Jrue'

Jrue’ (Achehnese Jruë’) is a mukim in the XXII Mukims sagi of Great Acheh, named by Snouck Hurgronje in his account of the Achehnese imeum as one of a group of three mukims whose imeums had been accorded, by adat, a measure of judicial authority in their own right.

The reference occurs in the discussion of the degeneration of the office of imeum. Although the imeum was, in his origin, a subordinate religious officer appointed by the uleebalang and intended to act as the latter’s deputy within his jurisdiction, his position had — especially in parts of the XXII Mukims situated too far from the headquarters of the uleebalang to admit of all matters of importance being subjected to his decision — been expanded by adat. “Groups of three or four mukims are united for this purpose,” writes Snouck, “and the decision of the three or four imeums has the same force as that of the uleebalang.” The unions which he names by way of example are: Lam Lheue, Lam Kra’, Krueng Ma’, and Ateue’; Sibree, Ba’et, and a part of Lam Ara; and another part of Lam Ara, Aneu’ Gle, and Jrue’. The mention of Jrue’ thus places the mukim in a recognisable administrative group of the XXII Mukims, lying in the eastern or southern portion of that sagi.

The grouping itself is significant for the political geography of the sagi. The XXII Mukims, as Snouck repeatedly notes, was the most populous and politically weighty of the three sagis of Great Acheh: its hereditary chief, the Panglima Polem, was accounted the doyen of the panglima sagis, and the increase of population within its territory had given rise, in the course of generations, to the formation of new mukims beyond the original number. The size and population of the sagi made it impracticable for a single uleebalang to keep all matters of importance in his own hands; the delegation of a measure of judicial authority to specified boards of imeums was the practical adat by which the difficulty was met.

The position of Jrue’ alongside Aneu’ Gle and a part of Lam Ara is otherwise its only mention in Vol. I. The mukim is not enumerated among the territorial chiefdoms whose individual histories are given by Snouck, and its imeum belongs to that numerous class of minor Achehnese chiefs whose personal fame was, in the nature of things, little likely to be recorded beyond the limits of their own jurisdiction.

Additional account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Jrue’

Jrue’ (Achehnese Jruë’) is a mukim of the XXII Mukims of Great Acheh, named by Snouck Hurgronje as one of a group of three mukims whose imeums had, by adat, been accorded a measure of judicial authority in their own right.

The Three Mukims of the Imeum Union

In the chapter on the degeneration of the office of imeum, Snouck explains that the imeum was, in his origin, a subordinate religious officer appointed by the uleebalang and intended to act as the latter’s deputy within his jurisdiction. In parts of the XXII Mukims situated too far from the headquarters of the uleebalang to admit of all matters of importance being subjected to his decision, the position of the imeum had been expanded by adat. “Groups of three or four mukims are united for this purpose,” writes Snouck, “and the decision of the three or four imeums has the same force as that of the uleebalang.” The unions which he names by way of example are: Lam Lheue, Lam Kra’, Krueng Ma’, and Ateue’; Sibree, Ba’et, and a part of Lam Ara; and another part of Lam Ara, Aneu’ Gle, and Jrue’.

The Political Geography of the XXII Mukims

The grouping is significant for the political geography of the sagi. The XXII Mukims, as Snouck repeatedly notes, was the most populous and politically weighty of the three sagis of Great Acheh: its hereditary chief, the Panglima Polem of the XXII, was accounted the doyen of the panglima sagis, and the increase of population within its territory had given rise, in the course of generations, to the formation of new mukims beyond the original number. The size and population of the sagi made it impracticable for a single uleebalang to keep all matters of importance in his own hands; the delegation of a measure of judicial authority to specified boards of imeums was the practical adat by which the difficulty was met.

The union of Jrue’ with Aneu’ Gle and a part of Lam Ara places the mukim in the coastal or north-western portion of the sagi, in the same general area as Lam Lheue, Lam Kra’, Krueng Ma’, and Ateue’. The coastal mukims were those most remote from the inland seat of the uleebalang, and it was therefore in these mukims that the practical adat of the imeum-union had grown up. Jrue’ is one of the smaller mukims of this coastal cluster, and its mention by Snouck is the principal record of its separate existence.

The Office of the Imeum and Its Emancipation

The institution of the imeum-union is described by Snouck as one of the ways in which the imeums “succeeded in emancipating themselves from control” in earlier times. The imeum, though originally a subordinate officer, had in many cases succeeded in acquiring a measure of independence, and the adat by which the joint decision of three or four imeums had the same force as that of the uleebalang was one of the legal expressions of that independence. The same chapter observes that “in times of disorder especially, such as the present, when parties are being formed by others than the traditional chiefs, considerable independence is attained by many imeums”; the union of Jrue’, Aneu’ Gle, and Lam Ara is a survival, into Snouck’s own time, of the older constitution.

The Name and the Place

The name Jruë’ is, in Snouck’s account, an Achehnese toponym of no very obvious etymology. It does not contain the elements lam (“in, at”), krueng (“river”), or gunong (“mountain”) that appear in the neighbouring mukim-names, and it is accordingly one of the older Achehnese settlement-names, the meaning of which had been lost even to the Achehnese themselves. The mukim is not enumerated among the territorial chiefdoms whose individual histories are given by Snouck, and its imeum belongs to that numerous class of minor Achehnese chiefs whose personal fame was, in the nature of things, little likely to be recorded beyond the limits of their own jurisdiction.

See Also

• XXII Mukims
• Lam Lheue
• Lam Kra’
• Krueng Ma’
• Ateue’
• Sibree
• Ba’et
• Lam Ara
• Aneu’ Gle
• Panglima Polem
• 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.