Atjeh mosque drum — the use of a drum (trom in Dutch, in standard Indonesian bedug or kentongan) to call the faithful to prayer in the Atjeh mosque (mesigit) — is the Atjehnese adaptation of the Islamic call to prayer (adhan) recorded in Prof. Dr. Kernkamp’s chapter De invloed van den Islam in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946).
Kernkamp’s account
Kernkamp introduces the Atjeh mosque drum in the course of his discussion of the Indonesian mosque’s architectural and liturgical setting. His wording: “In the Indies, too, some mosques have such a minaret [as in the core lands of the Islam]. Most, however, lack them and are recognisable by the peculiar, mountain-like form of the roof, which consists of 3 to 5 storeys with open intermediate spaces. The call to prayer often takes place from an opening in the roof. Because of the slight penetrating power of the human voice in the densely overgrown tropical nature, and for example in Atjeh also because the mosque is usually situated outside the settlement, however, often also a sort of drum is used to urge the faithful to the observance of their duties.”
The Atjeh case
The Atjeh case is, in Kernkamp’s account, doubly exceptional. First, the Atjeh mosque is “usually situated outside the settlement” — that is, outside the gampong (village), in contrast to the Javanese mosque, which is typically embedded in the desa (village). This physical separation increases the distance over which the call to prayer must carry. Second, the “densely overgrown tropical nature” of Atjeh — its rainforest vegetation, its riverine settlements, its monsoon climate — limits the carrying-power of the unaided human voice. The drum, in this context, is a practical adaptation: a low-frequency instrument whose sound carries further through dense vegetation than the high-frequency human voice.
The use of the drum in Atjeh is to be distinguished from the use of the adhan (the vocal call to prayer, in Arabic, from the minaret or the roof-opening of the mosque) that is standard in the core lands of the Islam. The drum is not a substitute for the adhan but a supplement to it: the adhan calls the faithful in Arabic, the drum calls them in sound.
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, the Atjeh mosque drum is significant as one of the distinctive features of Atjeh mosque practice. The same feature is found elsewhere in the Indies — the bedug of the Javanese mosque is a related instrument — but the Atjeh case is distinguished by the explicit role of the drum in compensating for the physical separation of the mosque from the settlement. The drum thus marks the Atjeh mosque as a specifically Indonesian adaptation of the standard Islamic mosque, in which the practical demands of the tropical environment have shaped the form of religious practice.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- invloed van den Islam — influence of Islam
- mesigit — Friday congregational mosque
- Meunasah — village prayer-house
- pen — open/wide (Atjeh concept)
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Atjehsch — Acehnese (adjective)
- Acheh — Aceh
- Java — Java
- desa — village
- gampong — village (Atjeh form)
- Prof. Dr. — Professor Doctor
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
- Mesigit
- Meunasah
- Sembahjang
- Friday service
- Panghoeloe
- Acheh
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- W. J. A. Kernkamp
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), p. 84 (chapter De invloed van den Islam door Prof. Dr. W. J. A. Kernkamp).