Edward William Lane (1801–1876) was an English orientalist, translator, and lexicographer whose celebrated work Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians — first published in 1836 and reaching a fifth edition in Snouck Hurgronje’s lifetime — became one of the standard European accounts of everyday Mohammedan life in an Arabic-speaking country. He is cited by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese alongside Jaffur Shurreef and E. Sell as an authority on the popular Mohammedan usages that have spread, with local variations, from Cairo to Hindustan and the Eastern Archipelago.
Citation in The Achehnese
Lane is cited in connection with the cooking of special viands on Ashura — the tenth of Muharram, the day of the martyrdom of Husain at Kerbela. The custom is described by Snouck Hurgronje as “really no more than an insignificant adjunct of the Hasan-Husain festivals, but … exist[ing] elsewhere as an independent usage”. In Hindustan the chosen dish seems to be that known as khichri; in Cairo it is called hubub — i.e. “seeds” or “grains” — a usage recorded by Lane (Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 5th edn., II, p. 149). The parallel custom in Java is the bubur sura, made of various grains or seeds such as maize and peas mixed with pieces of cocoanut, while in Acheh itself the corresponding dish is the kanji Ashura cooked on the Ashura day and the days following.
Significance for Achehnese comparative studies
The citation of Lane is characteristic of Snouck Hurgronje’s method in The Achehnese. By placing the practices of the Achehnese side by side with those of the modern Egyptians (as described by Lane), the Deccanese (as described by Jaffur Shurreef and Sell) and the Javanese, he is able to bring out both the wide diffusion of certain popular Mohammedan usages and the distinctive local colour they assume in Acheh. Lane’s Manners and Customs — based on prolonged residence in Egypt in the 1820s and 1830s — supplies the Cairo comparison; and the fact that the same Ashura dish is called hubub in Cairo, bubur sura in Java, and kanji Ashura in Acheh, while in Hindustan it is khichri, is presented as a concrete instance of the larger diffusion of popular Mohammedan custom from the central lands of Islam outward to the Archipelago.
See Also
- Jaffur Shurreef
- G. A. Herklots
- E. Sell
- Ashura
- Hasan-Husain festival
- Kanji Ashura
- Cairo
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
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.
Edward William Lane (1801–1876) was an English orientalist, translator, and lexicographer whose celebrated work Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians — first published in 1836 and reaching a fifth edition in Snouck Hurgronje’s lifetime — became one of the standard European accounts of everyday Mohammedan life in an Arabic-speaking country. He is cited by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese alongside Jaffur Shurreef and E. Sell as an authority on the popular Mohammedan usages that have spread, with local variations, from Cairo to Hindustan and the Eastern Archipelago.
Citation in The Achehnese
Lane is cited in connection with the cooking of special viands on Ashura — the tenth of Muharram, the day of the martyrdom of Husain at Kerbela. The custom is described by Snouck Hurgronje as “really no more than an insignificant adjunct of the Hasan-Husain festivals, but … exist[ing] elsewhere as an independent usage”. In Hindustan the chosen dish seems to be that known as khichri; in Cairo it is called hubub — i.e. “seeds” or “grains” — a usage recorded by Lane (Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 5th edn., II, p. 149). The parallel custom in Java is the bubur sura, made of various grains or seeds such as maize and peas mixed with pieces of cocoanut, while in Acheh itself the corresponding dish is the kanji Ashura cooked on the Ashura day and the days following.
Significance for Achehnese comparative studies
The citation of Lane is characteristic of Snouck Hurgronje’s method in The Achehnese. By placing the practices of the Achehnese side by side with those of the modern Egyptians (as described by Lane), the Deccanese (as described by Jaffur Shurreef and Sell) and the Javanese, he is able to bring out both the wide diffusion of certain popular Mohammedan usages and the distinctive local colour they assume in Acheh. Lane’s Manners and Customs — based on prolonged residence in Egypt in the 1820s and 1830s — supplies the Cairo comparison; and the fact that the same Ashura dish is called hubub in Cairo, bubur sura in Java, and kanji Ashura in Acheh, while in Hindustan it is khichri, is presented as a concrete instance of the larger diffusion of popular Mohammedan custom from the central lands of Islam outward to the Archipelago.
See Also
- Jaffur Shurreef
- G. A. Herklots
- E. Sell
- Ashura
- Hasan-Husain festival
- Kanji Ashura
- Cairo
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
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.