Ba’et is a district name in the XXII Mukims of Great Acheh, best known as the seat of the seven-mukim uleebalangship of that name. In The Achehnese Vol. I, Snouck Hurgronje mentions Ba’et in three connected contexts: as the seat of a powerful clan of imeums, as the eponymous territory of Teuku Muda Ba’et and his predecessors, and as one of the few districts whose imeum had effectively emancipated himself from uleebalang control.
The Imeum of Ba’et and the Mukim-System
The office of imeum (Arabic imām) at the head of a mukim was originally religious, but had degenerated by Snouck Hurgronje’s time into a chiefly secular jurisdiction. Some imeums succeeded in emancipating themselves from the control of their uleebalangs even in earlier times. The author cites a list of “examples of such unions”: Lam Lheue, Lam Kra’, Krueng Ma’ and Ateue’; Sibree, Ba’et and a part of Lam Ara; another part of Lam Ara, Aneu’ Gle and Jrue’. By “unions” he means instances in which the imeum of a mukim had so consolidated his authority as to rival or even eclipse the territorial chief.
Etymology and Title
The word Ba’et in Achehnese is also applied as an honorific in the title of the chief of the VII Mukims, Teuku Muda Ba’et, although Snouck Hurgronje does not commit himself on the etymology of the place-name. The territory of an uleebalang has no distinctive name in Achehnese; the Achehnese speak of “the country of uleebalang so and so” or of “the so many mukims.” For the sake of clearness the two expressions are sometimes united, as in “the seven mukims Ba’et,” i.e. the uleebalangship consisting of seven mukims whose chief is called Teuku Muda Ba’et.
In the eye survey of Groot-Atjeh (1937)
The VII Moekims Baet appear in Dr. C. E. Gomperts’s eye survey of 1937 as the valley district whose comparatively good harvest was set against the crop failure of V Moekims Montassie in testing whether food supply governed the frequency of xerophthalmie.
Gomperts’s third test ran: “Dat in de vallei-Moekims Montassie, met eene groote oogstmislukking de xerophthalmie-frequentie weinig verschilde van die van de vallei-Moekims Baet, met een veel beteren oogst” — that in the valley moekims Montassie, with a great crop failure, the xerophthalmia frequency differed little from that of the valley moekims Baet, with a much better harvest. With the parallel findings for Lhong and Lam-Teuba, this supported his conclusion that “men alleen met den factor voeding het xerophthalmie-vraagstuk niet kan oplossen.”
See Also
- VII Mukims Ba’et
- XXII Mukims
- Teuku Muda Ba’et
- Imeum of Lueng Bata
- Lam Lheue
- Ateue’
- Lam Ara
- Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937
- C. E. Gomperts
- Oogheelkundig kampongonderzoek in Groot-Atjeh (Maart-December 1937)
- Xerophthalmie
- Montassik
- Walang sangit
Source
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.
Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937 (“Orienting Ophthalmological Survey among the Atjehnese Population of Groot-Atjeh during 1937”), by Dr. C. E. Gomperts, offprint from the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Afl. 19, Deel 80 (1940), pp. 1191-1238 (Batavia-Centrum: G. Kolff & Co.). Received by the editors 25 October 1939. Offprint DLP-157, Bibliotheek KITLV.