Sultan Ageng is the name by which Javanese tradition, as recorded by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese Vol. I, attributes the invention of the ta’liq, the conditional divorce adat universally observed at marriages in Java. The tradition identifies him with the great Sultan of Mataram, the central Javanese kingdom which, together with Chirbon and Banten, ordained the ta’liq by princely command in olden times. Snouck notes that the identification is “to say the least of it open to doubt”; the name Ageng (Javanese, “great”) is more generally applied to Sultan Agung of Mataram, who reigned in the early seventeenth century, and the attribution of the ta’liq to a single royal inventor belongs to the order of pious historical legend rather than verifiable fact.
The ta’liq — known everywhere in Java as the janjining ratu (“the promise ordained of the Prince”) or janji dalam — is the formula by which, immediately after the marriage ceremony, the bridegroom declares that his wife may regard herself as divorced by him if he marries a second wife, fails to maintain her, fails to provide her with a separate house, or commits any of the other acts enumerated in the formula. The adat prevails, or has at some time prevailed, throughout almost the whole of Java and the Sundanese districts, and extends, with local variations, far beyond the limits of the island. In the Achehnese discussion of the institution, Sultan Ageng is invoked as the prince by whose command this conditional divorce was established as a universal adjunct of marriage.
Snouck Hurgronje’s chief concern in mentioning Sultan Ageng is to point out the political character of the Javanese ta’liq. In olden times in Java, not only in the kingdom of Mataram but also in such places as Chirbon and Banten, the ta’liq was ordained by the rulers of the country. The question put by the official who concludes the marriage contract — “Do you accept the janjining ratu?” — is purely formal, since a reply in the negative is unheard of. The institution, in its Javanese form, is thus an instance of that extensive princely intervention in private law which distinguishes the Javanese from the Malay political tradition, and which the Javanese themselves attributed to the strong hand of their great sultan.
The attribution of the ta’liq to Sultan Ageng is, however, only one element in the larger Javanese tradition which assigned to the sultans of Mataram the establishment of the principal adats of the country. The tradition is preserved in the very name janjining ratu — “the promise ordained of the Prince” — by which the institution is still known even outside the Native States, and which perpetuates, in the formula itself, the memory of its supposed royal origin. The legend thus exemplifies the tendency of Eastern Muslim communities to ascribe to a single great ruler the institution of those customs which in fact grew up gradually under the pressure of social necessity.
It is, finally, the contrast between the Javanese and the Achehnese marriage adat which gives the figure of Sultan Ageng its place in The Achehnese. Acheh, together with the Menangkabau territories, is one of the two principal Mohammedan countries of the Archipelago in which the ta’liq-adat is entirely lacking. The Achehnese woman, who continues to form an integral part of the family wherein she was born and who is, so far as lodging and maintenance are concerned, practically independent of her husband, has no need of the conditional divorce by which the Javanese wife, living in her husband’s house, protects herself against desertion or neglect. The absence of the ta’liq from Acheh is therefore itself an index of the social conditions which it was the historic function of the ta’liq, in Java, to mitigate; and the legendary inventor of the Javanese adat is invoked, by way of contrast, as the type of that princely authority to which the Achehnese submitted so much less completely than did the Javanese to their sultans.
See Also
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.
Sultan Ageng is the name by which Javanese tradition, as recorded by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese Vol. I, attributes the invention of the ta’liq, the conditional divorce adat universally observed at marriages in Java. The tradition identifies him with the great Sultan of Mataram, the central Javanese kingdom which, together with Chirbon and Banten, ordained the ta’liq by princely command in olden times. Snouck notes that the identification is “to say the least of it open to doubt”; the name Ageng (Javanese, “great”) is more generally applied to Sultan Agung of Mataram, who reigned in the early seventeenth century, and the attribution of the ta’liq to a single royal inventor belongs to the order of pious historical legend rather than verifiable fact.
The ta’liq — known everywhere in Java as the janjining ratu (“the promise ordained of the Prince”) or janji dalam — is the formula by which, immediately after the marriage ceremony, the bridegroom declares that his wife may regard herself as divorced by him if he marries a second wife, fails to maintain her, fails to provide her with a separate house, or commits any of the other acts enumerated in the formula. The adat prevails, or has at some time prevailed, throughout almost the whole of Java and the Sundanese districts, and extends, with local variations, far beyond the limits of the island. In the Achehnese discussion of the institution, Sultan Ageng is invoked as the prince by whose command this conditional divorce was established as a universal adjunct of marriage.
Snouck Hurgronje’s chief concern in mentioning Sultan Ageng is to point out the political character of the Javanese ta’liq. In olden times in Java, not only in the kingdom of Mataram but also in such places as Chirbon and Banten, the ta’liq was ordained by the rulers of the country. The question put by the official who concludes the marriage contract — “Do you accept the janjining ratu?” — is purely formal, since a reply in the negative is unheard of. The institution, in its Javanese form, is thus an instance of that extensive princely intervention in private law which distinguishes the Javanese from the Malay political tradition, and which the Javanese themselves attributed to the strong hand of their great sultan.
The attribution of the ta’liq to Sultan Ageng is, however, only one element in the larger Javanese tradition which assigned to the sultans of Mataram the establishment of the principal adats of the country. The tradition is preserved in the very name janjining ratu — “the promise ordained of the Prince” — by which the institution is still known even outside the Native States, and which perpetuates, in the formula itself, the memory of its supposed royal origin. The legend thus exemplifies the tendency of Eastern Muslim communities to ascribe to a single great ruler the institution of those customs which in fact grew up gradually under the pressure of social necessity.
It is, finally, the contrast between the Javanese and the Achehnese marriage adat which gives the figure of Sultan Ageng its place in The Achehnese. Acheh, together with the Menangkabau territories, is one of the two principal Mohammedan countries of the Archipelago in which the ta’liq-adat is entirely lacking. The Achehnese woman, who continues to form an integral part of the family wherein she was born and who is, so far as lodging and maintenance are concerned, practically independent of her husband, has no need of the conditional divorce by which the Javanese wife, living in her husband’s house, protects herself against desertion or neglect. The absence of the ta’liq from Acheh is therefore itself an index of the social conditions which it was the historic function of the ta’liq, in Java, to mitigate; and the legendary inventor of the Javanese adat is invoked, by way of contrast, as the type of that princely authority to which the Achehnese submitted so much less completely than did the Javanese to their sultans.
See Also
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.