The IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI — that is, the four-mukim subdistrict comprised within the seven-mukim division of the XXVI Mukims sagi of Great Acheh — is mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I principally as the seat of the learned kali Teungku Tanoh Mirah, the dignified and learned ecclesiastical judge who held aloof from the jihad bickering of his contemporaries.
Snouck Hurgronje names the district in the course of his account of the ulamas of Acheh, and especially of their conduct during the long period of the Achehnese War. The great body of ulamas had been drawn, by the very logic of their position, into the political and military agitation that surrounded the war against the Dutch; but not all of them. “Some there are also among them,” writes Snouck, “who in spite of the indignant remonstrances of their more ambitious colleagues, hold themselves aloof from all this useless bickering and behave as though no jihad existed. Such for instance is Teungku Tanoh Mirah, the learned kali of the IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI.” The district thus appears in the text as the territorial seat of a learned and impartial ecclesiastical jurisdiction, distinct from the more warlike ulamas of the Tiro school and from the practical politicians grouped around Teuku Uma or Teungku Kutakarang.
The territorial style itself — “the IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI” — illustrates the hierarchic structure of the Achehnese mukim system, in which smaller divisions could be nested within larger ones. The seven-mukim division (VII Mukims) of the XXVI sagi had originally consisted of seven component mukims, but the increase of population had given rise in the course of generations to the formation of new districts, so that the traditional name of the larger division no longer exactly corresponded to its actual proportions. Within this enlarged VII Mukims lay, in turn, a four-mukim subdistrict whose style preserved both its own and its superior’s name. Such compound designations were a common expedient in a country where many districts shared identical simple names, and where precision in legal documents — especially in those of the religious courts presided over by the kali — required that the seat of a judge’s authority be specified without ambiguity.
The IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI accordingly represent, in Snouck’s narrative, both a territorial fact and an institutional setting: the territorial seat of an ecclesiastical judge whose learning and reserve alike stood out, in the embattled society of late-nineteenth-century Acheh, as a survival of the older, more settled pattern of religious jurisdiction.
Additional account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI
The IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI is a subdivision of the XXVI Mukims of Great Acheh, formed by four of the seven mukims which composed a single uleebalangship of the highland sagi. It is mentioned by Snouck Hurgronje in connection with the kali Teungku Tanoh Mirah, who is described as a learned ulama of that district.
The Kali Teungku Tanoh Mirah
In the chapter on the ulamas — the representatives of learning in the law, whose weight in the political life of Acheh was, in Snouck’s account, much greater than that of either departed saints or living mystics — Snouck observes that, even among the ulamas, there prevailed a spirit of discord during the Acheh War. Some, he continues, held themselves aloof from all the useless bickering of the jihad, behaving as though no holy war existed. “Such for instance is Teungku Tanoh Mirah, the learned kali of the IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI.” The mention is brief but significant: it places the IV Mukims within the seven-mukim uleebalangship of the XXVI, and it associates the district with a religious officer whose independence of the jihad is itself a mark of his standing.
The Constitution of the XXVI Mukims
The XXVI Mukims — the “twenty-six mukims” of the highland sagi of Great Acheh — was divided, in Snouck’s account, into a number of uleebalangships and partial districts. Two of its chief uleebalangs — Teuku Ateue’ and Teuku Tungkob — are named as the hereditary chiefs of the IV Mukims Ateue’ and the XIII Mukims Tungkob respectively. Within the same sagi, a further subdivision is recorded, comprising seven mukims under a single uleebalang; and of these seven, four are known as the IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI, the district of Teungku Tanoh Mirah.
The Office of the Kali
The kali — the Malay form of the Arabic qadi — was, in the Achehnese constitution, the religious judge and the registrar of marriages, divorces, and inheritances. The learned kali of a district was often its principal ulama, and the office, though in many cases hereditary in a particular family, carried with it a measure of personal authority dependent on the reputation of the holder for learning and piety. The independence claimed by Teungku Tanoh Mirah, in abstaining from the jihad, is the more striking in that it was the ulamas who, in other parts of Acheh, provided the leadership of the holy war; his abstention was a personal and political choice, made possible by the standing of his office and by the relative remoteness of his district from the principal theatres of the war.
The Numerical Style
The designation “IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI” is characteristic of the Achehnese numerical convention, by which a smaller district is identified by its number within the larger uleebalangship to which it belongs. The same convention gives its name to the IV Mukims Ateue’, the IV Mukims of the XXV, and the Lhee Mukim Kayee Adang of the dependencies. The IV Mukims of the VII of the XXVI must accordingly be reckoned among the smaller territorial fractions of the highland sagi, and its chief, in the late nineteenth century, was subordinate to the uleebalang of the seven-mukim district in which it lay.
See Also
- Teungku Tanoh Mirah
- XXVI Mukims
- VII Mukims Ba’et
- Mukims VII
- Great Acheh
- Acheh War
- IV Mukims Ateue
- IV Mukims (of XXV)
- XIII Mukims Tungkob
- Teuku Ateue’
- Teuku Tungkob
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.