Lisan ud-Dawat

Lisaan ud-Da'wat (Arabic: لسان الدعوة‎‎, Lisan ud-Dawat, "language of the Dawat") is the language of the Taiyebi Bohras of Gujarat, an Ismaili 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 41st Da'i e Mutlaq Saiyedna Jivabhai Fakhruddin from 1330 AH 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 little bit differs from the Gujarati spoken by other community members.^[2]

Some key works in Lisan al-Dawat are the translations of the Literary Master-pieces of Isma'ili Literature written during the reign of Fatimids in Egypt, its summaries and admonitions in poetic forms written by 41st Da'i e Mutlaq Saiyedna Jivabhai 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

Aqaa Maulaa

The Alavi Bohra community are people who believes 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, was holding the seat of the Faatemi Empire in Egypt. He was acting as the sole authority of the Shi’a Isma’ili branch of Islam. In his era, Maulaai Ahmad مولائي احمد, on his royal decree, arrived at the coast of Gujarat (Khambhat) along with the group of traders. His responsibility was to spread the Message of the Divine Way of Life as prescribed by the Shi’i Islam in guise of doing trade. At that time Sidhraj Jaysingh^[3] was ruling there in Patan-Sidhpur, and the Isma’ili community was already residing in Gujarat, albeit they were very few in numbers. 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 the teachings of the Divine Religion and its doctrines. It also happened that, in order to learn more about their religious teachings, many people from Gujarat migrated to the Da’i (representative of Imaam of Egypt) in Yemen. This took place in 10th century AH/16th century AD. This is the beginning where basic Arabic language of Faatemi Mission got mixed up with the local Gujarati language and it gave birth to a complete new form of language which got more correlative, complex and comprehensive with the passing time.

Map of Gujarat

Language Contact of Arabic, Sanskrit, Gujarati with Persian and Urdu

During the mid 16th century Mughals invaded India through the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay), since Khambhat (Cambay) was the biggest port of India then. Mughals came from the land of Persia (Iran) and spoke Persian (Farsi) language. This was the period when Bohra missionaries practiced and preached their faith openly and the local people felt their presence in Ahmedabad. Thus the blend of Arabic, Sanskrit, Gujarati and Persian now was the language of the Bohras. Also Persian art and culture amalgamated with Indian art and culture.

Invasion of Mughals arose a need of trade and commerce. New trade routes were opened between India and Persia. Along this route, Turkish also started trade and commerce. They spoke Persio-Arabic language. The amalgamation of their language with the contemporary language of India gave rise to a new language rather a link language called Urdu due to the mingling of Persian and Hindi. Thus it is a Pidgin language and a part of Proto Indo-European language family. Also during this era in 1621 AD, in Ahmedabad due to the major schism of succession between the Bohras, A major group Dawoodis seceded from Alavi Bohras who believed in the Da'iship (leadership) of 29th Da'i al-Mutlaq Saiyedna Ali saheb, the Grandson of 28th Da'i . Thus Alavi Bohras maintained their own separate identity from other Bohra groups of Gujarat and Yemen. Thus Alavi Bohras is a separate community since then, but the basic language pattern of all the Bohra communities remained unchanged unlike the Sulaymani Bohras who deviated from the main course to embrace Urdu as their community language.

Thus due to these reasons and migration of Alavi Bohras from Ahmedabad to Vadodara speak a healthy blend of Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, and Khojki. Khojki has an unnoticeable or minimal influence on the Alavi Bohra language and as days passed Sanskrit vocabulary also degraded due to Gujarati influence on this Language. Alavi Bohras read, write and speak an Arabicized form (blended with Arabic vocabulary) of Gujarati language, called Lisaan ud-Da'wat il-'Alaviyah i.e. the Language of the Truely Guided Mission of Ali (Saiyedna and martyr), which is an amalgamation of Arabic, Urdu and Persian words and written in Arabic script.

Today Alavi Bohras are settled in Baroda (Gujarat, INDIA) after the migration in 1110 AH and “Ad-Dawat ul-Hadiyah ul-Alaviyah” – the Rightly Guided Alavi Mission is the official headquarters of the 45th Da'i ul-Mutlaq (Spiritual and Temporal Head). “Thus language contact, brings sometimes nothing, sometimes new words into a language, sometimes new sounds and sentence structures spreads across many languages in a large geographical region; more rarely, entirely new languages arise in a contact situation.” (Appel and Muysken 1987). Hence, here it is observed that due to the language contact, An entirely new language is born which is neither Arabic nor Persian nor Gujarati.

Sound Change and Semantic Change

In this section lets see the sound and semantic changes in a lexicon due to the language contact. There are also syntactical changes but due to the time constraints we are not dealing here.

