Abu Bakr Effendi

This article is about Abu Bakr Effendi (1835–1880). For Abu Bakr Effendi (1863–1942), see Mulla Effendi.

Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi (1835–1880) was a Osmanli qadi who was sent in 1862 by the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I at the request of the British Queen Victoria to the Cape of Good Hope, in order to teach and assist the Muslim community of the Cape Malays.

Effendi was from the aristocratic Quraishi family from Mecca. He is a Sayyid, direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad through Emir Zaid, son of Imam Zayn al-Abidin. Other imams in the Cape were mostly teaching the Shafi`i school of Islamic jurisprudence; he was a follower and the first teacher of Hanafi school, for which he also established a madrassa in Cape Town. He gained notoriety in 1869 after ruling that rock lobster and snoek, two staple foods in the Cape, were forbidden (haraam). Many mistake him for being a Shafi'i on the basis of him being a Scholar of the 4 schools of Sunni islam, and being able to issue religious edicts according to each one.

He died after contracting from reportedly travelling to Dera Mozambique, after having made several major contributions to Islam in South Africa. He introduced the fez for men, as well as reinstating the hijab for women. More importantly, besides his role as teacher he also published the Arabic Afrikaans "Uiteensetting van die godsdiens" ("Bayan ad-Din", or "The Exposition of the Religion") in 1877.

Early Life and times in South Africa

Abu Bakr was born in ancient province Shehrizur in Kurdistan. His father Molla Omar Al-Baghdadi an Ottoman Governor, was killed in a bedouin raid. He is known to have studied in the Madrassa originally set up by his ancestor Emir Suleyman for the people of the area. Further studies and teachings were in Erzurum, Istanbul, and Makkah.

Many mistake Sayyid Abu Bakr for being a Kurdish identity due to his place of birth. But his family was more cosmopolitan than that. One cannot belong to the Quraysh Tribe and a Sayyid while also be a Kurd. Abu Bakr is a descendant of the Imam Zain-ul-Abidin, making him of Arab and Quraysh heritage. It is known the descendants and followers of Imam Zain-ul-Abidin migrated to Yemen and northern Iran after the persecution of the Imam and his son Emir Zaid, better known as Zaid ibn Ali.

According to the Travelogue of Omar Lutfi Effendi, while he and Abu Bakr traveled by sea. At a later age Omar Lutfi returned to Turkey where his descendants still reside. His Travelogue was translated into English from Ottoman Turkish by Turkish/American Islamic Scholar Yusuf Kavakci.

Many of Abu Bakr Effendi's descendants originate from his marriage to Tohora Saban Cook, the niece of the famous explorer Captain James Cook. They had 5 sons, Ahmad Ataullah, Hisham Nimatullah, Omar Jalaluddin, Muhammad Alauddin, and Hussain Fowzy. Fahimah his daughter was Abu Bakr's eldest child from a first marriage. The family continues to reside in South Africa, with some returning to Turkey, and many migrating to Australia. Some of Abubakr's sons continued in his footsteps of serving far and wide, with one son getting involved in South African politics but was suppressed by the White Apartheid Government. Some also served in the Ottoman Army and fought in the Hejaz against the Anglo and Arab nationalist uprising against the Ottoman Empire. There currently exists in Singapore the grave of Abu Bakrs son who served as the Ottoman Turkish Ambassador to Singapore. Abu bakr was looved

Struggle of acceptance by the Cape Malay populace

Abu Bakr's life in South Africa was not easy. It is clear that the Cape Malay Muslims had suffered and lost some of their religious identity. This was due to their cruel deportation from their home countries, Southern India and the Malay Archipelago, by the Dutch. This suppression continued under the future Colonialist. Historical documents talk of his influence of introducing the Islamic hijab and fez on the Cape Muslims. This was despite the fact that many other Islamic scholars had come to South Africa. He also attempted to break the Cape Muslim 'Clerical Order' which existed. Only those related to the previous imam were allowed to become the next in line, holding knowledge to themselves and wielding power over the common people. This is further related in the 1866 Disputes;

Over the years the Cape Muslim `clerical' order developed with the imams wielding appreciable power. The status of the imams, together with economic security and in many cases prosperity was due to the generous monetary donations and gifts by the congregation. Between 1866 and 1900, over twenty cases pertaining to masjid in the Cape peninsula were heard in the Supreme Court with regard to the positions of imams and their succession. Practically every masjid at the Cape in the 19th century faced this problem. ([1])

