The Moghul Islamic Diaspora: The Institutionalization of Islam in Jamaica

Introduction

‘As-Salamu-’alaikum’, the Islamic greeting in Arabic, meaning ‘peace be upon you’, continued to be the of􏰺 cial greeting among the Maroon Council members in Moore- town, Portland, Jamaica and the dhikir, ‘Allahu Akbar’, declaring the Greatness of Allah, still throbbed in the hearts of many of the former Muslim slaves when the Indian indentured Muslims 􏰺 rst landed in Jamaica in 1845. However, the Islamic greeting, which had distinguished the Muslim Maroon community from the non- Muslims, had lost much of its Islamic signi􏰺 cance. The dhikir presumably became a personal enlightenment of the soul of the many freed African Muslim slaves in the midst of great social, economic and political uncertainties following emancipation. With the arrival of the indentured Muslims from India, the peaceful revival of Islam in Jamaica began. Although these Muslims formed a minority of a larger group of indentured labourers and were in an adverse atmosphere, they were resilient and set up institutions which were clear manifestations of a promising resurgent Islamic community. The inner struggle or jihad for self-puri􏰺 cation and to lead life in accord- ance with the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah, replaced the somewhat outer jihad of the African Muslim slaves as manifested in the Baptist War of 1831–1832 or the Maroon Wars of the eighteenth century.

With the Indian indentured Muslims, and subsequently with the other Indians from the subcontinent, came the Moghul culture exhibiting its richness in culinary arts, fashions and lifestyle. The signi􏰺 cance of the Islamic culture brought by the Muslim indentured labourers to the Caribbean has largely been overlooked because of the dominance of the Hindu labourers in the indenture-ship system. India had been under the Muslim rule from the early thirteen century and Islam had made its 􏰺 rst appearance in the subcontinent in 712 AD. The Moghul rule in India, which wit- nessed spectacular cultural achievement, began in 1526 with Babur, a Timurid descendent and the ruler of Samarkand, which epitomized the highly cultured courts and Timurid love of painting and poetry, of architecture and gardens. The rule of the six great Moghul Emperors which ended in 1706 gave way to the nominal reign of the weaker Moghuls under the East India Company rule and was 􏰺 nally terminated by the deposition of Emperor Bahadur Shah II by the British Crown in 1858. Although the dominant religion in India remains Hinduism, Islamic in􏰻 uence in arts, literature, architecture, painting, music, culinary delicacies and confectionery, clothing and fash- ion have made permanent marks. The present paper attempts to focus on the advent of the Muslims from India, their efforts to institutionalize Islam and the accompany- ing Islamic culture, which has enriched the multicultural heritage of Jamaica and the region at large.