Tjilegon — modern Cilegon — is a town in the Bantam region of west Java, in the same Bantam where also lay Lebak — the Lebak of Multatuli’s Max Havelaar — and the site of the 1889 murder of a number of Europeans, in which hadji’s were involved, that was the immediate occasion of the Netherlands Indies government’s despatch of Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje to Indië with a special commission to study the institutions of Islam on Java. The Tjilegon murders — and the government’s attribution of them to the Islam — were the immediate reason for the government’s wish to have the Islam on Java studied, and so for the despatch that would eventually, by a roundabout route, lead to Snouck Hurgronje’s Atjèh residence of 1891–1892 and the Verslag of 23 May 23 May 1892.
The 1889 Murders
There at Tjilegon, in that same Bantam where also lay Lebak — the Lebak of the Max Havelaar of [[Multatuli|Multatuli] — a number of Europeans were unexpectedly murdered, and hadji’s were involved, so the Islam must somehow be made responsible. But what was the matter with that Islam on Java? That the government meant Snouck Hurgronje to investigate; and so he got a special commission to go to Indië for at most two years, at the disposal of the governor-general, for the purpose of an investigation into the institutions of Islam.
The Government’s Concern
The Tjilegon murders — and the government’s attribution of them to the Islam — were the immediate occasion of the government’s wish to have the Islam on Java studied. The government’s concern was that the Islam on Java might be, in some way, responsible for the murders; and the investigation that Snouck Hurgronje was commissioned to conduct was to determine what was the matter with that Islam. The investigation would, in the event, take Snouck Hurgronje away from Atjèh (his principal interest) and into a systematic study of the Islam on Java, which he conducted by traveling systematically through the Javanese inland territory to acquaint himself with the native world — at [[Madioen|Madioen], when the tidings came that the governor Van Teijn requested his coming to Atjèh “so spoedig mogelijk” (as soon as possible).
Significance
Tjilegon is, for Atjèhse history, the immediate occasion of the Netherlands Indies government’s despatch of Snouck Hurgronje to Indië with a special commission to study the institutions of Islam on Java — the despatch that, by a roundabout route, would lead to the Atjèh residence of 1891–1892 and the Verslag of 23 May 23 May 1892. The Tjilegon murders and the government’s attribution of them to the Islam were the immediate reason for the government’s wish to have the Islam on Java studied; and Snouck Hurgronje’s commission, though originally for the study of Islam on Java, placed him in a position to make the Atjèh residence that would produce the foundational document of the modern Dutch understanding of the Atjèh-oorlog.
See Also
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- Snouck Hurgronje’s Atjeh mission (July 1891 – February 1892)
- Verslag omtrent de religieus-politieke toestanden in Atjeh
- General van Teijn
- Keuchenius
- Sprenger van Eijk
- Multatuli
- Lebak
- Bantam
- Madioen
- Java
- Hadji
- Islam
- Aceh War
- Atjeh-oorlog
- 1889
- 1891
- 1892
Source
Drie Atjeh-mannen: Snouck Hurgronje — Van Heutsz — Van Daalen, door H. T. Damsté (September 1936). OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-111-Drie_Atjeh_mannen_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 11–12.