I. D. E. Schmeltz (so spelled in the OCR of The Achehnese; more commonly J. D. E. Schmeltz) was a Dutch ethnographer and editor of the Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie (International Archive for Ethnography), published at Leyden from 1888 onwards. He is cited by Snouck Hurgronje in Vol. I of The Achehnese in connection with the comparative study of the Hasan-Husain festival and related popular observances in the Eastern Archipelago and southern India.
Schmeltz is mentioned in a footnote appended to Snouck Hurgronje’s discussion of the Hasan-Husain festival (also called the Hasan-Husain feast) — the popular commemoration of the martyrs of Kerbela which, in the Achehnese calendar, gives its name to the month of Asan-Usen (the Achehnese form of Hasan-Husain). The festival is celebrated in different parts of Netherlands-India, and especially on the West Coast of Sumatra (at Padang, Bencoolen, etc.), in much the same manner as it is described in the Qanoon-e-islam of Jaffur Shurreef. Snouck Hurgronje notes that it has been thought to have been introduced along the sea-board by the sipalihs (sepoys) who immigrated thither during the English domination, but argues that it is probable, “to say the least,” that even previously to this a Hasan-Husain feast enjoyed much popularity both in Sumatra and elsewhere. The argument turns on the fact that the festival is celebrated to this day in Trumon in the manner customary in the Deccan, that in Acheh the month is called Asan-Usen, and that the day Ashura, of which orthodox Islam takes but little notice, has in Java given its name Sura to the month Muharram.
In order to arrive at a more definite conclusion on these questions of diffusion, Snouck Hurgronje refers the reader to “Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie” (Ed. I. D. E. Schmeltz), Leyden 1888, Part I, pp. 191–196. The reference shows that the Archiv served, in the early years of comparative ethnography of the Archipelago, as one of the principal channels through which materials on Indonesian-Indian continuities — including the diffusion of popular religious observances from the Deccan to the Malay-Indonesian world — were made available to scholars.
Schmeltz’s editorial work at Leyden thus belongs to the broader scholarly apparatus on which Snouck Hurgronje drew in writing The Achehnese. The Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, which he edited, formed part of the same Leyden-based infrastructure of colonial ethnography that included the publications of Brill and the work of Wilken, Brandes, and other scholars of the Netherlands Indies.
See Also
- Jaffur Shurreef
- G. A. Herklots
- Hasan-Husain festival
- Ashura
- Trumon
- Deccan
- Leyden
- E. J. Brill
- G. A. Wilken
- Dr. Brandes
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.
I. D. E. Schmeltz (so spelled in the OCR of The Achehnese; more commonly J. D. E. Schmeltz) was a Dutch ethnographer and editor of the Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie (International Archive for Ethnography), published at Leyden from 1888 onwards. He is cited by Snouck Hurgronje in Vol. I of The Achehnese in connection with the comparative study of the Hasan-Husain festival and related popular observances in the Eastern Archipelago and southern India.
Schmeltz is mentioned in a footnote appended to Snouck Hurgronje’s discussion of the Hasan-Husain festival (also called the Hasan-Husain feast) — the popular commemoration of the martyrs of Kerbela which, in the Achehnese calendar, gives its name to the month of Asan-Usen (the Achehnese form of Hasan-Husain). The festival is celebrated in different parts of Netherlands-India, and especially on the West Coast of Sumatra (at Padang, Bencoolen, etc.), in much the same manner as it is described in the Qanoon-e-islam of Jaffur Shurreef. Snouck Hurgronje notes that it has been thought to have been introduced along the sea-board by the sipalihs (sepoys) who immigrated thither during the English domination, but argues that it is probable, “to say the least,” that even previously to this a Hasan-Husain feast enjoyed much popularity both in Sumatra and elsewhere. The argument turns on the fact that the festival is celebrated to this day in Trumon in the manner customary in the Deccan, that in Acheh the month is called Asan-Usen, and that the day Ashura, of which orthodox Islam takes but little notice, has in Java given its name Sura to the month Muharram.
In order to arrive at a more definite conclusion on these questions of diffusion, Snouck Hurgronje refers the reader to “Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie” (Ed. I. D. E. Schmeltz), Leyden 1888, Part I, pp. 191–196. The reference shows that the Archiv served, in the early years of comparative ethnography of the Archipelago, as one of the principal channels through which materials on Indonesian-Indian continuities — including the diffusion of popular religious observances from the Deccan to the Malay-Indonesian world — were made available to scholars.
Schmeltz’s editorial work at Leyden thus belongs to the broader scholarly apparatus on which Snouck Hurgronje drew in writing The Achehnese. The Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, which he edited, formed part of the same Leyden-based infrastructure of colonial ethnography that included the publications of Brill and the work of Wilken, Brandes, and other scholars of the Netherlands Indies.
See Also
- Jaffur Shurreef
- G. A. Herklots
- Hasan-Husain festival
- Ashura
- Trumon
- Deccan
- Leyden
- E. J. Brill
- G. A. Wilken
- Dr. Brandes
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.