Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA)

The Unbroken Chain: Understanding the Dais al-Mutlaqeen

Before we speak of the 35th Dai, we must understand the extraordinary institution to which he belonged — and the centuries of trial, martyrdom, scholarship, and spiritual custody that preceded his tenure. The Dai al-Mutlaq (الدَّاعِي المُطلَق — the Absolute Representative) is not merely a community leader. He is the vicegerent of the hidden Imam, al-Imam al-Tayyib (SA), who entered the occultation (satr) in Yemen in 524 AH / 1130 CE, and whose spiritual authority over the Fatimid dawat has continued unbroken through the line of Dais from that day until the present.

The Imam al-Tayyib (SA) is the son of al-Imam al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah (SA), the twenty-first Imam and the last Fatimid Imam to rule openly in Cairo. When al-Imam al-Amir was assassinated in 524 AH, his infant son al-Tayyib — born mere months before — was placed in the protection of al-Hurra al-Malika Arwa bint Ahmad al-Sulayhi (RA), the regent-queen of Yemen, who became the first Dai al-Mutlaq in the new era of occultation. She received the nass (designation) from the Imam himself through his hujja, and thus began the unbroken chain of thirty-five Dais that we trace here, each receiving the nass from his predecessor, each holding the spiritual keys of the Imamate in trust for the community and for the day the Imam will return.

The hidden Imam is not absent — he is in satr. This distinction is theological and essential. The Imam is alive, connected to the dawat through the Dai, receiving the salutations and love of the mumineen, and spiritually present in the hearts of the community. The Dai is his bab (gate), his voice, his hand, his representative in the world. To love and obey the Dai is to love and obey the Imam; to receive the Dai’s barakat is to receive the Imam’s barakat. This is not metaphor — it is Ismaili theology, grounded in the continuous ta’wil (inner interpretation) of revelation that has defined the Fatimid tradition since its founding.

With this context established — the cosmic weight of the office, the spiritual stakes of each succession, the centuries of accumulated trust — we can understand why the story of the 35th Dai is not merely biographical. It is a chapter in the ongoing story of a community keeping its covenant with its hidden Imam.

The Foundation: A Century of Dais in India

To fully appreciate Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA), we must trace the remarkable journey that brought the center of the dawat from Yemen to the Indian subcontinent — a journey spanning centuries, rooted in the commercial and spiritual networks of the Indian Ocean world.

The Dawat Comes to India

The first Dais were Yemeni. The dawat was rooted in the mountains and ports of the Yemen highlands, in Haraz and Shiham, in the cities of Aden and Sana’a. The Fatimid da’wa had penetrated Yemen deeply during the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt, and after Cairo fell to Saladin in 567 AH / 1171 CE, it was Yemen that preserved the flame.

But the mumineen of India — drawn from the trading communities of Gujarat, particularly the Bohra merchants — had been in contact with the Yemeni dawat since at least the 6th century AH. The word Bohra itself is derived from the Gujarati vohrvu (to trade, to do business), reflecting the mercantile identity that has always characterized this community. These merchants, traveling the trade routes of the Indian Ocean, encountered the Fatimid da’wa and embraced it — and over generations, they formed a community in India that was distinctly Indian in culture yet Fatimid in faith.

By the time of the 18th Dai, Syedna Yusuf Najmuddin II (RA), the India connection had become so significant that the dawat began sending permanent representatives. The 19th Dai, Syedna Idris Imadaddin (RA), sent his emissary Syedna Jalal to India permanently. The 21st Dai, Syedna Ismail bin Badruddin (RA), established the first permanent Indian da’i (local representative). And then the pivotal moment: the 24th Dai, Syedna Yusuf Najmuddin III (RA), shifted the very seat of the dawat from Yemen to India — a moment of epochal significance, reflecting both the growth of the Indian community and the increasing difficulty of operating from Yemen.

The dawat’s Indian home became Ahmedabad, then Surat, then various centers across Gujarat and beyond — following the rhythm of Mughal politics, trade routes, and community safety. The Dais who led this Indian chapter form a chain of remarkable scholars and spiritual leaders, each responding to the circumstances of their time while maintaining the essential work of the dawat: preserving, transmitting, and embodying the esoteric sciences of the Fatimid tradition.

The Critical Rupture: The 27th Dai and the Dawoodi-Sulaimani Split

No account of the Dawoodi Bohra tradition can be complete without a full treatment of the crisis that defined its identity: the succession dispute after the 26th Dai, and the emergence of the name Dawoodi.

Syedna Dawood bin Ajabshah (RA) was the 26th Dai al-Mutlaq. He served from approximately 974 AH / 1567 CE until his wafat in 997 AH / 1589 CE, and he was one of the great Dais of the Indian era — a scholar, a spiritual guide, and a leader whose towering authority commanded the loyalty of the entire community. When the time came for him to designate his successor, he performed the nass on Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din ibn Qutubshah (RA) — a scholar of deep learning and unimpeachable character who had served the dawat faithfully.

