) Vol I p. 178.