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The Khōjā of Tanzania Discontinuities of a Postcolonial Religious The Khōjā of Tanzania Studies of Religion in Africa Edited by Benjamin Soares, African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands Frans Wijsen, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands VOLUME 43 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sra The Khōjā of Tanzania Discontinuities of a Postcolonial Religious Identity By Iqbal Akhtar LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: The Khoja Ithnasheri mosque after Friday prayers in Dar es Salaam. Photo by the author. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Akhtar, Iqbal, 1981- author. The Khoja of Tanzania : discontinuities of a postcolonial religious identity / by Iqbal Akhtar. pages cm—(Studies of religion in Africa ; v. 43) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-27474-7 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29288-8 (e-book) 1. Shi’ah—Tanzania— History. 2. Islam—Tanzania—Customs and practices. 3. Islam—Tanzania—Colonial influence. 4. Muslims—Tanzania. 5. Tanzania—Religious life and customs. I. Title. II. Series: Studies on religion in Africa ; v. 43. BP192.7.T34.A39 2015 297.8209678—dc23 2015034469 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0169-9814 isbn 978-90-04-27474-7 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-29288-8 (e-book) Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. ArpN Alato haAaï: Aa ßstk mað maÐSð nr¦sbai, mara Ýta¸ slóm Bai, tZa mara nanoBai AºJne smrÝt Ce| Amara ßrvjoÜF man temno iÎhas, sFskñÎ, Ane Drm Amara sFtÎ sday yad raKjo || Je úd brs 2070 v.s. 12 Saban 1435 h Dedication To my parents, brother, and wife for their loving and unwavering support, as well as towards the cause of cultural preservation. Jēṭh Sud Baras 2070 v.s. 12 Śābān 1435 a.h. ∵ Contents Foreword by Michel Boivin xi Acknowledgments xv List of Figures xviii Introduction 1 The Khōjā: History and Importance 2 The Khōjā from the Perspective of Indian Ocean Studies 7 The Current Study: Methodology 9 A Note on Terminology 11 The Current Study: Overview 14 Chapters 1 and 2: The Genealogy and Migration of the Khōjā 14 Chapter 3: Religious Citizenship 15 Chapters 4 and 5: Quranic Gujarati, Epigraphy, and the Dōʿāʾōnō Majmūʾō 19 Chapter 6: Shrines 21 Chapter 7: The Veil 26 Conclusion 27 Part 1 Historiography 1 Geneaology: The Origins of the Khōjā 33 Religious Origins 33 Migration and Diaspora 35 Schism 35 From Indic Caste to Islamic Nationhood 44 Esoteric versus Exoteric Readings of Khōjā Religion 45 2 The African Khōjā: From the Colonial Period to the Present 48 The Colonial Period 48 The Postcolonial Period: African Independence 51 The Development of the Khōjā Community in Dar es Salaam 54 Khōjā Confederation from the Postwar Period to the Present 56 Khōjā Demographics in Modern-Day Africa 58 viii Contents Part 2 Politics 3 The Evolution of Khōjā Political Power: Religious Citizenship 67 Introduction 67 Khōjā Membership as Communal Citizenship 67 Conditions of Membership 68 The Center: Ethnicity and Gender 68 The Periphery: Intermarriage and Half-Castes 70 Constitutional Organization 72 Taxation 76 Social Welfare 77 Foreign Policy 79 Uganda: 1972 Asian Expulsion 79 Somalia: Operation Ghadeer 80 Conclusion 82 Part 3 Linguistics 4 The Khōjā Language: Quranic Gujarati 93 Introduction 93 Background 93 Bōhrā Gujarati: A Move toward Persianized Urdu and Arabic 94 Ismāʾil’s Quranic Transliteration Scheme 96 Historical Background: Religious Texts for the Laity 96 Opposition and Legal Rulings 97 The Increasing Importance of Arabic Texts 98 Detailed Analysis: Consonants 99 Detailed Analysis: Vowels and Punctuation Marks 102 Comparative Analysis: The Quran, Chapter 1, Verses 1–7 104 Adoption 106 Indo-African Epigraphy: Seven Inscriptions 107 Inscription 1. An Early Entryway Inscription on the Khōjā Hujjatul Islam Masjid 108 Inscription 2. An Entryway Inscription on a Khōjā Caravanserai 108 Inscription 3. A Later Entryway Inscription on the Khōjā Hujjatul Islam Masjid 110 Contents ix Inscription 4. An Entryway Inscription on the Āgākhānī Khōjā Poor Women’s Home 111 Inscription 5. An Entryway Inscription on an Āgākhānī Khōjā Jamātkhānā 112 Inscription 6. A Façade Inscription on a Khōjā Widows’ Home (Vidhvāśram) 113 Inscription 7. A Memorial Entryway Inscription on a Kuwwatul Islam Imāmvāḍō 114 Polyglotism 115 Conclusion 116 5 Khōjā Religious Texts: The Dōʾāōnō Majmūʾō 118 Introduction 118 Overview 118 Table of Contents 119 The Text: Selective Analysis 121 List of Names 121 Prayers for Alleviating Difficulty 