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is controlled by "ancient popular customs in conflict with Islam . . . . . in this sense, that they suggest a customary law existing in the consciousness of the people"[1].
Before passing to this subject, however, we must gain some knowledge of the marriage contract as it exists in Acheh. Our assuming this important negociation as already complete has not in any way affected our description of the wedding ceremonial; the less so, as the contract is generally concluded at a different time and place from that of the actual meeting of the bride and bridegroom.
§ 2. The Marriage Contract.
Nature of the marriage contract under Mohammedan law.It is impossible to describe the marriage contract in Acheh with the desired accuracy without first giving some details as to the rules of Mohammedan law on this subject, and the "departures" from this law, which prevail throughout a great portion of the E. Indian Archipelago.
These rules of law have, it is true, been dealt with by Mr. L. W. C. Van den Berg in his "Principles of Mohammedan Law"[2], but very imperfectly, some of his principal facts being erroneous, and the necessary notes on the actual practice in the E. Indies entirely wanting. In his recent essay on the "departures" from these laws in actual practice in Java and Madura, the same writer has made it clear[3] that
- ↑ Ordinance of the 14th March 1881 with respect to the administration of Justice among the native population of Great Achch, with an explanatory memorandum by Mr. T. H. Der Kinderen, Batavia 1881, p. 17.
- ↑ "Beginselen van het Mohammedaansche recht".
- ↑ In the Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie, at the Hague, for the year 1892, p. 454 et seq. This essay is, according to the writer (p. 455), based on various writings "supplemented by the notes made by him in person". He would have been wiser to have omitted this last unintentional evidence of his ignorance. It is now abundantly clear that these notes really contain hardly a trace of what is peculiarly characteristic of the practice in Java and Madura. To quote a single instance; in Batavia marriages are never concluded by the pangulus as such, recourse being had to a contrivance called taḥkīm in the books of the law, but all mention of which is lacking both in this essay and in Van den Berg's "Beginselen". The information given by the writer of this essay now for the first time in regard to the very characteristic institution of the taʾliq (p. 485; the very name of this institution does not appear in the third edition of the "Beginselen") comprises nothing more than what we find in the printed books on this subject, and is thus very incomplete and often absolutely incorrect. The part played by a pangulu at a marriage in Java and Madura (p. 458 et seq.) is ignored by
