A gampong in the VI Mukims. The saint Teungku Lam Aron is buried here.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — VI Mukims
The VI Mukims is an uleebalangship of the XXV Mukims sagi of Great Acheh, counted in Snouck Hurgronje’s account among the territories whose control was contested by rival families. Its history illustrates the manner in which the hereditary dignities of the Achehnese sultanate could be transmuted into territorial lordships.
Severance from Meura’sa
Teuku Nanta Seutia was originally an “uleebalang of our supreme lord,” with which hereditary rank he was invested for exceptional services to one of the princes. Such a rank carried with it no more than dignity and claim to respect, but it made its holders unwished-for guests in the uleebalangship where they established themselves. Here they were of course free from all control (beuëh) and in a position to make inroads on the rights of others. Nanta Seutia succeeded in detaching the VI Mukims from the control of Teuku Ne’, chief of the great mukim of Meura’sa, and the protests of the latter reiterated down to the present day were of no avail against this secession.
The Ne’ and Nanta Rivalry
The chief of the Mukim Meura’sa, Teuku Ne’ Raja Muda Seutia, bore (with Teuku Ne’ Peureuba Wangsa of the IX Mukims) the official title of ne — “grandfather” — of the sultan, originally in relation to the VI Mukims as well as to Meura’sa. The Nantas’ success in wresting the VI Mukims from the Ne’ family turned what had been a unified house into a recurring feud. Snouck Hurgronje notes that stories are told about the father of the late Teuku Nanta Seutia, chief of the VI Mukims of the XXV Mukims, resembling those narrated of the father of the late Panglima Polem: on the few occasions on which they complied with the sultan’s summons to come and discuss affairs of state, they entered the royal dwelling in foul clothing and addressed the sultan as gata (the equivalent of tutoer), remarking “we are not wont to say deelat.”
The Defection of Teuku Uma and Aftermath
In 1896 the Nanta family, having taken a prominent part in the treachery of Teuku Uma against the Dutch, was declared deposed from the government of the VI Mukims, and the Ne’ family was restored to power. When the Nantas were expelled, the Dutch Government appointed as Chief Teuku Raja Itam, a son of the Teuku Ne’ who was uleebalang of Meura’sa at the beginning of the Dutch operations in Acheh. The native authority in that place is exercised, the author notes, by the young Teuku Kaja Itam, son of the late Teuku Ne’ of Meura’sa.
The Twelve Uleebalangs
Although the VI Mukims does not appear in the canonical list of the “twelve uleebalangs who appoint and dethrone princes,” its control was long a key to the politics of the XXV Mukims. The real potentates of that sagi in Snouck Hurgronje’s time were Teuku Ne’ Peureuba Wangsa of the IX Mukims, Teuku Ne’ Raja Muda Seutia of Meura’sa (and earlier also of the VI Mukims), and Teuku Nanta Seutia, who had wrested the VI Mukims from the last-mentioned chief. The sagi of the XXV Mukims thus presents a triangular balance of forces in which the VI Mukims was the prize.
See Also
- XXV Mukims
- IX Mukims (of XXV)
- Meura’sa
- Teuku Nanta Seutia
- Teuku Ne’
- Teuku Ne’ Raja Muda Seutia
- Teuku Raja Itam
- Teuku Uma
- Three Sagis (XXVI, XXV, XXII Mukims)
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.