Abu Bakr Effendi

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Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi
Bayānu ddīn by Abu Bakr Effendi, published 1869 was one of the first books translated into Afrikaans
Personal
Born	c. 1814
Died	1880
Religion	Islam
Jurisprudence	Qadi

Sheikh Abu Bakr Effendi (1814–1880) was a Turkish qadi sent in 1862 by the Ottoman sultan Abdulaziz 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. His year of birth has often been mistaken to be 1835.

Effendi was from a Sayyid family which originated from Mecca and migrated into Abbasid then Sejuk territory. Abubakr was born in the Ottoman Province of Shehrizur. He is a Sayyid, direct descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad through Zayd ibn Ali, 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 sinful (haraam). He has often been mistaken 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. His ancestors and children practised the Hanafi school of thought.

He died after contracting malaria from reportedly travelling to Dera Mozambique, after having made several major contributions to Islam in South Africa. He introduced the fez for men,^{[citation needed]} as well as reinstating the hijab for women^{[citation needed]}. 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 Ottoman province Shehrizur. His father Molla Omar Al-Baghdadi an Ottoman Governor, was killed by local tribesmen uprising against the authority. He studied at the Madrassa originally set up by his ancestor Abu Nasr Al-Amiyr Sulaymaan Al-Qurashiy Al-Amjadiy (c. 1060 - c.1134) for any who wish to learn. Not much is known of Abu Nasr Al-Amiyr Sulaymaan from Abubakrs personal documents. He is however a contemporary of Suleyman Ghazi, the founder of the Ottoman Empire and Suleyman Sultan of Rum who lived at similar times. Further studies and teachings of Abubakr were in Erzurum, Istanbul and Makkah.

According to the Travelogue of Omar Lutfi Effendi, while he and Abu Bakr travelled 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 whom he married after renouncing the "perfectly white" first wife, Rukea Maker. He had 5 sons, Ahmad Ataullah, Hisham Nimatullah, Omar Jalaluddin, Muhammad Alauddin, and Hussain Fowzy. Fahimah his daughter was Abu Bakr's eldest child from his marriage to Rukea. The family continues to reside in South Africa, some under the surname Emjedi, some returning to Turkey and some migrating to Australia. Some of Abubakr's sons continued in his footsteps of serving far and wide^{[clarification needed]}, with one son, Ahmed, being involved in Cape politics. He became a member of the Cemetery Committee because the cemetery where his father's grave was situated was threatened with closure by the Cape Administration. He stood for the legislature of the Cape but failed to get the required votes for a seat due to a change in the system for cumulative votes, amended especially to keep him out of the lCape legislature. Some also served in the Ottoman Army and fought in the Hejaz against the Anglo and Arab nationalist uprising against the Ottoman Empire. In Singapore is the grave of Abu Bakrs son, Ahmed, who was the Ottoman Turkish Ambassador to Singapore.

Analysis of the religious and linguistic impact of Abubakr Effendi[]

From 1862 to 1869 Effendi had studied the local language use and then proceeded to compile the book "Bayan-al-Din". 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 substantial book ever written and published in Afrikaans, although written in a modified Arabic script where the diacritic signs are used to indicate the pronunciation of Afrikaans. It bears testimony to the slave origins of the language which was not accredited by the White Afrikaners, especially during the Apartheid Era.

The book, totalling 254 pages, appears to follow 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)

 [nl], 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 were 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" (PDF), Mullas, Sufis and heretics: the role of religion in Kurdish society. Collected articles., Istanbul: The Isis Press, pp. 133–141, ISBN 975-428-162-9, archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-05, retrieved 2009-12-04
• Babb, Glenn (2010), "Abubakr Effendi – A Young Turk among the Afrikaners", A Young Turk among the Afrikaners, Cape Town: 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. (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-31, retrieved 2010-05-26
• Ebrahim Mahomed Mahida – History of Muslims in South Africa: A Chronology
• Selim Argun, Life and Contribution of Osmanli Scholar, Abu bakr Effendi, towards Islamic thought and Culture in South Africa, 2000
• Errors about Abu Bakr Effendi
• Death Certificate of Abu Bakr Effendi
• Babb, Glenn (2020) "Ons Taal se begin in die Bo-Kaap" Rapport Weekliks 5 January 2020