Egypt appears both as a real place and as a literary setting. The Teungku Meuse (= from Egypt) who taught Teungku di Lam Nyong owed his name to his sojourn there. Egyptian
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Egypt
Egypt (Arabic Misr) is the great Mohammedan country of North Africa cited in The Achehnese Vol. I chiefly for the technical vocabulary of its Mohammedan administration and as one of the standard references of Mohammedan civilisation. Its capital, Cairo, is one of the centres of Islam named alongside Mecca and Medina as places where the legal equality of the children of slave-concubines with those of free wives is actually observed in practice.
The marriage-makers of Egypt are called fiqih. This terminology is set beside the mumlik of Mekka, the “licentiates for the making of marriages” of Medina, the naib or district pangulus of Java and their subordinates (the ketip), and the teungku meunasah of Acheh. All of these officials discharge their duties in one of two ways: by direct celebration of the marriage, or by authorisation of an agent. The variety of the names illustrates the diversity of usage in different Mohammedan lands, despite the underlying identity of the office. The fiqih of Egypt is the local equivalent of the Achehnese teungku meunasah — a piece of administrative vocabulary that points to the long arm of Mohammedan legal tradition, extending from the Nile to the northern tip of Sumatra.
The Mohammedan practices of Egypt are repeatedly contrasted with those of the East Indian Archipelago. The general custom by which the children of slave-concubines enjoy the same legal privileges as the children of free wives is in many Mohammedan countries actually observed in practice; in order to see this theory actually adopted in practice, however, we must seek a centre of Mohammedan civilisation such as Cairo, or towns with a very mixed population such as Mecca or Medina. In Acheh (as also in the inland parts of Arabia), this custom is only partially observed: the legal privileges are the same, but the social position is markedly different. Egypt thus serves as one of the standard references against which the divergences of Achehnese social life are measured.
In the matter of the calendar and of the devotional literature, Egypt exercises an indirect influence on the East Indian Archipelago through its publishing industry. The maulids most in use in Acheh have been handsomely lithographed at Cairo by Hasan at-Tochi Ahmad and published in a single volume along with a number of other formulas used for religious purposes, a collection that enjoys the greatest popularity both at Mekka and throughout the whole Indian Archipelago. The Cairo editions of such devotional works help to standardise the religious life of the Achehnese, and the name of Egypt is thus present, even if indirectly, in the daily prayers and recitations of the people of Acheh.
See Also
- Lam Nyong
- Meuse
- Teungku Meuse
- Teungku di Lam Nyong
- Cairo
- Mecca
- Mekka
- Medina
- Acheh
- Java
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.