By Abdur-Razzaq Lubis.

George Town’s historical “Malay Town” and famous Acheen Street Mosque were established with the wealth and influence of the Achenese prince, Tengku Syed Hussain. His legacy is a vibrant urban kampung that lives on today.

ON HIS arrival in 1786, Captain Francis Light, the founder of the British trading post on Penang Island, laid out the original grid of George Town as we know it today. The first town was about half a mile in length and going by a map of 1798, “Malay Town” was located at the southern periphery of the colonial urban centre. Its position corresponds with the location of Lebuh Acheh today.

Here we have the first reference to a “Malay” township that existed in historical Penang. The inhabitants of the township were largely Arabs, Acehnese and their retinue. By this time, the Acehnese were claiming leadership over the “Malay world” but were resisted by the traditional bearers of that leadership. At the same time, this identification was confirmed by the British bias of associating Muslims of this part of the world with the Malay stock or race.

The establishment of the “Malay Town” had very much to do with the arrival of Tengku Syed Hussain, a prominent, influential and wealthy merchant prince from Aceh. Trade with Sumatra was important to Penang as it was the mainstay of the commercial prosperity of the island. Penang was the entrepot for the Acheh trade, especially pepper. The trade between Sumatra and Penang in the 1820s included bricks and tiles, textiles, precious commodities, timber, slaves and fish.

Tengku Syed Hussain shifted his trading base to Penang soon after Francis Light set up a trading post there, and became one of its first settlers. Syed Hussain’s standing as a seasoned trader with a vast trading network no doubt influenced others in the archipelago, especially Arabs and Acehnese, to move to Penang.

It has been observed that Arab migration to Penang, unlike their migration to the other ports in the Indonesian archipelago, was never on a big scale. The first wave was drawn primarily from Acheh, and the migrant settled around Acheen Street. In a despatch to the Governor-General in Bengal in 1793, Light made the following remarks:

“Arabs, and descendants of Arabs, form another part of the community. They are but few families; they have a great number of dependents; they are strict Mahomedans, proud and unwilling to yield to any authority; they trade with all countries and among the Malays with particular privileges. They are good friends and dangerous enemies.”

By 1803, the “Malay Town” included “Acheen Street” and “Malay Lane”, with their respective jetties jutting out to the sea. By 1807, Malay Lane was renamed Armenian Lane (present-day Lebuh Armenian) suggesting that the Armenians had moved into the area and the lane had been renamed after them. By then, the original grid laid out by Light had extended further south to include Acheen Street and the presentday Lebuh Melayu (Malay Street), not to be confused with the earlier Malay Lane.

It was in “Malay Town” that Tengku Syed Hussain took residence, built his mosque and was eventually laid to rest. Tengku Syed Hussain’s legacy of built heritage can still be found in the Lebuh Acheh area today. Much of Acheen Street and its surrounding area used to belong to Tengku Syed Hussain, his family members and friends. A map in Jawi showing the properties of Tengku Syed Hussain in Armenian Street and Acheen Street confirms this. These areas were used for storing, processing and trading of pepper and other spices.

Their dwelling houses were amongst the first brick houses owned by non- Malay Muslims who were not subjects of a Malay Sultan. Had they not been in Penang, a British colony, but in Kedah, they would not have dared to build or own a dwelling house bigger than the Sultan’s palace as this would have been taken as an insult to the sovereign and resulted in severe consequences.

In historic Penang, each community had a specific part of the town allotted to it, and each community had its captain or headman, who was to some degree responsible for the conduct of his people. Syed Hussein’s leadership in Penang was strengthened through his wealth and philanthropic contributions. While Tengku Syed Hussain was the leader of the Muslim population from the archipelago, his contemporary Cauder Mohudeen was the Kapitan Kling, that is, the leader of the Muslim population which hailed from southern India and settled around Chulia Street.

The founding of the Malay Mosque
Light, in his account of Tengku Syed Hussain and his people, gave the impression that they were a privileged class highly regarded by the local population. Being Acehnese Muslims, they were adamant about being governed by Islamic law instead of English laws:

