The Djawa — the colony at [[Mekka|Mekka] of Muslims originating from Nederlandsch-Indië — was the principal East Indian Muslim institution at Mekka in the late 19th century, and the principal object of Snouck Hurgronje’s attention during his Mekka journey of 1884–1885. The colony — treated in the fourth chapter of Snouck Hurgronje’s Mekka (1888–1889) — comprised pilgrims from all parts of Nederlandsch-Indië, including the Atjèhse pilgrims who would be the immediate occasion of Snouck Hurgronje’s Atjèh interest.
The Composition
The Djawa colony at Mekka was composed of Muslims originating from Nederlandsch-Indië — pilgrims who had come to Mekka for the hajj and had stayed, or who came and went annually with the pilgrimage season. The colony was the principal East Indian Muslim institution at Mekka, and was — in Snouck Hurgronje’s account — the principal means by which the religious life of Nederlandsch-Indië was influenced by the spiritual centre of Islam.
Snouck Hurgronje’s Attention
The Djawa had Abd al-Gaffār’s (Snouck Hurgronje’s) particular attention, witness the fourth chapter of his Mekka. Among them were also the Atjèhers. They attracted him, because they presented for the Netherlands a problem whose solution had not yet been found. Over there he had spoken much with them; and the exiled Habib Abdoerrachman ez-Zahir — Atjèh’s “unkingsed king” from the days of the governor Van der Heijden, who had submitted against the payment of a handsome annual salary and had since resided at Mekka — had already on 8 Moharram 1302 (i.e. in October 1884, when Snouck Hurgronje had been but a few months at Djidda) given him a recept — a recipe — for how Atjèh, in the Habib’s view, was to be pacified.
Significance
The Djawa colony at Mekka is the principal East Indian Muslim institution at Mekka in the late 19th century, and the principal object of Snouck Hurgronje’s attention during his Mekka journey of 1884–1885. The colony — treated in the fourth chapter of his Mekka — was the immediate context of Snouck Hurgronje’s Atjèh interest; it was among the Atjèhse pilgrims of the Djawa colony that he first encountered the people whose resistance to the Dutch he would later, as advisor to the Netherlands Indies government, diagnose and prescribe the means to suppress.
See Also
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- Snouck Hurgronje’s Mekka journey (1884-1885)
- Mekka (Snouck Hurgronje)
- Habib Abdul Rachman El-Zahir
- Mekka
- Djidda
- Nederlandsch-Indië
- General van der Heijden
- Aceh War
- Atjeh-oorlog
- 8 Moharram 1302
- October 1884
- 1884
- 1885
- 1888
- 1889
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, p. 10.