P. Voorhoeve

Properties2
tagsperson, scholar, dutch-orientalist, malay-scholarship, manuscript-studies, 20th-century, leiden, aceh
aliasesPetrus Voorhoeve, P. Voorhoeve, Petrus Voorhoeve (1899-1975), Voorhoeve, the editor of Raniri

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Petrus Voorhoeve (1899–1975) — published as P. Voorhoeve — was a Dutch orientalist and Malay scholar, the editor of the 1955 facsimile edition of the two Malay treatises of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī published as No. 16 of the Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje. His edition — Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve — gave scholars, for the first time, a complete facsimile of the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* (from Leiden Cod. Or. 3291, the legacy of Van der Tuuk) and of the *Ḥujjat aṣ-ṣiddīq li-dafʿ az-zindīq* (from the Maxwell collection of the Royal Asiatic Society). Voorhoeve’s introduction to the edition is itself a substantial contribution to Malay religious philology.

The edition of Raniri’s two Malay treatises

Voorhoeve’s 1955 edition — published at Leiden by E. J. Brill as No. 16 of the Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje — is the standard edition of the two principal Malay polemical treatises of Raniri. The volume contains:

  1. A substantial introduction (pp. 5–55) divided into three sections: §1 (“De auteur”), on the life and writings of Raniri; §2 (“Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān”), on the content, sources, sects, and apparatus criticus of the Tibjān; and §3 (“Ḥujjat aṣ-ṣiddīq li-dafʿ az-zindīq”), on the content and notes of the Ḥujjat.
  2. A facsimile of the *Tibjān* (pp. 1–128) from Leiden Cod. Or. 3291.
  3. A facsimile of the *Ḥujjat* (pp. 1–27) from Maxwell collection no. 93 of the Royal Asiatic Society.
  4. An errata leaf.

The identification of the sources of the Tibjān

Voorhoeve’s most original contribution in the 1955 edition is the identification of the principal sources of the *Tibjān*. The examination of the sources had, until Voorhoeve, “delivered only the negative result that the Tibjān is not an excerpt from any of the well-known extensive works on religions and sects.” Voorhoeve identifies four sources:

  1. The *at-Tamhīd fī bayān at-tawḥīd* of Abū Shakūr as-Sālimī, an eleventh-century Persian Shāfiʿite treatise — the principal source, from which more than a quarter of the text of the Tibjān is translated literally.
  2. The *al-Insān al-kāmil* of ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī, the fourteenth-century Sufi cosmology — the source of Raniri’s notice on the Barāhima.
  3. The *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib*, a popular schematic overview of the seventy-two Islamic sects — the source of Raniri’s classification of the sects.
  4. The Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa of Najm ad-Dīn an-Nasafī — the source of the section on the heretical Ṣūfī sects.

The identification is supported by an exhaustive apparatus criticus in which the readings of the Tibjān are compared with those of the manuscripts of its sources — including, in the case of the Tamhīd, the very Leiden manuscript Cod. Or. 5664 that preserves the errors of Raniri’s own exemplar.

Other scholarly contributions

Voorhoeve’s other contributions to Malay and Acehnese scholarship include his notes on Raniri in BKI 107 (1951), pp. 353 ff. — where he had advanced the now-withdrawn hypothesis that Raniri sojourned in Mecca before his departure for Acheh — and his earlier work in the cataloguing of Malay manuscripts. The 1955 edition of Raniri’s two Malay treatises is his principal monument.

Acknowledgments

In the introduction to the 1955 edition, Voorhoeve records his acknowledgments to a number of scholars: to Drewes for the identification of Śrāwaka as Sanskrit for Buddhist; to Professor J. Schacht for his guidance in the reading, explanation, and collation of the manuscripts of the Tamhīd; to C. A. O. van Nieuwenhuijze, whose dissertation Sjamsu’l-Dīn van Pasai and study in BKI 104 had earlier treated the side of Raniri’s work directed against the Wujudiyyah; to Ph. S. van Ronkel for his earlier article on the Tibjān in BKI 102 (1944); to Hoesein Djajadiningrat for the chronological study of Raniri’s Malay works in TBG 69; to Sir R. O. Winstedt for help in the study of the Maxwell manuscript; to the Royal Asiatic Society for permission to reproduce the text of the Ḥujjat; to Dr. R. Roolvink for the recovery of the Arabic manuscript of the Ḥujjat (KBG 420 Mal.); and to H. T. Damsté for the summary of Teungku Harõn’s Achehnese adaptation of the Tibjān.

