Seulimeum

The main centre of the XXII Mukims district. A teacher named Teungku Usen resides there; his father Teungku Tanoh Abie, celebrated for his learning and independence, held the position of kali of the XXII Mukims.

Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Seulimeum

Seulimeum is a chiefdom (an uleebalangship) within the XXII Mukims of Great Acheh, mentioned in The Achehnese in connection with its then hereditary chief, Teuku Muda Dawot. The territory lies within the highland sagi of Acheh proper — the country of the ureueng tunong — and is one of the component uleebalangships of the sagi of the XXII presided over by the Panglima Polem.

The uleebalang and his place

Teuku Muda Dawot is introduced to readers of The Achehnese as the subject of one of the portrait plates illustrating Vol. I, captioned: “TEUKU MUDA DAWOT, ULEEBALANG OF SEULIMEUM (XXII MUKIMS).” The accompanying text describes the confederacies of the uleebalangs of the three sagis, of which the XXII Mukims is the first in ceremonial precedence. Like other Muda titles in Acheh — most notably Teuku Muda Ba’et of the VII Mukims — the qualifier Muda (“young”) was a court-derived style distinguishing the reigning chief from senior members of his house.

The uleebalangship of Seulimeum, though formally dependent on the sultan’s confirmation, was in practice independent of royal letters-patent. The chiefs of Acheh proper regarded their rights as by no means dependent on such letters-patent, though both one and the other set some value on them as an embellishment of their rank. The uleebalangship of Seulimeum was, like the other chiefdoms of the XXII Mukims, of more ancient origin than the sultanate itself, and its authority survived — in attenuated form — the long war with the Dutch that began in 1873.

Place in the highland sagi

The XXII Mukims, to which Seulimeum belongs, is the highland sagi or “angle” of Great Acheh — the country of the ureueng tunong. Within this sagi, the principal uleebalangs were the Polem himself, Teuku Ba’et of the VII Mukims, Teuku Waki Chi’ Gampong Baroh of the V Mukims, and the chief of Seulimeum. Together with their fellows in the XXV and XXVI, they were the real wielders of power in the sultanate; the election of a new sultan was usually decided by war between the parties, with the scale turned not so much by the support of the panglimas as by that of these real potentates. The plate which depicts Teuku Muda Dawot is part of a series through which Snouck Hurgronje sought to put faces to the principal offices of Achehnese society.

Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — XXII Mukims

The XXII Mukims (Achehnese Dua ploh dua, “twenty-two”) is the highland sagi or “angle” of Great Acheh, and one of the three confederations of mukims into which Acheh proper outside the sultan’s immediate territory was anciently divided. It lies in the upper reaches of the Acheh River, occupying the intervening space between the territories of the XXV Mukims on the left and the XXVI Mukims on the right, and is the country of the ureueng tunong — the highlanders of Acheh.

The highland sagi

Snouck Hurgronje describes the people of the XXII Mukims as the ureueng Tunong par excellence. The contrast with the ureueng baroh or lowlanders of the two remaining sagis (including the capital) runs through every department of Achehnese life — dress, speech, dwellings, food, morals and political temper. The highlanders esteem themselves, and the lowlanders do not deny it, the braver men; a hero in common speech as well as in literature is often spoken of as anak tunongklueng, “son of the upper reaches of the river.” Their women wear the sleeves of the baju narrower, the chignon differently arranged; their houses are built of more abundant upland timber; even their baju and ija pinggang differ in cut from those worn in the lowlands. The dialect of the XXII Mukims, together with that of the VII Mukims Bueng in the Sagi of the XXVI, is treated by Snouck as the representative highland speech.

The XXII Mukims are repeatedly named in connection with the aboriginal Mante, the wild people of the Achehnese imagination, who are said to inhabit its mountains; and the term Mante is itself used in the lowlands as a nickname for the less-civilized highlanders of this sagi. Within the memory of man a large number of Klings had settled in the highlands of the XXII Mukims, living entirely as Achehnese and engaged in agriculture, and there were even gampongs — such as Lam Alieng — the entire population of which consisted of such hybrid Klings.

