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as for example gardens, the furniture of a chapel etc. Rice-fields which are made waqf for the benefit of a mosque are however usually described by another term, sara[1] and are spoken of as umòng sara or umòng sara meuseugit or meusara meuseugit.
But wakeuëh is much better known in the sense of a territory or a piece of land which has been placed in a peculiar legal position by the sultans. What this position originally was cannot now be easily traced, as the institution has entirely degenerated. From the information given by the Achehnese we might conclude that wakeuëh lands were those the usufruct of which the sultans had presented to some one or other of their favourites after duly compensating the owners. The epithet is also applied to the strip of ground seven great fathoms (deupa meunara) on each side of the Acheh river, reserved from ancient times to the sultan. Subjects might build or plant within this reserve but the land never became their property, and the sultans could always withdraw the right of user. This royal privilege no doubt originated in the interest of an unimpeded exercise of their sovereignty by the kings of the port. The name tanòh raja is indeed more commonly used than wakeuëh to describe this reservation. Then again we find this latter word applied to the inhabitants[2] of a certain district who have been relieved from sundry burdens and duties exacted from the rest, and exempted from the authority of the local chiefs, a condition which we find elsewhere described by the term bibeuëh[3].
Another explanation given for this word assigns to it a purely
- ↑ This has nothing to do with sharʾ = "sacred law", for this word would be pronounced in Achehnese as charaʾ or saraʾ. It is sometimes explained by its meaning of "with," "along with," thus indicating the rice-fields that appertain to or are connected with the mosque. It is probably however derived from the Malay sara which means "provisions," "means of support."
- ↑ In the two ancient epic poems of Acheh, Malém Dagang and Pòchut Muhamat (see p. 84 above) we find frequent mention of ureuëng wakeuëh nibaʾ (or ubaʾ) raja = "wakeuëh-men on the side of (or with) the king." This appears to mean that a certain district was allotted them to live in, within which they enjoyed complete independence, while they remained responsible to the king alone for their actions. They were thus a sort of free-lances.
- ↑ The term bibeuëh is also applied to persons who enjoy a kind of independence owing to their descent or their personal importance. For example where a scion of a distinguished family or a pandit of widespread celebrity together with his next of kin resided in the territory of an ulèëbalang, it was regarded as a matter of course that the latter should exert but a very slender authority over them, and that he should abstain from pressing in their case the claims which he ordinarily made on his subjects. These persons were bibeuëh (Mal. bibas).
