W. J. A. Kernkamp — published as Prof. Dr. W. J. A. Kernkamp — was a Dutch scholar of Islam in the Dutch East Indies who, in 1946, contributed the chapter De invloed van den Islam (“The Influence of Islam”) to the volume Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, edited by Dr. Wormser. His chapter, which runs from page 56 to page 108 of the volume, is the single densest source of Atjeh-specific material in the book: it draws heavily on Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjéhers (1893–1894) and Kreemer’s Atjèh (1922–1923) to describe Atjeh’s mosques, prayer houses, religious officials, calendar, feast cycle, life-cycle rites, and the partial reception of Islamic law alongside the older adat.
Treatment of Atjeh
Kernkamp’s chapter treats Atjeh as a type specimen of vigorous Indonesian Islam. The Atjeh material surfaces in nearly every section: in the discussion of the call to prayer and the use of a drum (trom) in Atjeh because the mosque (mesigit) is usually outside the gampong (village); in the description of the Meuseugit Raja of Koeta Radja — the “eenige min of meer pompeuze moskee” (the only more or less pompous mosque) — built by the Dutch in Byzantine style at a cost of more than f 200,000 to replace the mosque burned in 1873, and dismissed by Snouck Hurgronje as “een ledig monument onzer dwaasheid” (an empty monument of our folly); in the description of the Meunasah as village prayer house, council hall, men’s lodging and school; of the Teungkoe as the “mother of the gampong” beside the secular village head; of the Rangkang as the Atjeh equivalent of the Javanese pesantrén; of the *idja pinggang* hip-cloth as the sartorial sjibbolet (shibboleth) of Atjeh Islam for both sexes; of the Soerat te’h as the Atjeh equivalent of the Javanese primbon divination book; of the *pen* (open/wide) concept underlying ear-piercing and gravestone placement; of the *boeròng* as the Atjeh variant of the poentianak (the vengeful spirit of a woman who died in childbed); of the Toean di boh fertility saint, of whom only the magisch sterke geslachtsdeel (magically potent member) is said to be buried in the grave; of the ratib of mid-Ramadan; of the Atjeh preference for the 27th (rather than the 21st) night as Lailat al-Qadar; of the Teungku Anjong kanduri on the 18th of Rejab; of the Atjeh proverb “de adat is als het binden van het dier, de hoekom als het snijden” (adat is like binding the beast, hukum like slaughtering it); and of the Pitrah and Djakat collections organised through the imam in the Gajo and Alas lands.
Sources cited
In the closing bibliography of his chapter, Kernkamp names four principal sources for the Atjeh material: G. H. Bousquet’s Introduction à l’étude de l’Islam indonésien (Paris, 1938); H. Th. Fischer’s Inleiding tot de volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië (Haarlem, 1940); Kreemer’s Atjèh (Leiden, 1922/3); and Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjéhers (Batavia-Leiden, 1893/4) and Verspreide Geschriften Vol. IV (Bonn/Leipzig, 1924). He also cites R. A. Kern’s chapter on the spread of Islam in Stapel’s Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië (Vol. I, Amsterdam, 1938) and W. Juynboll’s Handleiding tot de kennis van de Mohammedaansche Wet (4th ed., Leiden, 1930).
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, Kernkamp’s chapter is the most productive single section of Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk. His decision to organise his account of Indonesian Islam around a long series of Atjeh-specific illustrations — rather than around Javanese ones — means that the chapter functions as a digest of the Snouck–Kreemer synthesis for a general Dutch readership. The chapter’s repeated returns to Atjeh also reveal the extent to which, in 1946, the scholarly picture of Indonesian Islam was still built on the Atjeh case.
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
- adat — customary law
- hoekom — Islamic religious law (Atjeh form)
- hukum — Islamic religious law
- imam — prayer-leader
- Teungku — religious teacher (Atjeh form)
- Teungkoe — religious teacher (Atjeh form)
- pesantrén — boarding school
- mesigit — Friday congregational mosque
- Meuseugit Raja — great mosque of Koeta Radja
- Meuseugit Raya — great mosque of Koeta Radja
- Meunasah — village prayer-house
- ratib — sequence of pious formulas praising Allah
- kanduri — religious feast-meal
- Lailat al-Qadar — Night of Power
- Rejab — Rajab
- idja pinggang — hip-cloth (Atjeh sartorial marker of Islam)
- idja — cloth
- primbon — divination book (Javanese form)
- pen — open/wide (Atjeh concept)
- boeròng — childbed-death spirit (Atjeh form)
- poentianak — childbed-death spirit (Malay form)
- Toean di boh — Lord of the garden (Atjeh fertility saint)
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Koeta Radja — Kutaradja
- Kutaradja — Kutaradja
- Java — Java
- Batavia — Batavia
- Gajoland — Gayo country
- Gajo — Gayo
- Alaslanden — Alas lands
- Alasland — Alas land
- Alas — Alas
- ledig monument onzer dwaasheid — empty monument of our folly
- gampong — village (Atjeh form)
- 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
See Also
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- C. W. Wormser
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Meuseugit Raya
- Meunasah
- Teungku
- Rangkang
- Idja pinggang
- Soerat te’h
- Boeròng
- Toean di boh
- Pen (Atjeh)
- Adat and Hokm Atjeh proverb
- Snouck Hurgronje’s ledig monument verdict
- Pitrah
- Djakat
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), pp. 56–108 (chapter De invloed van den Islam door Prof. Dr. W. J. A. Kernkamp), with closing bibliography on p. 108.