When the 26th Dai passed away and the nass became public, a competing claim arose. Sulayman ibn Hasan — a son of the dawat who had his own following — put himself forward as the true successor, claiming that the nass had been performed on him, not on Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din. This was a crisis of the first order: the succession of the Dai is not an administrative matter but a spiritual designation, and the question of who holds the office determines who holds the keys of the Imam’s barakat for the community.

Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din (RA) — the 27th Dai al-Mutlaq — prevailed. The overwhelming majority of the community accepted his nass as authentic, recognized his scholarship and character, and rallied to him. His tenure, from 997 AH / 1589 CE to 1021 AH / 1612 CE, was a period of consolidation, learning, and the firm establishment of the community’s identity.

The minority who followed Sulayman ibn Hasan became known as Sulaymanis — a community that continues to this day, smaller in number, with their own line of Dais. The majority, who followed Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din, came to be known as Dawoodi Bohras — named after him, in honor of the Dai whose legitimate succession they had recognized and whose authority they had accepted.

This is a name of love and loyalty. When a Dawoodi Bohra says “Dawoodi,” they are saying: “We are the community that stood with Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din. We are the community of the authentic succession. We are those who recognized the true Dai.” The name carries within it the memory of a crisis successfully navigated, a community that chose correctly at a moment of maximum difficulty.

Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din (RA) himself was a scholar of extraordinary breadth. He wrote extensively in Arabic, composed qasidas in praise of the Imams and Dais, maintained the dawat’s educational institutions, and guided the community through the complex politics of Mughal India under Akbar — a relatively tolerant emperor who showed curiosity about the diverse religious communities of his realm. His mazaar is in Ahmedabad, and his urs is observed with great reverence by the entire Dawoodi Bohra community. He is the namesake and, in a profound sense, the defining figure of the community — the Dai whose succession gave the Dawoodi Bohras their name and their identity.

The 28th through 31st Dais: Building the Tradition in India

After the 27th Dai came a sequence of remarkable figures who deepened the Fatimid tradition in the Indian context:

The 28th Dai, Syedna Shaikh Adam Safiuddin (RA) — a scholar and guide who served from 1021 AH to 1030 AH. His short tenure was nonetheless significant for the transmission of learning.

The 29th Dai, Syedna Abdul Tayyib Zakiuddin I (RA) — who bears the same name as our subject, the 35th Dai. He served from 1030 AH to 1041 AH. This first Zakiuddin was a figure of deep learning, and his scholarly legacy was a foundation for what followed.

The 30th Dai, Syedna Ali Shamsuddin (RA) — who served from 1041 AH to 1046 AH, a brief but significant tenure.

The 31st Dai, Syedna Qutbuddin Shaheed (RA) — and here we reach a figure whose story demands full treatment, because it illuminates the world into which the 32nd through 35th Dais were born and in which they served.

The 32nd Dai: Syedna Qutbuddin al-Shaheed (RA) — Martyrdom and Its Meaning

The Oppressor and His Demands

Syedna Qutbuddin Sulayman ibn Ibrahim al-Shaheed (RA) was the 32nd Dai al-Mutlaq, serving from 1056 AH / 1646 CE until his martyrdom in 1056 AH / 1646 CE — or by some accounts in the same year he became Dai, in the tumult of persecution. The circumstances of his martyrdom are among the most tragic and theologically significant in Dawoodi Bohra history.

The political context was the later years of Shah Jahan’s reign, moving into the brutal war of succession between his sons. The period saw intensifying pressure on non-Sunni communities. The Mughal provincial administration in Gujarat had, under certain governors, developed a particular animus toward the Ismaili Shia community. The Bohras were prosperous merchants, their wealth visible in their neighborhoods, their mosques, their community institutions. This prosperity made them targets.

The specific oppressor in the narrative of Syedna Qutbuddin al-Shaheed’s martyrdom is identified in Dawat tradition as a Mughal official who demanded that the Dai submit to Sunni authority, recant the principles of the Ismaili faith, and effectively dissolve the dawat’s independence. The demand was not merely political but theological: it sought to force the Dai to acknowledge the spiritual primacy of the Sunni caliphate and to deny the legitimacy of the Fatimid Imamate.

This was a demand the Dai could not accept. The entire foundation of the dawat — its reason for existence, its covenant with the hidden Imam, its responsibility to the mumineen who looked to the Dai as their spiritual axis — rested on the truth of the Fatimid Imamate. To deny it was not a political compromise; it was spiritual annihilation.

The Choice and the Sacrifice

Syedna Qutbuddin al-Shaheed (RA) chose death over denial. He refused to recant, refused to submit, and accepted the consequences with the courage and tranquility that the Dawat tradition ascribes to the shaheed (martyr). His martyrdom — in Ahmedabad, in the circumstances of Mughal persecution — was received by the community as a tragedy of the highest spiritual order.

