List of Dai of the Dawoodi Bohra
Short history
The Dua't al-Mutlaqin
was instructed and prepared by Imām Mustansir and following Imāms for the second period of satr. It was going to be on her hands that Imām Taiyab abi al-Qasim would go into seclusion, and she would institute the office of Da'i al-Mutlaq. Syedna Zoeb bin Moosa was first to be instituted to this office, and the line of Taiyabi Dā'ĩs that began in 1132 has passed from one Dā'ī to another, continuing to the present time. One of the sect which follows these Fatimid Dā'īs is the Dawoodi Bohra dawat.Until the 23rd Dā'ī, the center of the dawat was in Yemen. The 23rd Dā'ī, Syedna Mohammed Ezzuddin designated Syedna Yusuf Najmuddin ibn Sulaiman in Sidhpur, Gujarat, India, as his successor. Upon becoming the 24th Dā'ī, Yusuf Najmuddin ibn Sulaiman stayed in India for a few years before going to Yemen. He died and was buried there. Because of the intense persecutions against the dawat by the Zaydi rulers of Yemen, the 24th Dā'ī designated Syedna Jalal Shamshuddin in India as his successor, and the center of the dawat then moved permanently to India. The 25th Dā'ī also died in 1567 CE, and is buried in Ahmedabad, India, the first Dā'ī to have his mausoleum in India. Even though his time as Dā'ī was short – only a few months – he was Walī al-Hind under the 24th Dā'ī for 20 years.
After breaking with the Fatimid teaching hierarchy, the Tayyibiyah in the Yemen recognized the Sulayhid queen as the hujjah of the concealed imam Al-Tayyib; with her backing they set up an independent teaching hierarchy headed by a daee mutlaq whose spiritual authority since her death in 1138 has been supreme. The second daee mutlaq, Ibrahim Al-Hamidi, became the real founder of the tayyibi esoteric doctrine, which he elaborated especially in his Kitab kanz Al-walad. The position remained in his family until 1209, when it passed to Ali ibn Muhammad of the Banu Al-Walid Al-Anf family, which held it for more than three centuries with only two interruptions. The political power of the Yemenite daees reached a peak during the long incumbency of Idris Imad Al-Din ibn Al-Hasan, the nineteenth daee mutlaq. He is also the author of a seven-volume history of the Ismaili imams, Kitab uyun Al-akhbar and of a two-volume history of the Yemenite daees, Kitab nuzhat Al-akhbar, as well as works of esoteric doctrine and religious controversy. While the Yemenite daees had been able to act relatively freely with the backing or protection of various rulers during the early centuries, they usually faced hostility from the Zaydi imams and in the sixteenth century suffered relentless persecution. In 1539 the twenty-third daee mutlaq appointed an Indian, Yusuf ibn Sulayman, as his successor, evidently in recognition of the growing importance of the Indian tayyii community. Yusuf came to reside in the Yemen, but after his death in 1566 his successor, also Indian, transferred the headquarters to Gujarat in India.
The Tayyibiyah preserved a large portion of the Fatimid religious literature and generally maintained the traditions of Fatimid doctrine more closely than the Nizariyah. Thus the Tayyibi daees always insisted on the equal importance of the z ahir and batin aspects of religion, strict compliance with the religious law and esoteric teaching. Qadi Al-Numan's Da' a'im Al-Islam has remained the authoritative codex of Tayyibi law and ritual to the present. In the esoteric doctrine, however, there were some innovations which gave the Tayyibi gnosis its distinctive character. The Rasa'il Ikhwan Al-Safa'were accepted as the work of one of the pre-Fatimid hidden imams and were frequently quoted and interpreted.
The Tayyibiyah in India are commonly known as the Bohoras. There are, however, also Sunni and some Hindu Bohoras; they are mostly engaged in agriculture, while the Ismaili Bohoras are generally merchants. The origins of the Tayyibi community in Gujarat go back to the time before the Tayyibi schism. According to the traditional account an Arab daee sent from the Yemen arrived in the region of Cambay with two Indian assistants in 1068. The Ismaili community founded by him, though led by local walis, always maintained close commercial as well as religious ties with the Yemen and was controlled by the Yemenite teaching hierarchy. It naturally followed the Yemenite community at the time of the schism. From Cambay the community spread to other cities, in particular Patan, Sidhpur, and Ahmadabad. In the first half of the fifteenth century the Ismailiyyah were repeatedly exposed to persecution by the Sunni sultans of Gujarat, and after a contested succession to the leadership of the Bohora community, a large section, known as the Jafariyah, seceded and converted to Sunnism.
