Asal Nama Makassar

Menyambut usia ke-400 tahun (09 Nopember 2007), Kota Makassar masih terbilang muda jika dibandingkan sejarah nama Makassar yang jauh menembus masa lampau. Tapi tahukah Anda muasal dan nilai luhur makna nama Makassar itu?

Tiga hari berturut-turut Baginda Raja Tallo ke-VI Mangkubumi Kerajaan Gowa, I Mallingkaang Daeng Mannyonri KaraEng Katangka yang merangkap Tuma'bicara Butta ri Gowa (lahir tahun 1573), bermimpi melihat cahaya bersinar yang muncul dari Tallo. Cahaya kemilau nan indah itu memancar keseluruh Butta Gowa lalu ke negeri sahabat lainnya.
Bersamaan di malam ketiga itu, yakni malam Jum'at tanggal 9 Jumadil Awal 1014 H atau tanggal 22 September 1605 M. (Darwa rasyid MS., Peristiwa Tahun-tahun Bersejarah Sulawesi Selatan dari Abad ke XIV s/d XIX, hal.36), di bibir pantai Tallo merapat sebuah perahu kecil. Layarnya terbuat dari sorban, berkibar kencang. Nampak sesosok lelaki menambatkan perahunya lalu melakukan gerakan-gerakan aneh. Lelaki itu ternyata melakukan sholat. Cahaya yang terpancar dari tubuh Ielaki itu menjadikan pemandangan yang menggemparkan penduduk Tallo, yang sontak ramai membicarakannya hingga sampai ke telinga Baginda KaraEng Katangka. Di pagi buta itu, Baginda bergegas ke pantai. Tapi tiba-tiba lelaki itu sudah muncul ‘menghadang’ di gerbang istana. Berjubah putih dengan sorban berwarna hijau. Wajahnya teduh. Seluruh tubuhnya memancarkan cahaya.

Lelaki itu menjabat tangan Baginda Raja yang tengah kaku lantaran takjub. Digenggamnya tangan itu lalu menulis kalimat di telapak tangan Baginda "Perlihatkan tulisan ini pada lelaki yang sebentar lagi datang merapat di pantai,” perintah lelaki itu lalu menghilang begitu saja. Baginda terperanjat. la meraba-raba matanya untuk memastikan ia tidak sedang bermimpi. Dilihatnya telapak tangannya tulisan itu ternyata jelas adanya. Baginda KaraEng Katangka lalu bergegas ke pantai. Betul saja, seorang lelaki tampak tengah menambat perahu, dan menyambut kedatangan beliau.

Singkat cerita, Baginda menceritakan pengalamannya tadi dan menunjukkan tulisan di telapak tangannya pada lelaki itu. “Berbahagialah Baginda. Tulisan ini adalah dua kalimat syahadat,” kata lelaki itu. Adapun lelaki yang menuliskannya adalah Nabi Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wassallam sendiri. Baginda Nabi telah menampakkan diri di Negeri Baginda.

Peristiwa ini dipercaya sebagai jejak sejarah asal-usul nama "Makassar", yakni diambil dari nama "Akkasaraki Nabbiya", artinya Nabi menampakkan diri. Adapun lelaki yang mendarat di pantai Tallo itu adalah Abdul Ma'mur Khatib Tunggal yang dikenal sebagai Dato' ri Bandang, berasal dari Kota Tengah (Minangkabau, Sumatera Barat). Baginda Raja Tallo I Mallingkaang Daeng Manyonri KaraEng Katangka setelah memeluk Agama Islam kemudian bergelar Sultan Abdullah Awaluddin Awawul Islam KaraEng Tallo Tumenanga ri Agamana. Beliau adalah Raja pertama yang memeluk agama Islam di dataran Sulawesi Selatan.