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.

Petrus Voorhoeve (1899–1975) — published as P. Voorhoeve — was a Dutch orientalist and Malay scholar, the editor of the 1955 facsimile edition of the two Malay treatises of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī published as No. 16 of the Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje. His edition — Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve — gave scholars, for the first time, a complete facsimile of the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* (from Leiden Cod. Or. 3291, the legacy of Van der Tuuk) and of the *Ḥujjat aṣ-ṣiddīq li-dafʿ az-zindīq* (from the Maxwell collection of the Royal Asiatic Society). Voorhoeve’s introduction to the edition is itself a substantial contribution to Malay religious philology.

The edition of Raniri’s two Malay treatises

Voorhoeve’s 1955 edition — published at Leiden by E. J. Brill as No. 16 of the Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje — is the standard edition of the two principal Malay polemical treatises of Raniri. The volume contains:

  1. A substantial introduction (pp. 5–55) divided into three sections: §1 (“De auteur”), on the life and writings of Raniri; §2 (“Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān”), on the content, sources, sects, and apparatus criticus of the Tibjān; and §3 (“Ḥujjat aṣ-ṣiddīq li-dafʿ az-zindīq”), on the content and notes of the Ḥujjat.
  2. A facsimile of the *Tibjān* (pp. 1–128) from Leiden Cod. Or. 3291.
  3. A facsimile of the *Ḥujjat* (pp. 1–27) from Maxwell collection no. 93 of the Royal Asiatic Society.
  4. An errata leaf.

The identification of the sources of the Tibjān

Voorhoeve’s most original contribution in the 1955 edition is the identification of the principal sources of the *Tibjān*. The examination of the sources had, until Voorhoeve, “delivered only the negative result that the Tibjān is not an excerpt from any of the well-known extensive works on religions and sects.” Voorhoeve identifies four sources:

  1. The *at-Tamhīd fī bayān at-tawḥīd* of Abū Shakūr as-Sālimī, an eleventh-century Persian Shāfiʿite treatise — the principal source, from which more than a quarter of the text of the Tibjān is translated literally.
  2. The *al-Insān al-kāmil* of ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī, the fourteenth-century Sufi cosmology — the source of Raniri’s notice on the Barāhima.
  3. The *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib*, a popular schematic overview of the seventy-two Islamic sects — the source of Raniri’s classification of the sects.
  4. The Kitāb fī bayān madhāhib al-mutaṣawwifa of Najm ad-Dīn an-Nasafī — the source of the section on the heretical Ṣūfī sects.

The identification is supported by an exhaustive apparatus criticus in which the readings of the Tibjān are compared with those of the manuscripts of its sources — including, in the case of the Tamhīd, the very Leiden manuscript Cod. Or. 5664 that preserves the errors of Raniri’s own exemplar.

Other scholarly contributions

Voorhoeve’s other contributions to Malay and Acehnese scholarship include his notes on Raniri in BKI 107 (1951), pp. 353 ff. — where he had advanced the now-withdrawn hypothesis that Raniri sojourned in Mecca before his departure for Acheh — and his earlier work in the cataloguing of Malay manuscripts. The 1955 edition of Raniri’s two Malay treatises is his principal monument.

Acknowledgments

In the introduction to the 1955 edition, Voorhoeve records his acknowledgments to a number of scholars: to Drewes for the identification of Śrāwaka as Sanskrit for Buddhist; to Professor J. Schacht for his guidance in the reading, explanation, and collation of the manuscripts of the Tamhīd; to C. A. O. van Nieuwenhuijze, whose dissertation Sjamsu’l-Dīn van Pasai and study in BKI 104 had earlier treated the side of Raniri’s work directed against the Wujudiyyah; to Ph. S. van Ronkel for his earlier article on the Tibjān in BKI 102 (1944); to Hoesein Djajadiningrat for the chronological study of Raniri’s Malay works in TBG 69; to Sir R. O. Winstedt for help in the study of the Maxwell manuscript; to the Royal Asiatic Society for permission to reproduce the text of the Ḥujjat; to Dr. R. Roolvink for the recovery of the Arabic manuscript of the Ḥujjat (KBG 420 Mal.); and to H. T. Damsté for the summary of Teungku Harõn’s Achehnese adaptation of the Tibjān.

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.

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