Growth beyond the name

The sagi has so far outgrown its name that it now contains, by Snouck’s reckoning, 37 mukims, or 46 if the VII Mukims Pidie (Mukim Tujoh) are included. The traditional number twenty-two has nevertheless survived in the official designation. This growth, attributable to a gradual increase of population, is especially marked in this sagi; the same is true, though in a less degree, of the XXV Mukims, while the XXVI Mukims continue to correspond with their ancient name. The formation of new mukims within an existing sagi is one of the indices of the relative prosperity of the highland country in the closing centuries of the sultanate.

The Panglima Polem

The hereditary chief of the sagi bears the title Panglima Polem (“Lord Elder Brother”), and is regarded as the doyen of the three panglima sagi on account of the antiquity of his lineage, the bravery of the men of his sagi, and its wealth. A tradition — dismissed by Snouck Hurgronje as containing “not a single grain of historic truth” — represented the Polems as sprung from the sultan Meukuta Alam (Iskandar Muda, reigned 1607–1636) by a black slave; the title “elder brother” probably typified the original relation between the powerful sagi-chief and the sultan. The Panglima Polem was wont to disregard for months the sultan’s invitations to the Dalam, and finally, as a token of goodwill, would journey to the sultan’s frontier, have a heavy gong beaten to announce his presence, and return home.

Within the sagi itself, however, another chief arose who thought himself no whit his inferior — Teuku Ba’et, uleebalang of the VII Mukims. The power and influence of these two potentates are described as among the most ancient and most firmly established of all that existed in Great Acheh. In the list of the “twelve uleebalangs who appoint and dethrone princes,” the two principal uleebalangs of the XXII Mukims are Teuku Ba’et of the VII Mukims and Teuku Waki Chi’ Gampong Baroh, chief of the V Mukims.

Justice and religion

The kali rabon jale of the XXII Mukims, though his office is hereditary, was, at the time of Snouck’s writing, a man of real learning — the late Teungku of Tanoh Abee, whose reputation as a jurist had spread beyond his sagi. The sagi also had its historic kanduri at Indrapuri, the chief mosque of the XXII Mukims; this was one of the three great religious establishments maintained, one for each sagi, in the neighbourhood of the capital. In the years preceding the Dutch war, the chief of the XXII Mukims had even usurped the sultan’s prerogative of inflicting the mutilations prescribed by Mohammedan law for theft — a privilege assumed by no other panglima sagi or uleebalang.

Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Seulimeum and the Berglijntje

Seulimeum also served as the western terminus of the berglijntje (mountain line) from Keude Breue over the hills to Seulimeum — the line built in 1904–1908 to connect the second tramway of the Atjeh Dependencies with the old tramway of Great Atjeh running from Kota Radja to Oelèe Lheuë. The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account notes: “this, somewhat hanging-in-the-air, piece of tramway in the Dependencies was connected in the years 1904–1908 by a berglijntje from Keude Breue over the hills to Seulimeum with the old tramway in Groot-Atjeh, by which the military administration had created a powerful instrument for achieving the complete pacification of the intersected regions.”

Before 1904, the two halves of the Atjeh railway network had been operationally separate; after 1908, Seulimeum became the geographic keystone connecting them into a single integrated system.

Account from Atjèh and the War with Japan (1949) — Seulimeum

Seulimeum is the subdistrict headquarters-town and subdistrict of Groot-Atjèh situated on the watershed between the west and east coasts of Atjèh, “the residence and often the birthplace of numerous prominent oelama’s, whose reputation for knowledge and piety attracted pupils not only from the immediate vicinity but also from other parts of the residency,” and the centre of the religious and political life of the Poesa movement from which the first sabotage wave of February 1942 broke out against the Dutch administration. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan treats Seulimeum as the insurgent heart of the residency: the subdistrict where the Poesa youth movement first took shape, where the murder of controleur J. C. Tiggelman marked the opening of the armed revolt, and where the garrison at Padjang Tidji had been disbanded in the late 1930s reforms.

