Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/198

 be then when he, the strict reformer, was requested to decide the question "according to the Book of Allah and the sunat of the Prophet?"

The Habib saw through the plot and found means to frustrate it. Seizing one or two of the pretended suitors by their heads, he said "If ye are so anxious for the sunat of the Prophet, go ye first to your homes and apply it to your own faces, dogs that ye be". He referred to their faces being clean shaven in accordance with the Achehnese custom, but in conflict with the sunat. He who in Acheh lets his beard or beard and mustache grow (as many leubès and teungkus do) is said to have adopted "the sunat of the Prophet".

The Habib often resorted to such rough methods with the Achehnese, even with their principal chiefs. If they put in an appearance much later than the time appointed, therein following the custom of the country, or sat or spoke in what an Arab would consider an improper manner, he would smite, kick and even spit upon them by way of correction. What enabled him to act in this high-handed way was the fact that his followers formed a united and active whole, eager for the advancement of his programme, while the opposition presented to the view a disordered and disunited mass, held together by no other motive than their anxiety to maintain the existing order of things.

The Habib also compelled the Achehnese to do what they were powerless to undertake on their own initiative, viz. to carry out useful objects by general coöperation. Not only did he get a new chief mosque (meuseugit raya) erected by public subscription and coöperative labour, but bridges and roads were also put in hand in the same manner.

Wherever internal dissensions broke out among the Achehnese the Habib was quickly on the spot with his trusty followers to compel them to keep the peace.

Further proofs of his political insight are to be seen in his repeated attempts to enter on Acheh's behalf into relations with European powers, even with the Gōmpeuni or Dutch Government. Circumstances made him for a time the leader of the "holy war" against the Dutch, but whenever the opportunity occurred he always showed that he would have greatly preferred some such settlement as would have resulted in peace. In this object he was hindered by mistrust on the side of the Dutch, and on the part of the Achehnese by their child-