Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/231

 moon has been actually seen on the evening following the 29th day. If this observation of the moon (ruʾya) is not established by proof, the month must in spite of astronomy be regarded as a full one of thirty days.

Although all the Mohammedans of the Archipelago are Shafiʾites, the doctrine of the ruʾya is far from being universally observed. In many districts calculation (hisāb) is adhered to, though according to the teaching of that school it should only be employed for the indifferent affairs of daily life. It is only lately under the influence of Mecca and Hadramaut that the ruʾya has been more universally accepted.

In Acheh the "calculation" was the method followed from the earliest times. The ulamas overcame the difficulty of a conflicting doctrine in the books of the law by the consideration that in these parts the atmosphere is only occasionally clear enough to allow of the new moon being seen on the first day of her appearance.

In the edicts of the sultans we meet with a regulation directing that the commencement of the fasting month in each year should be fixed by a council of the learned held on the last Friday of the preceding month. The date was then made known to the people by the firing of guns on the previous day. This was quite inadmissible according to the ruʾya doctrine.

There are in Acheh a few ulamas who are acquainted with some of the principles of Arabic astronony (that of the middle ages), which they use as the basis of their calculations. But as a rule reference is only made to certain tables given in Malay books, without any regard to the way in which these tables were arrived at, or the necessity for correction of the errors in reckoning to which they give rise after some lapse of time.

A brief description of the nature of these tables will here suffice