Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/199

 like confidence in their own invincibility. Placed thus between two fires, he finally longed for repose, which he found in accepting a pension and migrating to Arabia.

The Achehnese now generally regard him as an ambitious traitor and even suspect him of having served as a spy of the Gōmpeuni from the very beginning. Among the proofs which they refer to in support of this theory are included just the very facts which show his superiority to the Achehnese in civilization and political insight. Why, they ask, did he continually urge us to refrain from deceit and treachery in the war with the Infidels? Why, when we had surrounded the Gōmpeuni's fort at Kruëng Raba with a much superior force under his leadership, did he promise a free retreat to the commandant and his men if they surrendered, and forbid us, if the offer were accepted, to raise a hand against the unbelievers? Evidently, they now reply, because even at that time he had a secret understanding with the Gōmpeuni. They cannot comprehend that the Habib's closer insight caused him to give great weight to the impression which his actions would make upon the enemy, a matter to which the Achehnese have always been utterly indifferent.

We have already seen how cleverly the Habib took advantage of that favourite method of discussion, the mupakat, in his intercourse with the Achehnese.

Considering the circumstances, we must admit the success attained by Sayyid Abdurrahman Zahir in the centralization of power under his own control to have been nothing short of prodigious. We have not overstated the personal characteristics of the Habib; yet he has been himself the first to acknowledge that with all his penetration and skill he would never have gained his end, had not his position as a sayyid furnished him with an impregnable basis of action.

The fact, too, that after all that had occurred, after he had been branded by so many with the name of traitor and spy, he should still (as he did in 1884) have asked the government as a favour to permit him to return to Acheh and there play his part anew under their supervision and in accordance with their wishes, proves indeed that this man of much experience deemed nothing impossible for a sayyid in Acheh.