Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/365

 he has not during his long residence in these regions given even a passing notice to many of the most characteristic of these phenomena.

We thus preface our remarks on the actual Achehnese marriage contract, not by a complete description of the Mohammedan contract, but by so much thereof as is absolutely necessary to show what portions of the Achehnese contract are peculiar to that country, and to rectify by the light of authoritative Mohammedan works the errors disseminated by Van den Berg.

The marriage contract is, according to the Shafiʾite law-books, an agreement in which the man and his wife appear as the parties, the latter being represented by her wali. The subject of the contract is sexual intercourse and all that is connected with it; in return for this advantage, which is assured to the man by the contract, he binds himself to pay a dowry, which may be either then and there fixed by the contract, or else settled later on according to the wife's position and the local custom. He also undertakes to supply his wife with suitable food, clothing, lodging and attendance, or if he should wed other wives, not to devote more of his time to them than to her, except with her consent, etc.

At the making of the contract there must be present two witnesses who fulfil the required standards of capacity, religion and morality. The "acceptance" of the bridegroom must follow directly on the "offer" of the wali, and a settled form of words must be employed for both „offer" and „acceptance". Neglect of any of these rules renders the contract null and void.