This would have thrown him into further dispute with the Cape Malay population. It is also related in the Travelogue of Omar Lutfi, that the Malay people although they had held onto their Islamic heritage where not able to correctly pronounce the Arabic words and text, and it had been "corrupted" (as Abu Bakr would have seen it) with some Malay words. Their practices also involved non Islamic traditional and tribal Malay practices which would have originated from their ancestral homes on the Indonesian and Malay islands. These practices still exist in Modern day Indonesia where some of the population generally practice Islam but also practice spirit worship. Abu Bakr, again trying to change these practices would not have been popular with the locals.

Abu Bakr also followed and practiced according to the Hanafi school of thought. Some mistake him to be a Shafi'i which is in error as he made many judgments and fatwas according to the hanafi school. He also taught and wrote the book the 'Bayanuddin' which is written on Abu Bakrs own rulings since he was a fiqh scholar, but has many similarities to the Multaqa. This error may have originated from some of Abu Bakr's statements made in court. His title was 'Mufti of the 4 Schools' so one could argue he was of the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Malaki or Hanbali School.

Uiteensetting

From 1862 to 1869 Effendi had studied the local language use and then proceeded to compile the book. Printed by the Turkish Ministry of Education in Istanbul, it is an interesting and significant part of South Africa's history, and serves as a valuable reference of the Afrikaans usage during that era in the Islamic neighbourhoods of Cape Town. It gives an invaluable insight into the use of Afrikaans in the so-called "Slams" (slang for Islamic) neighbourhoods of Cape Town in that period. It is also significant, since this community did not have Dutch as mother tongue and were therefore mostly unaffected by its orthography. As such this was the first book ever written and published in Afrikaans, although written in a modified Arabic script. It bears testimony to the slave origins of the language which was denied by the ruling white class, especially during the Apartheid Era.

The book, totalling 254 pages, follows the Hanafite law-school. It was divided into 8 parts, each dealing with a specific part of Islamic law:

1. ritual cleansing (pp. 2–66)
2. ritual prayer (pp. 66–219)
3. religious tax (pp. 219–258)
4. fasting (pp. 258–284)
5. slaughtering of livestock (pp. 284–302)
6. religious prohibitions (pp. 302–344)
7. drink (pp. 344–349)
8. hunting (pp. 349–354)

Adriaanus van Selms, a Dutch scholar and Semitic researcher, published a transliteration in Latin Script of Abu Bakr Effendi's work in 1979. Since the original work presented spoken Afrikaans without using vowels, van Selms's biggest task was to decipher which Afrikaans words were being referred to. Effendi had also innovated new Arabic characters for several Afrikaans letters not found in the Arabic alphabet, the letter 'P' for example. What is interesting is that these innovated letters had to be unique, yet still recognisable by the population who where already schooled in traditional Arabic. Since this was a local modification to the language, used only amongst the Cape Muslim Community, it may have proved illegible for those familiar with traditional Arabic.

References and Further reading

• Van Bruineessen, Martin (2000), "A nineteenth-century Kurdish scholar in South Africa", Mullas, Sufis and heretics: the role of religion in Kurdish society. Collected articles., Istanbul: The Isis Press, pp. 133–141, ISBN 9754281629, http://www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen/personal/publications/Abu%20Bakar%20Effendi.pdf 
• Babb, Glenn (2010), "Abubakr Effendi – A Young Turk among the Afrikaners", A Young Turk among the Afrikaners, National Library Quarterly Review Vol. 62 No 1 Jan-Mar 2010 
• Orakçı, Serhat (October 2007), A Historical Analysis of the Emerging Links between the Ottoman Empire and South Africa between 1861–1923., http://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za:8080/dspace/bitstream/10210/3241/1/Orakci.pdf 
• Selim Argun, Life and Contribution of Osmanli Scholar, Abu bakr Effendi,towards Islamic thought and Culture in South Africa, 2000 http://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za:8080/dspace/bitstream/10210/1246/1/ARTICLE.pdf
• Ebrahim Mahomed Mahida – History of Muslims in South Africa: A Chronology http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/library-resources/online%20books/history-muslims/1800s.htm