The arrival of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī in Acheh in 1637 is one of the principal chronological anchor-points in the early history of the Achehnese Sultanate and the opening event of the orthodox reaction against the Wujudiyyah mysticism that had flourished at the court of Iskandar Muda. Raniri himself relates, in his treatise *Ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm* — printed at Mecca in 1316 H on the margin of an edition of Fatḥ al-muʿīn — that he came to Acheh in 1637 while Iskandar Thani was king. The arrival falls in the very first year of the new reign and places Raniri at the centre of the learned and religious life of the capital under the wealthy sultans of the seventeenth century.
Background
The coastal towns of Gujarat in this period had a very international population. Ships regularly sailed thence to the Straits of Malacca, and among the mercenary troops of the sixteenth century were “Javanese” — that is, in this context, Indonesians. The Malay language was certainly not unfamiliar in the harbour towns; and the family of Raniri had, even before his own time, maintained relations with Acheh. Between 1580 and 1583 his uncle Muhammad Djailani Hamid had arrived in Acheh, hoping to teach logic, rhetoric, dogmatics, and the doctrine of duties, but had found little interest. There was a great influx only for teachers of mysticism. So the scholar sailed on to Mecca. Some years later he returned, provided with the venia docendi as a teacher of mystical theology, and then had great success.
Raniri learned from his uncle’s experiences. When he himself left for Acheh in 1637, he was thoroughly prepared. He knew the Bahasa Djawi, the Malay that was the language of the court in Acheh, and had already written two works in it — among them, at least in its first version, the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* — while a third was in progress. He had also penetrated into mysticism, having been initiated into the Rifāʿiyya of Ahmad Rifa’i by his shaikh Sayyid ʿUmar Bā Shaybān.
The religious climate of Acheh
In Acheh, Raniri as an orthodox mystic had during the reign of Iskandar Muda (1607–1636) nothing to expect. The “heterodox mystic” Shamsuddin of Pasai dominated the spiritual life of the court, and even after his death in 1630 his disciples remained in honour with the sultan. The school of Hamzah Pansuri — whose *Kitāb al-Muntahī* and *Asrār al-ʿārifīn* expounded the Wujudiyyah in its most extreme form — held the field in Malay mystical poetry. But after Iskandar Muda died in 1636 the spiritual climate in Acheh changed.
The arrival and the public debate
Shortly after the accession of Iskandar II in 1637 — that is, in the very year of Raniri’s arrival — Raniri refuted the adherents of the extreme Wujūdiyyah mysticism in a public debate in the presence of the sultan. From that time forth he enjoyed royal favour, both from Iskandar II and from his successor Ṣalīyatu’d-Dīn (Taj al-Ālam). The composition of the *Ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm* (March 1638) and of the *Badʾ khalq as-samāwāt wal-arwāḥ* was to follow at the sultan’s command; the composition of the *Tibjān* and the *Ḥujjat aṣ-ṣiddīq* falls within the joint reigns of Iskandar II and Taj al-Ālam.
Significance
The arrival of Raniri in 1637 is the opening event of the orthodox reaction that closed Acheh’s golden age of mystical poetry. It is, at the same time, the event whose date fixes the chronology of the Achehnese sultanate in the early seventeenth century: Raniri’s testimony that he came to Acheh “in 1637 while Iskandar Thani was king” is the principal authority for the death of Meukuta Alam (Iskandar Muda) in 1636. Snouck Hurgronje accepts this testimony as confirmed against the uncertainties of native chronicle and tradition.
See Also
- Acheh
- Bahasa Djawi
- Bustan al-Salatin
- Gudjarat
- Hudjdjat as-siddiq li-daf az-zindiq
- Iskandar Thani
- Muhammad Djailani Hamid
- Raniri
- Raniri’s public debate against the Wujudiyyah in Acheh
- Rifa’iyah order
- Sajjid Abu Hafs Umar Ba Sjaiban
- Shaikh Shamsuddin of Sumatra
- Sirat al-mustaqim
- Sultan Iskandar Muda
- Sultan Tajul-alam
- Tibjan fi ma’rifat al-adyan
- Wujudiyyah
Source
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.
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §1 (“De auteur”), pp. 5–7.