CHRISTIAAN SNOUCK HURGRONJE

ARABIST, SCHOLAR OF ISLAM (1857-1936)

P R E S S R E L E A S E

On February 8, 2007 it is exactly 150 years ago that the Dutch islamologist and scholar of Arabic, Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje was born. Snouck Hurgronje has become famous by his journey to Mecca in 1884-1885. In his study (which he wrote in German) Mekka he has recorded the results of his research in Mecca.

To commemmorate his legacy an academic workshop will be organised at Leiden University on February 16, 2007, which will be devoted to Snouck Hurgronje’s life and work under the title ‘Scholarship in action’. This workshop is organized and funded by the Faculty of Arts and the Research School of Leiden University.On the same day the Saudi-Arabian architect Dr. Sami Angawi will deliver the third Snouck Hurgronje lecture under the title ‘How can Mecca be saved?’ This lecture is organized by the Foundation ‘Oosters Instituut’. Please visit the website for a survey of other activities in 2007 relevant to Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje can be found as well.

At the start of this year the renown Leiden publisher, Messrs. Brill, has republished the English translation of this work. A Dutch version of the book will appear later in 2007. It contains an extensive introduction on Snouck Hurgronje’s life and work in Jeddah and Mecca, which is based on many as yet unknown documents.

In the period 1889-1906 Snouck Hurgronje lived and worked in the Dutch East-Indies (Indonesia), as an adviser on Islamic and Arabian affairs to the colonial government. In 1893-1895 he published his two-volume study on Aceh (De Atjehers). An English translation of this work appeared in 1906.In 1903 he published Het Gajoland en zijn bewoners (‘The Gajoland and its inhabitants’). His ‘Official Advices’ were posthumously published (1957-1965). These are an important primary source for our knowledge of the development of Islam in the Dutch East-Indies/Indonesia in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

From 1906-1927 Snouck Hurgronje held the chair of Arabic at Leiden University. In 1922 he was ‘rector-magnificus’ (chancellor) of Leiden University. Snouck Hurgronje is considered as the founder of the academic study of Islamic law. On this subject, as on many other subjects, he has published pioneering studies. Many of these have recently been translated into Indonesian. A great number of his ideas about attitudes towards and contacts with Islam and Muslims have still relevance today.

Snouck Hurgronje’s ethnographical objects (mostly from Mecca) are now kept in the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. His complete library (many thousands of books, manuscripts and documents) are kept in Leiden University Library. His magnificent house on Leiden’s most prestigious canal, the Rapenburg, is now the seat of the Leiden University Fund.

Leiden, 31 January 2007
Prof. Dr. Jan Just Witkam (j.j.witkam@let.leidenuniv.nl)

BLING BLING BECOMES BLING BANG

'The ancient Greeks believed that diamonds were slivers of stars that had fallen to earth. Others claimed that they were the tears of gods. According to yet another legend there was an isolated valley somewhere in Central Asia that was sown with diamonds and guarded by birds of prey and sinister snakes.' (Gassan Diamonds)

True, legends only telling part of the history of the diamond. But what then is the other part? Diamonds coming about as the result of scorching heat and enormous pressure under the crust of the earth is one story...and a bit one-sided. Logical, because it is the rational scientific explanation given on the website of Gassan Diamonds in Amsterdam. one of the oldest diamond houses in the Netherlands.

For my newspaper Dagblad De Pers, I contacted Benno Leeser, the director of Gassan Diamonds. He did not report any drop in sales after the release of the film, saying only few people asked questions. In the US, however, the diamond trade has been under pressure for quite some time now. Severe competition from low-wage countries is one the main reasons, although the release of Blood Diamond has not done the diamond industry much good either.

Already the film has become controversial, with people in the diamond trade claiming that Blood Diamond is a far cry from reality. I went to see it last night and was surprised that, although it was released only last week, it wasn't a crowd puller. Dicaprio shows he is more than a pretty face. The story touches on child soldiers, the blood trail of conflict diamonds and the hyprocrisy of us here in the west wanting to get our hands on such dazzling jewels. Below you will find the story line taken from the official moviesite. And make sure to watch the trailer and then of course the film itself.

Set against the backdrop of the chaos and civil war that enveloped 1990s Sierra Leone, "Blood Diamond" is the story of Danny Archer (Leonardo Dicaprio, an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia), and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a Mende fisherman. Both men are African, but their histories and their circumstances are as different as any can be until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond, the kind of stone that can transform a life...or end it.

Solomon, who has been taken from his family and forced to work in the diamond fields, finds the extraordinary gem and hides it at great risk, knowing if he is discovered, he will be killed instantly. But he also knows the diamond could not only provide the means to save his wife and daughters from a life as refugees but also help rescue his son, Dia, from an even worse fate, as a child soldier.

Enter Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an idealistic American journalist who is in Sierra Leone to uncover the truth behind conflict diamonds, exposing the complicity of diamond industry leaders who have chosen profits over principles. Maddy seeks out Archer as a source for her article, but soon finds it is he who needs her even more. With Maddy's help, Archer and Solomon embark on a dangerous trek through rebel territory. Archer needs Solomon to find and recover the valuable pink diamond, but Solomon seeks something far more precious...his son.



the Blood Diamond international trailer