Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/211

 adherents, and, if all goes well, to attain a degree of power such as compels the respect of the inactive hereditary chiefs. Nor is the religious element lacking even in their case, for we must always recollect that no single Achehnese has any doubt of the meritorious character of the struggle with the Gōmpeuni, a belief shared even by those who are least inclined to risk their lives for the cause.

The raw material from which these chiefs recruited their bands was of a very varied description. Vagrants without visible means of subsistence, who in ordinary circumstances supply their needs in the way of rice and opium through theft or (especially in the highlands and sparsely populated districts of the West Coast) through murder and rapine, could choose nothing better than to turn from their evil ways and pursue their old trade under an honourable name, with the certain expectation of plunder or an incomparable recompense after death. Among the religious students some are always to be found who are inspired by their teachers with a desire to become shahīds or martyrs to the faith. The younger men in the gampōngs are also subject to the incentives of hot blood passion for the glory of battle. Where the war is against an infidel enemy even their parents cannot withhold them from what all believe to be a pious task.

These bands, however, are too much wanting in organization to remain long on foot unless constant encounters give them the chance of getting plunder. Where this fails they are strong enough to compel the people of the gampōngs in their neighbourhood to provide for their maintenance; but this soon creates disgust, all the more because these troops are not as a rule distinguished by a godly life, except as champions against the infidel.

Here it is that the ulamas have their golden opportunity for making their influence felt. While allowing all credit to the guerilla leaders for their endeavours to cause loss to the infidels, the ulamas can—nay are bound by the text of their sacred books to point out that such leaders can lay no effective claim to general coöperation. The war ordained of Allah must be waged in conformity with His decree.

Allah himself has indicated in his holy law the sources from which the cost of the holy war should be defrayed. Part of the provision must be made from the revenues which the Moslim state derives from unbelievers, and a portion of the religious tax zakāt (Ach. jakeuët) must be specially set aside for this purpose. Strenuous appeals must