Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/201

 teaching. We may here rest content with observing that Mr. Der Kinderen (pp. 17–18 of his oft-quoted brochure) terribly exaggerates the decline of Mohammedan learning in Acheh. Those who wrote books on theology and law under the wealthy sultans in Banda Achèh, were strangers whose influence outside Acheh was-at least as noticeable as within it. But there are in Acheh at the present time no less than formerly ulamas of native birth who compose works of learning and edification, sometimes in Malay and sometimes in Achehnese.

At the time of the coming of the Dutch to Acheh there were numerous schools throughout the country; and it is a notorious fact that on more than one occasion the students from these schools threw themselves, practically unarmed, upon the bayonets of the Dutch troops.

These were youths inflamed to fanaticism by the teaching they had imbibed in regard to the holy war and the boundless recompense hereafter awaiting the martyr to his creed, without his being called on to render further account of his actions in this world. In estimating their contempt for death, however, we must reflect upon the fact that at that time the most fearful rumours were current in Acheh as to the tortures which would be the lot of anyone who fell alive into the hands of the kafirs.

We have already ascertained the grounds of the ulamas' influence and the facility with which they attain their power. It is however of interest, especially in view of the present state of affairs, to consider the reasons for the great improvement in their position arising from the invasion of Acheh by a non-Mohammedan power, and the consequent steady increase of their influence in the conduct of affairs in that country in later years.

The circumstances attending the origin and early development of Islam have rendered it par excellence a militant religion, whose aim was no less than to convert all who held other beliefs or else reduce them to subjection. The teaching of the law, as it moulded itself by degrees, comprises a two fold obligation to activity in the holy war:

1°. The joint and several obligation of the community at large to spread among all others by force of arms, at the bidding of their Chief, the religion or at any rate the sovereignty of the Moslims.

For the fulfilment of this duty the chief of the Mohammedan community should provide by raising a standing army and enrolling volunteers; he must also decide as to the manner in which this programme is to be carried