Translation help on Sikin Panjang

[Jonno]

Hi,

Who can help me to translate this gold inlay inscription?
Thanks,
John

[asomotif]

I hope it says : send me to Willem...

What a lovely piece !
Quite unusual to have an inscription in gold inlay like this.
I hope some of the forumites can shed a light on this.

[Battara]

Nice piece. Is there a scabbard?

[Jonno]

unfortunately, no scabbet

[Jentayu]

Nice sikin you got there Jonno and it could be well belongs to royalty... the first picture that you posted, however, was up-side down

The inscription was written in arabic script but in Malay language or Jawi. It reads:

"Ini ialah sikin Teuku (Tengku) Yu (?) Adam" or "This sikin belongs to Teuku (royal title) Yu (?) Adam"

[Jonno]

Thank you!!!

I found only one Teukoe Yu Adam in Het Gedenkboek van de Marechaussee. (see Acehbooks.org)

Teukoe Adam alias Teukoe Di Oedjong as an important Panglima of Toekoe Di Mata Ie alias Teukoe Teukoe Di Paja Bakong (his real name was Teukoe Mohamed Chatib of the religion school in Paja Bakong)
Teukoe Adam was killed by a Dutch Marechaussee patrol in September 1903 under command of sergeant Duyts.


John

[Maurice]

Very interesting information!
That makes this sword even more interesting as it allready was...

[erikscollectables]

Indeed very exiting and an extremly rare find to have a name at all let alone a name that can be traced and is inlaid in gold - very very nice

[Sajen]

Agree with Eric and Maurice: beautiful to have a piece with informed history!

[Battara]

Oh I wish I had this on my sikim! Congratulations on a wonderful piece!

[Jonno]

Thank you all for your comment.

Here some other details of the sikin.

[asomotif]

Congrats !!
Very nice addition to any collection.
Military weapons that can be traced are plenty around...

But tribal named is rare, and than even tracable to the original owner.

Still hoped it would say "send me to Willem"

Very nice find. And in such good condition.
Where did you find it ? dutch collection ?

[Battara]

I'd like to know if these types of sikim belonged to panglimas in general or those just part of the royal palace?

[Jonno]

I think this kind of sikins where owned by Royals of a Sagi and they are usually not direct related with the Sultan family.
(In contrast to Java, Aceh had only one Sultan family)

[Jonno]

Originally Posted by asomotif

Congrats !!
Very nice find. And in such good condition.
Where did you find it ? dutch collection ?

Yes, Dutch collection.

[erikscollectables]

Originally Posted by Battara

I'd like to know if these types of sikim belonged to panglimas in general or those just part of the royal palace?

From what I have read the use of gold on weapons was limited to leaders and nobility by the Adat (local laws). Leaders can mean both worldly like a panglima (military leader) but also the village head or area (sagi) leader eg and religious like the iman. In the struggle against the Dutch all these played an important role and the leadership often (but certainly not always) had a noble background.
Nobility inhereted the right - leaders had to earn the right.
In a book I read the panglima got his "honour" sikin as it was called there after his military group was big and succesfull enough to be recognized.

The question which for me is still unawnsered is what is the difference in status between the number and/or type of crowns (puco is sharp in form and three rows of crowns and the glupa type with only two rows of crowns). None of the old or more recent books go into this.

And after that who could wear the other type of weapons with gold like the peudeung and siwaih (sewar). It seems these were even more limited - probably only higher forms of nobility which clarifies why these are even rarer to find.

[Battara]

Thanks folks. Helps my understanding. Erik, do you have any references I can read?

[erikscollectables]

Originally Posted by Battara

Thanks folks. Helps my understanding. Erik, do you have any references I can read?

When I joined the forum about 2.5 years ago I asked the same question - since then I have read and learned a lot.

Just wrote a small article on Aceh status weapons for a Dutch weapons collectors magazine - this is the reference list of books for that article:

1 Traditional Weapons of the Indonesian Archipelago, Albert G. van Zonneveld, Leiden 2001
2 Rentjongs, G. Bisseling en P. Vermeieren, Antwerpen 1988
3 Catalogus van ’s Rijks Ethnographisch Museum, Deel VI - Atjeh, Gajo- en Alaslanden, H.W. Fischer, Leiden 1912
4 Atjeh, J. Kreemer, Leiden 1922
5 De Inlandsche kunstnijverheid in Nederlandsch Indië, Deel V – de bewerking van niet edele-metalen, J.E. Jasper en Mas Pirngadie, ’s Gravenhage 1930
6 Hands of time - The crafts of Atjeh, Barbara Leigh, Jakarta 1989

Only 1 and 6 are in English, otherwise in Dutch.

Of number 3 and 4 I know they are available for free on www.acehbooks.org in PDF.

Number 2 is part of a small series - this one not but the others of that series on Aceh weapons are available on Arjans website for free: http://www.mytribalworld.com/downloads.html

Hope this helps, Erik

[Battara]

Thank you so much Erik.