In Ismaili theology, the martyr holds a particular place. The shahada (martyrdom) is not merely heroic death — it is a spiritual act of the highest significance, a reaffirmation of truth with one’s life. The Imam al-Husayn’s (SA) martyrdom at Karbala is the supreme instance, the archetype that all subsequent martyrdoms reflect. When a Dai gives his life for the faith, he follows in the footsteps of Karbala — he says, as Imam Husayn (SA) said on the plain of Karbala: “I will not give you what you demand, even at the cost of my life.”

The theological significance of al-Shaheed’s martyrdom is thus immense. It confirmed the truth of the dawat’s position — because if the claim were false, why would a man die for it? It deepened the community’s commitment — because the blood of the Dai consecrated the faith. And it established a memory that would sustain the community through the subsequent decades of persecution under Aurangzeb.

The title al-Shaheed — the Martyr — is itself a designation of honor. Of all the Dais in the long chain, only one bears this title, and it marks him as singular: the Dai who gave his life rather than deny the truth of the Imam’s authority.

The Aftermath: Persecution and Dispersal

The martyrdom of the 32nd Dai did not end the persecution — it intensified it. The Bohra community in Gujarat faced harassment, property seizures, and the constant threat of violence. The dawat’s center had to be moved repeatedly. The community practiced its faith under conditions of fear and discretion that would have broken a less deeply rooted tradition.

It was in this context that the 33rd Dai, Syedna Feer Khan Shujauddin (RA), led the community. His tenure was a period of survival and regrouping — maintaining the dawat’s essential functions while managing the political reality of Mughal persecution. He is remembered as a Dai of patience and resilience, who kept the community together through extraordinary difficulty.

And it was in this context that the 34th Dai, Syedna Ismail Badruddin I (RA) — the father of our subject — made the fateful decision to relocate the dawat’s center to Jamnagar, in the Kathiawar Peninsula of what is now Gujarat.

Syedna Ismail Badruddin I (RA): The 34th Dai and Father of the 35th

Syedna Ismail ibn Musa Kalimuddin Badruddin I (RA) became the 34th Dai al-Mutlaq in approximately 1065 AH / 1655 CE and served until 1085 AH / 1676 CE — a tenure of two decades during which he accomplished one of the most consequential strategic decisions in the dawat’s Indian history: the relocation to Jamnagar.

Why Jamnagar?

Jamnagar — known in earlier centuries as Navanagar — was the capital of a small but significant princely state on the Kathiawar coast of Gujarat. The ruling Jadeja Rajput dynasty had a tradition of relative tolerance toward diverse religious communities. The city’s position on the coast made it a hub of the Arabian Sea trade, naturally attractive to Bohra merchants. And crucially, its distance from the directly-administered Mughal territories gave it a buffer of political independence that the major Mughal cities like Ahmedabad and Surat no longer offered.

The decision to make Jamnagar the dawat’s center was not merely pragmatic — it was a spiritual relocation of the dawat’s heart. The Dai’s residence is the markaz (center) of the dawat; where the Dai is, there is the spiritual axis around which the community orbits. To move from Ahmedabad to Jamnagar was to establish a new center, in a place of relative safety, where the institutions of the dawat could function with less fear.

Syedna Ismail Badruddin I (RA) spent his twenty-year tenure building those institutions in Jamnagar — the educational systems, the libraries, the networks of scholars, the community infrastructure. He was a scholar of considerable learning himself, and he understood that the dawat’s survival in the long term depended not merely on political safety but on the transmission of knowledge: the ‘ilm (knowledge) of the Imams, passed from Dai to Dai, student to teacher, generation to generation.

His scholarly contributions included works in Arabic on the esoteric sciences of the Fatimid tradition, as well as qasidas and na’ts in praise of the Prophets and Imams that were sung in the dawat’s majalis. He maintained correspondence with the scholars of Yemen — because even though the dawat had moved to India, its intellectual roots remained in the Yemeni Fatimid tradition.

The Nass on His Son

When Syedna Ismail Badruddin I (RA) recognized in his son Abduttayyeb the qualities required for the highest office — the ‘ilm, the taqwa (God-consciousness), the ‘aql (wisdom), the shaja’at (courage), the rahma (compassion) — he performed the nass on him with full deliberateness. The words preserved in Dawat tradition capture the weight of the moment:

“مَولَايَ وَلَدِي وَوَصِيِّي وَخَلِيفَتِي مِن بَعدِي — ابنِي عَبدُ الطَّيِّبِ زَكِيُّ الدِّينِ” (My Master, my son, my successor, and my caliph after me — my son Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin.)

This declaration accomplished what every nass must accomplish: it named the successor with unambiguous clarity, placed the spiritual authority of the Imam’s vicegerency in specific hands, and obligated the community to recognize and obey the designated heir.

Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA): The Man and His Formation

Full Name, Lineage, and Birth

His complete name in the tradition’s honorific form: al-Dai al-Ajal al-Fatimi al-Hamdani Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II ibn Syedna Ismail Badruddin I ibn Syedna Musa Kalimuddin ibn Syedna Feer Khan Shujauddin ibn Syedna Qutbuddin Sulayman al-Shaheed (RA).

He was born in approximately 1038 AH / 1627–1628 CE in India — most likely in Gujarat, where the dawat was centered at the time. His birth came at a moment when the Dawoodi Bohra community was navigating the complex political landscape of Shah Jahan’s early reign, when the Mughal Empire was still at the height of its power and the great persecution of Aurangzeb was still decades away.

He was thus born into the dawat’s innermost family — literally the household of the 32nd Dai (his grandfather’s father), through the chain leading to his own father the 34th Dai. He grew up knowing the dawat not as an institution one joins but as the very air one breathes — the conversations at the family table, the scholars who came to consult with his father, the letters arriving from Yemen and Mecca, the community members who came seeking guidance and blessing.

The Spiritual Formation of a Future Dai

The formation of a Dai al-Mutlaq requires not merely academic learning but a total formation of the person — ‘ilm (knowledge) and ‘amal (practice) united in a single person, theory and praxis integrated, the outer sciences and the inner sciences held in balance.

Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) received this formation under his father’s direct supervision. The sciences he was initiated into included:

The Sciences of the Zahir (Outer):

Tafsir — the interpretation of Quran
Hadith — the traditions of the Prophet (SA)
Fiqh — Islamic jurisprudence according to the Fatimid school
Nahw and Sarf — Arabic grammar and morphology
Mantiq — Logic in the Aristotelian-Islamic tradition
Kalam — Theology and the rational defense of doctrine

The Sciences of the Batin (Inner):

Ta’wil — the esoteric interpretation of Quran and all outward religious forms
‘Ilm al-Haqa’iq — the science of realities, the Ismaili metaphysical system
Risala al-Jami’a of the Ikhwan al-Safa — the encyclopedic synthesis of knowledge
The Fusul al-Mukhtara and other works of the Fatimid period
The complete chain of riwaya (transmission) of the dawat’s texts

He was also formed in the practical arts of the Dai’s work: the conducting of majalis, the waaz (sermon) in the Dawat’s distinctive style — blending Arabic quotation, ta’wil, narrative, and practical guidance; the management of the community’s institutions; the resolution of disputes among the mumineen; and the maintenance of the dawat’s relationship with the scholars of Yemen and with the community’s networks across the Indian Ocean world.

By the time his father passed and the nass became his to bear, Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) was a fully formed scholar and spiritual leader — not a man thrust into office before his time, but a man prepared over decades, ripened by experience and knowledge, ready to carry the weight the office required.

The Dawat in His Time: Historical Context

Aurangzeb’s Reign and the Bohra Community

Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir (r. 1658–1707 CE) was the sixth Mughal emperor and, by most historical assessments, the most religiously conservative of the line. His reign, which spanned nearly half a century, saw the most intense Sunni-ization of Mughal policy: the reimposition of the jizya tax on non-Muslims (abolished by Akbar), the demolition of significant Hindu temples, the restriction of non-Sunni religious expression, and the systematic empowerment of Sunni ‘ulama in the imperial administration.

For the Dawoodi Bohra community, Aurangzeb’s reign was a period of sustained pressure. The community was Ismaili Shia — doubly suspect in Aurangzeb’s worldview, as both Shia and as practitioners of an esoteric tradition that Sunni orthodoxy regarded with deep suspicion. The memory of the martyrdom of the 32nd Dai, which had occurred under the previous reign, was fresh and motivating — the community knew that the worst could happen, had happened, and could happen again.

Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II’s (RA) tenure (1085–1110 AH / 1676–1699 CE) fell almost entirely within Aurangzeb’s reign. The Mughal emperor was at the height of his power during this period, having crushed the Deccan Sultanates and extended Mughal authority further south than any previous emperor. The political environment was one of sustained orthodoxy and restriction.

The Protection of Jamnagar

The strategic brilliance of the relocation to Jamnagar — begun under the 34th Dai — became fully apparent during the 35th Dai’s tenure. Jamnagar’s position within the Kathiawar Peninsula placed it in a zone of overlapping jurisdictions: nominally within the Mughal imperial sphere, but actually governed by the local Jadeja Rajput rulers who maintained a degree of practical independence that the Mughal governors could not fully override.

The Jam Sahib — the ruler of Jamnagar — had historically maintained good relations with the Bohra community, whose merchants were essential to the commercial life of the port. The Bohras brought capital, trade networks, commercial expertise, and connections to the Arabian Sea trade that the local rulers valued. In return, the rulers provided protection — or at least benign neglect — that allowed the community to practice its faith with relative freedom.

