Syamsuar, Rahmat Saputra, Zawawi Bin Yusoff, Ummi Habibatul Islamiyah, Zikriati, Najamul Wathan
The Dutch empire had colonized Aceh for decades, during the colonial period all public access was restricted and controlled by the Dutch empire, including education. Only children from the upper class can study in quality schools. Most children have difficulty getting an education, especially Islamic education. Teungku Chiek Dirundeng succeeded in providing solutions to the community by building Islamic education with his strategy. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to find out the strategies of Teungku Chiek Dirundeng to develop Islamic education in Aceh as the only province in Indonesia that implements Islamic syari’ah in its territory. Teungku Chiek Dirundeng is one of the religious leaders in Aceh who has contributed to building the civilization of human life in educating people. The story of Teungku Chiek Dirundeng has been immortalized in several places, recorded in the saga of Aceh, and written directly in Dutch history books. This research uses qualitative methods to examine the history and strategies of Teungku Chiek Dirundeng to develop Islamic-based education in Aceh. For this, the researcher reviewed the various documents published from the 1960s to 2018s. The research finds that the strategy used by Teungku Chiek Dirundeng to develop Islamic education focused on establishing Islamic educational institutions. This educational institution is known as "Dayah" or Pesantren in Indonesian. Historians record that he has founded Dayah in Meukek, Labuhan Haji, and Rundeng areas by mobilizing the community to contribute together. He was able to convince people to participate in establishing dayah. Not only that, but his leadership was also able to mobilize the community to defend the country that was being colonized by the Dutch empire. The research is unique in its kind as there is lack of research relating to the history of Islamic leaders who are very meritorious in providing the basic foundations of Islamic education in Aceh.