Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk (1824–1894) was a Dutch linguist, lexicographer, orientalist, and manuscript collector, whose essay on Malay manuscripts and notes in Bijdragen (1866) are extensively cited by Hurgronje, particularly regarding the literary works and the history of religious teachers in Acheh, including Raniri, Shamsuddin, and Abdurra’uf. His legacy supplied the Leiden University Library with the only complete manuscript of the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī, and he was the first European scholar to take note of the *Ḥujjat aṣ-ṣiddīq li-dafʿ az-zindīq* of Raniri, which he recorded in BKI 13 (1866), p. 464.
The Leiden manuscript Cod. Or. 3291
The Leiden manuscript Cod. Or. 3291 of the *Tibjān* is the only complete manuscript of the work. It is, as Voorhoeve records, “a not-very-careful copy, probably made about 1855 for Van der Tuuk from a good older exemplar that came from Acheh.” Its Achehnese provenance is betrayed by such forms as sidjuk (Ach. sidjueʾ) for sedjuk, and by the consistent replacement of kesembilan with kesemilan (cf. Ach. seumah, Mal. sembah). The manuscript is the basis of Voorhoeve’s facsimile edition of 1955 and is designated B in his apparatus criticus.
The 1866 notice of the Ḥujjat
Van der Tuuk was also the first European scholar to take note of the *Ḥujjat aṣ-ṣiddīq li-dafʿ az-zindīq* of Raniri. In BKI 13 (1866), p. 464, he recorded the existence of an Arabic text of the treatise in a manuscript of the Bataviaas Genootschap. The manuscript — long thought lost — was recovered by Dr. R. Roolvink (KBG 420 Mal., not in the catalogue), and is designated A in Voorhoeve’s apparatus to the Ḥujjat. Comparison showed that the copyist, working from a complete Malay exemplar, had transcribed only the Arabic words and sentences written in red ink, producing an incoherent text that nonetheless contains fewer copyists’ errors than the Maxwell manuscript and was repeatedly useful for its correction.
Hurgronje’s citations
Van der Tuuk’s essay on Malay manuscripts and his notes in Bijdragen (1866) are extensively cited by Hurgronje in The Achehnese, particularly regarding the literary works and the history of religious teachers in Acheh, including Raniri, Shamsuddin, and Abdurra’uf. Through these citations Van der Tuuk’s philological work became one of the foundations on which Hurgronje built his account of the religious and literary history of the Achehnese sultanate.
Significance
Van der Tuuk is, through his collection and his 1866 notice, the principal channel by which the two Malay treatises of Raniri entered European scholarship. The Leiden manuscript Cod. Or. 3291 of the *Tibjān* — copied for Van der Tuuk about 1855 from an Achehnese exemplar — is the only complete manuscript of the work and the basis of the 1955 edition. His 1866 notice of the *Ḥujjat* in BKI 13 is the first European record of that treatise; and the recovery of the Arabic manuscript he had noted (KBG 420 Mal.) by Dr. R. Roolvink made it possible for Voorhoeve to collate the Arabic and Malay texts of the Ḥujjat. His Bijdragen essay, as Hurgronje’s citations attest, further supplied European scholarship with one of its principal early guides to the literary and religious-history materials of Acheh.
See Also
- Acheh
- Bahasa Djawi
- Hudjdjat as-siddiq li-daf az-zindiq
- Tibjan fi ma’rifat al-adyan
- Raniri
- Shaikh Shamsuddin of Sumatra
- Abdurra’uf of Singkel
- P. Voorhoeve
- R. Roolvink
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- The Achehnese
- Leiden University Library
Source
H. N. van der Tuuk, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 13 (1866), p. 464 — first European notice of the Ḥujjat aṣ-ṣiddīq.
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §2d (“Apparatus criticus”) and §3a (“Inhoudsopgave”), where Van der Tuuk’s manuscript and notice are discussed.
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.