This protection was not unconditional or guaranteed. It required constant management: maintaining good relationships with the local court, demonstrating the community’s contribution to the local economy, avoiding actions that might embarrass the local ruler in front of Mughal authorities. The Dai was not only a spiritual leader but a community diplomat, managing the delicate balance between Mughal pressure and local protection.

The Commercial World of Late Mughal Gujarat

Gujarat in the late 17th century was one of the world’s great commercial regions. The textile trade — Gujarat’s cotton and silk fabrics were among the most sought-after goods in the Indian Ocean trade — was the foundation of enormous wealth. The major commercial cities — Surat, Ahmedabad, Cambay (Khambhat), Broach (Bharuch) — were among the most active trading centers in Asia.

The Bohra community was deeply embedded in this commercial world. Bohra merchants were active in:

Surat — the Mughal Empire’s premier port, through which the hajj ships sailed and the bulk of India’s foreign trade passed
Ahmedabad — the commercial and administrative capital of Gujarat, center of the textile trade
Cambay — ancient port city, declining but still significant
Burhanpur — inland trading city in the Deccan corridor, important junction for overland and river trade
Aurangabad — new Mughal city in the Deccan, attracting merchants from across the empire
Ports of the Kathiawar coast — Jamnagar, Veraval, Porbandar, Diu (under Portuguese control)

Beyond India, Bohra merchants were active in:

Aden and Mukha (Mocha) — the ports of Yemen, gateway to the Red Sea and the Hijaz
Muscat and Hormuz — Persian Gulf trade
Basra — gateway to Iraq and Persia
Malabar coast — connecting to the spice trade of Kerala
East Africa — Mombasa, Zanzibar, Mozambique
Malay Archipelago — early presence in Southeast Asian ports

This commercial network was not merely economic — it was also the communication infrastructure of the dawat. Merchants traveling between Jamnagar and Surat, between Gujarat and Yemen, carried letters, books, and messages that maintained the dawat’s connections across distances that, in the 17th century, could take months to traverse.

The 35th Dai understood this deeply. The merchants who sailed from Jamnagar’s harbor were not only traders — they were the dawat’s nervous system, the people who maintained the flow of information and scholarship that kept the community coherent across its wide geographic spread.

The Question of Jizya and Community Life

Aurangzeb’s reimposition of the jizya in 1679 CE — within the tenure of the 35th Dai — created direct economic pressure on the Bohra community. As Ismaili Shia, the Bohras were classified as a non-Sunni Muslim community in the eyes of Mughal orthodoxy; their exact status under the jizya was legally contested, but the practical reality was harassment and additional financial burden.

The 35th Dai’s response to this pressure — preserved in tradition as wisdom and patience — was to counsel the community to pay what was required without compromising their faith, to maintain the outer observances of their commercial and civic life while deepening the inner life of the dawat. This is the classic posture of taqiyya (prudent concealment of faith under threat) that the Fatimid tradition had developed over centuries of operating under hostile political conditions: the inner reality of faith is preserved intact, while the outer presentation of the community adapts to the political environment.

This is not cowardice or hypocrisy — it is an ancient and theologically sophisticated strategy for survival. The Prophet’s (SA) family had practiced it under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. The Fatimid Imams had practiced it before and after the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt. The Dais in India practiced it under Mughal and later British rule. The outer form accommodates to power; the inner reality remains inviolate.

The 35th Dai’s Scholarly and Institutional Work

The Transmission of the Fatimid Sciences

The primary responsibility of the Dai is the preservation and transmission of the ‘ilm — the sacred knowledge of the Fatimid tradition. This knowledge is not merely academic; it is the spiritual inheritance of the Imam, passed from the Prophet (SA) through the Imams to the Dais, held in trust for the community.

The corpus of texts that the 35th Dai was responsible for included:

The Great Foundational Texts:

Kitab al-Majalis wa al-Musayarat of al-Qadi al-Nu’man (d. 974 CE) — the great compendium of the Fatimid Imam al-Mu’izz’s teachings
Da’a’im al-Islam of al-Qadi al-Nu’man — the foundational text of Fatimid jurisprudence
Asas al-Ta’wil — al-Nu’man’s work on esoteric interpretation
Ithbat al-Imamat — the proof of the Imamate
Risala al-Jami’a — attributed to the Ikhwan al-Safa’, the encyclopedic synthesis of Neoplatonic and Islamic knowledge
Works of Syedna al-Muayyad fi’l-Din al-Shirazi (d. 1078 CE) — particularly his Majalis, the greatest work of Ismaili esoteric theology

The Indian Dawoodi Tradition:

Qasidas and na’ts in Arabic and Lisanu-l-Dawat (the Dawat’s distinctive language, a form of Gujarati with Arabic, Persian, and Yemeni elements) composed by previous Dais
Works of the great early Dais in India: the 23rd Dai Syedna Mohammed Izzuddin, the 24th Dai Syedna Yusuf Najmuddin III, the 27th Dai Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din

The 35th Dai’s work of transmission involved not only preserving these texts in the dawat’s libraries but also forming scholars capable of reading, understanding, and transmitting them. The ijaza (license to transmit) was given to those who had completed their formation in the dawat’s sciences, and the 35th Dai’s tenure produced a generation of scholars who would carry these sciences forward.

