Lisan ud-Dawat

Lisaan ud-Da'wat il-'Alaviyah
Lisan al-dawat
لسان الدعوۃ العلویۃ
"Lisaan ud Da'wat il 'Alaviyah" in the Arabic script
Region	Western India, Gujarat
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western[1] Gujarati Lisaan ud-Da'wat il-'Alaviyah
Writing system	Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Lisaan ud-Da'wat (Arabic: لسان الدعوة‎, Lisan ud-Dawat, "language of the Dawat"; abbreviated LDA) is the language of the Taiyebi Bohras of Gujarat, an Isma'ili Shia Muslim community. It is a dialect of the Gujarati language, but incorporates a heavy amount of Arabic, Urdu, and Persian vocabulary and is written in the Arabic script. Originally a ritual language, since the period of the 41st Da'i al-Mutlaq Saiyedna Jivabhai Fakhruddin from 1330 AH (c. 1911 AD) in Vadodara it has also been propagated as the vernacular language for members of the Alavi Bohras, but the version used by the Saiyedna and his assembly members or clergy still differs slightly from the Gujarati spoken by other community members.^[2]

Some key works in Lisan al-Dawat are the translations of the literary masterpieces of Isma'ili literature written during the reign of the Fatimids in Egypt, with summaries and admonitions in poetic form written by Fakhruddin. Some of the nasihats recited regularly by Alavi Bohras are "Aye Mumino socho zara, duniyaa che aa daar e fanaa" (O faithful, you think that this world is going to end) and "Khazaano ilm no mushkil-kushaa ni itrat che" (The treasure of knowledge is the progeny of Ali, the legatee of Mohammad Rasoolullaah).

Many in the community look upon Lisan al-Dawat as a bridge for their Gujarati community to Arabic.

Origin

The Alavi Bohra community are a people who believe in Shi'a Isma'ili doctrine, beliefs and tenets. The 18th Faatemi Imaam Maulaana Mustansir Billah (478 AH/1094 AD), from the Aal-progeny Mohammad ul-Mustafa, held the seat of the Faatemi Empire in Egypt and acted as the sole authority of the Shi'a Isma'ili branch of Islam. In his era, Maulaai Ahmad (مولائي احمد), on Mustansir Billah's decree, arrived at the coast of Gujarat (Khambhat) along with a group of traders. His responsibility was to spread Shi'i Islam in the guise of doing trade. At that time, Sidhraj Jaysingh^[3] was ruling in Patan-Sidhpur, and a small Isma'ili community was already residing in Gujarat. Many such representatives of Faatemi Imaam were also present in Yemen. Every Isma'ili preacher who came to India after Maulaai^[4] Ahmad, either from Egypt or from Yemen, had Arabic as his basic and main language. With the help of Gujarati Isma'ili traders they gradually learnt the local native language to propagate their religion. It also happened that, in order to learn more about their religious teachings, many people from Gujarat migrated to the Da'i (the representative of the Imaam of Egypt) in Yemen. This took place in the 10th century AH/16th century AD. This is where the basic Arabic language of Faatemi Mission first combined with the local Gujarati language, giving birth to a new form of language which got more correlative, complex and comprehensive over time.

