COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van het hoofd van de Arabieren te Tegal Java TMnr 10005285

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Huis van een Arabisch hoofd Pekalongan Oost-Java TMnr 10021095

Kapitan Arab or Kapten Arab (Captain of the Arabs; nl, Kapitein der Arabieren; ar-at, الكابتن العرب, al-Kābitin al-'Arab) or ''Head of The Arabs'' ( nl, Hoofd der Arabieren; ar-at, القائد العرب , al-Qā'id al-'Arab) is a position in the colonial

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

appointed with the task of leading the ethnic

Arab-Indonesians Arab Indonesians ( ar, عربٌ إندونيسيون) or ''Hadharem'' (; sing., ''Hadhrami'', ), informally known as Jama'ah, and until the 20th century known as Codjas or Kodjas, note the work was also published in the Hague and Utrecht simulta ...

, who usually lived in concentrated clearly defined-living areas ('' Kampung Arab''). The role was to provide liaison between his community and the government, to provide statistical information to The Dutch East Indies government on issues related to Arabs, to disseminate government regulations and decrees, and to ensure the maintenance of law and order.

History

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

, The Arabs, according to

Van den Berg Van den Berg is a Dutch-language toponymic surname meaning " of/from the mountain/slope". With 58,562 people carrying the name, it was the fourth most common surname in The Netherlands in 2007.Pekojan. ''Pekojan'' is from Indonesian word ''Pe-Koja-an'', which means ''The Koja'', a term for Muslim people of Gujarat, India. While ''Koja'' itself is from word Khoja. Until the end of the 18th century, the area was mostly dominated by Khoja Gujarati settlers until 19th century. When Van den Berg did the study (1884-1886), there were no more Gujarati. At that time the majority of the settlers were Arabs and a handful of Chinese. Since about the 1970s, the Arabs are the minority and the Chinese turned into majority. He described Pekojan as a slum and dirty area. Approximately one and half century ago, the Arabs also had moved and lived in the suburbs (now Central Jakarta), such as

Krukut Taman Sari is a district of West Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the smallest subdistrict of West Jakarta (4.37 km2). It is bounded by Central Jakarta to the south and to the east, and by Pademangan in North Jakarta to the north. Taman Sari distr ...

and Tanah Abang areas. The Dutch East Indies colonial had a constitutional law recognized three categories of individuals in Batavia (and then later applied to other places): Europeans (dutch: ''Europeanen''), Foreign Oriental (''Vreemde Oosterlingen''), and natives (''Inlanders''). As more and more immigrants immigrated from Hadramaut, The Dutch government started a law called ''wijkenstelsel'' in 1844 to segregate them from the rest of indigenous people. As result, the government required a head of the group, called ''Kapitan Arab,'' to be pointed from among the Arab community as a point of contact and liaison. The similar position was appointed for Kapitan Cina to Chinese. More than half of the Kapitan Arab appointed by the colonial government were non Sayyid people. This decision was made to undermine traditional Hadhrami assumption about their social status. The head sometimes is accompanied with an assistant called ''Luitenant van de Kapitein der Arabieren'' or simply ''Liutenant der Arabieren''. The first ''Kapitein der Arabieren'' pointed by the Dutch East Indies government in Batavia was

Said Naum Sa'id bin Salim Na'um Basalamah ( ar-at, سعيد بن سالم نعوم با سلمه, Sa'īd bin Sālim Na'ūm Bā Salamah) or better known as Said Naum ( ar-at, سعيد نعوم, Sa'īd Na'ūm; ) was the first Kapitan Arab in Batavia and a Mus ...

during period of 1844-1864. He was succeeded by Muhammad bin Abubakar 'Aydid for period of 1864-1877. Among other Arabs who had the position in Batavia was Hasan Argoubi, Muhammad Umar Ba-Behir ( ar-at, محمد عمر البابحر , Mohammed Omar al-Baa Behir) and Umar bin Yusuf Mangus ( ar-at, عمر منقوش , Omar Manqoosh) during the period of 1902-1931. Umar Mangus was a rich merchant and had property business. For his service as the Kapitan Arab, Umar was awarded the title ''De Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau'' (Knight of The Order of Orange-Nassau). He was appointed on December 28, 1902 with Sheikh Ali bin Abdoellah bin Asir as his ''Liutenant der Arabieren''. Before Umar Mangus was appointed as a Kapitan Arab, most Arabs had decided to choose Sharif Abdullah ibn Husein Alaydrus, a rich merchant, famous for his generosity and had good behavior as well as prominent among the Arabs and the Europeans. Many people think that with his close relationship with Europeans, he would be willing to accept the Arab captaincy. The colonial government constantly urged him to accept the position, but he firmly rejected it. He wasn't alone in refusing, as this refusal had the support of respected Arab elders. According to Snouck Hurgronje who observed in 1901, the Dutch colonial government had more difficulty appoint ''Kapitein der Arabieren'' as more and more indies-born Arabs ('' Muwallad'') born who lacked authority compared to the ''pure-blood'' Hadramis (''

Wulayti The Wulayti or Wulaiti (from Arabic: ولاية, , literally means ''territory'' or ''state'' ) is a term used to call a first generation of Arab immigrant born in the territory of their homeland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, ...

