Fakih Madinah — Atjehnese form Pakeh Madina — is the literary character of the Atjehnese and Malay chronicle-epic tradition who serves, in the Atjehnese *Hikajat Malém Dagang* and its Malay reworking the Hikajat Sultan Atjeh Marhoem, as a pawang (ritual specialist) aboard an Atjehnese war-fleet, despite his Islamic office as a fakīh (jurisconsult) “uit Madīnat al-Nabī, stad van de Profeet” (from Madīnat al-Nabī, the city of the Prophet). He is, in Hooykaas’s reading in his survey of Malay literature, the principal literary evidence for the survival of pre-Islamic pawang practice in the Islamicised Atjehnese court.
The Name and Office
The character is named Fakih Madinah in the Malay Hikajat Sultan Atjeh Marhoem and Pakeh Madina in the Atjehnese original. The name is, in both forms, the Arabic Faqīh Madīnah — “the jurisconsult from Medina” — and the character’s office is correspondingly Islamic: he is, in Hooykaas’s gloss, “wetgeleerde, kenner der Moslimse plichtenleer, uit Madīnat al-Nabī, stad van de Profeet” (jurisconsult, expert in the Muslim law of duties, from Madīnat al-Nabī, the city of the Prophet). He is, in other words, a scholar of Islamic law from the city of the Prophet — a figure of considerable religious authority in the Islamic world.
The Pawang Function
Despite his Islamic office, the Fakih Madinah/Pakeh Madina functions, in the chronicle-epic, as a pawang — the pre-Islamic Malay-Indonesian ritual specialist who controls the weather, calms the sea, and (above all) consults the kětika (auspicious-moment) tables to determine the right moment for any important undertaking. The pawang, in Hooykaas’s chapter on folk-belief, is “de oude volkspriester, elders doekoen geheten en pēmangkoe, zich handhavend ondanks Islam en Hindoeisme” (the old folk-priest, elsewhere called doekoen and pēmangkoe, maintaining himself despite Islam and Hinduism). The pawang had originally served as the ritual specialist of the pre-Islamic Malay courts — responsible for the pawang of the fishery, the pawang of the rice-planting, and (above all) the pawang aboard the merchant and war fleets, who “verstand moest hebben van weer en wind en water” (had to have understanding of weather, wind, and water).
The Fakih Madinah of the chronicle-epic has, in Hooykaas’s reading, taken over the pawang function aboard the Atjehnese war-fleet, despite his Islamic office: “Hieruit blijkt, dat de Moslimse omgeving van de pawang niets zag in zijn functie, dat strijdig geacht werd met de orthodoxe leer” (From this it appears that the Muslim environment of the pawang saw nothing in his function that was considered incompatible with orthodox teaching). The literary portrait of the Fakih Madinah is thus the evidence for the survival of the pre-Islamic pawang tradition in the Islamicised Atjehnese court, with the Islamic specialist taking over the ritual functions of the pre-Islamic priest.
The Kětika Episode
The principal literary episode involving the Fakih Madinah/Pakeh Madina is the kětika consultation before battle. Hooykaas summarises the episode, in his commentary on the Sadjarah Malajoe:
“In de Atjehse Hikajat Malém Dagang, waarvan de Maleise Hik. Sultan Atjeh Marhoem een zwakke omwerking is, zien we de kětika dan ook zelfs gehanteerd door Pakeh Madina, d.i. de schriftgeleerde, kenner der Moslimse plichtenleer, uit Madinat al Nabi, stad van de Profeet. Dagenlang verbiedt hij de strijd, totdat de kětika gekomen is, en de Atjehers natuurlijk winnen!” (In the Atjehnese Hikajat Malém Dagang, of which the Malay Hikajat Sultan Atjeh Marhoem is a weak reworking, we see the kětika thus even handled by Pakeh Madina, that is, the scripture-scholar, expert in the Muslim law of duties, from Madīnat al-Nabī, the city of the Prophet. For days he forbids the battle, until the kětika has come, and the Atjehers naturally win!)
The episode is, in Hooykaas’s reading, “niet historisch dan toch realistisch” (not historical but at any rate realistic) — it is not a record of a historical event, but it is a realistic portrait of the way the pawang tradition persisted in the Islamicised Atjehnese court, with the Islamic specialist taking over the kětika consultation that had once been the pre-Islamic pawang’s principal ritual function.
The Pre-Islamic Survival
The Fakih Madinah episode is, in Hooykaas’s broader argument in his chapter on folk-belief, part of the evidence for the survival of pre-Islamic ritual practice in the Islamicised Malay-Indonesian world. The pawang, in Hooykaas’s reading, originally “verrichtte vele rituële handelingen voor het welzijn van allen en ter verkrijging van voorspoed, reciteerde gebeden gericht tot de geesten die de mensen welgezind zijn” (performed many ritual acts for the well-being of all and to obtain prosperity, recited prayers directed to the spirits that are well-disposed to people). With the arrival of Islam, the pawang’s “wegen kruisten niet die van de imam, de Moslimse voorganger van de rituële godsdienstoefening, noch die van het moskee-personeel” (ways did not cross those of the imam, the Muslim leader of the ritual worship, nor those of the mosque staff). The literary portrait of the Fakih Madinah — an Islamic specialist who serves as a pawang aboard a war-fleet — is the evidence that this practical coexistence persisted in the Atjehnese court well into the seventeenth century.
Significance
For AcehWiki, the Fakih Madinah/Pakeh Madina is significant as the principal literary evidence for the survival of pre-Islamic pawang practice in the Islamicised Atjehnese court. His portrait in the Atjehnese *Hikajat Malém Dagang* and the Malay Hikajat Sultan Atjeh Marhoem — an Islamic jurisconsult from Medina who serves as a pawang aboard a war-fleet and consults the kětika tables to determine the moment of battle — is, in Hooykaas’s reading, the literary expression of the way the pre-Islamic pawang tradition persisted in the Islamicised Atjehnese court, with the Islamic specialist taking over the ritual functions of the pre-Islamic priest.
See Also
Source
Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947), chapter 3 (“Enige notities over volksgeloof”), pp. 21-22; Toelichting tot de Sadjarah Malajoe, aantekening bij 24/2, p. 237.