Korinchi — given in The Achehnese Vol. I in the alternative spellings Krinchi (modern Kerinci) — is a region of central Sumatra, lying in the upper valley of the river Batang Hari behind the Barisan range, whose inhabitants figure repeatedly in Snouck Hurgronje’s account of Achehnese society as one of the principal classes of foreign settlers and religious wayfarers in Acheh.
The first reference to Korinchi occurs in Snouck’s discussion of the jakeuet (the Achehnese form of the Mohammedan zakat), and especially of the categories of persons among whom the alms were distributed. Among the eight classes of recipients recognised by the law, the fifth is “poor travellers” (Achehnese meusapi, from the Arabic musāfir), who occasionally received a share of the jakeuet from the teungku in whose meunasah they found temporary lodging, or from people of the gampong who still had some padi left over. “The numerous hajjis from Krinchi (Korinchi),” Snouck adds, “who in earlier times wandered from place to place in Acheh, were notable recipients of this dole.” The wandering Korinchi haji was thus, in the older Achehnese usage, a familiar figure of religious mendicancy — a man whose pilgrimage to Mecca had been combined with a long sojourn in the countries of the archipelago, and who lived, in the intervals between pious visits, upon the alms of the faithful.
The second reference occurs in the chapter on marriage. The Achehnese adat, in entire agreement with the rule of Mohammedan law, forbids a woman to marry a man of social position inferior to her own; the pride of the Achehnese withholds them from giving their daughters to foreigners, unless the latter are of Arab blood or have been long settled in the country and have attained some position. To other strangers they give only women who have some slave blood in their veins. “An exception to this rule,” writes Snouck, “is made in favour of devout hajis from Java, and especially those from Krinchi who in earlier times often made a long stay in Acheh or settled there permanently.” The Korinchi settler was thus, in the older Achehnese social order, an honoured exception to the general rule against foreign marriages — a man whose religious reputation secured for him, not merely the alms of the faithful, but also the daughters of respectable Achehnese houses.
The settlement of Korinchi immigrants in Acheh belongs, in Snouck’s formulation, to “earlier times”; the practice was, by his own day, less common than it had been. The reasons for the decline are not far to seek: the political disorder of the Achehnese War, the disruption of the older commercial routes, and the more stringent supervision of foreigners introduced by the Dutch administration had all combined to diminish the influx. But the older reputation of the Korinchi settler survived in the adat that permitted him Achehnese wives, and in the traditional hospitality that assigned him a regular share of the jakeuet.
The Korinchi country itself is a high, well-watered upland valley of central Sumatra, lying in what is now the kabupaten of Kerinci in the province of Jambi. Its inhabitants speak a Malayic dialect of their own, and have from an early period been zealous Mohammedans. The pilgrimage to Mecca, the pursuit of religious learning, and the practice of religious mendicancy made Korinchi men familiar figures throughout the archipelago; their reputation for piety was such that they were received in the most distant Malay countries with the respect accorded to men who had seen the holy cities. The mention of Korinchi in Vol. I is one of several testimonies to the importance of this Sumatran community in the religious life of the wider archipelago.
Additional account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Korinchi
Korinchi (Achehnese Korinchi, also Krinchi; modern spelling Kerinci) is a mountainous region of west-central Sumatra, lying to the south of the Menangkabau country and separated from it by the Barisan range. The region is mentioned by Snouck Hurgronje in connection with the numerous hajjis from Krinchi who, in earlier times, wandered from place to place in Acheh and were notable recipients of the charitable dole (jakèuët) distributed to poor travellers.
The Hajjis of Krinchi in Acheh
In the chapter on the Achehnese jakèuët (the obligatory alms, distinct from the zakèt proper), Snouck enumerates the various classes of recipients among whom the alms were distributed. “Poor travellers (Ach. meusapi from the Arabic musafir),” he writes, “occasionally get something from the jakèuët, either from the teungku in whose meunasah they find temporary lodging or from people of the gampongs who still have some padi left over, from which the tenth has not yet been deducted. The numerous hajjis from Krinchi (Korinchi) who in earlier times wandered from place to place in Acheh, were notable recipients of this dole.”
The mention is brief, but it places Korinchi in the comparative geography of Achehnese charity. The hajjis of Korinchi — men who had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and who, on their return, had not the means to settle in their own country — were one of the recognised classes of poor travellers in Acheh, and their recourse to the jakèuët was one of the ordinary channels by which the surplus alms of the Achehnese were distributed.
The Geography of Korinchi
Korinchi (Kerinci) is a high valley lying to the south of the Menangkabau country, in the angle formed by the Barisan range as it sweeps south-eastward through central Sumatra. The valley is one of the most isolated of the Sumatran highlands; its inhabitants speak a Malay dialect of their own, and their intercourse with the outside world was, in the nineteenth century, conducted principally by way of the rivers which flow down from the valley to the west and to the east. The isolation of the valley, and the difficulty of gaining a livelihood in it, were the principal causes of the emigration of its hajjis; the pilgrimage to Mecca having given them a religious qualification which they could turn to account in the larger Achehnese society, they wandered from place to place in Acheh and in other parts of the Archipelago, living on the alms of the faithful.
The Pilgrimage and the Wandering Hajji
The wandering hajji — the man who, having made the pilgrimage, had no means of settling in his own country, and who lived upon the charity of the Mohammedan communities through which he passed — was a familiar figure of the nineteenth-century Indian Archipelago. The hajjis of Korinchi were one of the most numerous classes of such wanderers; their number was such that Snouck could single them out as “notable recipients” of the Achehnese jakèuët, and their presence in Acheh was, in the earlier part of the century, sufficiently common to be regarded as an ordinary fact of Achehnese life. In Snouck’s own time, the stricter enforcement of the Dutch embargo on the pilgrimage had reduced the number of such wanderers; but the memory of the Krinchi hajjis survived as one of the stock types of Achehnese charity.
The Place of Korinchi in the Comparative Frame
The mention of Korinchi in The Achehnese is otherwise incidental to the argument of the work. It belongs to that comparative apparatus — Malay, Minangkabau, Javanese, Sumatran — by which Snouck brings the institutions of Acheh into relation with those of the neighbouring peoples. The religious connection between Korinchi and Acheh, mediated by the pilgrimage, was one of the channels by which the wider Mohammedan world was brought to the Achehnese; the wandering hajjis of Krinchi were among the principal carriers of that connection, and their presence in Acheh is one of the small facts by which the country’s place in the cosmopolitan geography of the Archipelago is illustrated.
Sources
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.
See Also
- Krinchi
- Sumatra
- Java
- Mecca
- Jakeuet (zakat)
- Hajj
- Acheh
- Minangkabau
- East Indian Archipelago
- Jakèuët
- Korinchi (Krinchi)
- Banda Acheh
- Korinchi
- Kling
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.