Sjarifa Fatina — Sharifa Fatina — was the first wife of Habib Abdoe’r Rachman, whom he married in Constantinopel after his honded wittebroodsweken (hundred-day honeymoon) there following his earlier travels, and who accompanied him on his subsequent journeys to Hyderabad, Calcutta, Mekka and finally to Atjeh. She is named in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 as the companion of the Habib’s later years in Djeddah, where — in the album’s striking classical comparison — she awaited him als Penelope haar Ulysses — as Penelope [awaited] Ulysses.
Marriage in Constantinopel
The Atjeh-Album records that the Habib, after his early travels — which had taken him from his birthplace in Hadramont on the south coast of Arabia to Malabar in Voor-Indië, then to Egypte and Mekka for his religious education, and finally to Constantinopel — married Sjarifa Fatina in Constantinopel. After a honded wittebroodsweken (hundred-day honeymoon) the couple travelled to Hyderabad in Voor-Indië, where the Habib established himself as a doctor and where he succeeded, in the double capacity of geneesheer en geestelijke (physician and divine), in curing the prince of that land of his childlessness and in converting him to Islam. As a reward he was appointed Djamidar — commander of a thousand soldiers.
The departure for Atjeh
The Atjeh-Album records that, after a year of soldaatjes drillen (drilling soldiers) in Hyderabad, the Habib moved to Calcutta, where he opened a goldsmith’s shop and made so much money from refining gold wares that he was able to occupy the fine villa Golkat at a monthly rent of 600 dollars. After further travels — to Italy, Germany and France (where, it was said, he was presented to Emperor Napoleon), back to Constantinopel and Mekka, then to British India (Bombay, Hyderabad, Calicut), and finally to Singapore — he arrived in Groot-Atjeh in 1864. The album does not specify whether Sjarifa Fatina accompanied the Habib on all these journeys or only on some of them, but her presence at his side in his final years in Djeddah is recorded.
The Djeddah years
The Atjeh-Album records that, after the Habib’s withdrawal from Atjeh and his acceptance of a Dutch pension, he retired to Djeddah to live as a rustig burger (quiet citizen). There, the album records, ging hij rusten van zijn zwerftochten over den aardbol bij zijn nu oude en rimpelige eerste liefde, zijn Sjarifa Fatina, die hem er opwachtte, als Penelope haar Ulysses — he went to rest from his wanderings over the globe at the side of his now old and wrinkly first love, his Sjarifa Fatina, who awaited him there as Penelope [awaited] Ulysses. The Penelope comparison — the only sustained classical reference in the album — is the album’s principal characterisation of Sjarifa Fatina, and the comparison is, in turn, the album’s principal characterisation of the Habib’s withdrawal: a return to the first wife after the long Odyssey of his political career.
Significance
Sjarifa Fatina’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the first wife and lifelong companion of Habib Abdoe’r Rachman — the woman whose presence at his side in Djeddah is the album’s principal image of the Habib’s retirement. The Penelope comparison — applied to her by Hooyer in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 — is the most striking single literary gesture in the album’s narrative, and the comparison places the Habib’s career in a Homeric frame that is otherwise foreign to the album’s colonial-military register.
See Also
- Habib Abdurrahman Zahir
- Constantinopel
- Hyderabad
- Calcutta
- Mekka
- Djeddah
- Hadramont
- Malabar
- Egypte
- Atjeh
- Groot-Atjeh
- Aceh War
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 14, 21 (De Geestelijkheid in Atjeh — Habib Abdoe’r Rachman).