K. A. H. Hidding — published in the volume as K. A. Hidding — was a Dutch scholar of Sundanese religion and ethnography whose work Gebruiken en Godsdienst der Soendaneezen (“Customs and Religion of the Sundanese”, Batavia, 1935) is cited in the closing bibliography of Prof. Dr. Kernkamp’s chapter De invloed van den Islam in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946) as one of the principal sources on Indonesian Islam. Hidding also co-edits, with H. Th. Fischer, the volume’s broader ethnographic frame: Fischer’s Inleiding tot de volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië (Haarlem, 1940) is also cited.
Role in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
Hidding himself does not contribute a chapter to the volume; he is named only in the bibliography to Kernkamp’s chapter, alongside G. H. Bousquet (Introduction à l’étude de l’Islam indonésien, Paris, 1938), H. Th. Fischer (Inleiding tot de volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, Haarlem, 1940), W. Juynboll (Handleiding tot de kennis van de Mohammedaansche Wet, 4th ed., Leiden, 1930), R. A. Kern (De verbreiding van den Islam, in Stapel’s Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië Vol. I, Amsterdam, 1938), J. Kreemer (Atjèh, Leiden, 1922/3), and C. Snouck Hurgronje (De Atjéhers and Verspreide Geschriften Vol. IV). The placement of Hidding’s Sundanese monograph in this Atjeh-heavy list reflects the comparative method of Kernkamp’s chapter, which moves between Sundanese, Javanese, Atjehnese and other Indonesian Islams to illustrate general points.
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, Hidding’s significance is indirect: his Sundanese material supplies one of the comparative reference points against which Kernkamp reads the Atjeh case. Where the Atjeh chapter describes the Meunasah, the Teungkoe, the idja pinggang, the Soerat te’h, the ratib of mid-Ramadan and the Toean di boh fertility saint, the Sundanese material in Hidding’s monograph supplies the parallel material on the lebé (village religious official), the pesantren (boarding school), the Safar end-Wednesday baths, and so on, against which the Atjeh case is shown to be both part of a wider Indonesian pattern and a distinctive variant of it.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- Nederlandsch-Indië — Netherlands Indies
- invloed van den Islam — influence of Islam
- lebé — village religious official
- Teungku — religious teacher (Atjeh form)
- Teungkoe — religious teacher (Atjeh form)
- Meunasah — village prayer-house
- ratib — sequence of pious formulas praising Allah
- Safar — Safar
- idja pinggang — hip-cloth (Atjeh sartorial marker of Islam)
- idja — cloth
- Toean di boh — Lord of the garden (Atjeh fertility saint)
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Java — Java
- Batavia — Batavia
- zen — Zen
- Mohammedaansch — Mohammedan
- Mohammedaansche — Mohammedan (adjective)
- Prof. Dr. — Professor Doctor
- Dr. — Doctor
- De Atjéhers — The Acehnese (Snouck Hurgronje, 1893-94)
- Atjèh — Aceh (Kreemer, 1922-23)
- Verspreide Geschriften — Collected Writings
- Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië — History of the Netherlands Indies
- Inleiding tot de volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië — Introduction to the Ethnology of the Netherlands Indies
- Handleiding tot de kennis van de Mohammedaansche Wet — Manual for the Knowledge of the Mohammedan Law
- Introduction à l’étude de l’Islam indonésien — Introduction to the Study of Indonesian Islam
- Gebruiken en Godsdienst der Soendaneezen — Customs and Religion of the Sundanese
See Also
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- W. J. A. Kernkamp
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Meunasah
- Teungku
- Idja pinggang
- Soerat te’h
- Toean di boh
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), p. 108 (closing bibliography to chapter De invloed van den Islam door Prof. Dr. W. J. A. Kernkamp, citing K. A. Hidding, Gebruiken en Godsdienst der Soendaneezen, Batavia, 1935).