Holy war and the international order Rethinking Acehnese perang sabil in the late 19th century

• Published in: Indonesia and the Malay world Vol. 52; no. 153; pp. 199 - 220
• Main Author: Hasbi, Baiquni
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 03-05-2024
• Subjects: Aceh War; international society; masyarakat internasional; Muslim; Perang Aceh; perang sabil; racialisation; rasialisasi
• ISSN: 1363-9811; 1469-8382
• DOI: 10.1080/13639811.2024.2384177

Scholars have traditionally characterised perang sabil, the Malay term for waging holy war in the way of Allah, as the predominant feature of the Aceh War in the late 19th century. In this sense, perang sabil was often understood as a natural response of Acehnese Muslims toward the Dutch (kafir) invasion of Aceh. This perspective emphasised the existence of rigid borders and centuries of rivalry between the Muslim world and Christendom. It tends to locate the Sultanate of Aceh as an outsider of the broader international society. Recent scholarship, however, has challenged such depictions. Scholars maintain that Muslim empires or sultanates historically integrated into and contributed to international society, effectively dismantling the binary notion of Muslim versus Christian. Ibrahim Alfian, an Acehnese scholar, has suggested that the Acehnese ulama formally declared perang sabil after 1877, four years after the Dutch first invasion, and it gained popularity in the 1880s. This raises the question: If perang sabil is considered a natural Muslim response to a Christian (kafir) empire, why did it not occur from the outset of the Aceh War? This article posits that Acehnese perang sabil was a reaction to the evolving stratification of the international society in the late 19th century, the persistent racialisation of Muslims, and the Dutch colonial genocide during the Aceh War.