Speaker: James Siegel, Cornell University

In 1873 Dutch forces invaded the Sultanate of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra. This set off fierce opposition that some historians claim lasted until the Japanese drove out the Dutch. Most historians however say that the war was over by 1914. By that date the sultan had been deposed and died, his heir was banished, the local chiefs who had taken over the war had been killed or put down, the religious scholars who succeeded them were killed or put down. The end of organized opposition did not end the holy war, however. Individuals continued to attack infidels. The transmission of the holy war no longer depended on its leadership since there was none. In its place was an ‘epic’ of the war, blamed by the Dutch for the continuing attacks against them. The lecture will examine the formal characteristics of this long verse to show how it sustained a further 25 years of lethal aggression by those defeated in war as we understand it.