In the evolution of the Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Community, acquisition of graveyard or cemetery as a burial place has been of prime importance. Wherever they settled, members of the Khoja community have paid special attention to the acquisition of burial place before even building of a Mosque or Imambargha. There is a historical background to this outlook. When the Ithna-Asheri Khoja separated from the larger Khoja community, they were denied right of burial in the ancestral Khoja cemetery.
Until then, all Khoja functioned as a united Khoja community with their tripartite set of beliefs overlapping with each other. Regardless of their leanings towards the Ismaili, Sunni or Ithna-Asheri sects, they would all be buried in the common Khoja cemetery.
In 1862, when the first group branched out to be known as Sunni Khoja and the second group followed suit a decade later, to be known as Shia-Ithna Asheri Khoja, the separating groups were barred from being buried in the ancestral common cemetery.
In 1873, a group of Ithna-Asheri Zuwwar visiting Karbala were persuading Mulla Qadir Hussein to return with them to India to help provide spiritual guidance to the community. Mulla Qadir Hussein expressed his reservations on two counts. One, he feared that if the larger Khoja community denied them permission to bury their dead in the ancestral Khoja cemetery the enthusiastic group of Khoja wishing to openly practice the Shia Ithna-Asheri faith would succumb to such pressure and revert to the original combined Khoja community. To be denied right of burial in the ancestral communal cemetery was viewed as a stigma in those days. The second question posed by Mulla Qadir Hussein was: Who would marry their children if the larger Khoja community would not permit their sons and daughters to marry their sons and daughters? After the eventual return of Mulla Qadir Hussein to India in 1873, the question of burial kept recurring. Mulla Qadir Hussein raised this question once more.
Khalfan Rattansi and Dewji Jamal pledged to undertake transporting corpses of such individuals to Karbala for permanent burial if the larger Khoja Community refused them burial in the ancestral Khoja cemetery. Khalfan Rattansi pledged Rs. 10,000/- (a large sum in those days) for this purpose. Meanwhile, Dewji Jamal also acquired a piece of land in Karbala as a burial ground.
There was concern that until such time when the corpses are transported to Karbala, where could they be interned on temporary basis. Mulla Qadir Hussein sought permission to this effect from the trustees of the Irani cemetery.
Lalan Alidina who was assassinated in Karachi in 1876, his remains were later transferred to Karbala for permanent burial. In the same year, in Mumbai, Shahid Killu Khataw had to be buried in the Irani cemetery.
Before the Zanzibar Jamaat was established and the emerging Jamaat could acquire graveyard of its own, a child in the family of Dewji Jamal died in 1880. Dewji Jamal recognized that as it happened earlier in Mumbai 1876, when the daughter of Khalfan Rattansi and Killu Khataw, were denied right of burial in the common Khoja cemetery; same fate would befall on him in Zanzibar. Following the death of the child in the family, overnight, Dewji Jamal bought a private garden/rest house located in the center of the Zanzibar Island. In keeping with the local Arab tradition, this private garden, known as ‘Bustani’ was then registered as a family burial place. This small burial place in Zanzibar has withstood the subsequent acquisition of the larger Muslim graveyards in Zanzibar for housing development projects by the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government.
With this background in mind, it will be easy to understand why members of the Khoja community have always given so much importance to the acquisition of a burial place.
The first Khoja Jamaat to be established in Africa was in Zanzibar Island in 1880, followed by Bagamoyo in then Tanganyika in 1889. In Kenya, Lamu, then a major port in Kenya, had a larger settlement of community members numbering around 250. The community population in Mombasa towards the turn of the century was almost half that of Lamu. Mombasa acquired importance as the focus of trade and commerce shifted from Lamu to Mombasa after the commencement of the railway line from Mombasa to Nairobi and Kisumu in 1901 and the opening of the Kilindini Harbour.
As Mombasa Jamaat was growing towards the end of the nineteenth century, the following plots of land were acquired on Mombasa Island that now form part the spacious Mombasa cemetery. Descendants of Dewji Jamal, Nazerali Dewji, Sheriff Dewji and Jaffer Dewji made waqf a piece of land in 1897 on which the present Qabrastan stands.
Jivraj Khataw, Dharamsi Khataw and Jivraj Meghji donated three pieces of land adjoining the above Qabrastan in 1901, 1902 and 1904. All four pieces of land combined now constitute the current spacious KSI Qabrastan in Mombasa.
In 1990, the Mombasa Jamaat embarked upon an exercise of numbering the graves and demarcated the Qabrastan in sections for easy reference and produced the first Directory of Marhumeen.
They have endeavored to update the records and a website www.msamarhumeen.com was set up to database the names of all Marhumeen of the Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamaat of Mombasa.
While they have strived to produce the website to the best of their abilities, and at times dealing with undocumented information, errors are bound to occur. Members of the Mombasa Jamaat and those who now reside overseas are requested to review the data of their Marhumeen and provide their input for accurate data on the website. Information on the same can be emailed to: info@msamarhumeen.com
Demolition of “Berlin Wall” dividing the two cemeteries in Mombasa (1966)
Donors of Waqf Qabrastan land in 1897
Donors of Waqf Qabrastan land in 1901/1903/1904
Plan of Mombasa Qabrastan.
Article source: KSIJ of Mombasa & Marhum Aunali Moledina (Toronto, Canada – originally from Mombasa, Kenya.
Request to remember the donors:
It is our humble duty to remember the late donors of the Qabrastan in Mombasa and all the Marhumeen with Sura-e-Fateha for the maghferat of the departed souls. May Allah (SWT) grant them blissful abode in the proximity of Aeema-e-Tahireen (AS) where they receive Allah’s (SWT) infinite blessings and mercy, Ameen.
SECRETARIAT
AFRICA FEDERATION ARCHIVES SECTION
7th August 2020 (17th Zilhajj 1441 AH)