The geography and demography of the subdistrict

“On the less favorable economic condition of the division Groot-Atjèh with its almost 125,000 inhabitants in 1930, of whom 80,000 in the sub-division Koetaradja and 45,000 in the sub-division Seulimeum, we already pointed out.” Piekaar draws attention “to the geographical situation, on the mountainous and typically Acehnese hilly landscape of the ‘watershed,’ which, dominated by Goudberg and Weesberg (Atj. Seulawaih Agam and Seulawaih Inehng), covers the largest part of the sub-division. The inhabited area remains thereby mainly limited to the area belonging to the Groot-Atjèh valley in the West and the area belonging to the Pidirese lowland in the East.” In the inhabited area lie “the sub-divisional headquarters Seulimeum, the residence of the sagihoofd Lam Sië, the important veepasar Sibrèë, and the marketplace Indrapoeri.” On the administrative reforms of 1938 “the garrisons at Padjang Tidji in the subdistrict Seulimeum and at Singkel were disbanded” — the first reduction of the infantry and marechaussee garrison network with which Atjèh was covered.

The centre of religious life

“It is not to be considered accidental, that, as appears from the residence of these district leaders, the center of this movement in the Seulimeum subdistrict was established. In this subdistrict, after all, a flourishing religious life existed from of old. It was the residence and often the birthplace of numerous prominent oelama’s.” Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Daoed, sagi-head of the XXII Moekims, “did, in his capacity as head of religion in his territory, everything within his power to promote the faithful observance of Mohammedan law and religious life.” Among the prominent oelama’s Piekaar mentions Teungkoe Hadji Ahmad Hasballah of Indrapoeri, “the type of the Acehnese oelama of the old stamp, orthodox and uncompromising,” his younger brother Teungkoe Hadji Manja’ alias Teungkoe Lam Oe, Teungkoe Abdoel Wahab, “head of a flourishing religious school, ‘Pergoeroean Islam,’ at Seulimeum,” and the wealthy Teungkoe Sjech Ibrahim of Meintasië’. The chairmanship of the Poesa district board for Groot-Atjèh rested with Teungkoe Abdoel Wahab; the leadership of the Kasjafatoel Islam scout organization for the district rested with Ahmad Abdoellah and A. Hasjmy, both residing at Seulimeum.

The revolt of February 1942

The first sabotage wave “began in the night of 19 to 20 February 1942 and culminated in the murder of controleur Tiggelman of Seulimeum in the night of 23 to 24 February and the encounter at Keumirë on 24 February, in which the chief of exploitation of the Acehnese state railways, Mr. Von Sperling, was killed.” On the night of 23–24 February 1942, “in Seulimeum itself, the controleur, Mr. J. C. Tiggelman, was lured outside at night by the sounding of the alarm and murdered in a beastly manner, while the Atjèhse manager of the auxiliary post office, Tjoet Amat, made off with the cash register.” The sagi head Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Ali “appeared after the end of the first phase untraceable,” and “it can hardly be doubted that Teukoe Moehamad Ali, at least in the further course of the insurgent movement, took a leading part.” The commander of the marechaussee corps, Major W. F. Palmer van den Broek, was placed at Seulimeum, “entrusted with both the administration of the subdistrict and the leadership of the military action.”

Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)

Seulimeum — pronounced Slimum — is the chief place (hoofdplaats) of the onderafdeeling Seulimeum of the afdeeling Groot-Atjeh, and the sagi der 22 moekims. The moekim was originally an ecclesiastical association of gampongs, and the ecclesiastical head was the imeum. The tram-line was laid via Indrapoeri to Seulimeum in 1897 and 1898, when the concentratie round Kota Radja was given up. The population early used the living water for the irrigation of its sawahs; besides, there are many rain-fed rice-fields. The government has had work done on the extension of the sawah-surface. The site proposed for a central institution for the treatment of lunatics, before the government decided on Sabang for reasons of economy, was Lam Teumet in Seulimeum.

Sources

De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914, Deel I, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), p. 69 (section “De Atjeh-tram”).

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.

Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Chapter I §§ 1–3, Chapter III § 1, Chapter V § 1.

Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim.

tags	place, aceh-proper, uleebalangship, mukim, xxii-mukims, highland, sagi, region, great-acheh, groot-atjeh, achehnese, colonial, dutch, buitenbezittingen, tramway, berglijntje, onderafdeeling, sagi-22-moekims, atjeh-tram
aliases	XXII Mukims, Seulimum, Seulimeum, Seulimèum, the chiefdom of Seulimeum, Dua ploh dua, 22 Mukims, Twenty-two Mukims, Sagi of the XXII Mukims, XXII Mukims of Panglima Polem, Seulimeum subdistrict, Seulimeuë, the berglijntje terminus at Seulimeum

Explorer