Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje

“ Beloved by his followers for his generous and kindly demeanour, he worked himself up from a mere panglima in the war against the Dutch to be the dreaded lord of almost the whole West Coast. Throughout the whole of the sphere of his influence, his appearance is the signal for the heriditary chief to retire into the background, well knowing that if he failed to do so it would soon be all over with him. To crown all he induced the sultan for a handsome consideration to impress his nine-fold seal upon his power by means of a deed appointing him "Sea-guardian of the West Coast." ”

“ Without doubt a disordered state of affairs is favourable to the attainment of their purpose, even though it may not arise from the invasion of an infidel power. It gives them a chance to gain adherents, and, if all goes well, to attain a degree of power such as compels the respect of the inactive hereditary chiefs. Nor is the religious element lacking even in their case, for we must always recollect that no single Achehnese has any doubt of the meritorious character of the struggle with the Gōmpeuni, a belief shared even by those who are least inclined to risk their lives for the cause. ”

“ Marvellous explanations of simple occurrences, true historical facts in the guise of fictitious visions or miracles, these are licences which we cannot blame in any poet, and least of all in an Achehnese poet. With Teungku Lam Rukam, however, human feelings always maintain their place, and history never disappears behind the veil of legend. ”

“ Such an unusual personality, revered by many and dreaded by the rest, is required in order that even the most moderate demands of religion may be satisfied. The true Achehnese, if he does not entirely neglect the calls of his creed, takes part with more zeal in the religious or quasi-religious gatherings in the meunasah than in the assemblages at the mosque, where he feels himself but half at home.
Kanduris (religious feasts) he gives and attends with pleasure; at ratébs or recitations, whether real or only imitative like the ratéb sadati and pulèt, he can excite himself to the highest pitch ”

“ Where, however, an ulama goes beyond these everyday limits and travels about the country to enforce reform according to the spirit of the law, the respect he inspires increases to the highest degree, unless his life be in gross contrast with his preaching, and his proceedings manifestly dictated by ambition only. Many Achehnese sinners sympathize in the fullest sense with such a revival, while the rest dare not do otherwise than pretend to assent to it. At times indeed a section of the people will range themselves in opposition to such an ulama ”

“ No Achehnese devotes a measure of care to the cleanliness, the feeding, the repose and the pleasure of his own child in any way comparable to that he bestows on his scrupulous training of these fighting animals. ”

“ An Achehnese woman whose husband has gone as a pepper-planter to the East or West Coast and gives no sign of his existence for years, may indeed feel unhappy; but as she lives in her own house either together with or in the immediate neighbourhood of her own family, she is seldom constrained to demand a dissolution of marriage by faskh. In the same way there exists no necessity for facilitating by conditional divorce, such dissolution of wedlock which as we have seen is most difficult to obtain by faskh. ”

“ Nothing short of absolute conflict with the teachings of religion makes them doubt the genuineness of a poet's representations; and in any case, all these heroes flying and striding through air, sky, sea and forest, with their miraculous palaces and magic armies, are for the Achehnese actual persons of an actual past. ”

“ Equally absurd would it be to reckon the latter only as forming a part of the literature while excluding the former.
Authors and copyists.Nor indeed can it be said that an Achehnese work is better protected against change by the written than by the oral form of transmission. Every copyist claims an author's privilege to modify the original, just as the reciter does in transmission by word of mouth. Should he fail to embellish the original according to his own taste and ideas, he would be looked on by the Achehnese as lacking both intelligence and literary talent. ”

“ Not by any means all of the sayyids of Acheh are theologians or pandits. Most of them devote themselves to trade or in later generations to agriculture, but they enjoy none the less the customary reverence based on religious feeling, even where their life is far from testifying to a devotional spirit on their part. Such is often the case not only with sayyids who have found their way over from Arabia in the guise of random adventurers, but also with those born in Acheh, who quickly make their own of Achehnese manners and vices. ”

“ Nor does this rule apply with less force to Islam than to other religions. For the first thirty years or so, while Arabia was still the centre of Moslim power, life and doctrine developed hand in hand. Thenceforward the paths diverged more and more as time advanced: the schools of doctrinal learning have troubled themselves little about the practical requirements of daily life, while on the other hand all classes of the Moslim community have exhibited in practice an indifference to the sacred law in all its fulness, quite equal to the reverence with which they regard it in theory. ”

