A mukim (district) of Acheh Proper, famous in the war against the Dutch. The brave Imeum of Lueng Bata and his followers were among the foremost resisters. During the first Dutch expedition, the Imeum of Lueng Bata and Teuku Lam Nga fought with heroic valour. After the conquest of the XXVI Mukims by the Dutch and their advance through the XXII Mukims, the Imeum of Lueng Bata finally thrust his sword into its sheath and withdrew from public life. Teuku Usen of Lueng Bata (brother of the imeum) was among the principal panglimas who took up arms under Teuku Asan. The Mukim Lueng Bata was among those overcome by the Dutch after a period of comparative inactivity. The tomb of Teungku Meuntroe — the saint who specialises in punishing perjurers — is situated in the open country at Lueng Bata.
Lueng Bata was one of the important gampongs in the vicinity of Banda Acheh, listed by C. Snouck Hurgronje among the most important gampongs of the capital area alongside Gampong Jawa, Pande, Pennayong, Lam Bhu’, Lam Seupeuëng, Ateuëng, Batoh, and Meura’sa.
As a banda (town-bred) gampong, Lueng Bata’s inhabitants were distinguished from the dusön (countryfolk) of more remote districts by their language, customs, and familiarity with the manners of the Acehnese capital.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Lu’eng Bata
Lu’eng Bata (also written Lueng Bata) is one of the principal gampongs of Banda Acheh and one of the most historically significant localities in the ethnographic record of The Achehnese. It appears at once as a village of the capital’s inner ring, as a former wakeueh district of the XXV Mukims, and as the seat of an influential and powerful imeum whose role in the war with the Dutch was of considerable military importance.
A Gampong of the Capital
The Dalam — the residence of the Sultan, which the Dutch incorrectly termed the Kraton and which was also known as Kuta Raja — formed before the Dutch war the nucleus of a number of fine and prosperous gampongs. Their centre, with its mosque and market-place, was called Banda Acheh, and gave the tone to the whole country in matters of custom, dress, and so forth. The most important of these gampongs, Snouck Hurgronje enumerates, were Gampong Jawa, Pande, Peunayong, Lam Bhu’, Lam Seupeu’eng, Ateung, Batoh, Meura’sa — and Lu’eng Bata. The inhabitants of these and the neighbouring villages, with their language and customs, were distinguished by the epithet banda, “town-bred” or “civilised.”
A Former Wakeueh District
Together with Pagaraye (from Malay pagar ayer) and Lam Sayun, Lu’eng Bata was regarded as properly belonging to the XXV Mukims, yet this trio “seems also to have been formerly wakeueh.” The Arabic word waqf — appearing in Achehnese as wakeueh — signifies property withdrawn in perpetuity by its owner from all alienation, and devoted to some object permitted by the Moslem law. In the political application of the term, certain districts were set aside by the Sultans as reserved territories — outside the ordinary jurisdiction of the Panglima Sagi — so that the Sultan might “stand without and above parties, and maintain a neutral field of observation and operation.” Within living memory, the only trace of such a status at Lu’eng Bata had been the independence of its chief; but that independence was substantial. The influential and powerful imeum of Lu’eng Bata was indeed on many occasions the adviser and ally of the Sultan — a relation that compelled the latter to hold this chief in great respect and to treat him with marked distinction.
