Khoja
 Khojas of Western India ca. 1855-1862 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Gujarat,Sindh,Maharashtra | |
| Languages | |
| Gujarati,Kutchi,Sindhi,Hindi-Urdu | |
| Religion | |
| Nizari-Ismaili Shia(majority),Twelver Shia,Sunni(minority) |
| Part ofa seriesonIslam Isma'ilism |
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 Islam portal |
TheKhojaare a mainlyShiatribe of people originally from the western Indian subcontinent. Khojas once predominantly resided inIndia,Pakistanandeastern Africabut now form a global diaspora.[1]They are known by many names such as theLawatiain theGulfandKaranainMadagascar.
In India, most Khojas live in the states of Gujarat,Maharashtra,Rajasthanand the city ofHyderabad.InPakistan,most Khoja live inKarachiinSindhprovince. Many Khojas have also migrated and settled over the centuries inEast Africa,theCaribbean,EuropeandNorth America.The Khoja were by then adherents of Nizari Isma'ilism. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the aftermath of theAga Khan Casea significant minority separated and adoptedSunni IslamandTwelver shi'ism,while the majority remained Nizari Isma'ili.[2]
Etymology
[edit]The termKhojaderives fromKhwāja(New PersianKhājé), aPersianhonorific title (خواجه) of pious individuals used inTurco-Persianinfluenced regions of the Muslim world.
The specific termKhojain theGujaratiandSindhilanguages, was first bestowed by thePersianateNizari Isma'iliSadardin(died c. 15th century) upon his followers during the lifetime of theNizari IsmailiImam Islam Shah(1368-1423 CE). As such, Pir Shihab al-din Shah, brother of one of theNizari Ismaili imams,wrote regarding the origins of the Khojas that the very formation of the community came about through Pir Sadardin's devotion to the Imam.[3]
ManyLohanasof Gujarat converted to Nizari Ismailism due to the efforts of Pir Sadardin. They gradually used the titleKhoja.Before the arrival of theAga Khanfrom Persia to British ruled India in the 19th century, Khojas retained many Hindu traditions, including a variation on the belief in theDashavatara.[4][5]
History
[edit]
Origins and Syncretism
[edit]The Khojas originate from HinduLohanasfrom Sindh, who were converted toNizārīIsmāʿīlismbyPīr Ṣadr al-Dīnin the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.. Ṣadr al-Dīn was dāʿī ( "missionary" ) acting on behalf of the Nizārīimāmwho lived in Persia. Derived from the Persian khwaja, a term of honour, a translation of the their traditional title ofṭhakkar.Ṣadr al-Dīn belonged to a hereditary lineage of pīrs who served as leaders for the Khoja community as a deputy of the imām in Persia.[6][7][8]
Additionally, it included certain groups such asCharanas,[9][10]predominantly from Gujarat andKutch,who retained strong Indian ethnic roots and caste customs while sustaining their Muslim religious identity..
