1638

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tagsyear, timeline, hooykaas, raniri, bustanu-salatin, sirat-al-mustaqim, iskandar-ii, martyrdom, carmelite, portuguese, catholic, 17th-century
aliases1638 Hooykaas account, 1638 Atjeh martyrdom year, year 1638, 1638 Carmelite martyrs, 1638 Portuguese embassy, 1638 Raniri orthodox reform

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The year 1638 in Atjeh was the year in which Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī, at the command of Sultan Iskandar Thani, completed the *Ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm* (in March 1638) and composed the *Bustān as-Salāṭīn* and the *Badʾ khalq as-samāwāt wal-arwāḥ* — the literary apparatus of ar-Rānīrī’s orthodox reform of the Atjehnese court — and the year of the martyrdom of the Carmelites Pater Dionysius of the Nativity (born Petrus Berthelot) and Brother Redemptus à Cruce on the sea-shore of Atjeh on 29 November 1638, in the course of the Portuguese embassy of Francisco de Sosa de Castro to the sultan of Atjeh. The composition of the three orthodox-reform works in the second year of Iskandar Thani’s reign — at the very moment of the public disputation against the Wujudiyyah — and the execution of the Carmelite embassy together mark 1638 as a year in which the Atjehnese court defined both its Islamic orthodoxy and its posture toward Christian-European diplomacy.

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Account from Over Maleise Literatuur (1947) — 1638

In Hooykaas’s survey of Malay literature, the year 1638 is the year of the composition of the Bustān as-Salāṭīn — the Malay “mirror for princes” written by Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī at the command of Sultan Iskandar II of Atjeh — and the year of the completion of the Sirāṭ al-mustaqīm (in March 1638) and the Bad’ khalq as-samawat wal-arwah. The three works together constitute the literary apparatus of ar-Rānīrī’s orthodox reform of the Atjehnese court.

The Bustān as-Salāṭīn

The Bustān as-Salāṭīn — Arabic Bustān as-Salāṭīn, Malay Boestan oes-Salāṭīn, “Garden of Kings” — was written in 1638 by ar-Rānīrī “op order van Sultan Iskandar II van Atjeh daar te lande” (on the order of Sultan Iskandar II of Atjeh there in that country). The work is the second of the two principal Atjehnese “mirrors for princes” — the earlier being the Tādj us-Salāṭīn of 1607. Hooykaas contrasts the two: “terwijl BOCHARI’s Tādj meer eenvoudig stichtelijk gehouden is, is daarentegen RANĪRI’s Boestān meer het werk van een geleerde” (while Bochari’s Tādj is more simply edifying, Rānīrī’s Bustān is more the work of a scholar).

The Bustān’s historical chapter (II.m) on “de vorsten van Atjéh en de godsdienstleraars daar te lande, voorgangers en tijdgenoten uit 16de en 17de ceuw” (the sultans of Atjeh and the religious scholars there, leaders and contemporaries of the 16th and 17th century) is, in Hooykaas’s judgement, occasionally more reliable than the Sadjarah Malajoe: “de geschiedkundige gegevens, steeds van een jaartal voorzien, een betrouwbare indruk maken, wel eens de voorkeur blijken te verdienen boven de voorstelling van de SM” (the historical data, always provided with a year-date, make a reliable impression, sometimes prove to deserve the preference over the representation of the Sadjarah Malajoe).

The Sirāṭ al-mustaqīm (March 1638)

The Sirāṭ al-mustaqīm — begun in 1634 — was completed in March 1638. The work is the principal Malay-language fiqh handbook produced at the Atjehnese court, and its completion in 1638 — at the very moment of ar-Rānīrī’s public disputation against the Wujudiyyah mystics — marks the beginning of ar-Rānīrī’s project of orthodox reform.

The Project of Orthodox Reform

The composition of the Sirāṭ, the Bustān, and the Bad’ in 1638 — at the command of Sultan Iskandar II, in the second year of his reign — coincides with ar-Rānīrī’s public disputation against the Wujudiyyah. The three works together constitute the literary apparatus of ar-Rānīrī’s orthodox reform — to provide the Achehnese faithful with the literary apparatus of a Shāfiʿite sultanate.

Account from Vierhonderd jaren missie (1934) — 1638

The mission jubilee volume of 1934 records the martyrdom of the Carmelites in the chapter on the Portuguese period of the Indian mission. A gezant van den onderkoning van Goa — an envoy of the Viceroy of Portuguese India at Goa — was to proceed to Atjeh to offer the homage of Portugal to the newly chosen sultan of Atjeh. The envoy designated was Francisco de Sosa de Castro, who made his acceptance conditional on the appointment of Pater Dionysius — born Petrus Berthelot, a former navigator — as scheepshevelhebber (ship’s commander) and confessor; and the lay brother Redemptus à Cruce volunteered to accompany the priest. The embassy put to sea on 25 September 1638 on two warships carrying some seventy Portuguese, accompanied by the two Carmelites, two Franciscan fathers, and an indigenous priest.

Upon arrival at Atjeh, the embassy was destroyed by distrust — “a slanderous report, as would this homage conceal only a cunning design directed against the independence of Atjeh and the power of the crescent” — and the sultan ordered the execution of the company, saving only the envoy himself. The martyrdom on 29 November 1638 is the principal seventeenth-century European clerical martyrdom on Atjehnese soil documented in the Catholic mission record; the two Blesseds were beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 25 March 1900, and their feast is kept on 29 November.

Other

See Also

Sources

Over Maleise Literatuur, by Dr. C. Hooykaas, Hoogleraarte Batavia; Tweede Druk (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1947), chapter 19 (“Twee Moslimse exemplo-boeken als vorstenspiegel”), pp. 173-175.

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.

Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955.

Vierhonderd jaren missie in Nederlandsch-Indië, 1593–1934 (Batavia: Algemeen Comité van Voorbereiding tot de Feestelijke Herdenking van 400 jaar Missie in Ned.-Indië, [1934]), pp. 54–55.

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