The gampong of the author of the Hikayat Pochut Muhamat, who gave himself the title of Teungku Lam Rukam. ‘This title shows him to have been a man distinguished from the general mass of the people by a certain amount of religious knowledge and devotion, and to have resided in the gampong of Lam Rukam in the XXV Mukims.‘
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — XXV Mukims
The XXV Mukims (Achehnese Tujoh ploh lhee, “twenty-five”) is one of the three sagis or “angles” into which Acheh proper outside the sultan’s immediate territory was anciently divided. It lies to the left of the Acheh River, downstream from the XXII Mukims and opposite the XXVI Mukims, and forms part of the lowland or baroh country of Great Acheh. The sagi has somewhat outgrown its name, though in a less degree than the XXII Mukims, while the XXVI continue to correspond with their ancient number.
The two Ne’s and the real potentates
The hereditary chief, or panglima sagi, of the XXV Mukims is Teuku Seutia Ulama (called Teuku Siah among the people), a name which lends weight to the conjecture that an earlier holder of the office had distinguished himself by his legal learning. He has, however, occupied himself but little with the government of the district, and for a long time past the power of some of the other uleebalangs has put that of their nominal chief in the shade.
The true potentates of this sagi are Teuku Ne’ Peureuba Wangsa, chief of the IX Mukims; Teuku Ne’ Raja Muda Seutia, uleebalang of the mukim of Meura’sa (and earlier of the VI Mukims); and Teuku Nanta Seutia, who wrested the VI Mukims from the last-mentioned chief. The two Ne’s — whose title, meaning “grandfather,” was an hereditary style expressing the original relation between the powerful sagi-chiefs and the sultan — are included, with Teuku Ba’et and Teuku Waki Chi’ Gampong Baroh of the XXII Mukims and Teuku Ateue’ and Teuku Imeum Tungkob of the XXVI, in the traditional list of the “twelve uleebalangs who appoint and dethrone princes.”
The secession of the VI Mukims
The most important internal upheaval in the modern history of the sagi was the secession of the VI Mukims. Teuku 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. In 1896 the Nanta family, having taken a prominent part in the treachery of Teuku Uma against the Dutch, was expelled; the Ne’ family was restored to power; and the Dutch Government appointed as chief Teuku Raja Itam, a son of the Teuku Ne’ who had been uleebalang of Meura’sa at the beginning of the Dutch operations in Acheh. Since the “defection” of Teuku Uma, who was married to Chut Din, the daughter of Teuku Nanta, the Nantas have been declared deposed from the government of the VI Mukims, and the native authority in that place is exercised by the young Teuku Raja Itam.
Religion and the sagi mosque
Each of the three sagis of Great Acheh anciently possessed its own head mosque. That of the XXV Mukims was Indrapeurua, in the VI Mukims of the XXV; of the last two sagi-mosques (those of the XXV and XXVI) scarcely any trace remained at the time of writing. The most important religious establishment within the sagi, in Snouck Hurgronje’s account, is the kanduri-cycle of the saint Teungku Hamba Alah, whose tomb in the mukim of Silang is still revered as a holy place, and who exercised during his lifetime a widespread influence over the religious life of the sagi.
See Also
- Hikayat Pochut Muhamat
- Pochut Muhamat
- Teungku Lam Rukam
- XXII Mukims
- XXVI Mukims
- Great Acheh
- Meura’sa
- Teuku Seutia Ulama
- Teuku Ne’ Peureuba Wangsa
- Teuku Ne’ Raja Muda Seutia
- Teuku Nanta Seutia
- Teuku Raja Itam
- Teuku Uma
- Indrapeurua
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.