122 Sacred Maps 122 Quranic Bibliomancy 125 The Majmūʾō in African Praxis 128 Conclusion 129 Part 4 Ethnology 6 Ritual Space: Khōjā Shrines 137 Introduction 137 The Mēhphīl as a Sacred Space 137 Material Culture, Worship, and Fellowship in Shrines 138 Material Culture 138 Worship: The Khōjā Majlis 140 Communal Fellowship: The Caste Feast 144 Other Ritual Spaces: Taboos 145 The Story of a Shrine: Mēhphīlē Abbās 147 Sacrality 150 Conferring Sacrality: Historical Rituals and Modern Renovation 150 Permanent and Temporary Sacrality 151 x Contents Shifts in Sacrality 152 Performing Sacrality 153 The Proliferation of Shrines 155 Conclusion 157 7 The Body: The Khōjā Adoption of the Veil 158 Introduction 158 Overview: Abbasi’s Lectures and the Complex Background of the Adoption of the Veil 159 Historical Precedent: Use of the Veil before the 1980s 160 The Adoption of the Veil among the Ismaili Bōhrā 161 The Influence of Postcolonial Changes 162 Postcolonial Insecurity 162 Dar es Salaam Hegira 163 The Influence of Zanzibari Culture 164 Symbolism of the Veil in Narrative Prayers 166 Narratives of Resistance to Colonization 168 The Influence of Iran 169 Prerevolutionary Iran 169 The Iranian Revolution: Messianic Iran 170 Postrevolutionary Iran: A Utopian Dystopia 170 Veiling Change: The Veil in Modern-Day Discourses 173 The Veil as a Source of Power: Feminist Discourse and Resistance to Western Oppression 173 The Missionary Imperative 174 The Islamic Concept: The Veil as an Expression of Islamic Culture 176 Résistance: Nonadoption of the Veil 177 Conclusion 178 Conclusion 180 Lexicon 185 Bibliography 194 Index 221 Foreword At a time when Islam is constantly depicted, implicitly rather than explicitly, as backward, rigid, unable to evolve, and unable to adapt to modern (Western) concepts such as democracy and secularism, Iqbal Akhtar’s work is a lifeline. It not only provides evidence that Islam was and is, like other religions, subject to to the circumstances of history, but also, along the way, indirectly demon- strates that research in the social sciences is indispensable for those who might doubt its utility. In fact, beyond the political agenda linked to the hunt for Islamist terrorists as a result of the post-September 11 attacks, Akhtar’s book is a clear rejoinder to the prevailing prejudices with which the West has repre- sented Islamic civilizations and cultures. In this respect, The Khōjā of Tanzania is a major contribution to several different sub-fields related to Indian studies, diasporic studies, and Islamic studies. Akhtar’s work not only locates but also sits at the confluence of these three fields. A real tour de force, The Khōjā of Tanzania will delight both specialists and nonspecialists. It shows a face of Shiism that has been obscured in the interna- tional scene by the media, too often given to sensationalism. For the Khōjā of Dar es Salaam, Shiism is not based on a demonization of Western values, as was the case for the former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Rather, he shows that Twelver Shiism has facilitated the modern Khōjā integration into the umma, the universal Muslim community, through a permanent dialogue between religion and society. Akhtar’s book allows us to hear a discrete voice from the silenced majority of the Muslim community, Sunni as well as Shia. The Khōjā mostly belong to a community originating from Sindh in Pakistan and Gujarat in India. Until the nineteenth century, the term was used to describe a motley conglomeration of predominately merchant castes, which nevertheless allowed the incorporation of low-status groups such as untouch- ables. When the Khōjā entered the scene of European history, it was in the context of the British colonization of India. The British understood them to be the followers of the divine living guide (hazar imam) of the Ismaili Shias, Hasan Ali Shah (d. 1881), known as Aga Khan I, himself a Persian refugee who reached India in 1843 by providing military help to the British in the conquest of Sindh. Actually, the Khōjā burst onto the scene when they challenged the Aga Khan’s authority in the early 1820s, a dispute that was partly resolved by the famous Aga Khan Case of 1866. Following the case, the majority of the Khōjā kept their allegiance to the Aga Khan, while a second group became Sunni Muslim and a third Twelver Shia. Akhtar’s focus is on the third group, the Shia xii Foreword Khōjā, and he seeks to show that the split was much more than a ‘single’ con- version from the Ismaili branch of Shiism to the Twelvers.
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