Chapter BONZE to BORA of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

people, keeping very cleanly and comfortable houses. [See an account of them in Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 470 seqq. 2nd ed.] These Bohras appear to form one of the nu merous Shi’a sects, akin in character to, and apparently of the same origin as, the Ismailiyah (or Assassins of the Middle Ages), and claim as their original h ead and doctor in India one Ya’kub, who emigrated from Egypt, and landed in Cambay A.D. 1137. But the chief seat of the doctrine is alleged to have been in Yemen, till that country was conquered by the Turks in 1538. A large exodus of the sect to India then took place. Like the Ismailis they attach a divine character to their Mullah or chief Pontiff, who now resides at Surat. They are guided by him in all things, and they pay him a percentage on their profits. But there are several sectarian subdivisions: Daudi Bohras, Sulaimani Bohras, &c. [See Forbes, Ras Mala, ed. 1878, p. 264 seqq.]

2. The Sunni Bohras. These are very numerous in the Northern Concan and Guzerat. They are essentially peasants, sturdy, thrifty, and excellent cultivators, retaining much of Hindu habit; and are, though they have dropped caste distinctions, very exclusive and “denominational” (as the Bombay Gazetteer expresses it). Exceptionally, at Pattan, in Baroda State, there is a rich and thriving community of trading Bohras of the Sunni section; they have no intercourse with their Shi’a namesakes.

The history of the Bohras is still very obscure; nor does it seem ascertained whether the two section s were originally o ne. Some things indicate that the Shi’a Bohras may be, in accordance with their tradition, in some considerable part of foreign descent, and that the Sunni Bohras, who are unquestionably of Hindu descent, may have been native converts of the foreign immigrants, afterwards forcibly brought over to Sunnism by the Guzerat Sultans. But all this must be said with much reserve. The history is worthy of investigation.

The quotation from Ibn Batuta, which refers to Gandari on the Baroda river, south of Cambay, alludes most pr obably to the Bohras, and may perhaps, though not necessarily, indicate an origin for the name different from either of those suggested.

c. 1343.—“When we arrived at Kandahar … we received a visit from the principal Musulmans dwelling at his (the pagan King’s) Capital, such as the Children of Khojah Bohrah, among whom was the Nakhoda Ibrahim, who had 6 vessels belonging to him.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 58.

c. 1620.—Nurullah of Shuster, quoted by Colebrooke, speaks of this class as having been converted to Islam 300 years before. He says also: “Most of them subsist by commerce and mechanical trades; as is indicated by the name Bohrah, which signifies ‘merchant’ in the dialect of Gujerat.”—In As. Res., vii. 338.

1673.—“…The rest (of the Mohammedans) are adopted under the name of the Province or Kingdom they are born in, as Mogul…or Schisms they have made, as Bilhim, Jemottee, and the lowest of all is Borrah.”—Fryer, 93.

c. 1780.—“Among the rest was the whole of the property of a certain Muhammad Mokrim, a man of the Bohra tribe, the Chief of all the merchants, and the owner of three or four merchant ships.”—H. of Hydur Naik, 383.

1810.—“The Borahs are an inferior set of travelling merchants. The inside of a Borah’s box is like that of an English country shop, spelling-books, prayer-books, lavender water, eau de luce, soap, tapes, scissors, knives, needles, and thread make but a small part of the variety.”—Maria Graham, 33.

1825.—“The Boras (at Broach) in general are unpopular, and held in the same estimation for parsimony that the Jews are in England.”—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 119; also see 72.

1853.—“I had the pleasure of baptizing Ismail Ibraim, the first Bohorá who, as far as we know, has yet embraced Christianity in India. … He appears thoroughly divorced from Muhammad, and from ’Ali the son-in-law of Muhammad, whom the Bohorás or Initiated, according to the meaning of the Arabic word, from which the name is derived, esteem as an improvement on his father-in-law, having a higher degree of inspiration, which has in good measure, as they imagine, manifested itself among his successors, recognised by the Bohoras and by the Ansariyah, Ismaeliyah, Drus, and Metawileh of Syria.…”—Letter of Dr. John Wilson, in Life, p. 456.

1863.—“… India, between which and the north-east coast of Africa, a considerable

trade is carried on, chiefly by Borah merchants of Guzerat and Cutch.”—Badger, Introd. to Varthema, Hak. Soc. xlix.