His Own Scholarly Compositions

Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) was himself a scholar and composer, not merely a custodian of others’ work. His compositions included:

Arabic Qasidas and Na’ts in praise of:

The Prophet Muhammad (SA) — the na’t in the Fatimid tradition is a complex literary form that simultaneously praises the Prophet and encodes esoteric teachings
The Imam Ali (SA) and the Ahl al-Bayt — following the Shia tradition of devotional poetry
The hidden Imam al-Tayyib (SA) — reaffirming the community’s allegiance to its absent Imam
Previous Dais — particularly the martyred 32nd Dai, whose memory the community honored

Works in Lisanu-l-Dawat — the distinctive dialect that served as the community’s lingua franca, allowing teaching and preaching to reach those who did not have access to Arabic scholarship. The 35th Dai’s compositions in Lisanu-l-Dawat were an important part of the dawat’s popular religious culture — the songs sung at urus celebrations, the prayers recited at majalis.

Epistles to the Community — the ruqaat and risalaat (letters and treatises) that the Dai sent to the community’s ‘amils (local representatives) across Gujarat and beyond, maintaining the dawat’s administrative coherence and providing guidance on matters of practice and theology.

The Majalis and Waaz Tradition

The waaz (sermon) is the Dai’s primary instrument of spiritual formation. In the Dawoodi Bohra tradition, the waaz is not merely a homily or a legal opinion — it is an occasion of full spiritual nourishment, weaving together Quran, hadith, ta’wil, narrative, poetry, and practical guidance in a distinctive form that has developed over centuries.

The 35th Dai’s waazaat were occasions of profound spiritual intensity. He spoke in the tradition of the great Dais before him — dense with Arabic quotation, rich with ta’wil that opened the inner meanings of Quranic verses, alive with narrative (the qissa of the Prophets and Imams, the stories that encode theological teaching in memorable form).

The majlis in the Bohra tradition is also a communal gathering — the community assembled before the Dai, sharing the space of his spiritual presence, receiving his barakat not only through his words but through the act of being in his presence. The theology of the majlis is the theology of the Imam’s presence: just as the Imam’s presence was the direct channel of divine fayd (grace) for the faithful, so the Dai’s presence is that channel in the Imam’s absence.

The Mumineen: Community Life Under the 35th Dai

The Dawoodi Bohra community in the late 17th century was a tightly organized social unit with the Dai at its head. The structure below the Dai included:

Mazoon — the Dai’s deputy, second in the dawat’s hierarchy
Mukasir — the third rank, below the Mazoon
‘Amil (or local sheikh) — the Dai’s representative in each major city and town, responsible for the community’s religious life locally
Mumin — the community member, whose covenant (mithaq) with the Imam/Dai is renewed periodically in a formal ceremony

The ‘amils under the 35th Dai were established in the major centers of Bohra population:

Surat — the largest and most commercially significant community
Ahmedabad — the old center, still important despite the relocation to Jamnagar
Burhanpur — significant community in the Deccan corridor
Broach — port city with important Bohra presence
Cambay — declining but historically significant
Various smaller towns across Gujarat

The ‘amil was not merely an administrator — he was the daily face of the dawat in his community, the one who conducted the prayers, led the majalis, resolved disputes according to dawat principles, and maintained the community’s connection to the Dai in Jamnagar. The quality of the ‘amils was thus crucial to the dawat’s health, and the 35th Dai invested significant attention in their selection and formation.

The Role of Women in the Community

The Dawoodi Bohra tradition, rooted in the Fatimid heritage, has always accorded significant spiritual dignity to women. Sayyida Fatima al-Zahra (SA) — daughter of the Prophet, wife of Imam Ali, mother of the Imams — is the supreme spiritual archetype for the community’s women. al-Hurra al-Malika Arwa al-Sulayhi, the first Dai al-Mutlaq, was herself a woman — a fact of extraordinary significance that the community does not forget.

In the 35th Dai’s time, women of the community were full participants in the dawat’s spiritual life: attending the majalis (in the separate women’s section), observing the fasts and prayers, sending their sons to be educated in the dawat’s institutions, and managing the domestic economics of households that were often also commercial enterprises.

The niyaz (religious offering) traditions of the community — food prepared for the urus of Dais, for Ashura, for the Prophet’s birthday, for the various mawasim (seasonal religious occasions) — were managed primarily by women, whose skill in these preparations was itself a form of religious service.

