Lam Kra’ is a mukim of the XXII Mukims in the highlands of Great Acheh. In The Achehnese it is named, together with Lam Lheue, Krueng Ma’ and Ateue’, as one of a group of mukims united to exercise joint judicial authority in places too remote from the headquarters of the uleebalang for ordinary appeals to be referred thither.
Joint Judicial Unions of the Highlands
Snouck Hurgronje observes that, in several parts of the XXII Mukims situated too far from the uleebalang’s headquarters to admit of all matters of importance being subjected to his decision, the adat had assigned a measure of judicial authority to specified boards of imeums. Groups of three or four mukims were united for this purpose, and the decision of the assembled imeums had the same force as that of the uleebalang himself. Among the examples given are the union of Lam Lheue, Lam Kra’, Krueng Ma’ and Ateue’, and the union of Sibree, Ba’et and a part of Lam Ara (the remaining part of Lam Ara being attached, with Aneu’ Gle and Jrue’, to a second board).
The Imeum and the Erosion of Uleebalang Authority
The institution to which Lam Kra’ belonged is significant for the political history of the highlands. The imeum (Ar. imam) had originally been a religious officer attached to the meuseugit of his mukim; but, by Snouck Hurgronje’s time, his office had degenerated into one of “purely worldly authority,” and many imeums had succeeded in emancipating themselves from the uleebalang altogether. The celebrated imeum of Lu’eng Bata, for example, had played a distinguished part in the war with the Dutch as a military leader. The joint judicial unions of the highlands were a structural expression of this same drift: by entrusting judicial authority to panels of imeums, adat tacitly recognised that the uleebalang’s reach in the more remote mukims of the XXII had become insufficient. Lam Kra’, with its partners, thus formed part of the network of petty jurisdictions through which the sagi of the highlands was in practice administered.
See Also
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.