File:Java, Sumatra and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies (1914) (14763350142).jpg

Identifier: javasumatraother00caba (find matches)
Title: Java, Sumatra and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Cabaton, Antoine, b. 1863 Miall, Bernard, 1876-
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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rab communities in the large towns, who are more orless the spiritual directors of such communities; on theother hand are the traders and travelling merchants. The Javanese retains a certain traditional respect forthe Arab, who was formerly his religious sponsor : heregards the Arab as of the noblest race of all, because heis descended more or less remotely from Mahomed, andbecause he is a Musulman. For the rest, it is indubitable that among the Arabs ofthe East Indies are some of a rebellious type of ortho-doxy : often smitten with the ambitious dream of pan-Islamism, by which the Musulman of the East who hasbeen subjected to the intellectual hegemony of the Westattempts as far as may be to console his pride. It hurtsthem to see the Indies, where formerly they weremorally predominant, still in the hands of the infidels;but this vague and secretive state of mind rarely betraysitself by overt acts ; only in a few individuals does it findopen expression. Nearly all the Arabs maintain an
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AN ARAB TRADER, SURaBAJA. To face p. 15^ ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 157 attitude of extreme propriety with regard to the Dutchauthorities. The best, who are also the most highlyplaced, by reason of their enlightened views of religionand of justice : the others because they know themselvesweak in the presence of a well-organised power. Withthe exception of a few petty and unfortunate intrigueson the part of subordinate Turkish agents, all thereligious disturbances of the last thirty years have beenthe work not of Arabs but of Javanese or Malays, whohave returned from Mecca, having there been transformedinto fanatics by the retrograde beliefs and impossiblehopes upon which the colony of Djawas still nourishthemselves. The Dutch have had far more trouble withthe Javanese and Malay pupils of the Arabs, who havebeen influenced by the dangerous and fanatical atmo-sphere of Mecca.i There is more to criticise in the commercial habits ofthe Arabs. Their name in the Far East, as in Francein the e

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