Footnotes




[1] In the matter of spelling, where there is a generally accepted usage in East African English, we have followed it without inserting diacriticals. Where the exactness of the islamicists is necessary, it bas been followed. Statistics are seldom reliable, but we may suppose that in 1970 there were about 13.000 Ismailis each in Kenya and Uganda and about twice that number in Tanzania.

[2] For bibliography in English, beside the works cited in Ibis paper and the relevant articles in The Encyclopedia of Islam,. on the historical side see J.S. Mangat, A History of the Asians in East Africa. circa 1886 101945. Oxford. 1969. Dharam and rash Ghai Portrait of a Minority, Nairobi, revised edition. 1970, gives bibliography for the economic and educational fields. For the literature of the expulsion, see ed.. Michael Twaddle. Expulsion of a Minority).. London. 1975: Yash Tandon. Problems of a Displaced Minority, London. 1973: and Mahmood Mamdani, fron, Citizen to Refugee. London. 1973.

[3] The main collectors of information were 'Aziz lsmail. 'Azim Nanji and Yasmin Kanji (now Jamal). Abdul Adatia. Haider A. Alidina. Rohit Barot. Zarina Bhatia. Badru Dahya. Rashmi Desai. Said Hamdun. Sherali Bandali Jaffer. Jawad al Muscati. Idris Rupani. Count B.K.S. Virjee and many others also assisted. They must not be held responsible for mistakes. The whole has been five times rewritten. It has been considerably shortened to adapt it to the Conference format. The utmost pains have been taken not to publish anything confidential or offensive to the Ismaili community.

[4] Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Ideals and Realities of Islam. New York. 1967. p. 148. For excellent background reading see J.N. Hollister. The Shiah of India, London. 1953: and H. Corbin. Histoire de la philosophie islamique Il, articles in Eranus Jahrbuch. 1959. 1960. 1961. 1963 and Trilogie ismaelienne, Teheran.1961. Bernard Lewis. The Assassins. London. 1967 and M.G.S. Hodgson. The Order of Assassins, The Hague. 1955. give a valuable account of the early days and a full bibliography. Hodgson's chapter on the Ismaili state in the Cambridge History of Iran, Volume V, is also important. The numerous works of W. Ivanow, such as his Guide to Ismaili literature, London, 1933. remain essential. For earlier works on the Ismailis as part of the Asians in East Africa in general see H.S. Morris. Indians in Uganda, London. 1968: L. W. Hollingworth. The Asians of East Africa, London. 1960: G. Delf. Asians in East Africa, London. 1963. Two articles by David Pocock in volume XIII (1957) of the South Western Journal of Anthropology also give useful discussion. Useful material will also be round in J. Spencer Trimingham. Islam in East Africa. Oxford. 1964. A.J. Arberry's Religion in the, Middle, East. Cambridge. 1969. Volume II, has an article by A.A.A. Fyzee on the Ismailis. In James Kritleck and William Lewis, Islam, in Africa. New York.1969.an article by Hatim Amiji deals with this group.

[5] During visits to Sana and Surat in 1975 this writer interviewed followers of Musta1i who are in the Yaman and western India. Their chief dai (or representative of the Imam) lived in Yaman until the sixteenth century and then moved to India. In India and East Africa they are generally known as Bohras and though scholars know they belong to the same great branch of Shiism in East Africa they are differentiated from the Ismailis.

[6] On the present Agha Khan's cordial regard for Persia. see: Speeches of Mowlana Hazir Imam. His Highness the Aga Khan. Part II. 1958-1963, published by the Shia Imami Ismailia Association. Mombasa. 1964, p.6.

[7] Bombay. High Court Reports, sub anno 1866. pp. 323ff. The reference was kindly supplied by Professor J. N. D. Anderson of the London School of Oriental and African Studies and a photocopy by the Library of that school. See also his article in Middle Eastern Studies. 1. 1964. 24ff. The state of affairs in Bombay and their relationship with East Africa is mentioned in R.A. Gregory. India and East Africa. Oxford 1971 and C. Dobbin. Urban Leadership in Western India. Oxford 1972. The writer is unable to use a Gujrati pamphlet in his possession by a pseudonymous author which gives an account of Ismaili-Ithna-ashari affairs in Bombay and Kitwa, because it contains so much that is obviously scurrilios. The judgment is also printed in A.S. Picklay. History of the Ismailis. Bombay. 1940. a book fairly well known to Ismaili, in East Africa and probably one of their main source of information. It is a pity that it is only the judgment itself which is readily available. This writer found a copy of the defendant lawyers speech in the Oriental lnstitute in Heidelberg in 1975. Presumably full record of the hearing and the documcnts produccd are still to be found at Bombay.

[8] See also Seyyid Akhtar Rizvi's contribution to S. Hamdun and N.Q. King. Ibn Battuta in Black Africa, London. 1975, in which he reexamines the Kilwa chronicle archeological evidence and an old Swahili Utendi to prove a Shiah presence.

