Dean Mahomed

Sake Dean Mahomet (also Sake Dean Mahomed or, in Arabic, Shaykh Din Muhammad) (1759-1851) is a Bengali traveller and entrepreneur, thought to have been the inventor of shampoo and the first Indian to have written a book in the English language.

Early life

Dean Mahomet grew up in British India in a Bengali Muslim family and served in the Bengal army of the British East India Company as a trainee surgeon. He became attached to the army at the early age of 10, and was taken under the wing of Captain Godfrey Evan Baker, an Irish Anglo-Protestant officer. Mahomet remained with Captain Baker's unit until 1782, when the Captain resigned in disgrace.

Travels

In 1786 he emigrated to Cork, Ireland. This led him to publish his travel book, The Travels of Dean Mahomet in 1794. The book describes several important cities in India, and describes a series of military conflicts with local Indian principalities. Mahomet's tone in the book is supportive of the East India Company's military conquests in India.

According to Michael Fischer, several passages from the book are plagiarized from other travel narratives written in the late 18th century.

Restaurant venture

Moving to London, Dean Mahomet opened the first Indian take away restaurant in England: the Hindoostanee Coffee House in George Street, central London. However, this venture was unsuccessful.

"Dr Brighton"

In 1814 he moved with his Irish wife, Jane, to Brighton. The couple opened the first shampooing vapour masseur bath in England, on the site now occupied by the Queen's Hotel. He described the treatment in a local paper as 'The Indian Medicated Vapour Bath (type of Turkish bath), a cure to many diseases and giving full relief when every thing fails; particularly Rheumatic and paralytic, gout, stiff joints, old sprains, lame less, aches and pains in the joints'.

This business was an immediate success and Dean Mahomet became known as "Dr Brighton". Hospitals referred patients to him and he was appointed as shampooing surgeon to both King George IV and William IV.

Recognition

According to Pakistani literary critic Muneeza Shamsie, Sake Dean Mahomet began to lose prominence by the Victorian era and until recently was largely forgotten by history. She notes that he also authored the books Cases Cured and Shampooing Surgeon, Inventor of the Indian medicated Vapour and Sea Water Baths etc.

Modern renewal of interest in his writings followed after poet and scholar Alamgir Hashmi drew attention to this author in the 1970s and 1980s. Michael H. Fisher has written a book on Sheikh Dean Mahomet: The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomet in India, Ireland and England (Oxford University Press, Delhi - 1996).

On 29 September 2005 the City of Westminster unveiled a Green Plaque commemorating the opening of the Hindoostane Coffee House..

External links

• "Sake Dean Mahomet, Europe's first Asian Shaikh", The News International, Pakistan
• "Making History - Sake Dean Mahomed - Regency 'Shampooing Surgeon'", BBC - Beyond the Broadcast
• Black History in Brighton