Lebih jauh, penyusuran asal nama "Makassar" dapat ditinjau dari beberapa segi, yaitu:

1. Makna. Untuk menjadi manusia sempurna perlu "Ampakasaraki", yaitu menjelmakan (menjasmanikan) apa yang terkandung dalam bathin itu diwujudkan dengan perbuatan. "Mangkasarak" mewujudkan dirinya sebagai manusia sempurna dengan ajaran TAO atau TAU (ilmu keyakinan bathin). Bukan seperti yang dipahami sebagian orang bahwa "Mangkasarak" orang kasar yang mudah tersinggung. Sebenarnya orang yang mudah tersinggung itu adalah orang yang halus perasaannya.
2. Sejarah. Sumber-sumber Portugis pada permulaan abad ke-16 telah mencatat nama "Makassar". Abad ke-16 "Makassar” sudah menjadi ibu kota Kerajaan Gowa. Dan pada Abad itu pula, Makassar sebagai ibu kota sudah dikenal oleh bangsa asing. Bahkan dalam syair ke-14 Nagarakertagama karangan Prapanca (1365) nama Makassar telah tercantum.
3. Bahasa. Dari segi Etimologi (Daeng Ngewa, 1972:1-2), Makassar berasal dati kata "Mangkasarak" yang terdiri atas dua morfem ikat "mang" dan morfem bebas "kasarak". Morfem ikat "mang" mengandung arti: a). Memiliki sifat seperti yang terkandung dalam kata dasarnya. b). Menjadi atau menjelmakan diri seperti yang dinyatakan oleh kata dasarnya. ­Morfem bebas "kasarak" mengandung (arti: a). Terang, nyata, jelas, tegas. b). Nampak dari penjelasan. c). Besar (lawan kecil atau halus).
   

Jadi, kata "Mangkasarak" Mengandung arti memiliki sifat besar (mulia) dan berterus terang (Jujur). Sebagai nama, orang yang memiliki sifat atau karakter "Mangkasarak" berarti orang tersebut besar (mulia), berterus terang (Jujur). Sebagaimana di bibir begitu pula di hati.

John A.F. Schut dalam buku "De Volken van Nederlandsch lndie" jilid I yang beracara : De Makassaren en Boegineezen, menyatakan: "Angkuh bagaikan gunung-gunungnya, megah bagaikan alamnya, yang sungai­sungainya di daerah-daerah nan tinggi mengalir cepat, garang tak tertundukkan, terutama pada musim hujan; air-air terjun tertumpah mendidih, membusa, bergelora, kerap menyala hingga amarah yang tak memandang apa-apa dan siapa-siapa. Tetapi sebagaimana juga sungai, gunung nan garang berakhir tenang semakin ia mendekati pantai. Demikian pulalah orang Bugis dan Makassar, dalam ketenangan dapat menerima apa yang baik dan indah".

Dalam ungkapan "Akkana Mangkasarak", maksudnya berkata terus terang, meski pahit, dengan penuh keberanian dan rasa tanggung jawab. Dengan kata "Mangkasarak" ini dapatlah dikenal bahwa kalau dia diperlakukan baik, ia lebih baik. Kalau diperlakukan dengan halus, dia lebih halus, dan kalau dia dihormati, maka dia akan lebih hormat.

Sumber : http://makassarkota.go.id

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South Sulawesi

Sulawesi's colourful history is the story of spices and foreign merchants of mariners and sultans and of foreign power wresting control of the spice trade. Much of South Sulawesi's early history was written in old texts that can be traced back to the 13th and 14th centuries.

When the Portuguese, the first western visitors, reached Sulawesi in 1511, they found Makassar a thriving cosmopolitan entre-port where Chinese, Arabs, Indians, Siamese, Javanese, and Malays came to trade their manufactured metal goods and fine textiles for precious pearls, gold, copper, camphor and, of course, the invaluable spices - nutmeg, cloves and mace which were brought from the interior and from the neighbouring Spice Islands, the present day Moluccas.

By the 16th century, Makassar had become Sulawesi's major port and centre of the powerful Gowa and Tallo sultanates which between them had a series of 11 fortresses and strongholds and a fortified sea wall which extended along the coast.

The arrival of the Dutch in the early 17th century, altered events dramatically. Their first objective was to create a hegemony over the spice trade and their first move was to capture the fort of Makassar in 1667, which they rebuilt and renamed Fort Rotterdam. From this base they managed to destroy the strongholds of the Sultan of Gowa who was then forced to live on the outskirts of Makassar. [Prince Diponegoro; the national hero, born in 1785, to Sultan Hamengkubuwono III of Yogyakarta put up a great resistance against the Dutch in the Java wars of 1825-30. After his capture he was exiled to Fort Rotterdam until his death in 1855.]

