This study discusses the social dynamics of a kampong in Batavia during XVIII to XIX centuries. Pekojan has already emerged as the center of commerce for Arabs and Muslim Indians community since the 16th century. By the eighteenth century, many Arab immigrants from Hadramawt (Southern Yemen) settled here. Its initial landscape can be traced by the theory of the coming of Islam in the Archipelago. One of the theories says that it was driven by international trade by the Arabs, which also carried Islam along with them. The Hadramis went through the naval journey passing the Indian Ocean to the Malaka Strait. They stopped over in Singapore then went on to Batavia, especially Pekojan. This study found Pekojan became a place where Arab culture and ideas were constructed yet negotiated within a local context. There prominent ulamas, merchants, writers, educators, the initiators of independence, the benefactors, and artists socialized under close racial surveillance of the Dutch East Indies government.

The purpose of this study was to inform two warrior figures from Gayo, Colonel Muhammadin and Aman Nyerang who had not been recorded in the previously published historiography of the Aceh war. It was important regarding the dimension of the Aceh War which did not cover the coastal area, but also penetrat-ed into Gayo and Alas Land. The researchers conducted several colonial data searches to find the war activities of Colonel Muham-madin and Aman Nyerang. Several annual reports of the colonial government, namely the Koloniaal Verslag and Dutch-language newspapers, were two important sources. The collected sources were then verified through external and internal criticism, until a selected source was found. The available data were then critically read and analyzed to obtain information to answer problems being investigated. The study found out that both figures used different war strategies against the colonials. Aman Nyerang was a fighter who liked guerrilla tactics and used close range attacks armed with a dagger or machete. Muhammadin was a warrior figure who adopted modern war strategies, because he had received Japanese military education. He used such strategies in ambushing the enemy, including by placing snipers in his troops. Colonel Muhammad and Aman Nyerang in the Gayo war had an important role in defending the Aceh re-gion from Dutch rule. Therefore, the roles of both figures need to be recorded in the historiography using social history perspective to provide more comprehensive information for the next generation.