Bentara Keumangan is the name given in Vol. I of The Achehnese to a federation of uleebalangs in Pidie, formally organised on the same model as the XXII Mukims of Panglima Polem in Great Acheh. The federation is named, after the Achehnese fashion, from the chief who was recognised as its head at the time of its formation, and is described as the XXII Mukims of Bentara Keumangan.
C. Snouck Hurgronje introduces the federation in a footnote to his discussion of the sagi — the great confederacies of uleebalangs which formed the political skeleton of Acheh proper. “There are in Pidie also federations of the same sort,” he writes. “Just as Acheh has its XXII Mukims of Panglima Polem, so we find in Pidie the XXII Mukims of Bentara Keumangan, etc.” The “etc.” carries the implication that other, less famous federations of the same kind existed in Pidie and in other outlying parts of the sultanate.
The structural parallel is important. In Great Acheh, the Sagi of the XXII Mukims was the highland confederacy hereditarily presided over by Panglima Polem, and ranked alongside the Sagi of the XXV and the Sagi of the XXVI. In Pidie, the XXII Mukims of Bentara Keumangan stood in a like relation to the local panglima or federation-chief. As in Acheh proper, the confederacy originated in the need for offensive and defensive alliance among neighbouring uleebalangs exposed, in their mutual strife, to the depredations of one another and of freebooters: “Just as the gampongs which standing alone would have lain at the mercy of the first freebooter, protected themselves by uniting under a single uleebalang, so must the uleebalangs in their mutual strife have perceived the usefulness of offensive and defensive alliances with their neighbours.”
The federation, however, was not so close as to extinguish local independence. Each constituent uleebalang continued to govern his own territory “just as though there were no sagi in existence,” and the authority of the federation-chief — like that of the panglima sagi in Great Acheh — extended “only to matters of general interest.” The hereditary rank of the chief of the federation, moreover, did not guarantee his effective influence; that depended, in the high-personal Achehnese manner, on his individual characteristics.
Bentara Keumangan thus appears in Vol. I as the principal Pidie analogue of the Achehnese sagi — a federation modelled on the same pattern, but located in the outlying region of Pidie and consequently outside the regular working of the three-sagi constitution of Great Acheh.
See Also
- Pidie
- XXII Mukims
- Panglima Polem
- Three Sagis (XXVI, XXV, XXII Mukims)
- XXV Mukims
- XXVI Mukims
- Great Acheh
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.