Sound Change/Phonological change

Sound change is the most studied area in Historical Linguistics. Sound tends to change over the time and due to contacts with other languages. Sound change also helps to determine whether the languages are related and also in other methods.

Lets see some examples:

In the example i, as we can see the sound /p/ in ‘pankho’ meaning “fan” changes to sound /f/ in ‘fankho’ meaning “fan”. This change has come due to the interaction of Arabic and Persian, since both the languages don’t have sound /p/. Similar is the case with the example ii.

Lets see the other examples:

In the example iii, the retroflex sound /L/ in vaL meaning “hair” changes to alveolar /l/ in bAl. Similar is the case in the iv, v and vi examples. In example vii, the retroflex sound /N/ in ‘kAran’ meaning “reason”changes to alveolar sound /n/ in ‘kAran’. Similar is the case in example viii. In example ix, the retroflex sound /D/ in ‘pahAD’ meaning “mountain” changes to alveolar sound /r/ in ‘pahAr’. Similar is the case in examples x and xi. In example xii, the post alveolar sound /S/ in ‘kadvAS’ meaning “bitterness” changes to alveolar sound /s/ in ‘kadvAs’. Similar is the case in example xiii and xiv.

From the above examples iii to xiv, it is observe that all the retroflex and post alveolar sounds in Standard Gujarati changes to alveolar sounds in Alavi Bohra Language. This change is again due to the contact of Arabic and Persian, as the later languages does not possess retroflex and post alveolar sounds, thus they are changed to alveolar sounds in LDA.

Rule: retroflex and post alveolar→alveolar/elsewhere

From example i to xiv, it can be observed, though they have borrowed words from Gujarati Language, the words are themselves blended with Arabic, Urdu and Persian. Thus, Alavi Bohras use Arabisized form of Gujarati Language.

Lets see some more examples:

In example xv, the mid vowel /a/ in ‘cap’ meaning “cup” changes to close-mid vowel /u/ in ‘cup’ meaning “cup” when followed by a stop. Similar example xvi. In example xvi, the open vowel /A/ in ‘barAbar’ meaning “proper” changes to close-mid vowel /o/ in ‘barobar’ when followed by a stop. The same is the case with example xvii & xviii where close-mid vowel of end vowel of /o/ changes to /u/. Means if the open and mid-vowels are followed by a stop/plosive sound, it changes to close-mid vowels.

Rule: open/mid-vowel →close-mid vowel/followed by a stop

Lets consider some other examples:

In example xix, the close-mid vowel /e/ in ‘kem’ meaning “why” changes to close vowel /i/ in ‘kim’. Similar is the case in the example xx, that close mid vowel changes to close vowel when followed by nasal sound /m/. In example xxi, mid vowel /a/ of ‘namak’ meaning “salt” changes to close vowel /i/ in ‘nimak’ when followed by the nasal sound /m/. Also in example xxii, mid vowel /a/ of ‘gaL’ meaning “swallow” changes to close vowel /i/ in ‘gil’ when followed by the alveolar sound /l/. Means if the close-mid and mid vowels are followed by nasal sound /m/ and alveolar sound /l/, it changes to close vowels. Similarly in example xxiii, the close-mid vowel /e/ in ‘ketla’ meaning “how many/much” changes to close vowel /i/ in ‘kitla’. Similar is the case in the example xxiv and xxv. Thus close-mid and mid vowel changes to close vowel when followed by nasal sound /m/ and alveolar sound /l/ and /t/.

Rule: close-mid vowel/mid vowel→close vowel/followed by /m/ and alveolar /l/ and /t/

Thus from example xv to xxv, we can observe that the open vowels tend to move towards the close vowels leaving an impact on the Gujarati lexicons.

Lets see some more examples:

In the example xxvi, the consonant sounds /k/ and /y/ of ‘kyaare’ meaning “when” are separated by the vowel sound /i/ and consonant sound /v/ is also infixed in ‘kiwaare’. Infixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme attaches within a root or stem. The kind of affix involved in this process is called an infix. Infixation is a very common process in Arabic Language. Similar is the case in examples xxvii and xxviii.

A distinctive feature of the Semitic languages is triliteral or triconsonantal root, composed of three consonants separated by vowels. The basic meaning of a word is expressed by the consonants, and different shades of this basic meaning are indicated by vowel changes. So may be this distinctive feature of Semitic languages is affecting the Gujarati words in example xv, xvi, and xix. Thus this distinctive feature may also be responsible for the vowel changes in examples xv to xix.

Hence from example i to xxviii, we can observe that although they have borrowed words from Gujarati language, there is an impact of Arabic, Persian and Urdu Language due to the Language Contact. Also we can say that these language contacts are affecting the Gujarati Language internally.

