Tanoh Abee is a gampong in the XXII Mukims of Acheh which, in The Achehnese, gives its name to the hereditary kali rabon jale or chief judge of the XXII sagi. The chief kali of each sagi was in theory appointed by the sultan, but the rule speedily became a dead letter, and in practice the son, brother or nephew of a deceased title-bearer succeeded to the office “without even having to demand a sealed deed of appointment from the sultan.” The kali rabon jale of the XXII Mukims resided, by long usage, in Tanoh Abee.
The late kali, like his forefathers before him, was called after his gampong: Teungku Tanoh Abee (he died in 1893). “By reason of his learning this chief esteemed himself too highly to act as a sort of acolyte of the Panglima of his sagi, and refused to appear at the call of the Panglima Polem.” The powerful uleebalang was thus constrained, when need arose, to seek the help of teungkus of inferior qualifications — chief among them Teungku di Lheue, an ulama of inferior repute — while his hereditary kali devoted his time to study and the instruction of his disciples. Snouck Hurgronje contrasts this state of affairs with the degeneration of the office of Teuku Kali, the “supreme judge” of the kingdom whose hereditary holder, in the famous case noticed by Mr. Der Kinderen, could “neither read nor write”; the kali rabon jale of the XXII Mukims, by contrast, kept up the learned character of his office.
The name Teungku Tanoh Abee is also used by extension for the line of hereditary kalis themselves, who were called, in Achehnese custom, after the gampong they lived in. Even Teungku Tanoh Abee, the learned kali of the XXII Mukims, “has for years past harboured a bila gob (a man guilty of homicide, literally ‘blood-sacrifice of others’), who has meantime become under his guidance a diligent student of the kitabs.” The sanctuary thus extended by the learned kali to a homicide is cited by Snouck Hurgronje as an illustration of the working of the Achehnese blood-feud (bila); even the chief religious officer of the sagi could shield a bila gob while the formal “proof” of the capture of the offender was wanting.
In the XXV Mukims, by comparison, there flourished for a short time a tolerably learned head kali, Teungku Lam Paya, who died some years before Snouck Hurgronje wrote; his son and successor “is said not to be particularly learned in the law, but very ready of speech.” Tanoh Abee in the XXII, by contrast, kept up a more sustained tradition of learning; its hereditary kali was, in his own person, one of the ulamas of the highlands, and his refusal to act as an acolyte of the Panglima is one of the small but significant episodes by which the learned class of Acheh marked its independence of the temporal chiefs.
See Also
- XXII Mukims
- Teungku Tanoh Abee
- Panglima Polem
- Teungku di Lheue
- Teungku Lam Paya
- Mr. T.H. Der Kinderen
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.