G. K. Niemann — fully Gerrit Karel Niemann, also cited as Prof. Niemann — was a Dutch scholar of Indonesian languages whose comparative study of the Achehnese language with Cham and other Indonesian tongues furnished Snouck Hurgronje with one of the chief philological foundations for the ethnological introduction to The Achehnese, and whose Bloemlezing uit Maleische geschriften (“Anthology of Malay writings”) became a standard reference of late nineteenth-century Malay philology. He is cited in Vol. I of The Achehnese principally for two works: his treatise “Bijdrage tot de kennis der verhouding van het Tjam tot de talen van Indonesië” (“Contribution to the knowledge of the relation of Cham to the languages of Indonesia”), published in the Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië for 1891 (The Hague, p. 27 et seq.); and his Bloemlezing uit Maleische geschriften, Part 2, p. 25, in connection with the title Malikul Adil borne by certain Achehnese judicial officials.
Contribution to Achehnese Studies
Niemann’s treatise compared the Achehnese language — which “exhibits noteworthy points of difference from the kindred tongues of neighbouring peoples” — with the languages of Cham and Bahnar. The comparison “has at the very outset given important results”, in Snouck Hurgronje’s words, although the conclusions to be drawn regarding the kinship or historical connection between the peoples were, at the time of writing, still held back for want of further evidence. The Achehnese themselves have only popular traditions concerning their origin; outside the limits of this tradition, every Achehnese chief and ulama who takes any interest in the question has his own conjectures, “partly in conflict with the traditions and partly grafted on to them”. Niemann’s work supplied the only firm external check on such speculations.
The Hindu-Element Question
Niemann’s treatise is cited a second time in connection with the disputed question of Hindu influence on Achehnese origins. The theory of Van Langen — cited by Niemann — according to which the kawom of the Imeum peunet (a particular Achehnese lineage-group) is of Hindu origin, “does not rest on popular tradition, but must be ranked among the learned conjectures of certain of the Achehnese”. Niemann is thus invoked as an impartial recorder of an Achehnese learned tradition rather than as an endorser of it.
The Bloemlezing and the Malikul Adil Citation
In The Achehnese (Vol. I, p. 132), Prof. Niemann is cited for his Bloemlezing uit Maleische geschriften (“Anthology of Malay writings”), Part 2, p. 25, in connection with the title Malikul Adil borne by certain Achehnese judicial officials. The notice occurs in Snouck Hurgronje’s discussion of the Teuku Hakim — one of the three chiefs in the upper part of Daya — whose official title, he explains, “points unequivocally to the complete secularization of his office.” Originally charged with the administration of justice, the holder of this title had, “within the memory of man,” been “nothing more than an ordinary dato’.” It is in this connection that Snouck Hurgronje adduces the parallel of Malikul Adil, “a common title for qadhis in Malay countries,” as Prof. Niemann had already observed in his Bloemlezing. The point of the comparison is that certain Achehnese official titles, although now borne by purely secular chiefs, preserve in their names the memory of an earlier judicial or religious function.
The Bloemlezing uit Maleische geschriften — an anthology of Malay texts prepared for the use of Dutch colonial students and officials — was one of the standard works of Malay philology in the late nineteenth century. It remained a standard reference for the comparative study of Malay institutions and of the Arabic and Persian loanwords which had entered the vocabulary of government and law throughout the archipelago.
Place in Dutch Colonial Scholarship
Niemann thus belongs, together with Veth, Van Langen and Van der Kemp, to that earlier generation of Dutch colonial scholars whose compilations and anthologies laid the groundwork for the more analytical studies of Snouck Hurgronje’s own generation. The Bloemlezing in particular remained a standard reference for the comparative study of Malay institutions and of the Arabic and Persian loanwords which had entered the vocabulary of government and law throughout the archipelago.
Relation to G. H. Niemann
A second scholar of the same name, G. H. Niemann, is cited separately by Snouck Hurgronje (Vol. I, p. 409) in connection with a note on the post-childbirth “drying over the fire” custom in the Bijdragen of 1892. Whether the two Niemanns are related has not been documented, but they are clearly distinct persons, since their publications appear in successive years and on quite different subjects.
See Also
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- The Achehnese
- Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjehers (1893-94)
- G. H. Niemann
- Prof. Veth
- K. F. H. Van Langen
- P. H. van der Kemp
- Daya
- Achehnese language
- Cham language
- Bahnar language
- Hindu influence on Acheh
- Malay Archipelago
- Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
- Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
- Acheh
- 1891
- 1892
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.