“ In spite of the coming privations the approach of the fasting month is joyfully welcomed. Those who have begun to join in the fast while still young can endure the daily abstinence without much effort, if not required to do any heavy work during this month, and if allowed to accomodate their occupations to the change of living which the fast involves. The nights of the Puasa in an Achehnese gampōng are full of noisy merriment, especially among the young men in their own particular sphere, the meunasah. ”

“ The poorer women and children, whose husbands and fathers are sojourning on the East or West Coast as pepper-planters, feel the full bitterness of their position on a feast-day. Their friends are careful to refrain from asking them the question addressed to other women at this feast-fair, "How much meat has your husband brought home?" ”

“ Perpetual dynastic struggles leading to the death or downfall of the rulers, the unstable character of these rulers themselves, the endeavours of chiefs and officials even in the capital to promote their own authority and profit, the want of a proper machinery of government based on other principles than "might is right", all this and much more serves to establish the fact that in the history of Acheh no period can be pointed out in which even these regulations affecting the capital have passed current as the living law of the land. ”

“ Malém Diwa, who spent nearly all his time in the cock-fighting arenas, was not at home when this took place, but a little later he saw his wife soaring in the air with her child and had just time to receive her last admonition at the "gate that leads to the skies". "After three rice-harvests", she said, "you must come and fetch me, else I shall become another's wife". Meanwhile go to Nata (Natal) and there you shall wed the princess Alōïh; but beware lest you fall victim to a passion for the Putròë Meureundam Diwi. ”

“ The European who comes into contact only superficially with the native community, is too apt to think that the adat among them is an almost unchangeable factor of their lives, surrounded on every side with religious veneration. Yet it does not require much philosophic or historical knowledge to be convinced that such invariable elements subsist just as little in the native world as in our own, although among them the conscious reverence for all that is regarded as old and traditional is stronger than in our own modern societies. ”

“ Where the ground of divorce is incompatability of temper, it is almost always the woman who urges her husband to the final step of giving the three taleuëʾ. If he is slow to yield, she imprisons him in the house, generally in the inner room, until he meets her wishes by giving her the "three pieces of betelnut." He might easily set himself free from this temporary confinement, but most men are ashamed of the diabolical outcry raised on such occasions by their wives, who sum up all their evil characteristics, real or imaginary, in the most unflattering form in the hearing of the whole gampōng. ”

“ Those who pass through the Qurān-school are able, so far as they do not speedily forget what they have learned, to read the Arabic character with the vowel sounds; but unless they extend their studies further, this does not enable them to read Malay, or even Achehnese written in Arabic character.
There are thus even among the higher classes very many persons who know little or nothing of reading; and the art of writing is still less widely disseminated. I have often heard Achehnese declare that they found it much more of a burden than a pleasure to be able to write. ”

“ Each energetic ulama travelled to and fro in the sphere where he possessed or hoped to acquire influence, proclaiming with renewed vehemence the principles of the holy war. The better to prepare for the great work, ruinous mosques were to be repaired, religious worship held in high esteem, and the transgressions of the people checked. The godless pleasures of the Achehnese must come to an end. ”

“ From these straits, however, he always manages to escape, and though he never has a cent to his name, and shows a constant disinclination to settle down to any fixed occupation or calling or to fulfil his duties as husband or father, he comes out with flying colours day by day from all his pranks, and moves to side-shaking laughter all who have not suffered personal damage from his rogueries and cunning stupidity. ”

“ In the law of Islam a small place is allotted to the adat, i.e. the different manners and customs of different places, but it does not admit of any special representatives of adat or systems of rules to carry it out. Where recourse is had to laws which are to a great extent based on adat or are called into being by human choice or agreement, this can, as we have seen, be only excused on the ground that the men and the conditions of the present time are too evil to be governed by the holy law. ”

“ Here we learn the character of an Achehnese warlike expedition. Neither chiefs nor subjects make any provision for a suitable commissariat, so that the passage of the troops is a perfect plague to the inhabitants of the districts they traverse. The sugarcane gardens which they pass on the way are plundered to the last section of the last cane, and the stragglers of this hungry and thirsty troop quarrel violently over the refuse. ”

“ The works which we have just dealt with might be called edifying legends from which the reader could draw sundry lessons. Those which follow (some in hikayat form, some in nalam and some in prose) contain edifying instruction on religious matters, with an occasional story by way of illustration.
In so far as they are free from heretical or corrupt traditions, they are capable of being of service to the student or the pandit, but they are more strictly intended for persons who have had no schooling to guide them to a knowledge of the Law, of religious teaching or of sacred history. ”