The Mithaq: Covenant and Community

The mithaq — the covenant — is the central act of belonging in the Dawoodi Bohra tradition. Every Bohra reaches an age at which they take the mithaq formally, pledging loyalty to the Imam through the Dai, committing to the dawat’s principles, and receiving in return the barakat of the Imam’s spiritual care.

In the 35th Dai’s era, the renewal of the mithaq was a moment of community-wide spiritual reaffirmation. When the Dai visited a city, or when the community gathered for a major occasion, the mithaq ceremony was a powerful collective act — the entire community declaring, in unison, their loyalty to the chain of Prophecy, Imamate, and Dawat that extended from Adam to the present moment.

The theology of the mithaq is the theology of the nasab — the spiritual lineage that connects every mumin to the Imam, through the Dai, through the chain of walaya (love and loyalty) that has never broken. The 35th Dai’s role in this theology was precise: he was the current link in an unbroken chain, the living representative through whom the community’s covenant with the Imam was renewed and maintained.

Key Events of His Tenure

The Great Famine of 1696–1697

During the latter years of the 35th Dai’s tenure, Gujarat suffered one of its periodic catastrophic famines. The famines of 17th-century Gujarat were devastatingly severe — the agricultural system of the region, dependent on monsoon rains, was profoundly vulnerable to their failure, and when the monsoon failed, the consequences rippled through the entire society.

The Dai’s response to the famine — recorded in Dawat tradition — exemplifies the ideal of the Dai as the community’s protector and provider. He organized the dawat’s resources to provide for those members of the community who were in need, coordinated the ‘amils across the different cities to ensure distribution of aid, and himself modeled the simplicity and sharing that the occasion required.

This is the practical dimension of the Dai’s spiritual role: the mumineen’s material welfare is not separable from their spiritual welfare. The Imam’s vicegerent cares for the community in all dimensions — and in a famine, the most pressing spiritual act is ensuring that people are fed.

The Deccan Wars and Their Impact on Trade

Aurangzeb’s long campaigns in the Deccan — the final conquest of Bijapur (1686) and Golconda (1687) and the subsequent decades of guerrilla war with the Marathas — had profound effects on the commercial life of the region. The trade routes through the Deccan were disrupted; the cities of Burhanpur and Aurangabad, important to the Bohra merchant networks, were drawn into the zone of military conflict.

The 35th Dai managed the community through this commercial disruption with the same combination of practical guidance and spiritual counsel that characterized his tenure. Letters to the ‘amils in the affected cities provided guidance on maintaining community life in conditions of disruption; merchants were counseled on the spiritual dimensions of commercial setbacks; the dawat’s network was maintained through the disruption.

Scholars and Scholars’ Disputes

The transmission of the dawat’s sciences was not always peaceful. Within any scholarly community, questions of interpretation, precedence, and authority arise — and the dawat’s scholarly community in the late 17th century was no exception. The 35th Dai’s role as the final arbiter of scholarly disputes was an important dimension of his authority.

When questions arose about the correct interpretation of a point of ta’wil, or the proper application of Fatimid fiqh to a new commercial situation, or the precedence of different transmitted texts, the Dai’s word was final. This authority — the authority of the living link in the chain of ‘ilm — was not merely academic but existential: the community’s coherence depended on having a single authoritative voice that could resolve disputes without fracturing the community.

The 35th Dai’s scholarly decisions — preserved in the dawat’s tradition of masail (responsa) — show a mind both deeply rooted in the tradition and capable of applying it to new situations. The scholarly tradition that he maintained and deepened would prove essential to the dawat’s survival and growth in the decades after his wafat.

The Mojezat: Miracles of Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA)

The karamat and mojezat (miracles and wonders) attributed to the Dais al-Mutlaqeen are not mere folklore — they are, in the Ismaili theological understanding, manifestations of the Imam’s spiritual power working through his vicegerent. The Dai who holds the Imam’s designation holds also the Imam’s walaya — and walaya, in its fullness, transcends ordinary human capacity.

The Du’a That Turned the Rain

Dawat tradition preserves an account of a drought in the Jamnagar region during the 35th Dai’s tenure. The farms around the city had dried; the cisterns were emptying; the community feared both thirst and hunger. A delegation of mumineen came to Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) and asked for his du’a (prayer) that rain would come.

The Dai made du’a — a long and earnest supplication in the language of the dawat’s prayer tradition, invoking the names of the Imams, the barakat of the Prophet (SA), the intercession of Syedna Ali (SA). Before the gathering had dispersed, clouds gathered over Jamnagar from a clear sky, and rain fell — sufficient to fill the cisterns and relieve the drought.

The theological reading of this account is important: the rain did not come because of the Dai’s personal virtue (though virtue was present) but because of the Imam’s walaya operating through him. The du’a was not magic — it was the actualization of the covenant between the community, the Dai, the Imam, and the divine: “Call upon Me and I will answer you” (Quran 40:60). The Dai’s call, amplified by the chain of walaya, was answered.