The pīrs composed religious hymns calledginānsthat served as the religious scriptures for the Khojas rather than theQurʾān.The majority of the gināns glorify the Nizārī imām as an absolute and infallible leader. Some gināns contain large amounts of Hindu-Muslim syncretism, with Hindu deities being identified with Muslim figures. The gināns took inspiration from diverse traditions, including Nizārī Ismāʿīlism, HinduSantandBhaktitraditions, andṢūfism.Such syncretism with Hinduism has been viewed as a strategy by the Ismāʿīlī missionaries to convert Hindus, as well astaqiyyato hide them from other Muslims. The religion of the Khojas was known asSatpanth.[7]
At the end of the fifteenth century, the imām in Persia,al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh II,abolished the pīrs as a source of religious authority, and replaced them with a book calledPandiyāt-i jawānmardī,which was then translated intoGujarātī.Imām Shāh(d. 1513) was supposed to become the next pīr, but in response to the imām's decision, Imam Shāh's son Nār Muḥammad claimed he was the imām and founded a splinter sect called the Imām-Shāhīs aka Sat-Panthīs.[7]
In the nineteenth century, the Khojas gathered injamāʿatkhānabuildings, did not read the Qurʾān, and generally did not followIslamic law.[7]
Arrival of Āghā Khān and Ismāʿīlī Islamisation/De-Hinduisation
[edit]In 1845,Ḥasan ʿAlī Shāh aka Āghā Khān Imoved to India due to conflict with theQajar dynastyin Persia. He settled inBombay,which had the largest concentration of Khojas in India. For centuries the Khojas had been a self governing community with nominal allegiance to a distant Nizārī imām in Persia, but the newly-arrived Āghā Khān sought to interfere in their internal affairs. This led to conflict in the Khoja community, culminating in theĀghā Khān caseof 1866. The Khoja plaintiffs argued that community in fact were Sunnī Muslims and thus were not under the authority of the Āghā Khān imām. The British judge decided in favour of the defendant, Āghā Khān I, ruling that the Khojas were the descendants of Hindus who became Shīʿa Ismāʿīlīs and thus were under the religious authority of the imām, Āghā Khān I. In response to the verdict, some Khojas converted toSunnī Islam.[7]
The imām succeeding the next imām,Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh Āghā Khān III(r. 1885–1957) continued to attempt exert his authority over the Khojas and push them towards normative Ismāʿīlī–Shīʿa Islam; this led to theHaji Bibi case.The plaintiffs in the Haji Bibi case of 1908 claimed that the Khojas were followers ofTwelver ShīʿaIslam, however the British judge upheld that the Khojas were Ismāʿīlī and so those Khojas split off to followTwelver Shi'ism.[7]
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Khojas were under pressure from the Āghā Khāns as well as Muslim and Hindu fundamentalist movements to alter their religion. The religious fundamentalists considered the Khojas to be heretics who should convert to Sunnī or Twelver Shīʿī Islam or normative Hinduism. The Āghā Khāns who wielded religious power over the community as imām sought to Islamise the community to normative Ismāʿīlism. The gināns were codified under their authority, those with Hindu influences were purged, and new gināns were composed with Qurʾānic verses. The use of the Gujarātī language was also replaced byEnglish.By the time of the current imām,Shāh Karīm al-Ḥusaynī Āghā Khān IV,the Khojas had been integrated into a transnational Ismāʿīlī community with a focus on the Qurʾān and literacy of Islamic concepts.[7]
The Khojas live today inEast Africa,India, Pakistan,Europe,andNorth America,and show a strong commitment to the values of Muslim philanthropy in their business entrepreneurship and contribution to societies in which they live. From the 18th century, some of the Khojas have migrated to thePersian Gulfregion, mainly in the Sultanate ofOmanandU.A.E,where they are known asAl-Lawatia.[11]
Khoja communities
[edit]Isma'ili Khojas
[edit]
OriginallyNizari Isma'ili,after the 1866Aga Khan Casethat consolidated the bulk of the Bombay Khoja community under the leadership of theAga Khan.The Khojas credit their title toPir Sadr al-Dinwho allegedly laid the foundations for the Nizari Ismaili community in India, even before theAnjudanphase of thehistory of Nizari Ismailism.[12]
Twelver Khojas
[edit]Khojas who followTwelverShia Islamand have large communities inPakistan,India,East Africa,North Americaand theUnited Kingdom. Moulvi Ali Baksh who had settled in Mumbai in the mid-late 1800s was a prominent Moulvi with great respect in Ithna'ashari Khoja community. It is said that then the Shias were organised into a distinct community by Moulvi Ali Baksh himself. (Excerpts as translated from the book Greatness Bygone authored by Ziauddin Ahmed Barni Published by Taleemi Markaz Karachi on 30 July 1961, Page: 342 written on one of 93 great personalities Ali Mohammed Moulvi. The author had not met only 2 of the 93 personalities noted in his book).
