The seumayang manyet (Achehnese, from the Arabic ṣalāt al-janāzah, the funeral prayer) was the prayer offered over the dead in Acheh before the conveyance of the bier to the tomb. In Acheh, as in Java, this service presented, in the view of Snouck Hurgronje, a sad contrast to the intention of the Mohammedan law. According to the latter, it was almost the same as an ordinary ṣalat such as every Mohammedan was supposed to perform five times a day; it differed in a number of special details from this daily service, but as the law urged all to take part in these services for the benefit of their fellow-believers, it assumed that such differences in details were generally known.
The Achehnese departure
As a matter of fact, however, there were but very few who were acquainted with these rules. Every funeral was attended by a large number of persons who scarcely ever performed their obligatory prayers, and who would yet be ashamed to exhibit their ignorance in public. Thus they generally left the performance of the whole ceremony in the hands of hired experts. In an Achehnese village the teungku was naturally the person first chosen, and he was not unfrequently the sole performer of the service, though when funds permitted, some leubes were also summoned. It was only where the deceased were devout persons or religious teachers that a number of people came and joined in the seumayang manyet of their own accord.
The bier and its approach
The bier was solemnly borne down the steps of the house by a crowd of the fellow-villagers of the deceased. When they were half-way down, an old man or woman scattered over them from above beunch-pade (husked and unhusked rice) and some copper money, calling three times upon the name of Allah. The coffin was then set down in the front part of the enclosure, close to a mat which lay spread ready for those who wished to take part in the burial service. The bier itself was covered with a mat or carpet, fastened with bands of white cotton, which was afterwards handed over to the meunasah or gampong-chapel by the heirs of the deceased; over this were spread five or six handsome cloths, such as those worn by a bride.
Relation to Achehnese funerary custom
The seumayang manyet was the central religious observance of the Achehnese funeral, but it was surrounded by a complex of popular customs that gave the funeral much of its distinctive character. The kunyong or condolence visits lasted up to seven days; the pitinoe or artificial wail accompanied the arrival of each female guest; and on the West Coast the disreputable mupho dance was performed by men, women, and girls in the partly-demolished house of the deceased. Against this background of popular ceremony, the seumayang manyet stood as the canonical core of the funeral, performed by the teungku and a few hired leubes on behalf of an assembly most of whom were strangers to the prescribed forms. It was, in Snouck Hurgronje’s judgement, one of the clearest examples of the gulf that separated the book of the law from the living practice of the Achehnese gampong.
Sources
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.
See Also
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.