The kramat of Sheik Abdurachman
On the 24th of January 1667, the ship the Polsbroek left Batavia and arrived at the Cape on the 13th of May 1668, with three prisoners in chains. One of them was incarcerated on Robben Island, while the other two went to the Company’s forest at Constantia.
Shaykh Abdurahman Matebe Shah, the last of the Malaccan Sultans, was one of the two. He was regarded as Orange Cayen, a title meaning ‘man of power and influence. He was seen as particularly dangerous to the interests of the Company.
In 1667, after a fierce battle. Soeroersang fell. The Sultan, Shaykh Abdurahman Matebe Shah, and his two religious advisors were captured. His execution would have made him a martyr, and thus an inspiration to his people to continue the war. The three were thus banished to the Cape becoming the first political exiles here. Oral history relates that Shaykh Abdurahman Matebe Shah soon befriended the slave population he met at Constantia. He taught them, Islam, in the area near the river, where he took his ablutions, meditated, and said his prayers. His shrine is at the gateway to Klein Constantia. It was contained in a wooden shack quaintly situated amongst the trees, adjacent to a stream of running water.
Klein Constantia road
