PM Modi's Visit To 1,000-Year-Old Egypt Mosque Will Reinforce His Special Connection To Dawoodi Bohra Muslims

PM Narendra Modi's visit Saturday (24 June) to the nearly 1,000-year-old Imam al-Hakim bi Amr Allah Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, will be significant in terms of extending his long-standing warm relationship with the Dawoodi Bohra community in India and elsewhere.

The mosque underwent extensive renovations that took six years to complete, and it has now reopened to boost tourism to Cairo's Islamic sites. The Dawoodi Bohra community co-funded the renovations, and the mosque is an important cultural site for them in Cairo.

PM Modi has often thanked this community for their patriotism, law-abiding nature, and peace-loving attitude, and for helping him govern Gujarat well.

The Dawoodi Bohras follow the Fatimi Ismaili Tayyibi school of thought, with their heritage originating in Egypt and later shifting to Yemen before establishing a presence in India in the eleventh century.

After 1539, the seat of the sect moved from Yemen to Sidhpur, India, where the community still has iconic ancestral havelis.

The Bohras consist of two primary groups — a majority of Shia merchants and a minority of Sunni Bohra farmers.

The community has around 500,000 members in India alone, with a similar number residing in other parts of the world.

The name "Bohra" comes from the Gujarati word "vahaurau," which means "to trade."

Although the community is present in various states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, Surat is regarded as their base.

Modi has had a long-standing relationship with the Dawoodi Bohras, even before he became Prime Minister.

As Gujarat's chief minister in 2011, he invited the community to celebrate the 100th birthday of the then-religious head of the Dawoodi Bohra community, Syedna Burhanuddin.

After Burhanuddin's passing in 2014, PM Modi visited Mumbai to offer condolences to his son and successor, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin.

In 2015, PM Modi visited Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the current religious head of the community, with whom he has always shared a cordial relationship.

In 2016, Syedna called on the PM, who fondly reminisced about his relationship with four generations of Dawoodi Bohra religious heads.

Even during his visit to Bangladesh, PM Modi met with a delegation of Dawoodi Bohras.

In 2018, the Dawoodi Bohra community organised the Ashara Mubaraka, the Commemoration of the Martyrdom of Imam Hussain (SA), at Indore's Saifee mosque, which was attended by over a lakh members of the community. The Prime Minister addressed the gathering during the event.

The community, too, has showed their unwavering support for the Prime Minister during crucial times. For instance, they attended his overseas events in large numbers in 2014, including the Madison Square Garden gathering in New York and the Olympic Park Arena address in Sydney.