The VII Mukims — also VII Moekims, in Dutch Zeven Moekims, in Acehnese and Indonesian Tujuh Mukim, in English “the Seven Mukims” — is a grouping of seven mukims (subdistricts or parishes) which constitutes one of the principal uleebalangships of the Sagi of the XXII Mukims of Great Acheh. The grouping is mentioned both by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese Vol. I, in connection with the residence and death of a member of the Achehnese royal house and with the political standing of its uleebalang, and in the 1928 treasure-room guide of the Batavian Society, where its uleebalang is recorded as the Oeloebalang van de VII moekims. Various other groupings of “seven mukims” existed in different parts of Atjeh, and the 1928 guide does not in terms identify its VII Moekims with that of the XXII Mukims; the identification rests on the shared name and the matching late-nineteenth-century period of the two accounts.
The Uleebalang of the VII Mukims
The chief of the VII Mukims was, in the period described by Snouck Hurgronje, Teuku Ba’et — the uleebalang whose power and influence, alongside those of Panglima Polem, were “among the most ancient and most firmly established of all that now exist in Great Acheh.” In the sagi of the XXII Mukims the preponderance did not alternate, as in the other sagis, between one uleebalang and another; rather, the two houses of the Panglima and of Teuku Ba’et stood pre-eminent, the latter rising within his own sagi as a chief “who thought himself no whit his inferior.” At the election of a new sultan, the scale was turned not so much by the support of the panglimas as by that of the real wielders of power in their sagis; and a tradition recorded by Achehnese authorities on adat (customary law) gives a list of “twelve uleebalangs who appoint and dethrone princes,” in which Teuku Ba’et of the VII Mukims appears for the XXII Mukims.
The 1928 treasure-room guide of the Batavian Society records the uleebalang of the VII Moekims as Teukoe Moeda Baid Setia Maharadja — a fuller title-form, “Teukoe Moeda” being the Acehnese title “Young Lord” and “Setia Maharadja” the additional honorific “Loyal Maharaja”, with the personal name “Baid” a romanisation cognate with Snouck’s “Ba’et”. The same chief was deemed significant enough to receive a formal honour from the Dutch colonial government — a gold chain bearing the Dutch coat of arms, granted in 1888. The subsequent revocation of this honour in 1896 “wegens ontrouw” (on account of disloyalty) indicates that the uleebalang of the VII Mukims eventually turned against the Dutch, or at least was perceived to have done so, during the protracted Aceh War.
The grouping of seven mukims under a single lord is consistent with the hierarchical structure of Acehnese territorial administration described by Snouck Hurgronje, in which individual mukims (each comprising several gampongs or villages) were in turn grouped under the authority of an uleebalang, and the uleebalangs themselves fell under one of the three panglima sagi of the sagi system.
The Death of Tuanku Asem
Snouck Hurgronje records that Tuanku Asem — a member of the reigning house of Acheh, and an exception to the majority of the men of royal blood — “died January 1897 at Padang Tiji in the Mukims VII.” Tuanku Asem, “according to all who know him, is an exception to the majority of the men of royal blood in Acheh. He speaks Malay and a little Arabic, understands something of English, and can discuss the religious questions of the day from a more liberal standpoint than that of the pandits.” The place of his death thus associates the VII Mukims, and the village of Padang Tiji within it, with a current of reformist and cosmopolitan thought in late nineteenth-century Acheh.
Padang Tiji and the Mukims VII
The village of Padang Tiji, situated within the VII Mukims, gives its name to the locality in which Tuanku Asem died. The connection of a royal personage with this upland district of the XXII Mukims reflects the way in which the members of the Achehnese royal house dispersed themselves among the uleebalangships of the country, drawing their maintenance from the lands of the chiefs and forming, in each district, a small aristocracy of blood distinct from the local uleebalang.
See Also
- XXII Mukims
- Three Sagis (XXVI, XXV, XXII Mukims)
- VII Mukims Ba’et
- Padang Tiji
- Teuku Ba’et
- Teukoe Moeda Baid Setia Maharadja
- Panglima Polem
- Tuanku Asem
- Mukim
- Uleebalang
- Sagi System
- Aceh War
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.
Gids voor den bezoeker van de schatkamer, Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, Batavia, 1928. Druk: Ruygrok & Co., Batavia. Cabinet 5 (Atjeh), item 31.