Christiaan snouck hurgronje biography of michael jackson

After the publication of Mekka , Snouck began a period of strong academic and political involvement with the Netherlands Indies. While in Mecca, he had encountered numerous Muslim pilgrims from the Netherlands Indies. At the time, this Dutch colonial possession was providing more pilgrims than any other region. These encounters imbued in Snouck the conviction that the Netherlands, then confronting frequent revolts in the Islamic state of Aceh in northern Sumatra, should study Islam thoroughly if it wished to rule its colony without problems.

Snouck convinced the Dutch Ministry of the Colonies to let him make a study trip to the Netherlands Indies, though they would not permit him to start work in Aceh. During and Snouck first traveled through West and Central Java as a government advisor, tasked with making suggestions for the supervision of Islamic education and the functional improvement of Islamic councils.

He produced numerous volumes of travel notes, which remain unpublished and have hardly been touched since they were deposited in his archives in Leiden. The Java trip did, however, yield several well-received articles on Javanese customs and traditions. Finally, in , Snouck had the opportunity to travel to Aceh, now as a government advisor on Asian languages and Islamic law.

The visit lasted just over six months, but Snouck was not allowed to travel outside the Dutch military safety zone, which restricted the scope of his fieldwork studies considerably. Nevertheless, within three months he produced his report, the first two chapters of which were to form the basis for the two-volume government-sponsored publication De Atjehers —; published in English in as The Achenese.

The other chapters of the original report outlined Snouck's iconoclastic ideas about Dutch policies on Aceh. Snouck proposed a departure from the wait-and-see policy that had dominated Dutch actions for over a decade, and advised the government to break the resistance with force in the district of Aceh and Dependencies and thus achieve pacification of the whole area.

The government was not enthusiastic about Snouck's proposal, however, and it would take several incidents in the area and a change of governor-general before his policy advice was implemented, starting in The policy of pacification by force turned out to be very effective, in no small part due to the military skills of Colonel J. Van Heutsz and Snouck cooperated closely in the field for several years.

Christiaan snouck hurgronje biography of michael jackson

The chemistry between them was good, and in terms of devising policies and executing them in the greater Aceh area the two men were complementary. Snouck pushed strongly for the appointment of Van Heutsz as civil and military governor of Aceh, as he felt Van Heutsz was the best man to complete the task of full pacification. Snouck himself was appointed as advisor for Indigenous and Arabic Affairs in , and in this position he was Van Heutsz's second-in command from to , though he was only in Aceh until At the end of this period the relationship between the two men turned sour.

Snouck did not agree with the way in which Van Heutsz pushed through the final submission of Aceh. In , the same year a final treaty heralded an end to hostilities between the Dutch government and the sultan-pretender, Snouck asked to be relieved from his post. His request was honored, but it meant the end of his involvement with matters of colonial policy for five years.

Only in , when the new Dutch governor of Aceh, G. Idenburg propose that Snouck be given a government commission to undertake an inquiry in Aceh. Snouck refused this offer, however, because, he claimed, his acceptance would cause Van Heutsz's resignation. Snouck, although not in agreement with Van Heutsz policy-wise, did not find Van Heutsz's resignation a viable option at that time.

In the following years, Snouck focused on the problem of pacification in other parts of the archipelago, and limited his political advice to those areas. It was only in Djambi that Snouck did research on the ground and kept a somewhat strong interest in developments over time. This put him in the position to advise the Dutch government concerning the Djambi Rebellion of In the meantime, Snouck published prolifically, both under his own name and under several pen names.

He wrote about topical issues in the press, but also kept up his academic work. Who was Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje? We need you! Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web! Add a New Bio. Born Feb 8, Oosterhout Also known as C. Powered by CITE. To support this lecture, film recordings were made for a teaser at the Groenesteeg cemetery.

This lecture is accessible to the public. The teaser is already available on YouTube. The online book presentation will take place on April 29 at 8. Buried: June 29, in Leiden. Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje was born in Oosterhout in Brabant. In , he begins to study theology in Leiden. After his final exams, he continues with Semitic languages and specialises in Arabic.

In , aged just 23, he obtains his doctorate cum laude. He then goes on to study Arabic and is able to understand the language, the culture and the religion thoroughly. In , he becomes a teacher at the municipal institute in Leiden, which provides education for East Indies civil servants. In the study of Arabic, Snouck Hurgronje goes his own way from the very beginning.