“ Jeumalōy, whose tomb is still to be seen not far from the principal mosque of Acheh, is universally revered as a saint by the Achehnese. Pòteu Uëʾ, for whose sake his younger brother drove out the sayyid, and that too with the help of subjects turned from their allegiance, is the founder of the present Achehnese dynasty. No wonder then that the scions of the royal house of Acheh will brook no mention of the Hikayat Pòchut Muhamat and regard it as a forbidden thing for anyone of their family to order or listen to its recitation. ”

“ Everyone who comes into close political or social contact with any portion of the Mohammedan population of these countries finds himself occasionally face to face with this very question of religion. Now as most such observers make their first acquaintance with the creed of Islam in the Far East with no further enlightenment than what is afforded by one or two popular European works, they form their judgements on the basis of entirely incomplete observation, under the influence of superficial and sometimes quite accidental impressions received in a limited environment. ”

“ In Acheh no one would dream of prohibiting the father from seriously concerning himself in the bringing up of his children, and reserving that right for the mother's brother, as is done in the highlands of Padang. As we have already seen, the wife's family are only too anxious to leave the ground free to the husband, and it is not till after years of wedded bliss that the ban which severs the latter from his wife's people is gradually removed to some extent. Thus the father has as great a share as he pleases to take in the bringing up of his children. ”

“ The adat-law under which the woman can never be required by her husband to leave her home with him, nay is even prohibited from doing so. The only exception to this rule is where both her family and the authorities of her native place consent to her departure. This usually happens only (at the instance of course of the husband) where the woman's family is very inferior in rank or social position to that of the man, so that the customary gifts etc. on his part are not fully reciprocated on hers. In such cases the marriage is said "to be without adat" (hana adat) . ”

“ When we consider that it is a common saying in Acheh, in spite of the theoretically recognized inviolability of the life and goods of Mohammedan strangers, "I am no Kling who can be slain unavenged", we can imagine how little regard is paid to the life and property of unbelievers who derive no protection either from religion or adat. ”

“ It even happens at times that an Achehnese makes such a marriage at or in the neighbourhood of his own home, setting at defiance the reproaches and hatred of his next of kin for the sake of the beauty of the woman he has chosen. ”

“ Persons of humbler rank sometimes indulge in plurality of wives when their means admit of such a luxury and the journeys to and fro between the abodes of their spouses do not prove too burdensome. As a rule, however, they do not choose two wives in the same gampōng, and thus the quarrels between rival consorts of the same husband are reduced to a minimum.
A great number of Achehnese, however, are practically monogamists. They only marry a second wife after the death of the first, or where incessant domestic quarrels necessitate a divorce. ”

“ To any one who has made himself acquainted with the political and social life of the Achehnese, his remarks on pp. 17–18 of his memorandum will sound as audacious as they are untrue: "Nor indeed is there any trace of ancient popular customs in conflict with Islam, at least in the sense that would indicate a customary law having its existence in the consciousness of the people, as is the case for example with the characteristic institutions regarding the law of person and inheritance which we meet with among the Malays on the west coast of Sumatra. ”

“ Every peg is made much too small for its hole and is kept in its place by means of large wedges. For anyone who understands the uniform structure of the Achehnese house—and every native of the country is an adept in this—the task of taking a house to pieces and setting it up again elsewhere is but the work of a moment.
So when an Achehnese sells his house, this means that the purchaser removes it to his own place of abode; a change of residence by the proprietor or rather the proprietress to another gampōng is quite a rare occurrence among the Achehnese. ”

“ In the beginning the trust of the Achehnese in God's help seemed now and then to be justified. Where they met with reverses the representatives of religion were ever ready with their explanation. "He that will carry on a holy war with assurance of victory must begin," said they, "by turning from all his iniquities.' Small wonder that Allah did not always cause the arms of Acheh to be victorious since he had so much maʿsiët (trangression) to visit on the people. ”

“ Like all estimates of individual worth, that which we can form respecting Tuanku Asém is relative only. The Achehnese, accustomed as he is to hear no sensible language from the lips of tuankus and to see them devote their attention to fighting cocks and rams, women, weapons and so forth, is inclined to give a wide significance to any intelligent utterance of a member of the royal family, and to exaggerate the mental insight of the speaker. ”

“ Mortgaging of such ponds or staked enclosures seems not to be customary, though they pass into the hands of others by sale and succession. It even occurs at times that a man sells his rice-field, yet retains his ownership of the fish-pond he has made there.
There remains one further point of interest with regard to the money-lending system of Acheh. The Achehnese contract of mortgage comprehends within itself a transgression of the rule of law prohibiting all usury (riba) , a rule unconditionally insisted on in the teaching of Islam and much emphasized by every school. ”