After its transfer from the Yemen in 1566, the residence of the daee mutlaq remained in India. The succession to the twenty-sixth daee mutlaq, Daud ibn Ajabshah, was disputed. In India Daud Burhan Al-Din ibn Qut bshah was recognized by the great majority as the twenty-seventh daee mutlaq. However, Daud ibn Ajabshah's deputy in the Yemen, Sulayman ibn Hasan, a grandson of the first Indian daee mutlaq Yusuf ibn Sulayman, also claimed to have been the designated successor and after a few years he came to India to press his case. Although he found little support, the dispute was not resolved and resulted in the permanent split of the Daudi and Sulaymani factions recognizing separate lines of daees.
The leadership of the Sulaymaniyah, whose Indian community was small, reverted to the Yemen with the succession of the thirtieth daee mutlaq, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Fahd Al-Makrami, in 1677. Since then the position of daee mutlaq has remained in various branches of the Makrami family except for the time of the forty-sixth daee, an Indian. The Makrami daees usually resided in Badr in Najran. With the backing of the tribe of the Banu Yam they ruled Najran independently and at times extended their sway over other parts of the Yemen and Arabia until the incorporation of Najran into Saudi Arabia in 1934. The peak of their power was in the time of the thirty-third daee mutlaq, Ismail ibn Hibat Allah, who defeated the Wahhabiyah in Najd and invaded hadramawt. He is also known as the author of an esoteric Qur'an commentary, virtually the only religious work of a Sulaymani author published so far. Since Najran came under Saudi rule, the religious activity of the daees and their followers has been severely restricted. In the Yemen the Sulaymaniyah are found chiefly in the region of Manakha and the haraz mountains. In India they live mainly in Baroda, Ahmadabad, and Hyderabad and are guided by a representative of the daee mutlaq residing in Baroda.
The daees of the Daudiyah, who constitute the great majority of the Tayyibiyah in India, have continued to reside there. All of them have been Indians except the thirtieth daee mutlaq, Ali Shams Al-Din, a descendant of the Yemenite daee Idris EImad Al-Din. The community was generally allowed to develop freely although there was another wave of persecution under the emperor Awrangzib, who put the thirty-second daee mutlaq, Qutb Al-Din ibn Daud, to death in 1646 and imprisoned his successor. The residence of the Daudi daee mutlaq is now in Bombay, where the largest concentration of Bohoras is found. Outside Gujarat, Daudi Bohoras live in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, in many of the big cities of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Burma, and the East Africa. In the Yemen the Daudi community is concentrated in the Haraz mountains.
After the death of the twenty-eighth daee mutlaq, Adam Safi Al-Din, in 1621, a small faction recognized his grandson Ali ibn Ibrahim as his successor and seceded from the majority recognizing Abd Al-Tayyib Zaki Al-Din. The minority became known as Alia Bohoras and have followed a separate line of daees residing in Baroda. Holding that the era of the prophet Muhammad had come to an end, a group of Alias seceded in 1204/1789. Because of their abstention from eating meat they are called Nagoshias. In 1761 a distinguished Daudi scholar, Hibat Allah ibn Ismail, claimed that he was in contact with the hidden imam, who had appointed him his hujjah and thus made his rank superior to that of daee mutlaq. He and his followers, known as Hibtias, were excommunicated and persecuted by the Daudiyah. Only a few Hibtia families are left in Ujjain. Since the turn of the century a Bohora reform movement has been active. While recognizing the spiritual authority of the daee mutlaq it has sought through court action to restrict his powers of excommunication and his absolute control over community endowments and alms. All of these groups are numerically insignificant.
During testimony of 51st Dai Syedna Taher Saifuddin, he clarified about knowledge classes of 'Zahir', 'Tawil' and, 'Haqiqat' present in community. First two are known to many but third one namely 'Hakikat' content some religious truths known to very few. Some of which are known to only 2 or 3 persons in community, and there is also knowledge which is available with Dai only, and he gets it from his predecessor Dai.
The Walī-ul-Hind
Up to the 23rd Dā'ī, the center was at Yemen; for India, a "Walī al-Hind" was designated by the Dā'ī to run the dawat in India. Moulai Abdullah was the first Walī al-Hind in the era of Imam Mustansir. Moulai Abadullah and Moulai Nuruddin went to Cairo, Egypt, to learn, and went to India in 467 AH. Moulai Ahmed was also their companion.Dā'ī Zoeb appointed Maulai Yaqoob, who was the second Walī al-Hind of the Fatimid dawat. Moulai Yaqoob was the first person of Indian origin to receive this honour under the Dā'ī. He was son of Moulai Bharmal, minister of Hindu Chaulukya king Jayasimha Siddharaja . With Minister Moulai Tarmal, they had honoured the Fatimid dawat along with their fellow citizens on the call of Moulai Abdullah. Moulai Fakhruddin, son of Moulai Tarmal, was sent to western Rajasthan, India, and Syedi Nuruddin went to the Deccan.