'') whose number diminished. In Cirebon, there was an Arab Indonesian appointed as a captain in 1845. As in Batavia, the Arab village here was once the abode of the Gujarati or likely of the Bengali too. In 1872 the colony in Indramayu separated from Cirebon to appoint a captain (or head) of Arabs. In Banjarmasin in around 1899, the Kapitan Arab was Said Hasan bin Idroes al-Habshi or more known as ''Habib Ujung Murung''. The successor of Said Hasan as the ''Kapitein'' in

South Kalimantan South Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Selatan) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is the smallest province in Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory of Borneo. The provincial capital was Banjarmasin until 15 February 2022 when it wa ...

was Alwi bin Abdullah al-Habshi, who later moved to

Barabai Barabai is the capital city of Hulu Sungai Tengah Regency, South Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is located 165km away from Banjarmasin, the capital of the province. The town is at the feet of the Meratus Mountains that runs in a north-south arc on the ...

. Similarly, in Tegal, Pekalongan,

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

, Gresik, Pasuruan, Bangil,

Lumajang Lumajang Regency is a Regency (''kabupaten'') located in the East Java province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,790.90 sq. km, and had a population of 1,006,458 at the 2010 Census and 1,119,251 at the 2020 Census. It shares its land bo ...

, Besuki, Banyuwangi,

Surakarta Surakarta ( jv, ꦯꦸꦫꦏꦂꦠ), known colloquially as Solo ( jv, ꦱꦭ; ), is a city in Central Java, Indonesia. The 44 km2 (16.2 sq mi) city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoh ...

, Sumenep, and various places in the archipelago had their own Kapitan Arab. One of the reasons the colonial government did this was to segregate Arabs from the indigenous people. In Pekalongan, one of the Captains was Hasan Saleh Argubi. In Bangil, the Kapitan Arab were Saleh bin Muhammad bin Said Sabaja (1892), Muhammad bin Saleh Sabaja (1920), and Muhammad bin Salim Nabhan (1930). In Banyuwangi, some Kapitan Arab who were in positions, among others, was Datuk Sulaiman Bauzir, Datuk Dahnan, Habib Assegaf, and Ahmad Haddad. In Pasuruan, the Kapitein der Arabieren was a Sayyid named Alim al-Qadri, which is the grandfather of

Hamid Algadri Hamid Algadri or Hamid Al-Gadri ( ar, حامد القدرى, ; 1912-1998) was a pioneer of freedom for Indonesian independence who was meritorious in Linggadjati Agreement, Renville Agreement, Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference (, ) and o ...

. In Gresik, the Kapitan Arab in 1930's was Husein bin Muhammad Shahab while Kapitan Arab of Surabaya was Salim bin Awab bin Sungkar, who had large land () in the City Center of Surabaya, West Ketabang. According to two Baháʼí travelers from Iran and India who visited

Makasar Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan ...

in 1885, the Iranian Baháʼí Sulayman Khan Tunukabanı, known as Jamal Effendi, and his Indian-Iraqi friend Sayyid Mustafa Rumı, the Kapitein der Arabieren in Makasar at the time was Said Ali Matard. In

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

, most of the Kapitein der Arabieren, if not all, lived in 13-Ulu subdistrict ("Seberang Ulu or "upstream bank" of the

Musi river Musi may refer to: * Musi River (Indonesia) * Musi River (India), Telangana * Moosy River, Andhra Pradesh, India * Musi language, a Malay language spoken in Indonesia * Angelo Musi (1918–2009), American basketball player * Agostino de' Musi, real ...

). There is no known records of who was the first Captain, but the last one was Ahmad Al Munawar (d. 1970), better known as ''Ayip Kecik'' (''Little Sayyid'') or ''Yipcik''. Sayid hasan ujung murung.jpg, Habib Ujung Murung, ''Kapitein der Arabieren'' of Banjarmasin Kapten Arab HABIB ALWI BIN ABDULLAH (Kapten Arab) dan HABIB MUHAMAD BIN ALI BIN YAHYA.jpg, Alwi bin Abdullah bin Alwi bin Sheikh al-Habshi (left), ''Kapitein der Arabieren'' of Barabai. Orang Arab di Talise 1920. Koleksi Het Geheugen van Nederland.jpg, ''Kapitein der Arabieren'' of Menado Alim algadri - grandfather of hamid.jpg, Alim algadri - ''Kapitein der Arabieren'' of Pasuruan

References

{{reflist, 2 Arab diaspora in Indonesia Dutch East Indies Dutch colonial governors and administrators Ethnic groups in Indonesia * *

History

See also

References