I Am Colombo

The trader

Inayet Akbarally

Inayet Akbarally tells the remarkable story of his great grandfather Careemjee Jafferjee and how he became the first member of the Dawoodi Bohra community to come to Ceylon in 1830. A proud and loyal ‘Peterite’, he reflects on the days when where you went to school trumped ethnicity and even religion.

Interview language: English

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Prior to that, there were no Bohras in Sri Lanka

(Sermon)

The reason how we moved out from India, especially the people from Manvi. I would…they would say they were one of the first migrants…the people from Manvi to other parts of the world. Prior to that we were mainly confined to India and other cities in India.

About 200 years ago, right, there was a severe famine in that region. No water, no food, no nothing. And many of them migrated to other parts of India. I would say mainly to Bombay and other place like Ahmedebad and those places. But a few of them who…you know Manvi is like a port, famous for making its bugalows, you know the sailing ships. And even prior to moving out of India, our forefathers used to trade. They used to go to Manvi, Maldives and Zanzibar.

Now, during one of those trips, my great grandfather, my maternal grandfather, Careemjee Jafferjee, while he was in Maldives, he had a stock of this maldive fish which he was taking back to India, the dry fish… Due to a storm, he had to divert his vessel and he landed in Galle. Prior to that, there was no Bohras in Sri Lanka.

(Sermon)

This part of what I’m telling you now is being like a… like a story told to us by our forefathers. And this is repeated every year at our sermons. When the Syednas come here, they tell you the history of the Dais, the Imams. So when we follow those their sermons, we get to learn all this you know.

Up to now, I’m listening. So you pick up. I mean, I would say most of the Bohras will know this same history, which I know.

This is the general annual festival in all these cities where our Syednas are buried, is the death anniversary for a special…like a gathering. I suppose as modern times travelling became easy, they didn’t have to travel in boats and things like that. I think mainly the modern world has made the world smaller and even our community smaller. In maybe the good old days, maybe my forefathers would have never seen the Syedna in their lifetime because, I mean, unless they went there or one of them came here. But now we see him personally.

The gathering on the vast scale, when all other Bohras from other parts of the world come here, takes place only when the head priest decides to come here.

So we welcome his visit always. And he’s taken very good care of, treated with lot of respect. And now with this new modern trend and bringing harmony within the various communities in Sri Lanka with the local Muslims, plus interact with each other to see that there is peace and harmony amongst all of us.

The last was about, say, four years, four or five years ago, right? Prior to that would have been, say, another about three or four years before that. So that’s the time my daughter did the photography for the whole ashura ceremony.

About this portrait

Photographer: Kannan Arunasalam, Alefiya Akbarally

Interviewer : Kannan Arunasalam

Editor: Kannan Arunasalam

Recorded: December 30, 2012

First published: March 17, 2023

Last edited: November 7, 2023

Comments

Kannan Arunasalam

June 21, 2013 at 12:46 pm

Inayet Akbarally tells the remarkable story of his great grandfather Careemjee Jafferjee and how he became the first member of the Dawoodi Bohra community to set foot in Ceylon believed to be around 1830. A “Peterite” through and through, he reflects on the days when where you went to school trumped ethnicity and even religion. *** Despite his intimidating position as a partner in one of Sri Lanka’s leading private companies, Mr Akbarally is a quiet and unassuming man. We sat in the lounge of his spacious house in Bambalapitiya, surrounded by photographs of family going back generations and also of the community’s spiritual leader, his Holiness the Syedna. Fleeing persecution in Yemen, the community ended up in India, with some families settling in Kutch Mandvi, in the state of Gujurat in western India. His great grandfather Careemjee Jafferjee traded spices between Zanzibar, Maldives and Gujarat, travelling in sailing ships called buggullos. A famine displaced much of the community to different parts of India but it was Careemjee Jafferjee who was the first Bohra to set foot in what was British Ceylon, initially placing his roots in Galle where he was shipwrecked during a return voyage home from Maldives around 1830, and then moving to Colombo and Pettah twenty years later, as the community grew. Mr Akbarally’s great grand father became known in the wider community as the Merchant Prince, and celebrated for his philanthropy. Mr Akbarally also talked to me about the annual gathering of his community, when Bohras from around the world congregate at a city chosen by their spiritual leader, Dai-Ul-Mutlaq, Dr. Syedna Mohammad Burhannudin to mark the Ashura Mubaraka. The Ashura is considered to be one of most important and holy events in the Shia Muslim calendar, which commemorates the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammad’s grandson, Imam Hussain. Thousands of Dawoodi Bohras come together to observe this holy period and the Sri Lankan Bohra community have played host to the Syedna two times in the past. With their distinctive dress – the women wear a ridah and they stand out during this period as the community comes together for prayers at the mosque in Glen Arbour Place, Bambalapitiya. This mosque was built by two other prominent Bohra families also from Kutch Mandvi, the E.G. Adamalee and Adamjee Lukmanjee families. But the community’s original mosque in Galle, where his great grandfather stayed for months following his shipwreck, still stands today. The fascinating story of the community roots in Yemen, Mandvi and other parts of India are legendary and are passed down at the Ashura from generation to generation, keeping their story alive. “Up to now I’m listening,” Mr Akbarally told me as we looked through his wife’s scrapbook of family photos and newspaper cuttings, of tributes to his community that fled Yemen to India, and then sought a new life in Ceylon. Together with his brothers, Inayet Akbarally formed Akbar Brothers, and like his forefathers, trade in goods around the world. Fittingly, the term Bohra is a Gujurathi word for ‘trader’. “We were living in this same road in a rented house from 1945 to 1956″ Mr Akbarally began, proud of the family’s modest roots. “The wealthier families sent their boys to S. Thomas’. We were Peterites”, launching into an anecdote about always being the only Bohra in his class and how those days, where you went to school trumped ethnicity and religion. “Even if it was another Bohra playing, I’d still be cheering for St Peters. You were for your school, come what may.” I'm honoured to feature, for the second time, the photography of his daughter Alefiya Akbarally who was given unprecedented access to photograph the visit of the His Holiness the Syedna in January 2007.
Kannan Arunasalam

June 21, 2013 at 12:49 pm

This portrait first appeared as an exclusive on Groundviews, the Sri Lankan citizen journalist website, http://groundviews.org/2013/06/21/from-merchant-prince-to-akbar-brothers-inayat-akbarally-and-the-bohras-of-sri-lanka/