Map of Gujarat

Sound change and semantic change

Recognition

After the 21st Faatemi Imaam Maulaana Taiyeb^[5] went into seclusion in 528 AH/1134 CE from Egypt, his deputy, legatee and vicegerent, who is called the Da'i (a spiritual head or a missionary working on the divine command of Imaam in seclusion), started a religious mission in the name of Imaam Taiyeb for the purpose of self-searching and purity wherever Isma'ili-Taiyebi people were staying. This mission came to be known as "ad-Da'wat ul-Haadiyat ut-Taiyebiyah"^[6] meaning "The Rightly Guided Mission of Imaam Taiyeb". This religious mission continued in Yemen between 532–974 AH (1138–1567 AD), from the first Da'i Saiyedna Zoeb till the 24th Da'i Saiyedna Yusuf. During this period, as the time demanded and need arose, many Waali-Mullas (the representatives of Da'i who in his absence is entitled to do all religious activities) were appointed to teach in the Madrasah Taiyebiyah all aspects of the religious and social knowledge to the people. At each place where the Isma'ili-Taiyebi community resided, there used to be a learned and pious mulla who conducted various classes of religious teachings with different groups of students under the direct guidance of the Yemeni Da'i. As the Isma'ili-Taiyebis, residing in Gujarat and nearby areas were very enterprising, enthusiastic, progressive and soulfully involved in business and accordingly in their daily affairs and conduct, they were called "Bohras" (excellent or unique community). Because of their lineage to the 21st Imaam Taiyeb, they came to be known as Isma'ili Taiyebi Bohras.^[7] In the 9th and 10th century AH, a special delegation used to come to Gujarat from Yemen, where Arabic was in vogue, and teach the local Waali-Mulla by giving necessary instruction from the Da'i, conduct examinations, inspect the madrasahs, and teach Arabic to smart students. Some of these students were sent to Yemen to acquire higher religious education under the inspection of the Da'i himself. This way the trade and social relations between Yemen, Hind and Sindh^[8] became stronger and the lingual expressions, dialects and accents of Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Gujarati got mixed together. Keeping the main structure of the Gujarati language intact, normally Arabic, Persian and Urdu words were introduced by the learned people and gradually the community as a whole began using them in their daily and routine conversations.

Aqaa Maulaa delivering a lecture in LDA in 2016 AD

Writing system

LDA is basically inspired and based on the 28-letter alphabet of Arabic. Because the missionaries had to deal with local people in Gujarat for trade and religious affairs, they included 16 other letters of Gujarati for better communication and expression. LDA thus contained 44 letters. From these, three independent letters, Pe-پ (પ), Che-چ (ચ), and Ghaaf-گ (ગ), are widely used to incorporate Gujarati, Persian and Urdu terminology that cannot be written in the Arabic alphabet. Three other letters modified from Arabic that are used exclusively for Gujarati words are ٹ ,ڈ, and ڑ (ઽ,ટ).

Thirteen other letters are from the Haa-ھ family. "Haa" is mixed with different letters to get letters of different languages, such as baa-haa (بھ,ભ), baa-taa (تھ,થ), baa-ţaa (ٹھ,ઠ), pe-haa (پھ,ફ), jeem-haa (جھ,ઝ), che-haa (چھ,છ), daal-haa (دھ,ધ), ďaal-haa (ڈھ,ઙ), kaaf-haa (کھ,ખ), and gaaf-haa (گھ,ઘ).

28 Arabic letters used in LDA:

6 letters of different languages used in LDA:

10 Gujarati letters derived from the Haa (ﻫ) family used in LDA:

See also

• Old Gujarati language

References

• Appel and Muysken. (1987). Language Contact and Bilingualism. U.S.A.: Oxford University Press. Hans Hock, H. and Joseph Brian, D. (1996). Language History; Language Change and Language relationship: An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics. New York: Wolter de Groyter, Library of Congress Cataloging in publication data.
• Campbell, L. (1999). Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. London: Edinburgh University Press
• Bomhard, Allan, R. (1984). Toward Proto-Nostratic: A new approach to the comparison of Proto-Indo European and Proto Afro-Asiatic. Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company.
• Daftary, F. (2007). The Ismailis: Their history and Doctrines. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Daftary, F. (1996). Mediaveal Ismaili History and Thought. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Ismail K. Poonawala - "The Pillars of Islam", Da'aim ul-Islam of al-Qadi al-Nu'man, Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Da'wat e A'laviyah Personal Library- Files of Letters & Correspondence-1815 AD.
• Katamba, F. (1993) Morphology, London: The Mac Millan Press Limited.
• Qaraatis ud-Da'wat il-'Alaviyah, Alavi Library, Vadodara.

Notes

External links

• Official Website of Alavi Bohras with all Community Events and Activities