“Seyad Hussain and Seyad Juffer, two Malays of Arabian extraction and of considerable property, with very large families are come (sic) to reside here, they are importunate to obtain a written declaration of the the culprit should be committed to prison and tried by the laws of the island, that if the case concerned one of their people and one of the inhabitants, or if any of their people committed a public breach of the laws, they should be tried publicly, that they and their families might quit this island whenever they thought proper. The pride of the Seyads, who boast of being descendants of the prophet, will not allow them to submit to any authority but their own, they are so much respected by the Malay Princes that their persons are held too sacred for punishment, the only chastisement they inflict on them is either a fine or dismission from their country, they trade duty free and for the life of a slave they would think themselves degraded to give an answer, their jealousy is extreme, should any man be found in private conserve or in the apartment of the women, his death would be inevitable. This is the motive though laws they themselves are subject to and a licence to govern their own families, slaves, and dependants, with an independent power, and in all cases to be judged by Mahomedan Laws, and that if they found their residence here inconvenient or disagreeable, they might without molestation depart with their families, this was a matter of long debate before they would resolve to remain here… I represented to them the impropriety of any subject having an entire independent authority, that a reasonable, as far as the general welfare would permit, an independent authority would be allowed them over their families and dependants, that their religious, laws and customs would be undisturbed, and that they might inflict any punishment upon their children and family excepting mutilation or death. If the crime committed was of such magnitude as to require more than a whipping, not mentioned for their demanding a written contract to preserve their persons from being brought before a Court of Justice, a medium rule may be drawn which might prevent these people from yielding to sudden and excessive gusts of passion, without offence to their religious character.”

In the words of the late Haji Fathil Basheer, Tengku Syed Hussain and Syed Jafaar wished to “create a colony within a colony”. Tengku Syed Hussain and his people, upon accepting the above conditions, were welcomed as British subjects. In retrospect, it appears to be the first instance in the peninsula of Islamic law being recognised and tolerated under British rule. The attitude of Light illustrates the tolerance of British policy in respect of Islam and the Muslims.

With the large number of people that came with Tengku Syed Hussain, coupled with the influx of Muslims from the archipelago over the years, there arose the need for a mosque to serve the increasing number of Muslims. As the leader of the community, Syed Hussain founded a mosque to facilitate the performance of congregational prayers as well to provide a focal point for his community.

The Acheen Street Mosque is a public mosque built on waqf land. The plot of land endowed by Tengku Syed Hussain was carved out from the “Malay Town”, and the building of the mosque was probably paid for by public subscriptions, with Tengku Syed Hussain being the biggest contributor. The Acheen Street Mosque was probably always called the Malay Mosque from the very beginning, as it was founded and located in “Malay Town”. The year 1808 has been put forward as the founding year on the plaque at the entrance of the mosque, but this cannot be confirmed by other sources.

When Mohamed Ibrahim Munshi, the son of Abdullah Munshi, visited Penang in 1872, he paid a visit to Acheen Street and wrote:

“…dan peranakan Melayunya banyak yang berlayar-layar dan berniaga, dan ada yang menjadi tukang membuat kasut dan lain-lain di dalam Jalam Masjid Melayu itu – dalam bahasa Inggeris namanya jalan itu Acheen Street. Dan di situ sebuah Masjid besar, tiadalah berapa baik buatannya melainkan lama dan buruk serta kotor jua tetapi diperbuat daripada batu dan atapnya genting.”

(…the peranakan living in town have a variety of occupations: some engage in trade, others are wage-earners, working as clerks. The majority of them, however, are traders, and these people are called ‘Bazaar Malays’. [Mohamed Ibrahim Munshi identified the ‘Bazaar Malay’ quarter as being in Chulia Street, ‘where they are found in great numbers.’] Many of these who are Malay by birth sail and trade for a living, and some are shoemakers and so on in Jalan Masjid Melayu called Acheen Street English, where there is a large Malay mosque. It is not of particular good construction and is old, dilapidated and quite dirty, but it is built of stone and has a tiled roof.”)

While the official name of the street was Acheen Street (now called Lebuh Acheh), Ibrahim Munshi referred to it as Jalan Masjid Melayu and the Acheen Street Mosque area as Kampong Masjid Melayu, reflecting the preference of Malay speakers. The Mandailing traveller, Abu Bakar, called the street Jalan Acheen Street Masjid Melayu or Acheen Street Masjid Melayu.

In fact today’s inhabitants of the Lebuh Acheh Mosque enclave call their settlement kampung. It has always been called kampung as far as they can remember. For that matter, the English word “compound” comes from the Malay word kampung. Kampung does not necessarily connote a rural settlement, but can also refer to an urban village. Generally, a kampung is an enclosure, a quarter, district or suburb of a city, a collection of buildings as well as a fortified village.

Note: This is an abridged version of a lengthy article on the Sumatran legacy on Acheen Street (Lebuh Acheh) to be published in a book titled Straits Muslims.

Abdur-Razzaq Lubis is a writer and the Malaysia and Singapore representative to the Mandailing All Clans Assembly.

** Reproduced with permission. This article first appeared in the February 2010 issue of the Penang Economic Monthly. This 11-year old magazine published by the Socio-economic and Environmental Research Institute (SERI) is being overhauled and commercialised. This endeavour is in response to the growing insight among Penangites and Penang lovers that the downward trend in the state's fortunes cannot be succesfully reversed unless they themselves get seriously involved. The goal is to inspire positive action among readers towards attaining a "Penang Renaissance".

For more information, please visit the Penang Economic Monthly site or contact the Socio-economic and Environmental Research Institute (SERI) at 604-2283306.

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