Khoja
Sunni (minority) |
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The Khoja are a mainly
In India, most Khojas live in the states of Gujarat,
Etymology
The term Khoja derives from
The specific term Khoja in the
Many Lohanas of Gujarat converted to Nizari Ismailism due to the efforts of Pir Sadardin. They gradually used the title Khoja. Before the arrival of the Aga Khan from Persia to British ruled India in the 19th century, Khojas retained many Hindu traditions, including a variation on the belief in the Dashavatara.[4][5]
History
Origins and Syncretism
The Khojas originate from Hindu
Additionally, it included certain groups such as
The pīrs composed religious hymns called gināns that served as the religious scriptures for the Khojas rather than the Qurʾān. The majority of the gināns glorify the Nizārī imām as an absolute and infallible leader. Some gināns contain large amounts of Hindu-Muslim syncretism, with Hindu deities being identified with Muslim figures. The gināns took inspiration from diverse traditions, including Nizārī Ismāʿīlism, Hindu Sant and Bhakti traditions, and Ṣūfism. Such syncretism with Hinduism has been viewed as a strategy by the Ismāʿīlī missionaries to convert Hindus, as well as taqiyya to hide them from other Muslims. The religion of the Khojas was known as Satpanth.[7]
At the end of the fifteenth century, the imām in Persia, al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh II, abolished the pīrs as a source of religious authority, and replaced them with a book called Pandiyāt-i jawānmardī, which was then translated into Gujarātī. Imām Shāh (d. 1513) was supposed to become the next pīr, but in response to the imām's decision, Imam Shāh's son Nār Muḥammad claimed he was the imām and founded a splinter sect called the Imām-Shāhīs aka Sat-Panthīs.[7]
In the nineteenth century, the Khojas gathered in
Arrival of Āghā Khān and Ismāʿīlī Islamisation/De-Hinduisation
In 1845,
The imām succeeding the next imām, Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh Āghā Khān III (r. 1885–1957) continued to attempt exert his authority over the Khojas and push them towards normative Ismāʿīlī–Shīʿa Islam; this led to the Haji Bibi case. The plaintiffs in the Haji Bibi case of 1908 claimed that the Khojas were followers of Twelver Shīʿa Islam, however the British judge upheld that the Khojas were Ismāʿīlī and so those Khojas split off to follow Twelver Shi'ism.[7]
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Khojas were under pressure from the Āghā Khāns as well as Muslim and Hindu fundamentalist movements to alter their religion. The religious fundamentalists considered the Khojas to be heretics who should convert to Sunnī or Twelver Shīʿī Islam or normative Hinduism. The Āghā Khāns who wielded religious power over the community as imām sought to Islamise the community to normative Ismāʿīlism. The gināns were codified under their authority, those with Hindu influences were purged, and new gināns were composed with Qurʾānic verses. The use of the Gujarātī language was also replaced by English. By the time of the current imām, Shāh Karīm al-Ḥusaynī Āghā Khān IV, the Khojas had been integrated into a transnational Ismāʿīlī community with a focus on the Qurʾān and literacy of Islamic concepts.[7]
The Khojas live today in East Africa, India, Pakistan, Europe, and North America, and show a strong commitment to the values of Muslim philanthropy in their business entrepreneurship and contribution to societies in which they live. From the 18th century, some of the Khojas have migrated to the Persian Gulf region, mainly in the Sultanate of Oman and U.A.E, where they are known as Al-Lawatia.[11]
Khoja communities
Isma'ili Khojas
Originally
Twelver Khojas
Khojas who follow
Twelver Khojas are said to have broken away from the Isma'ili Khojas due to their determination to defend their remembrance practices against Aga Khan's efforts to ban them, in order to elevate his personal status as the reincarnation of Isma'il ibn Ja'far, the seventh Imām of the Isma'ilis.[13]
See also
- Khojki, a script used exclusively by the Khoja community to write their language
- Momna, Nizari Ismailis from northern Gujarat
References
- ^ Khoja at the Encyclopædia Britannica. "Khoja, Persian Khvājeh, caste of Indian Muslims converted from Hinduism to Islam in the 14th century by the Persian pīr (religious leader or teacher) Saḍr-al-Dīn and adopted as members of the Nizārī Ismāʿīliyyah sect of the Shīʿites.".
- S2CID 162188373.
- ^ Virani, Shafique N. The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation (New York: Oxford University Press), 2007, p. 102.
- ISBN 0521413117. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
- ^ Morris, H.S., 1958. The divine kingship of the Aga Khan: A study of theocracy in East Africa. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 14(4), pp.454-472 [1]
- ISBN 978-0-88133-245-2.
Some, like the Khojah caste, are Bania groups converted to Islam by Muslim pirs (saints).
- ^ a b c d e f g De Smet, Daniel (2020). "Khōja". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Stewart, Devin J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill.
- ISBN 9789004085510.
- ^ "Alyque Padamsee: The man who wore several hats". Deccan Herald. 2018-11-17. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
- ISBN 978-0-7069-0527-4.
The Padamsees, who came from the village of Mauva in Saurashtra, had originally belonged to the caste of Charanyas. Having been converted to the Khoja sect of Islam, their clan had become followers of the Agha Khan. Akbar's grandfather, who was a landlord and village chief , prided himself on the fact that he had , by his own express persuasion , brought the then Agha Khan to visit their village .
- ^ This is an edited version of an article that was originally published in the Encyclopaedia of Islam and Muslim World, Vol. II, p. 393, ed. Richard C. Martin, MacMillan Reference Books, New York, 2003
- ISBN 978-0-7486-0904-8.
- ISBN 978-1-317-38000-9.
Bibliography
- Azim Malikov, Kinship systems of Xoja groups in Southern Kazakhstan in Anthropology of the Middle East, Volume 12, Issue 2, Winter 2017, pр.78-91
- Azim Malikov, Sacred Lineages in Central Asia: Translocality and Identity in Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus edited by Manja Stephan-¬Emmrich and Philipp Schröder (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers), 2018, pp. 121–150
- Azim Malikov, Khoja in Kazakhstan: identity transformations in Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Department ‘Integration and Conflict’ Field Notes and research Projects VI CASCA – Centre for Anthropological Studies on Central Asia: Framing the Research, Initial Projects. Eds.: Günther Schlee. Halle/Saale, 2013, pp. 101–107
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