Komunitas Tikar Pandan

     When C. Snouck Hurgronje made his famous ethnography of Aceh at the beginning of the Twentieth Century and in the midst of the fierce anti-colonial war, he was centrally concerned with the place of the sjari’at. According to Snouck, Islamic law was honored, but only to be ignored.. Achenese, he said, were fierce Muslims. It was in the name of Islam and in the name of Aceh that Acehnese opposed the Dutch. Snouck was an Islamacist who had made important studies of Islam before coming to Aceh. For him, the difference between adat and Islam was evident. It was evident too for Acehnese but not in the same way. For Snouck, adat ruled. But, at the same time, Acehnese insisted that there was no difference between adat and Islam. The latter was said to be the guide to the former. Whatever the former consisted of, then, was legitimated by Islam. The sjari’at in that sense was present to Acehnese from the start and continued to be so.