[9] It is interesting that Shaykh Mtoro bin Bakari of Bagamoyo in his Desturi za Waswahili published at Hamburg by Dr. Carl Vellen in 1903) distinguishes between Wahindi and Wahaniani and addresses certain merchant as jenah and mukhi. He was writing in the 1890s.

[10] Interviews in Hindustani with Mr. Adatia Senior and Mr. Habib Walji in 1965, Dr. Rashmi Desai. now in Australia remarked that some Indians traveled by sail up to 1945. The records of the British India Steam Navigation Company show when they started their India-Africa service. The sinking of the 'Vigli' off Bombay around 1910, captained by a Kassam.is recorded in Gujrati folklore. Some of the last ocean-going sailing ships built in Bombay, were constructed by Ramji Ladha in 1858. The sailors were usually Hindu Kharwa and the owners were Khoja. Bhalia. Lohana or Memmon. Rohit Barot points out that Mr. Nanji Kalidas Mehta. in the 1960s a leading citizen of Kampala, travelled over by sailing ship.

[11] Many examples could be given but see Talika and Messages, Mombasa. 1955. page 4 (dated 1927), page 9 (1944). Dr. Desai points out that in a feudal system traders move more easily than peasants and the more turbulent things become the more they are likely to move.

[12] Oral information. Tejpar to Ismail. 1965. It is interesting to observe the connections this astute Cutchi built up with the Yankees of Salem. see C.C. Clendenen. and P. Duignan: Americans in Black Africa up to 1865. Stanford. 1964. pp. 33ff.

[13] Oral information collected by Aziz Ismail and partly based on Noorum Mubin. 1961 (fourth) edition. p.429. This book is full of interesting information and is published by the Ismailia Association of Bharat at Bombay. The official Universities Mission to Central Africa History records that 'an Indian' bought and donated the old slave market as the site for the Cathedral in Zanzibar. The central altar stands where the whipping post stood. Was the Indian Tharia Topan?

[14] The U.M.C.A. records were read over by Noel King at Masasi and Korogwe in 1963 and the oral evidence collected at the Islamic time. The Bagamoyo records were read over by Lenny D'Almeida in l964 and 1965.

[15] In an interview at the Bombay club on December 3. 1911. Dr. A.A.A. Fyzee said he considered Dr. W, Ivanow would have probably known all available U.S.S.R. material. He felt some material in Persian might come to light in Iran. He felt sure that there was a lot more work to be done in the languages associated with Çutch, Kathiawar. Multan and Gujarat. Bibliographical material is being amassed in the United States of America by Ismail K, Poonawala and in Nairobi by A.M. Sadruddin. The latter periodical African Ismaili published in Nairobi. has been outstanding for its scholarly yet readable material.

[16] This malerial is mainly based on information collected from his grandson and his wife and other informants in Kampala during 1963-1965.

[17] This is based on the study described in A.K. Adatia and N.Q. King’s article - Some East African farmans of H.H. Aga Khan III. Journal of Religions in Africa. II. 1969, I8Off. Biographical and autobiographical material on the late Agha Khan and the present Imam are by no means lacking, see for instance, Willi frischauer. The Aga Khans. London. 1970. The former B.B.C. radio talk given in The Listener 1932s “Were I the Dictator of the World.” is a peerless gem. Earlier works include Q. Malik. H. H. The Aga Khan. Guide and Philosopher. Karachi. 1954. H.J. Greenwall. His Highness The Agha Khan.. London. 1952; and Stanley Jackson, The Aga Khan. London. 1952.

[18] Puns' on the word barbhai abound, ranging from ”the brethren without” to “the twelve brethren” The oral evidence referred to was collected over a period of years in Kampala. Nairobi. Mombasa. Mwanza. Buboka. and Dar-es-Salaam.

[19] See J.P. Rupani: Hirak Mahatsav Granth, The Aga Khan Diamond Jubilee Book. 1885-1945. Mombasa. 1946. chapters X and XV: also Hind ane Africa na vepro. Bombay. 1937.

[20] The Bombay Law Reporter. IX.. pp. 409ff. sub anno 1908, Aziz Ismail points out that His Highness’ own view of the secedres is well expressed in his Memoirs. London. 1954. p. 187

[21] For an excellent study of the policy of the forty-eight and forty-ninth Imams in an East African country, see Eva Kjcllbcrg. The Ismailis of Tanzania, micrographed by the Institute of Public Administration, University College, Dar-es-Salaam, 1967.

[22] A large number of interviews were recorded with Isma’ilis of various age groups on subjects which included the nature of the Isma’ili understanding of God, of revelation, of mysticism, of the status of women, of the equality and brotherhood of the human race and a good deal else, There is some discussion of the considerable Isma’ili contribution to Sunni Islam in N. King’s Christian and Muslim in Africa, New York, 1971. Files of newspapers cuttings and pamphlets on these various subjects in both English and Gujrati were started. These were deposited in the Department of Religious Studies in Kampala.