One Dā'ī after another continued until the 23rd Dā'ī in Yemen. Persons were appointed to the position of Walī al-Hind one after another up to Walī al-Hind Moulai Jafer, Moulai Abdul Wahab, and Moulai Qasim Khan bin Hasan. The Awliya al-Hind were champions of the Fatimid dawat in India, who were instrumental in maintaining & propagating it on instructions of the Dā'ī at Yemen, and it is because of them that the Fatimid dawat was able to survive the persecutions in Cairo and Yemen. A list of them is also given below along with the relevant Dā'īs. The dawat was transferred to India from Yemen when the 23rd Dā'ī Syedna Mohammed Ezzuddin designated as his successor Syedna Yusuf Najmuddin ibn Sulaiman in Sidhpur, Gujarat, India.
In the generation of Moulai Yaqoob, Moulai Ishaq, Moulai Ali, Syedi Hasan Feer continued one after another as Wali-ul-Hind. Syedi Hasan Feer was fifth Wali in the era of 16th Dai Abadullah of Yemen. Names of Wali al-hind are also given along with concerned Dai below.
List of Da'i al-Mutlaq of Dawoodi Bohra
The following is a list of the Da'i al-Mutlaq.1.Syedna Zoeb bin Moosa">Dhu'ayb ibn Musa">Zoeb bin Moosa Al-Waadei ذويب بن موسى الوادي
- 1st Wali al-Hind: Moulai Abdullah at Khambat, Gujarat. Died: Moharram 1st.
- Syedi Nuruddin covered Deccan.
- Moulai Fakhruddin Shaheed covered Rajasthan.
2.Syedna [Ibrahim bin Husain] Al Hamidi ابراهيم بن حسين الحميدي
3.Syedna [Hatim bin Ibrahim] Al Hamidi حاتم بن ابراهيم الحميدي
4.Syedna [Ali Bin Syedna Hatim] Al Hamidi علي بن حاتم الحميدي
5.Syedna [Ali Bin Syedna Mohammed Bin Waleed] Al Walid علي بن محمد الوليد
6.Syedna Ali Bin Hanzala">Ali Bin Hanjala">Ali Bin Hanzala Al Waadei علي بن حنظلة الوادي
7.Syedna [Ahmed ibn Mubarak] Al Waadei احمد بن مبارك الوادي
8.Syedna [Al-Husayn ibn Ali (Ibn al-Walid)] Sahib Al Waadei حسين بن علي صاحب الوادي
9.Syedna [Ali ibn al-Husayn (Ibn al-Walid)] bin Ali bin Muhammad علي بن حسين بن علي بن محمد
10.Syedna [Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Hanzala] Al Walid علي بن حسين الوليد
11.[Syedna Ibrahim] Bin Husain Al Walid ابراهيم بن حسين الوليد
12.Syedna [Muhammad ibn Hatim] Al Walid محمد بن حاتم الوليد
13.Syedna [Ali Shamshuddin] Bin Ibrahim علي شمس الدين بن ابراهيم
14.Syedna Abdul Muttalib">Abdul Muttalib (Dai)">Abdul Muttalib Najmuddin Bin Mohammed عبد المطلب نجم الدين
15.Syedna [Abbas Bin Mohammad] عباس بن محمد
16.Syedna [Abdullah Fakhruddin] bin Ali عبدالله فخر الدين بن علي
17.Syedna [Al-Hasan Badr al-Din I] bin Abdullah حسن بدر الدين بن عبد الله
18.Syedna [Ali Shamshuddin Bin Abdullah] علي شمس الدين بن عبد الله
19.Syedna Idris Imaduddin Bin Hasan ادريس عماد الدين بن حسن">Syedna Idris">Idris Imaduddin Bin Hasan ادريس عماد الدين بن حسن
20.Syedna [Al-Hasan Badr al-Din II] bin Idrees Imaduddin حسن بدر الدين بن إدريس
21.Syedna [Husain Husamuddin] bin Idris Imaduddin حسين حسام الدين بن إدريس
22.Syedna [Ali Shams al-Din III] bin Husain علي شمس الدين بن حسين
, Tayba, Dai Yemen era end 1567 AD23.Syedna [Mohammad Ezzuddin] bin Hasan محمد عز الدين بن حسن
24.Syedna [Yusuf Najmuddin ibn Sulaiman] يوسف نجم الدين بن سليمان
25.Syedna [Jalal Shamshuddin bin Hasan] جلال شمش الدين بن حسن
- After Dai Yusuf the central headquarter of the Tayyibi dawa transferred from Yemen to India by his successor Jalal Shamsuddin.
26.Syedna [Dawood Bin Ajabshah] Burhanuddin
- After Dai Yusuf the central headquarter of the Tayyibi dawa transferred from Yemen to India by his successor Jalal Shamsuddin.
27. Syedna [Dawood Bin Qutubshah] Burhanuddin داود بن قطب شاه