Khoja

The term Khoja derives from Khwāja (New Persian Khājé), a Persian honorific title (خواجه) of pious individuals used in Turco-Persian influenced regions of the Muslim world. The specific term Khoja in the Gujarati and Sindhi languages, was first bestowed by the Persianate Nizari Isma'ili Sadardin (died c. 15th century) upon his followers during the lifetime of the Nizari Ismaili Imam Islam Shah (1368-1423 CE). As such, Pir Shihab al-din Shah, brother of one of the Nizari Ismaili imams, wrote regarding the origins of the Khojas that the very formation of the community came about through Pir Sadardin's devotion to the Imam. Many Lohanas of Gujarat converted to Nizari Ismailism due to the efforts of Pir Sadardin. They gradually used the title Khoja. Before the arrival of the Aga Khan from Persia to British rule in India in the 19th century, Khojas retained many Hindu traditions, including a variation on the belief in the Dashavatara. ==History==

Origins and syncretism The Khojas are an ethnic and cultural group originating from Hindu Lohanas. Their ethnonym Khoja is derived from the Persian term khwāja, which roughly translates to 'Lord' or 'Master', a translation of the traditional Lohana title of ṭhakkar. predominantly from Gujarat and Kutch. The Hindu Lohanas from Sindh were converted to Nizārī Ismāʿīlism by Pīr Ṣadr al-Dīn in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Ṣadr al-Dīn was a dāʿī ("missionary") acting on behalf of the Nizārī imām who lived in Persia. Ṣadr al-Dīn belonged to a hereditary lineage of pīrs who served as leaders for the Khoja community as a deputy of the imām in Persia. The pīrs composed religious hymns called gināns that served as the religious scriptures for the Khojas rather than the Qurʾān. The majority of the gināns glorify the Nizārī imām as an absolute and infallible leader. Some gināns contain large amounts of Hindu-Muslim syncretism, with Hindu deities being identified with Muslim figures. The gināns took inspiration from diverse traditions, including Nizārī Ismāʿīlism, Hindu Sant and Bhakti traditions, and Ṣūfism. Such syncretism with Hinduism has been viewed as a strategy by the Ismāʿīlī missionaries to convert Hindus, as well as taqiyya to hide them from other Muslims. The religion of the Khojas was known as Satpanth. Arrival of Āghā Khān and Ismāʿīlī Islamisation In 1845, Ḥasan ʿAlī Shāh aka Āghā Khān I moved to India due to conflict with the Qajar dynasty in Persia. He settled in Bombay, which had the largest concentration of Khojas in India. For centuries the Khojas had been a self governing community with nominal allegiance to a distant Nizārī imām in Persia, but the newly arrived Āghā Khān sought to interfere in their internal affairs. This led to conflict in the Khoja community, culminating in the Āghā Khān case of 1866. The Khoja plaintiffs argued that community in fact were Sunnī Muslims and thus were not under the authority of the Āghā Khān imām. The British judge decided in favour of the defendant, Āghā Khān I, ruling that the Khojas were the descendants of Hindus who became Shīʿa Ismāʿīlīs and thus were under the religious authority of the imām, Āghā Khān I. In response to the verdict, some Khojas converted to Sunnī Islam. ==Khoja communities==

Isma'ili Khojas , 1928 Originally Nizari Isma'ili, after the 1866 Aga Khan Case that consolidated the bulk of the Bombay Khoja community under the leadership of the Aga Khan. The Khojas credit their title to Pir Sadr al-Din who allegedly laid the foundations for the Nizari Ismaili community in India, even before the Anjudan phase of the history of Nizari Ismailism. Twelver Khojas Khojas who follow Twelver Shia Islam and have large communities in Pakistan, India, East Africa, North America and the United Kingdom. Moulvi Ali Baksh who had settled in Mumbai in the mid-late 1800s was a prominent Moulvi with great respect in Ithna'ashari Khoja community. It is said that then the Shias were organised into a distinct community by Moulvi Ali Baksh himself. (Excerpts as translated from the book Greatness Bygone authored by Ziauddin Ahmed Barni Published by Taleemi Markaz Karachi on 30 July 1961, Page: 342 written on one of 93 great personalities Ali Mohammed Moulvi. The author had not met only 2 of the 93 personalities noted in his book). Twelver Khojas are said to have broken away from the Isma'ili Khojas due to their determination to defend their remembrance practices against Aga Khan's efforts to ban them, in order to elevate his personal status as the reincarnation of Isma'il ibn Ja'far, the seventh Imām of the Isma'ilis. == Culture ==

Dress Traditionally, Khoja men wore a pāghaḍī (loose white turban), chol (double breasted jacket), suthaḷī (trousers) or dhotiyuṁ (dhoti), and pointed shoes. By the second half of the 20th century, Khoja men had forsaken their traditional garb in favour of ṭopī (velvet cap), kabjo (European shirt/long jacket), paheraṇ (collarless inner shirt), and survāl (European buttoned trousers or waist-string trousers). Khoja women wear a tight blouse or short armed jacket, a ghāghro skirt as a lower garment, and an oḍhaṇī (veil) on the head. == See also ==