De Atjèhers (“The Atjehers”) is the standard scholarly work of Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje on the Atjèhese people, published in two volumes by the Landsdrukkerij (Government Printing Office) at [[Batavia|Batavia] in 1893 (Vol. I) and 1894 (Vol. II), and translated into English by A. W. S. O’Sullivan as The Achehnese (Leiden, 1906). The work is the published residue, in modified form, of Snouck Hurgronje’s secret Verslag omtrent de religieus-politieke toestanden in Atjeh of 23 May 23 May 1892, and is the foundational scholarly work on the Atjèhese people, their religion, and their customs.
The Composition
The work is the fruit of Snouck Hurgronje’s seven-month residence at Groot-Atjèh from July 1891 to February 1892. The Verslag of 23 May 23 May 1892 had been offered to the government on 28 May 28 May 1892; the Raad van Indië had advised to publish it; the governor-general had asked the author whether he had objection to the publication desired by the Council; the author had no objection, but had more material, especially on ethnological ground. Better it seemed to him to take up only what was worth knowing for the public. So it happened, and in 1893 the first volume of De Atjèhers appeared from the Landsdrukkerij at Batavia.
The Structure
The first volume contains the chapters:
I. Volksindeeling, staatsbestuur en rechtspraak (Folks-division, state-government and jurisdiction). II. Atjèhsche kalenders, feesten, jaargetijden. Landbouw, zeevaart en vischvangst (Atjèhse calendars, feasts, seasons. Agriculture, seafaring and fishery). III. Familieleven en familierecht (Family life and family law).
The second volume contains:
I. Wetenschap (Science). II. Letterkunde (Literature). III. Spelen en vermaken (Games and amusements). IV. Godsdienst (Religion).
In Volume I, pp. 178–197, the war from the Atjèhse side is considered, and there we find named an Atjèhse heroic poem that celebrates the war and whose content is rendered in Volume II, pp. 106–122.
The Polemical Character
What stood in De Atjèhers printed to the disadvantage of Der Kinderen and Van den Berg — on their regulation of the judiciary in Atjèh and on what they had said and written about Atjèh — was, in the event, much milder than what the governor-general and the Raad van Indië had meant to publish. Yet those gentlemen felt themselves not flattered and went to audience with the minister Van Dedem to protest against the publication by the government of a work in which such unsalted criticism of their praestaties occurred. The minister felt with them and wired to Indië that with the spreading of the second volume must be waited until after receipt of a letter that would follow. The letter followed and charged the governor-general to give the author of De Atjèhers a talking-to and to add, as satisfaction for both criticised gentlemen, a government declaration to the second volume.
The Bekendmaking Nederburgh
The landvoogd Jhr. Van der Wijck summoned the guilty or accused and showed him the minister’s letter. But the delinquent was not penitent: “Ik heb enkel mijn opdracht vervuld” (I have only fulfilled my commission), he said. “Wat de Raad van Indië gepubliceerd wilde hebben, heb ik gepubliceerd, maar zeer verzacht!” (What the Raad van Indië wished to have published, I have published, but very much softened!).
“Accoord!” answered the governor-general, “met dit onderhoud is voldaan aan den wensch van den minister; en de regeeringsverklaring, die aan uw boek wordt toegevoegd, die zult gij zelf mogen keuren!” (Agreed! With this interview the wish of the minister has been satisfied; and the government declaration that will be added to your book, you yourself may approve it!).
Such is the history of the “Bekendmaking” that we find prefixed to the second volume of De Atjèhers that appeared in 1894, and that reads:
“Hoewel de Regeering het initiatief heeft genomen om dit werk als een wetenschappelijke bijdrage tot een vraagstuk van groot en actueel belang ter Landsdrukkerij te doen uitgeven, vindt Zij in het polemische karakter, dat het betoog hier en daar heeft aangenomen, aanleiding om te allen overvloede te verklaren dat Zij niet mag geacht worden aan den inhoud van het werk tot in elk onderdeel Hare instemming te hebben gegeven. C. B. NEDERBURGH.”
