Origin and Formation
Lisan al-Dawat did not exist before the Fatimid da’wa reached the Indian subcontinent. It formed over centuries through the encounter between:
The Arabic and Persian da’wa heritage: The Fatimid da’wa’s theological vocabulary, legal terminology (fiqh terms from Qadi al-Nu’man’s Da’a’im), and spiritual vocabulary (ta’wil concepts, Imam’s titles, da’wa hierarchy) — all developed in Arabic and to some extent Persian.
The Gujarati base: The Bohra community settled primarily in Gujarat — the western Indian state — where the local language was Gujarati (an Indo-Aryan language descended from Sanskrit). The community’s daily life, trade, and family language was Gujarati.
The synthesis: Over generations, the da’wa’s Arabic-Persian religious vocabulary was absorbed into a Gujarati grammatical structure, written in the Arabic script, and developed a distinctive literary register for religious use. The result is Lisan al-Dawat — neither fully Arabic, nor Persian, nor Gujarati, but a living synthesis that belongs entirely to the da’wa community.
See also: Tayyibi Dawat, Dai Al Mutlaq Institution, Fatimid Caliphate
Characteristics
The Arabic script: Lisan al-Dawat is written in Arabic script — maintaining the script of the Quran and the da’wa’s foundational texts. This connects every written word in Lisan al-Dawat visually to the Quran, reinforcing the sense that the language is the da’wa’s sacred medium.
Arabic vocabulary: An extremely high proportion of Lisan al-Dawat vocabulary is Arabic — particularly for anything related to religion, the da’wa hierarchy, theology, and spiritual practice. Titles like Syedna, Maulana, Da’i al-Mutlaq, Imam al-Fatimi, Sayyidatna are Arabic in origin and are used directly.
Gujarati grammar: The underlying grammatical structure — verb conjugations, case systems, particle usage, sentence order — is fundamentally Gujarati-based, making the language phonologically and syntactically accessible to speakers of Gujarati and Hindi while requiring separate learning for those with only Arabic.
Persian layer: Persian poetry vocabulary, some administrative terms, and devotional expressions (particularly from the marsiya tradition) form a distinct Persian layer in Lisan al-Dawat.
The Liturgical and Literary Role
The majalis: All Dawoodi Bohra religious gatherings (majalis) — Muharram sessions, Friday discourses, Ramadan sessions — are conducted primarily in Lisan al-Dawat. The Da’i al-Mutlaq’s waaz (religious discourses) are in Lisan al-Dawat, with Arabic passages for direct Quranic and hadith citations.
The marsiya: The elegies sung in mourning for Imam Husayn during Muharram are composed in Lisan al-Dawat — often of great literary beauty, blending Gujarati poetic sensibility with Arabic theological content and Persian poetic forms. The marsiya tradition represents some of the highest literary achievement in Lisan al-Dawat.
The nasiha: Religious advice and spiritual counsel in Bohra practice is given in Lisan al-Dawat — the ‘alim (scholar) addresses the community in the language that contains the da’wa’s accumulated vocabulary of spiritual guidance.
The salwat (blessings): The distinctive Bohra salwat — the communal recitation of blessings on the Prophet and Imams that punctuates every religious gathering — is in Arabic with Lisan al-Dawat framing.
See also: Majalis Al Hikmah, Muharram Ashura, Qadi Al Numan
Lisan al-Dawat as Identity
For the Dawoodi Bohra community, Lisan al-Dawat is the single most distinctive marker of communal identity — more distinctive than dress, food, or architecture. To speak Lisan al-Dawat is to be Bohra; to not speak it is to be foreign to the community even if one shares the theological commitments.
The language of walayah: In the Bohra understanding, Lisan al-Dawat carries the da’wa’s baraka — the blessing and spiritual presence accumulated through over a thousand years of devotional use. When a marsiya is sung in Lisan al-Dawat, the language itself carries the weight of every generation that sang the same words. The language is not merely communicative; it is devotional.
Transmission across diaspora: As Dawoodi Bohras have spread globally — to East Africa, the Gulf, Europe, North America, Australia — Lisan al-Dawat has maintained its function as the community’s unifying language. A Bohra from Mumbai and a Bohra from Nairobi can pray and mourn together in Lisan al-Dawat even if they share no other common language.
See also: Tayyibi Dawat, Dai Al Mutlaq Institution, Understanding Walayah, Barakah And Tabarruk
See also: Tayyibi Dawat, Dai Al Mutlaq Institution, Fatimid Caliphate, Qadi Al Numan, Majalis Al Hikmah, Muharram Ashura, Understanding Walayah, Barakah And Tabarruk