“ The foreigner, who had dealings with the Achehnese, as soon as he found himself in difficulties, sought vainly for some authority that might redress his wrongs. Such indeed has been the situation since the seven- teenth Century when the Sultanate of Acheh lost its control over the great chiefs of the State and over their dependents; but even when the power of the Achehnese princes was at its height the foreigner could find no security for life or property in the country. ”

“ It is thus not to be wondered at that the chiefs view the advancement of the "upholders of religion" with inward vexation and alarm.
With alarm, because they have no means of offering a fair and open resistance to these rivals of theirs. For the Achehnese are all convinced, and freely admit, that their customs and institutions are full of maʿsiët (wickedness) , and that some reform of their way of life is highly necessary. They also believe that it is not so much by committing maʿsiët as by defending it that a man abjures the true faith and becomes an infidel. ”

“ So long as the scene of a narrative lies outside Acheh, the Achehnese are entirely indifferent to accurate definitions of place and time. The only chronological rule to which they occasionally adhere, is that stories in which the heroes soar and fly carry us back to an ante-Mohammedan period, for ever since the appearance of the Seal of the Prophets the art of flying has been denied to human beings [80] .
All the works which we have placed under the head of 'fiction' are composed in sanjaʾ, and thus bear the name of hikayat, like the fourteen we have already described. ”

“ Political foresight is, in these days at least, foreign to the nature of all Achehnese. A raja of Acheh in particular, who plunged into the fray with persevering self-sacrifice in the interests of the people or their religion would be a phenomenon that the Achehnese themselves would be unable to explain except as a revelation of the boundless miraculous power of God.
To this we may add that nowhere could worse material be found for organizing a stout resistance to foreign invasion than in the lowland districts of Acheh in the immediate neighbourhood of the Dalam. ”

“ She tells him that if he does not play the man, it may come to pass that his fleet will soon be defeated and his five beloved ones torn from his arms, and that he will then, like his brother Radén, be obliged to content himself with a hag as ugly as an iguana.
There words strike home. Ujut flies into a passion and speaks with contempt of the warlike preparations of the Achehnese. At the same time he admits that he is loth to be compelled to fight just then, as the conjuncture (kutika) is favourable to the Achehnese. ”

“ In practice it may be said that the Achehnese fears the sayyid more than the Creator. This is due to his believing that Allah reserves his punishments for the hereafter and is illimitably merciful in the enforcement of his law against the faithful, whereas the curse of the sayyids takes effect here below without any hope of mercy. No Achehnese will readily so much as lift a finger against a sayyid; one who would dare to take a sayyid's life would not hesitate to cut his own father's throat. ”

“ The better educated of the Achehnese, who are not scholars in the strict sense, read Malay hikayats which are either entirely new or not formerly known in Acheh. Such as suit their taste are disseminated as haba [78] until some poet or rhymster thinks it worth while to make of them an Achehnese hikayat. And so lacking in refinement of taste have the modern Achehnese become, as for the most part to find more pleasure in these flavourless impossibilities than in their own historical epics. ”

“ Thus in the common speech of the Achehnese, when a teungku is specially referred to as teungku meunasah (in contradistinction to leubès, maléms, etc.) there is generally a covert allusion to his lack of learning. This is not to be wondered at, as the office in most cases devolves on the son or nearest male heir of a deceased holder of the post. A child is, however, seldom or never made teungku, and the ulèëbalang more often diverges from the rule of devolution in the appointment of a teungku than in that of a keuchiʾ. Still hereditary succession remains the rule. ”

“ On the whole we gain the impression that the artistic sense of the Achehnese is but little developed, except in the manufacture of silk fabrics, in which much taste is displayed both in colouring and in pattern. During the period of the prosperity of the port-kings, constant intercourse with strangers, and the desire of those of high rank to rival other peoples in show and splendour, may have led to the temporary importation of some degree of art, but this quickly disappeared with the political degeneration which supervened. ”

“ On the other hand it often happens that all are morally convinced that a certain person is in the habit of stealing or has done so in a particular instance, without their being able with the best will in the world to adduce the requisite proofs.
It may for example be safely asserted, in view of the habits of life of the Achehnese, that any one who after nine o'clock in the evening is found lurking in a strange gampōng where no festival is being held, has come there with criminal intent, and generally with the object of committing theft. ”