Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/219

 was the guarantee of their success would otherwise be incomplete. Teungku Kutakarang on the other hand decreed that no such rules had any application to the warriors of Allah, and carried his opposition so far as to insist on their wearing gold and silk so that the Dutch, finding these costly objects on the bodies of the slain, might be dismayed by the wealth of Acheh which defied all reverses.

Another peculiar tenet of Teungku Kutakarang was that under existing circumstances the Friday service (which is universally performed in Arabic) should in Acheh be preferably celebrated in the Achehnese tongue.

Again, in opposition to Teungku Tirò, who laid great stress on good works (building of mosques, public worship etc.), Teungku Kutakarang classed all these as mere "louse-questions", for which the "elephant" that lay in the path should not be neglected. He described as misspent all the money that Teungku Tiròt lavished on kanduris and on the repair of chapels; it should have been utilized to erect forts (kuta) all along the linie, and to fit out a fleet to harass the enemy by sea as well as land.

He also teaches great forbearance for the faults of the combatants in the holy war. He tries to prove by examples from the sacred tradition and from history that much indulgence must be extended to them, as many sins are forgiven them in consideration of their noble work. Teungku Kutakarang thus caused the fighting men who lodged with him at times while reposing from their restless occupation to be treated as distinguished guests. Contrary to Achehenese custom they sat at table upon chairs, and water was set before them in glasses in place of brass drinking-vessels.

Finally he was at much pains to enhance the repute of the "pepper saint", Teungku Lam Keuneuʾeun, whose tomb in the gampōng of the same name in the IX Mukims has always been revered as sacred. He delighted to call himself the servant of the tomb of this Teungku, by whose miraculous power the pepper-plant originated in Acheh. Teungku Kutakarang lives in the neighbourhood of that tomb and so of course becomes the recipient of the numerous gifts dedicated thereto.

The complete establishment of Teungku Kutakarang's power properly dates from the death of Teungku Tirò. The latter had no successor in the true sense of the word; his son, the wellknown guerilla leader Mat or Maʾ Amin, by no means followed in his father's footsteps.