Muhammad Djailani Hamid

Properties2
tagsperson, scholar, religious-figure, islamic-scholar, sufi, precolonial, 16th-century, 17th-century, gujarati, arab-descent, aceh, mecca, acehnese, sixteenth-century
aliasesMuhammad Jailani Hamid, Muhammad Djailani, Muhammad Jailani, Muhammad Djailānī Hamid, Muḥammad Jaylānī Ḥamīd, the uncle of Raniri, Muhammad Jilani Hamid, Muhammad Jailani b. Hamid

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Muhammad Djailani Hamid — also written Muḥammad Jaylānī Ḥamīd — was a Gujarati scholar of Arab descent, the uncle of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī, who made the first recorded visit of the family to Acheh between 1580 and 1583. He is the immediate predecessor of Raniri in the Gujarati-Ḥadramī network that linked the religious scholarship of Gujarat with the Achehnese court, and his experience of Acheh — narrated by Voorhoeve in the introduction to the 1955 edition of Raniri’s two Malay treatises — is the precedent on which Raniri himself drew when he left for Acheh in 1637.

The first visit to Acheh (1580–1583)

Between 1580 and 1583 Muhammad Djailani Hamid arrived in Acheh. He wished to teach logic, rhetoric, dogmatics, and the doctrine of duties (plichtenleer) — that is, the rational and practical sciences of the Islamic religious curriculum. He found, however, little interest. There was a great influx only for teachers of mysticism. So the scholar sailed on to Mecca to obtain the venia docendi as a teacher of mystical theology.

The second visit

Some years later — Voorhoeve does not give the date — Muhammad Djailani Hamid returned to Acheh, provided with the venia docendi as a teacher of mystical theology, and then had great success. The lesson of the two visits was decisive: that an orthodox scholar of the Gujarati-Ḥadramī network could find a hearing at the Achehnese court, but only if he came as a teacher of mysticism and not as a teacher of the rational sciences.

Significance for Raniri

Raniri, Voorhoeve records, “has learned from the experiences of his uncle”: when he himself left for Acheh in 1637 he was thoroughly prepared. He knew the Bahasa Djawi, the Malay that was the language of the court in Acheh, and had already written two works in it, while a third was in progress. He had also penetrated into mysticism, having been initiated into the Rifāʿiyya of Ahmad Rifa’i by his shaikh Sayyid ʿUmar Bā Shaybān. The success of Muhammad Djailani’s second visit — the visit on which the scholar returned with the venia docendi in mystical theology — established the precedent that Raniri was to put into practice in 1637: that an orthodox mystic of the Gujarati-Ḥadramī network could find a hearing at the Achehnese court, provided he came as a teacher of mysticism.

Sources

The information on Muhammad Djailani Hamid is drawn from Niemann’s Bloemlezing uit Maleische geschriften 112, pp. 124 ff., cited by Voorhoeve in the introduction to the 1955 edition. Twee Maleise geschriften, Voorhoeve, p. 5.

See Also

Source

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 §1 (“De auteur”), pp. 5–6, citing G. K. Niemann, Bloemlezing uit Maleische geschriften 112, pp. 124 ff.

Muhammad Djailani Hamid — also written Muḥammad Jaylānī Ḥamīd — was a Gujarati scholar of Arab descent, the uncle of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī, who made the first recorded visit of the family to Acheh between 1580 and 1583. He is the immediate predecessor of Raniri in the Gujarati-Ḥadramī network that linked the religious scholarship of Gujarat with the Achehnese court, and his experience of Acheh — narrated by Voorhoeve in the introduction to the 1955 edition of Raniri’s two Malay treatises — is the precedent on which Raniri himself drew when he left for Acheh in 1637.

The first visit to Acheh (1580–1583)

Between 1580 and 1583 Muhammad Djailani Hamid arrived in Acheh. He wished to teach logic, rhetoric, dogmatics, and the doctrine of duties (plichtenleer) — that is, the rational and practical sciences of the Islamic religious curriculum. He found, however, little interest. There was a great influx only for teachers of mysticism. So the scholar sailed on to Mecca to obtain the venia docendi as a teacher of mystical theology.

The second visit

Some years later — Voorhoeve does not give the date — Muhammad Djailani Hamid returned to Acheh, provided with the venia docendi as a teacher of mystical theology, and then had great success. The lesson of the two visits was decisive: that an orthodox scholar of the Gujarati-Ḥadramī network could find a hearing at the Achehnese court, but only if he came as a teacher of mysticism and not as a teacher of the rational sciences.

Significance for Raniri

Raniri, Voorhoeve records, “has learned from the experiences of his uncle”: when he himself left for Acheh in 1637 he was thoroughly prepared. He knew the Bahasa Djawi, the Malay that was the language of the court in Acheh, and had already written two works in it, while a third was in progress. He had also penetrated into mysticism, having been initiated into the Rifāʿiyya of Ahmad Rifa’i by his shaikh Sayyid ʿUmar Bā Shaybān. The success of Muhammad Djailani’s second visit — the visit on which the scholar returned with the venia docendi in mystical theology — established the precedent that Raniri was to put into practice in 1637: that an orthodox mystic of the Gujarati-Ḥadramī network could find a hearing at the Achehnese court, provided he came as a teacher of mysticism.

Sources

The information on Muhammad Djailani Hamid is drawn from Niemann’s Bloemlezing uit Maleische geschriften 112, pp. 124 ff., cited by Voorhoeve in the introduction to the 1955 edition.

See Also

Source

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 §1 (“De auteur”), pp. 5–6, citing G. K. Niemann, Bloemlezing uit Maleische geschriften 112, pp. 124 ff.

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