A relative of Teuku Uma who undertook the mission to negotiate the release of Mrs. Hansen after the Hok Canton incident, securing terms no better than a $40,000 ransom.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Panglima Meuseugit Raya
The Panglima Meuseugit Raya was the hereditary holder of one of the principal territorial offices attached to the sultan’s court at Banda Acheh. His charge embraced the twenty-four or more gampongs lying on either side of the Acheh River, in the neighbourhood of the Dalam (the royal palace) and the great mosque of Meuseugit Raya from which the office took its name. Although in origin a mere appurtenance of the principal mosque, the dignity became hereditary and thus, in the words of Snouck Hurgronje, “soon came to be distinguished from an ordinary uleebalangship only through the name and proximity of the Dalam.”
Position among the four capital chiefs
The Panglima Meuseugit Raya was one of the four chiefs upon whom the sultan was traditionally obliged to consult in all matters of importance, the others being Teuku Kali (the Teuku Kali Malikon Ade), Teuku Ne’ of Meura’sa and the Imeum of Lueng Bata. Snouck emphasises that this dependence was no mere formality: the sultan, he writes, “could do nothing without consulting” these four, who were in turn dependent upon the decision of the three sagis of Great Acheh. On the day of the Coronation of the Sultan, the Panglima Meuseugit Raya was expected to be at his post keeping order within the Dalam, while the Teuku Kali Malikon Ade discharged his functions in the open space around the branda seuallah (the royal verandah).
Loss of territory to Teuku Kali Malikon Ade
In the period of the sultanate’s decline, the office was seriously weakened by the aggressive ambition of Teuku Kali Malikon Ade, who was bent on acquiring a territory that would make him an uleebalang in the full sense of the word. At a favourable moment he succeeded in wresting from the “weak Panglima Meuseugit Raya” no less than half of his territory — twelve gampongs on the right bank of the Acheh River. Thereafter the two chiefs, though their lands marched with the Dalam and might have been supposed to be mere creatures of the sultanate, carried on a brisk rivalry. They occasionally made open war on one another; the sultan would subsidise first one and then the other, and his own followers could be found in both camps. In the disputed successions to the throne the Panglima and the Teuku Kali Malikon Ade “usually espoused opposite sides.”
The letters patent of 1889
The most celebrated documentary trace of the office in Vol. I is the translation printed in the appendix to Chapter I: the letters patent with the ninefold seal granted by the pretender-sultan Tuanku Muhamat Dawot (Sultan Alaedin Muhamad Daud Shah Juhan) at Keumala, dated 4 Rabīʿ al-awwal 1307 H / 28 October 1889. Addressing the Panglima as “our uleebalang, who is called the Panglima of the Meuseugit Raya of Banda Acheh, the Seat of Peace,” the sultan confirmed him in the hereditary office, instructed him to command the good and forbid the evil among subordinate chiefs, to ensure the performance of the Friday service and the five daily prayers, to build mosques, deahs and meunasahs, and to collect zakat and pitrah. He was also made the sultan’s deputy in matters of pasah (divorce by judicial decree), marriage, and the pitrah of orphans, with liberty to appoint a learned ulama as his deputy in religious matters — a clause that, as Snouck observes, shows the model on which such documents were composed to have been “the work of ulamas.”
See Also
- Hok Canton Incident
- Imeum of Lueng Bata
- Letters patent with the ninefold seal to Panglima Meuseugit Raya
- Meuseugit Raya
- Mrs. Hansen
- Teuku Kali Malikon Ade
- Teuku Ne’ of Meura’sa
- Teuku Uma
- Tuanku Muhamat Dawot
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
A relative of Teuku Uma who undertook the mission to negotiate the release of Mrs. Hansen after the Hok Canton incident, securing terms no better than a $40,000 ransom.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Panglima Meuseugit Raya
The Panglima Meuseugit Raya was the hereditary holder of one of the principal territorial offices attached to the sultan’s court at Banda Acheh. His charge embraced the twenty-four or more gampongs lying on either side of the Acheh River, in the neighbourhood of the Dalam (the royal palace) and the great mosque of Meuseugit Raya from which the office took its name. Although in origin a mere appurtenance of the principal mosque, the dignity became hereditary and thus, in the words of Snouck Hurgronje, “soon came to be distinguished from an ordinary uleebalangship only through the name and proximity of the Dalam.”
Position among the four capital chiefs
The Panglima Meuseugit Raya was one of the four chiefs upon whom the sultan was traditionally obliged to consult in all matters of importance, the others being Teuku Kali (the Teuku Kali Malikon Ade), Teuku Ne’ of Meura’sa and the Imeum of Lueng Bata. Snouck emphasises that this dependence was no mere formality: the sultan, he writes, “could do nothing without consulting” these four, who were in turn dependent upon the decision of the three sagis of Great Acheh. On the day of the Coronation of the Sultan, the Panglima Meuseugit Raya was expected to be at his post keeping order within the Dalam, while the Teuku Kali Malikon Ade discharged his functions in the open space around the branda seuallah (the royal verandah).
Loss of territory to Teuku Kali Malikon Ade
In the period of the sultanate’s decline, the office was seriously weakened by the aggressive ambition of Teuku Kali Malikon Ade, who was bent on acquiring a territory that would make him an uleebalang in the full sense of the word. At a favourable moment he succeeded in wresting from the “weak Panglima Meuseugit Raya” no less than half of his territory — twelve gampongs on the right bank of the Acheh River. Thereafter the two chiefs, though their lands marched with the Dalam and might have been supposed to be mere creatures of the sultanate, carried on a brisk rivalry. They occasionally made open war on one another; the sultan would subsidise first one and then the other, and his own followers could be found in both camps. In the disputed successions to the throne the Panglima and the Teuku Kali Malikon Ade “usually espoused opposite sides.”
The letters patent of 1889
The most celebrated documentary trace of the office in Vol. I is the translation printed in the appendix to Chapter I: the letters patent with the ninefold seal granted by the pretender-sultan Tuanku Muhamat Dawot (Sultan Alaedin Muhamad Daud Shah Juhan) at Keumala, dated 4 Rabīʿ al-awwal 1307 H / 28 October 1889. Addressing the Panglima as “our uleebalang, who is called the Panglima of the Meuseugit Raya of Banda Acheh, the Seat of Peace,” the sultan confirmed him in the hereditary office, instructed him to command the good and forbid the evil among subordinate chiefs, to ensure the performance of the Friday service and the five daily prayers, to build mosques, deahs and meunasahs, and to collect zakat and pitrah. He was also made the sultan’s deputy in matters of pasah (divorce by judicial decree), marriage, and the pitrah of orphans, with liberty to appoint a learned ulama as his deputy in religious matters — a clause that, as Snouck observes, shows the model on which such documents were composed to have been “the work of ulamas.”
See Also
- Hok Canton Incident
- Imeum of Lueng Bata
- Letters patent with the ninefold seal to Panglima Meuseugit Raya
- Meuseugit Raya
- Mrs. Hansen
- Teuku Kali Malikon Ade
- Teuku Ne’ of Meura’sa
- Teuku Uma
- Tuanku Muhamat Dawot
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.