ofthe SAME TREE

the sultan’s. 175 This development may be linked to a shift in emphasis in
Sufism, which played a major role in Acehnese society. Before the eighteenth
century, succession in a Sufi brotherhood (tarekat) passed from the syaikh
(leader of a tarekat) to a disciple elected for his spiritual mystical knowledge.
A change in determining succession appears to have occurred sometime in the
eighteenth century, when the transmission of such knowledge was no long er
as important as the baraka, or God’s blessing working through a favored
one. 176 Although scholars have tended to focus on the Sufi writings of the great
Syaikh al-Islam in the Aceh court, there were other Sufi syaikh who were more
focused on worldly activity. In the neighboring Minangkabau highlands, the
Sufi syaikh and their disciples were active participants in the development
of commercial agriculture beginning in the late seventeenth century. 177 With
the growing importance of agriculture in the interior of Aceh, it is likely that
Sufi ulama were similarly involved. Many of the tarekat had become peacefully
integrated into Acehnese society, and their influence in the countryside
is clearly evident in the Hikayat Malem Dagang.
The other major Acehnese language epic is the Hikayat Pocut Muhamat,
which was written sometime in the middle of the eighteenth century by a
man of religious learning (teungku). One notable feature of the Hikayat is the
role played by agriculture and the mukim. In the early nineteenth century, the
Mukim XXII was located in the interior highlands and focused on agriculture,
while the Mukim XXV and Mukim XXVI were on the coast and involved in
trade. 178 In earlier centuries there may have been different mukim configurations,
and their association with interior agriculture may have been what
distinguished them from the coastal settlements. The Hikayat Pocut Muhamat
describes rice fields and irrigation works in the mukim and declares that “agriculture
is the best of trades.” 179
These princely sentiments reflect the shift in the eighteenth century from
a Malayu culture based on coastal trading settlements to an Acehnese culture
characterized by irrigated rice cultivation, mainly in the interior but also
along the coast. The distinction and the greater importance of the interior
are clearly expressed in this hikayat when Pocut Muhamat states that recruits
from coastal Pidië will be sought only after he has assembled all the Acehnese
in the interior. 180 Not long after taking office in 1641, Sultanah Taj al-Alam
Safiyat al-Din publicly chastised the Orang Kaya Seri Maharaja for seizing the
best lands in Pidië for himself and leaving the poorest to the ruler. 181 Although
Pidië was earlier noted as one of the important ports along the northeastern
coast, it is clear from these later references that its later claim to fame was its
agricultural lands.
The Hikayat Pocut Muhamat emphasizes the power of the mukim leaders
in relation to the sultan. Pocut Muhamat informs the leader of Pidië that
142 Chapter 4