The Imeum of Lueng Bata
Snouck Hurgronje singles out the imeum of Lu’eng Bata as the most striking example of the elevation that the office of imeum (Ar. imam) could attain in the hands of an able incumbent. Originally a religious officer attached to the meuseugit of his mukim, the imeum had by Snouck Hurgronje’s time “speedily degenerated” into an adat-chief of “purely worldly authority”; and some imeums had succeeded in emancipating themselves from the uleebalang altogether. Among these, “we need only instance the well-known imeum of Lu’eng Bata who played so distinguished a part in the war with the Dutch as a military leader.” His case illustrates the wider phenomenon by which the highland imeums, in times of disorder, attained to considerable independence from the traditional chiefs.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Lueng Bata
Lueng Bata (also written Lu’eng Bata) is a mukim in the XXV Mukims of Acheh, lying near the Dalam and the capital, Banda Acheh. It is one of three mukims — together with Pagaraye and Lam Sayun — that are regarded as properly belonging to the XXV Mukims, yet are spoken of as having formerly been wakeueh districts of the sultan’s personal domain. In The Achehnese Vol. I it appears chiefly as the seat of an influential imeum who acted as adviser and ally of the sultan.
The wakeueh districts were territories attached to the sultan’s personal estate and administered for his benefit. The mukims Lueng Bata, Pagaraye and Lam Sayun are regarded as properly belonging to the XXV Mukims, yet this trio seems also to have been made wakeueh originally with the intention of providing direct royal support. Such survivals of wakeueh districts of this description are to be found in Pidie and some other dependencies, but their chiefs have long been free from the control of the sultans. The Imeum of Lueng Bata, who held one of these districts, was a chief whose military reputation extended throughout the country; the well-known Imeum of Lueng Bata distinguished himself as a military leader in the war with the Dutch.
Among the uleebalangs of the sultan’s territory and the so-called wakeueh-districts — Teuku Kali, the Panglima Meuseugit Raya, the Imeums of Lueng Bata and of Chade’ and others — there were some who had much more weight in the scale than many of the members of the board of twelve. The Imeum of Lueng Bata, together with the Imeum of Chade’, is cited as one of the great power-brokers of the last pre-war royal conflict. The Imeum of Chade’ was the most powerful supporter of the defeated candidate in that conflict, while the Imeum of Lueng Bata played the part of an adviser and ally of the sultan. Their relative influence shows how completely the formal constitution — the twelve hereditary panglima sagi and the great officers of the court — had been overlaid by the personal authority of the hereditary imeums of the capital district.
The name Lueng Bata recurs in the list of the chief gampongs of the capital: together with Gampong Jawa, Pande, Peunayong, Lam Bhu’, Lam Seupeu’eng, Ateung, Batoh and Meura’sa, it formed the cluster of fine and prosperous villages that gave Banda Acheh its tone in matters of custom and dress. After the Dutch conquest of the Dalam, the fugitive Sultan fled from his court, first to Lueng Bata and then to Lam Teungoh — a detail that illustrates the strategic importance of the mukim as a place of refuge in the immediate neighbourhood of the royal residence. Lueng Bata (also written Lu’eng Bata) was a mukim and gampong of Banda Acheh, the capital of Acheh. It is named in The Achehnese among the chief gampongs which clustered around the Dalam — the Sultan’s residence — together with Gampong Jawa, Pande, Peunayong, Lam Bhu, Lam Seupeu’eng, Ateung, Batoh and Meura’sa. Together with their neighbours, the inhabitants of these villages were distinguished by the epithet banda — “town-bred” or “civilized” — and gave the tone to the whole country in matters of custom and dress. As a mukim Lueng Bata was attached to the XXV Mukims sagi, one of the three sagis of Great Acheh.
See Also
- Acheh
- Banda Acheh
- Gampong
- Gampong Jawa
- Great Acheh
- Imeum of Lueng Bata
- Lam Nga
- Meura’sa
- Teuku Asan
- Teuku Lam Nga
- Dalam
- Kuta Raja
- XXV Mukims
- Lam Sayun
- Lam Bhu’
- Dalam (Sultan’s Court)
- Pagaraye
- Pidie
- Imeum of Chadé
- Panglima Meuseugit Raya
- Three Sagis (XXVI, XXV, XXII Mukims)
- Teuku Ne’ of Meura’sa
- Teungku Tiro (Muhamat Amin)
- Teuku Uma
- Achehnese War
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.
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. Chapter I, § 2, p. 24.