Vocabulary

a) Semantic Change: Semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. It is also a studied area in Historical Linguistics.

Lets see an example:

In the above example, in standard Gujarati ‘rasoi’ meaning “to cook” and ‘pakavvu’ means “to ripen” and in LDA Language they use ‘pakavvu’ in both the cases “to cook” and “to ripen”. ‘pakna’ which means “to cook” as well as “to ripe” in Urdu language. Here the meaning of “to ripe” is extended metaphorically. Thus it is used metaphorically. Metaphor in semantic change involves extensions in the meaning of a word that suggest a semantic similarity or connection between the new sense and the original one. Thus due to the contact of Urdu language and metaphorical extension they have dropped the word ‘rasoi’ meaning “to cook” and have adopted the word ‘pakAvvu’ meaning “to cook/to ripe” to explain both the senses cook and ripe.

Similar is the case in the example below:

In the example ii, like in example i, in Gujarati language ‘who (nominative)’ meaning “I” and ‘me (ergative)’ meaning “I” but in LDA, they use ‘me’ meaning “I” in both the cases. Also in Urdu Language “mE” and in Persian Language “man” meaning “I” is used in both the cases. Thus due to the contact of Urdu and Persian language and metaphorical extension they have dropped the word ‘who’ meaning “I” and have adopted the word ‘me’ meaning “I” to explain both the senses I (nominative) and I (ergative). Thus from example i and ii, we can observe the impact of Urdu and Persian language on Gujarati Language through metaphorical extension.

b) Semantic borrowing:

Semantic borrowing is a process of borrowing the entire semantic meaning from a language. Means a word is borrowed from a language which is exactly similar in meaning. Semantic borrowing occurs when two or more languages come into contact.

Lets see some of the examples of semantic borrowing:

Thus from the above examples from i to vi, it is observed that Alavi Bohras speak the semantic borrowed words from the Arabic, Persian and Urdu Language. Hence they use a particular form of Gujarati language permeated with Arabic, some Persian words, and some Urdu words and write in the Arabic script called as Lisaan ud-Da'wat il-'Alaviyah. So this unique language sets a recognition for Alavi Bohras and make them linguistically different from other Bohra sects.

Recognition

After the 21st Faatemi Imaam Maulaana Taiyeb^[5] who 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 his Spiritual Master-Imaam Taiyeb for the purpose of self-searching and purity in every places and regions where 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, and 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 of a faithful) were appointed to teach in the Madrasah Taiyebiyah (taiyebi seminary) 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 in different groups of students by the direct guidance of 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 popularly and lovingly called as BOHRAS (excellent or unique community). Because of their lineage to their 21st Imaam Taiyeb, they came to be known as Isma’ili Taiyebi Bohras.^[7] It is also to be noted that in the 9th and 10th century AH (the year after the migration of Mohammad from Mecca to Madina), from Yemen where Arabic language was in vogue, on the explicit order of the Da’i, a special delegation used to come to Gujarat, and teach the local Waali-Mulla by giving necessary instruction from Da’i, conduct examinations, inspect the Madrasahs, teach Arabic language to brilliant students, and if they deemed it right, then with the explicit permission of their parents, they used to send some of the deserving children to Yemen to acquire higher religious education under the respected inspection of Da’i himself. This way the trade and social relation between Yemen, Hind and Sindh ^[8] became stronger and the lingual expressions, dialects and accents of Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Gujarati got mixed in each other. Keeping the main structure of Gujarati language intact, normally used Arabic, Persian and Urdu words were inducted and introduced by the learned people and gradually community as a whole began using them in their daily and routine conversations.

Aqaa Maulaa delivering lecture in LDA during the commemoration of the Martyrdom of Imaam Husain in Moharram-2016 AD

Writing system

LDA is basically inspired and based on the 28 letters-alphabets of Arabic Language i.e. ا-Alif to ي-Yaa. Because the missionaries had to deal with local people in Gujarat for the trade and religious affairs, they included other 16 letters of Gujarati Language for better communication and expression. LDA totally managed to include in itself 44 letters. From these, 3 independent letters such as Pe-پ (પ), Che-چ (ચ), and Ghaaf-گ (ગ) are widely used to incorporate Gujarati, Persian as well as Urdu terminology that were not in Arabic Alphabets. Other 3 letters modified from Arabic that are used exclusively for Gujarati words are ٹ ,ڈ and ڑ (ઽ,ટ).

Other 13 letters are from the Haa-ھ family. "Haa" is mixed with different letters to get alphabets 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 Alphabets of Arabic used in LDA:

6 Alphabets of Different Languages used in LDA:

10 Alphabets of Gujarati Language derived from Haa (ﻫ) family used in LDA:

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
• Old Gujarati language

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