Twelver Khojas are said to have broken away from the Isma'ili Khojas due to their determination to defend their remembrance practices against Aga Khan's efforts to ban them, in order to elevate his personal status as the reincarnation ofIsma'il ibn Ja'far,the seventh Imām of the Isma'ilis.[13]
See also
[edit]- Khojki,a script used exclusively by the Khoja community to write their language
- Momna,Nizari Ismailis from northern Gujarat
References
[edit]- ^Khojaat theEncyclopædia Britannica."Khoja, Persian Khvājeh, caste of Indian Muslims converted from Hinduism to Islam in the 14th century by the Persian pīr (religious leader or teacher)Saḍr-al-Dīnand adopted as members of the Nizārī Ismāʿīliyyah sect of the Shīʿites. ".
- ^Boivin, Michel (2014)."The Isma'ili — Isna 'Ashari Divide Among the Khojas: Exploring Forgotten Judicial Data from Karachi".Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.24(3): 381–396.doi:10.1017/S1356186314000224.ISSN1356-1863.JSTOR43307309.S2CID162188373.
- ^Virani, Shafique N. The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation (New York: Oxford University Press), 2007, p. 102.
- ^McGregor, R.S.; Mallison, Francoise (1992).Devotional literature in South Asia: current research, 1985-1988: papers of the Fourth Conference on Devotional Literature in New Indo-Aryan, anglo saxon Languages, held at Wolfson College, Cambridge, 1-4 September 1988(1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 91.ISBN0521413117.Retrieved25 August2016.
- ^Morris, H.S., 1958. The divine kingship of the Aga Khan: A study of theocracy in East Africa. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 14(4), pp.454-472[1]
- ^Tyler, Stephen A. (1986).India: An Anthropological Perspective.Waveland Press. p. 186.ISBN978-0-88133-245-2.
Some, like the Khojah caste, are Bania groups converted to Islam by Muslim pirs (saints).
- ^abcdefgDe Smet, Daniel (2020). "Khōja". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Stewart, Devin J. (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE.Brill.
- ^Maclean, Derryl N. (1989).Religion and society in Arab Sind.Leiden New York København Köln: E.J. Brill. p. 142.ISBN9789004085510.
- ^"Alyque Padamsee: The man who wore several hats".Deccan Herald.2018-11-17.Retrieved2021-09-08.
- ^Kapur, Geeta (1978).Contemporary Indian Artists.Vikas.ISBN978-0-7069-0527-4.
The Padamsees, who came from the village of Mauva in Saurashtra, had originally belonged to the caste of Charanyas. Having been converted to the Khoja sect of Islam, their clan had become followers of the Agha Khan. Akbar's grandfather, who was a landlord and village chief, prided himself on the fact that he had, by his own express persuasion, brought the then Agha Khan to visit their village.
- ^This is an edited version of an article that was originally published in the Encyclopaedia of Islam and Muslim World, Vol. II, p. 393, ed. Richard C. Martin, MacMillan Reference Books, New York, 2003
- ^Daftary, Farhad (1998).A Short History of the Ismailis: Traditions of a Muslim Community.Edinburgh University Press. p. 179, 198.ISBN978-0-7486-0904-8.
- ^Boivin, Michel; Delage, Remy, eds. (2015-12-22).Devotional Islam in Contemporary South Asia.Routledge.doi:10.4324/9781315674711.ISBN978-1-317-38000-9.
Bibliography
[edit]- Azim Malikov, Kinship systems of Xoja groups in Southern Kazakhstan in Anthropology of the Middle East, Volume 12, Issue 2, Winter 2017, pр.78-91
- Azim Malikov, Sacred Lineages in Central Asia: Translocality and Identity in Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus edited by Manja Stephan-¬Emmrich and Philipp Schröder (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers), 2018, pp. 121–150
- Azim Malikov, Khoja in Kazakhstan: identity transformations in Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Department ‘Integration and Conflict’ Field Notes and research Projects VI CASCA – Centre for Anthropological Studies on Central Asia: Framing the Research, Initial Projects. Eds.: Günther Schlee. Halle/Saale, 2013, pp. 101–107
External links
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