Dawoodi Bohras

The name “Bohra” is a derivation of the Gujarati word “vehvar” which means “honest dealings” or “merchant.” Mostly indigenous Indians, their ancestors converted to Islam at the hands of Fatimid missionaries in the latter half of the eleventh century. The headquarters of the Dawoodi Bohra Community are in India and the community numbers approximately a million members worldwide. Bohras refer to themselves as “Mumineen” (Believers), and to their religious institution as “al-Dawat al-Hadiya” (The Rightly Guiding Mission) or “The Tayyibi Fatimid Mission” — often shortened (with Persianate pronunciation) to “Dawat.”

The Dawoodi Bohra belief is that an Imam, a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed SA in the line of his grandson Imam Husain AS, is the Lord of the Dawat in every age. The twenty-first Imam in this line, Imam al-Tayyib (b. 1130 AD) went into physical concealment (satr), and the chain of Imamate continues, father-to-son, in his line. During the Imam’s seclusion, he is represented by a vicegerent, called the Dai al-Mutlaq – or more commonly, ‘Syedna.’

Fundamental to the Dawoodi Bohra doctrine is the tasalsul (continuity) of the Imamate and during the Imam’s concealment, the tasalsul of the Dai-ship. His Holiness Syedna Taher Fakhruddin Saheb, the 54th Dai al-Mutlaq, is the successor of the 53rd Dai al-Mutlaq Syedna Khuzaima Qutbuddin Saheb who succeeded the 52nd Dai al-Mutlaq Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb. According to the Dawoodi Bohra faith, the Syedna is vested with the absolute authority of the Imam who is in seclusion.

Fundamental to the Dawoodi Bohra doctrine is the tasalsul (continuity) of the Imamate and during the Imam’s concealment, the tasalsul of the Dai-ship. His Holiness Syedna Taher Fakhruddin Saheb, the 54th Dai al-Mutlaq, is the successor of the 53rd Dai al-Mutlaq Syedna Khuzaima Qutbuddin Saheb who succeeded the 52nd Dai al-Mutlaq Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb. According to the Dawoodi Bohra faith, the Syedna is vested with the absolute authority of the Imam who is in seclusion.

Syedna TUS stated that with the divine inspiration of the Imam of the Age AS, he appointed his brother, Syedi Mazoon Saheb Abdeali Bhaisaheb Saifuddin Saheb Ataal Allahu Baqaa’ahu (AAB) to the lofty rank of Mazoon, and his brother, Syedi Mukasir Saheb Husain Bhaisaheb Burhanuddin Saheb Ataal Allahu Baqaa’ahu (AAB) to the elevated rank of Mukasir.

After moving from Yemen to India, the seat of Dawat moved internally within India to Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Mandvi, Ujjain, Burhanpur, Surat, and eventually to the current seat of Mumbai. Significant Dawoodi Bohra populations exist today in all these cities and their surrounding regions, and, under the guidance of their Dais, large numbers of Dawoodi Bohras migrated abroad in search of livelihood. Today, large communities exist in East Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America.

Generally, every town in which the Dai lived developed a large concentration of Bohra residents, and even when the seat of the
mission moved away, these towns continued to host significant numbers of members of the community. Today, in the early twenty-first century, the largest Bohra communities are in Mumbai, Surat, Ahmadabad, Ujjain, Jamnagar, Indore, Dohad, Nagpur, Udaipur, Rajkot, Pune, Kolkata, and Chennai, in India, as well as Karachi, in Pakistan— totaling 800,000 or thereabouts in South Asia. An indigenous Arab community of approximately 13,000 members resides in Yemen (identifying with the term Bohra), and about 200,000 Bohra dwell in diaspora communities in various parts of the world.