The English Translation (1906)
The English translation by A. W. S. O’Sullivan, The Achehnese, was published at Leiden in 1906. The translation, especially of the third and fourth chapters of the Verslag — which contained the diagnosis and prescription of the Atjèh malady — appears in the preface to the English translation. The late translation testifies to the enduring and unsurpassed value of the work.
The Sources of the Verslag in De Atjèhers
It was especially the first two chapters of the Verslag that were worked up into De Atjèhers. From the 3rd and 4th chapters much is found back in Snouck Hurgronje’s preface to the English translation of 1906. The work is, in Damsté’s judgement, “meesterlijk gecomponeerde werk” (masterfully composed work): “De stof is zoo helder geordend, de formuleering zoo scherp, de betoogtrant zoo bezonnen, het proza zoo zuiver, zoo schoon en toch zoo eenvoudig, dat de lectuur een genot wordt, ook voor anderen dan ethnologen, folkloristen en mohammedanisten, die er vol op voedsel uit kunnen putten voor hun wetenschappelijke belangstelling.” (The matter is so clearly ordered, the formulation so sharp, the argumentative tone so considered, the prose so pure, so beautiful and yet so simple, that the reading becomes a pleasure, also for others than ethnologists, folklorists, and Mohammedanists, who can draw from it full food for their scientific interest.)
Significance
De Atjèhers is the foundational scholarly work on the Atjèhese people, their religion, and their customs. Its publication in 1893–1894 made the substance of Snouck Hurgronje’s diagnosis of the Atjèh malady public — though the prescription of the cure remained, in the Verslag, secret. The work’s polemical character — the criticism of Van den Berg and Der Kinderen — was the occasion of the Bekendmaking Nederburgh and of the ministerial intervention that delayed the publication of the second volume. The English translation of 1906 — The Achehnese — made the work accessible to the international scholarly community and testified to its enduring and unsurpassed value.
Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)
The Government had at first shelved the report — “which the government at first shelved” — but it became the core of the standard work. “Clearly and unreservedly the real internal condition and the mutual relations and connections are here laid bare, with the plainly unvarnished conclusion: only general and vigorous action can put an end to the resistance.” Its analysis of the three causes of the persistence of resistance — that Atjeh was no single-headed state, that Acehnese nationality was a religious nationality, and that the bendewezen had become a profitable national side-industry — governed all subsequent Dutch policy.
Sources
De Atjehers, by C. Snouck Hurgronje, 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1893-94).
The Achehnese, by C. Snouck Hurgronje, trans. A. W. S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R. J. Wilkinson, 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill; London: Luzac & Co., 1906). De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), Lijst van geschriften and passim. 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. Chapter I, §§ 1–4, pp. 1–58. Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas met korte beschrijvingen, uitgegeven door Volkslectuur, Weltevreden, Java. Weltevreden: G. Kolff & Co., January 1926. Chapter II (Land en Volk), pp. 24, 30; Plates 78, 101.
See Also
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- Verslag omtrent de religieus-politieke toestanden in Atjeh
- Bekendmaking Nederburgh
- L. W. C. van den Berg
- Der Kinderen
- Van Dedem
- Van der Wijck
- Raad van Indië
- Nederburgh
- Batavia
- Landsdrukkerij
- Aceh War
- Atjeh-oorlog
- 23 May
- 28 May
- 1891
- 1892
- 1893
- 1894
- 1906
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh
- Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Kreemer’s Atjeh (1922-23)
- Kreemer’s De Karbouw (1956)
- Pantang of the albino buffalo in Atjeh
- Poephon blang
- Rabò annual seven-day feast
- Snouck Hurgronje’s Het Gajoland en zijne bewoners ([[1903)]]
- teungkoe meunasah
- Great Acheh
- Gampong
- Sagi System
- Adat
- Hikum
- Teungku
- Uleebalang
- North Sumatra
- Islam in Atjeh
- Acheh
- Atjeh Dress
- Seat of an Atjeh Noble
- Perlak
- Pasé
Source
Drie Atjeh-mannen: Snouck Hurgronje — Van Heutsz — Van Daalen, door H. T. Damsté (September 1936). OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-111-Drie_Atjeh_mannen_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 18–20.
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter III.