The character of this old trading centre changed as a walled city known as Vlaardingen grew, a place where slaves were at the bidding of the imposing foreigners. Gradually, in defiance of the Dutch, the Arabs, Malays and Bugis returned to trade outside the grim fortress walls and later also the Chinese.

The town again became a collecting point for the produce of eastern Indonesia - the copra, rattan, pearls, trepang and sandalwood and the famous oil made from bado nuts used in Europe as men's hair dressing - hence the anti-macassars (embroidered cloths placed at head rests of upholstered chairs).

Although the Dutch controlled the coast, it was not until the early 20th century that they gained power over the interior of the south through a series of treaties with local rulers. Meanwhile Dutch missionaries converted many of the Toraja people to Christianity. By 1938 the population of Makassar had reached around 84,000 - a town described by writer Joseph Conrad as "the prettiest and perhaps, cleanest looking of all the towns in the islands". By the 1950's the population had increased to such a degree that many of the historic sites gave way to modern development and today you need to look very carefully to find the few remains of the city's once grand history.

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Ujung Pandang

Before the Republic of Indonesia has it proclamation, South Sulawesi is include of a number of independent kingdoms and dwelt by four etnic, that is: Bugis, Makassar, Mandar and Torajans. There three big empires that have big influence, those are Luwu, Gowa, and Bone, which at XVI century and XVII century reach their glorious, and has trade relation with Europeans, India, China, Malay, and Arab.

After the independence, there is the constitution number 21 in 1950, which stated that South Sulawesi become an autonomous Sulawesi Province. In 1960 become an autonomous South Sulawesi and Southeast based on the constitution number 13 in 1960. The separation of South Sulawesi from the autonomous area of South Sulawesi and Southeast was declared by the constitution number 13 in 1964, so that it become the South Sulawesi Autonomous area of South Sulawesi.

Ujung Pandang is the main city on Sulawesi, originally known as Makassar. The court of the kings of Gowa was nearby. The people here are called Makassarese. The Bugis people are famous as sailors, and founded trade empires of their own. The most famous Bugis leaders were kings of Bone, which is called Watampone today. Bugis settlements have scattered as far as Kalimantan and Riau. The kings of Gowa and Bone did much to spread Islam through the area. The island of Butung or Buton did not submit to the Dutch until 1908. The Toraja people are the original inhabitants of the central part of Sulawesi. They are known for their unusual customs; today most are Christians. The Toraja also resisted the Dutch until the first decade of the 20th Century.

THE SYMBOL MEANING
The arms were adopted in 1972. The arms consist of seven parts with each senses described as below:

1. Five pointed star and its reflection: as a light to create the symbol for The One Supreme God.
2. The circle of "unhealed rice and cottons". It consists of 17 unhooked rice-ears, 8 cottons with 4 toots on calyxes and 5 toots on cotton, which describes the 17th of August 1945 as proclamation day of Indonesia's independence.
3. The vision of fort of Somba Opu from the air. The fort symbolizes the heroism of the South Sulawesi people. There are three halls of the fort and each load of:
   • A Phinisi boat symbolizing the spirit of seaman tenacity, full-militancy and capable to popularize the aim of the 17th of August 1945 struggle. The boat is directing western appropriated the capital of Indonesia.
   • The hoe symbolizes the agrarian community as basis and machine tooth symbolizes industries as principal supports.
   • The coconut symbolizes the natural wealth of South Sulawesi.
4. An unsheathed small dagger between rice and cotton with pattern inherent five curves, which symbolizes spirit of heroism and alert in protecting the nation. The five curves are sacred numerals of each principle in philosophy of Pancasila
5. Mountain, village, and pieces of rice-field for fertility, strive for justice and welfare community. The 23 pieces of rice-field is appropriate total of regencies in South Sulawesi as one of the rice-barns in Indonesia
6. The motto in Lontara local characters means "Toddo'puli", which means firm in conviction.
7. A ribbon inscribes Sulawesi Selatan "South Sulawesi as a province of Indonesia. The ribbon is in silk designed, which describes special characteristic and precious of culture since long time ago.

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