The VII Mukims Ba’et is one of the principal uleebalangships within the XXII Mukims sagi of Great Acheh. Its chief, bearing the hereditary title Teuku Muda Ba’et, was accounted one of the most powerful potentates of the three sagis, and the district itself figures repeatedly in Snouck Hurgronje’s account of Achehnese political institutions.
The Uleebalangship and its Chief
The territory of an uleebalang has no distinctive name in Achehnese; the Achehnese speak of “the country (nanggroe) of uleebalang so and so” or of “the so many mukims”. For clarity the two expressions are sometimes combined, as in “the seven mukims Ba’et,” i.e. the uleebalangship consisting of seven mukims whose chief is called Teuku Muda Ba’et. The chief of this district was, in the period described, Teuku Ba’et, listed among the principal uleebalangs of the XXII Mukims alongside Teuku Waki Chi’ Gampong Baroh of the V Mukims.
The Kawom of the Imeum Peuet
The VII Mukims Ba’et is distinguished as the home of the most important panglimas of the Imeum Peuet kawom (the confederacy of “four imams”). Chiefs of this most numerous clan were also to be found at Lam Leu’ot and in other places where the kawom was well represented, but the VII Mukims Ba’et held the pre-eminence. The post of panglima kawom, like all Achehnese offices, devolved by inheritance, though the holder took no share in the territorial government.
Rivalry with the Panglima Polem
In the sagi of the XXII Mukims the power and influence of the uleebalang of the VII Mukims Ba’et were, with those of Panglima Polem, “among the most ancient and most firmly established of all that now exist in Great Acheh.” While the Panglima Polem, lord of the XXII Mukims, often disregarded for months all invitations to the Dalam, the uleebalang of the VII Mukims Ba’et rose within his own sagi as a chief “who thought himself no whit his inferior.” In the other sagis the preponderance alternated between one uleebalang and another, but in the XXII these two houses stood pre-eminent.
Recognition at the Sultan’s Court
At the election of a new sultan, which was usually decided by war between the parties, 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. A tradition recorded by Achehnese authorities on adat gives a list of “twelve uleebalangs who appoint and dethrone princes,” among whom Teuku Ba’et of the VII Mukims appears for the XXII Mukims. Snouck Hurgronje cautions that this list at most represents the conditions of a short period, and that other chiefs — such as Teuku Kali the Panglima Meuseugit Raya and the Imeum of Lueng Bata — often carried more weight than many of the board of twelve.
See Also
- XXII Mukims
- Three Sagis (XXVI, XXV, XXII Mukims)
- Ba’et
- Panglima Polem
- Teuku Muda Ba’et
- Teuku Ba’et
- Dalam (Sultan’s Court)
- Imeum Peuet
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.