His main interest is in the language of Islam. Such writings have resulted in creating the Dutch mental-image of Muslims as poly-haremic, licentious, barbaric and mis-managers. According to L. Graf, [ 11 ] there was no other possibility for Snouck Hurgronje to be admitted to Mecca without becoming a practicing Muslim:. David Samuel Margoliouth , reminding people of the predicament of non-Muslim observers of the Meccan annual pilgrimage in the nineteenth century, makes the following remark: [ 12 ].

This is seconded by Arthur Jeffery in following terms: [ 13 ]. To further add to the controversy of Hurgronje's cultural appropriation to immorally gain access to a sacred site to perpetuate colonial interests, was his own racist remarks, "he i. After the Indian Mutiny of in which Muslims of India played a predominant role, the British tasked a civil servant, William Wilson Hunter , to submit a report on whether the Indian Muslims were "bound in Conscience to rebel against the Queen"?

Hunter completed his report which subsequently became an influential work titled The Indian Musalmans. In it, W. Hunter advanced the pragmatic view that a religious argument, or fatwa, could be used in favor of Her Majesty's Government as much as against it. He wrote: [ 15 ] "The Law Doctors of Northern Hindustan set out by tacitly assuming that India is a Country of the Enemy [Dar al-Harb], and deduce therefrom that religious rebellion is uncalled for.

The Calcutta Doctors [i. Islamic clerics] declare India to be a Country of Islam [Dar al-Islam], and conclude that religious rebellion is therefore unlawful. This result must be accepted as alike satisfactory to the well-to-do Muhammadans, whom it saves from the peril of contributing to the Fanatic Camp on our Frontier, and gratifying to ourselves, as proving that the Law and the Prophets can be utilized on the side of loyalty as well as on the side of sedition.

Snouck Hurgronje, however, did not agree with W. Hunter's conclusion. He was of the view that close acquaintance with Islamic theological literature on the issue of Dar al-Islam Vs. Dar al-Harb did not warrant Hunter's pragmatism. He wrote: [ 16 ]. If doctrine situated these eastern colonies in the Territory of War [Dar al-Harb] under the rule of a Protectorate, as is the case with colonial India under England and colonial Indonesia under the Netherlands, the statutory rule, which is not without exceptions, would allow Muslims to engage in warlike activities only with the permission of the leader of the Muslim community.

In the territory of Islam itself, the non-Muslim rule is an anomaly which should be suffered only so long as Islam is powerless to react. For true pagans, submission can only be made in the form of conversion to the faith in Allah and his Prophet. The article is a polemic against European culture that condemns the moral outrages of World War I.

Hurgronje blamed Germany and its cadre of orientalist scholars for the declaration of Jihad made by the Ottoman government in He accused the German orientalists of undermining the goals of modernizing Islamic society. According to Hurgronje the war was a consequence of forces beyond the control of Muslims. He argues that Muslims are capable of progress and that he had in common with "the Turk" the ideas of "religious peace and freedom of thought".

He saw Jihad as a medieval phenomenon and that the Revolution had ended this medievalism. The "fetish of the Caliphate" and the associated Jihad , he says, experiences a revival only under European pressure. His friendship with Carl Heinrich Becker who was attacked in the article was severely strained as a result. Then will Islam differ from other creeds only in so far as it upholds another catechism and another ritual as the means whereby eternal salvation may be won.

But before that day arrives the last political stronghold of Islam will probably have been brought under European influence and all less civilized Mohammedan peoples will have been compelled to submit to the control of a strong European government. Back in the Netherlands Snouck accepted several professorships at Leiden University , including Arabic language, Acehnese language and Islamic education.

He continued to produce numerous elaborate academic studies and became the international authority on all matters relating to the Arab world and Muslim religion. His expert advice on urgent issues was often sought after by other European countries and much of his work was already being translated into a. German, French and English. In he was even offered a professorship at the prestigious National Egyptian University in Cairo , the prime university of the Middle East.

In he stepped down as Rector magnificus and professor, but stayed active as adviser up to his death in Leiden in During and after his academic tenure Snouck remained a progressive colonial adviser and critic. His reformist vision to solve the challenges of a lasting relationship between the Netherlands and the Indies was based on the principle of association.

To achieve this future association and end the existing dualist governance of the Dutch East Indies, he advocated increased autonomy through western education of the indigenous governing elite.