The Healing of the Merchant’s Son

A wealthy Bohra merchant of Surat sent word to Jamnagar that his son had fallen gravely ill — with a fever that the physicians could not break, that had persisted for weeks and was feared to be fatal. The merchant sent the child’s kafan cloth (burial shroud) with the messenger, asking the Dai to prepare for the worst and to pray for the child’s soul.

Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) received the messenger and the kafan. He held the cloth in his hands and made du’a — a long prayer in which he invoked the healing power of the Prophet (SA) and the Imams. Then he returned the kafan to the messenger with the instruction: “Tell the merchant his son will not need this cloth today. He will recover.”

The messenger returned to Surat to find the child’s fever had broken — at the very time, as best as could be reckoned across the distance, that the Dai had made his du’a. The child recovered fully, and the merchant came to Jamnagar to give shukr (gratitude) to the Dai and to renew his mithaq.

The Conversion of the Hostile Governor

During the years of Aurangzeb’s most aggressive policy toward non-Sunni communities, a provincial governor of Gujarat was assigned the task of investigating the Bohra community and reporting on whether they should be subject to additional restrictions. This official — identified in tradition as hostile to the community’s interests — arrived in Jamnagar with evident intent to create difficulty.

The 35th Dai received him with full courtesy and dignity — neither servile nor defiant, but with the composure of a man who serves a higher authority than any Mughal governor. The meeting, which the tradition records as lasting several hours, ended with the official departing in a state of visible change — not converted to the dawat’s faith, but profoundly impressed, unable to act against a community whose leader had spoken to him with such clarity, knowledge, and spiritual authority.

The report sent to Aurangzeb’s court was not hostile. The community was allowed to continue its life in Jamnagar without the additional burdens the investigation had threatened. The tradition reads this as a mojez of the 35th Dai — his spiritual authority protecting the community as surely as any political intervention could have.

The Book That Would Not Burn

During a period of heightened danger — when Mughal officials were known to have destroyed libraries of Shia and Ismaili texts in other cities — a messenger came to the 35th Dai warning that soldiers had been dispatched to search the dawat’s library in Jamnagar. The scholarly advisors urged immediate dispersal of the most sensitive texts to hidden locations.

The Dai’s response, preserved in tradition: he took the most precious of the dawat’s manuscripts — the ones that could not be replaced, the texts that held the chain of ‘ilm — and placed them in a specific room. He then recited certain prayers over the room, invoking the barakat of the Imam’s ‘ilm to protect what was within. When the soldiers arrived and searched the building, they found the room but could not open the door — or, in some versions of the account, found the room empty despite the books being within, their eyes passing over what their hands could have touched.

Whatever the exact details, the tradition’s point is theological: the ‘ilm of the Imam cannot be destroyed by any worldly power. It is protected by a power greater than swords.

The Spiritual Significance of This Era in the Dawat’s History

Three Generations of Jamnagar

The tenure of Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) was the second generation of the dawat’s residence in Jamnagar — establishing it as not merely a temporary refuge but a genuine home. His father had relocated there; he deepened the roots; his son would continue the work. Three generations of Dais in the same city gave Jamnagar a place in the Bohra spiritual geography that it retains to this day.

The mazaarat (sacred shrines) of Jamnagar — the burial places of the 34th and 35th Dais — are among the most important sites of ziyarat for the Dawoodi Bohra community. To visit the mazaar of the 35th Dai in Jamnagar is to visit a place consecrated by his presence, his prayers, his decades of service to the hidden Imam in this corner of India. The earth of Jamnagar carries the barakat of the Dais who lived and died there.

The Hidden Imam and His Representative

In the Ismaili theological system, the satr (occultation) of the Imam is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be inhabited — a spiritual condition that the community has lived in for six centuries and will continue to live in until the Imam’s return. The Dai is the community’s anchor in this condition: the living presence of the Imam’s authority, the renewer of the covenant, the teacher of the ‘ilm.

Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) understood his role in this theological context with full depth. The letters and works attributed to him show a man who prayed for the Imam’s return, who maintained the community’s longing for the Imam alive, who understood his own office not as an end in itself but as a service to the hidden Imam — a service that would continue until the Imam emerged from his occultation.

The community under his guidance was taught to hold two things simultaneously: the deep grief of the Imam’s absence (a grief analogous to the grief of Karbala, which is also the grief of all Islamic history for the Prophet’s family who suffered at the hands of worldly power) and the joyful certainty of the Imam’s spiritual presence through the Dai. These two things — grief and joy, absence and presence — are held in balance in the Bohra spiritual life, and the Dai’s own embodiment of this balance was the community’s model.

The Succession: Choosing His Son

When Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) came to the moment of performing the nass — the great act of spiritual designation that is the Dai’s most consequential responsibility — he designated his son Syedna Musa Kalimuddin (RA) as the 36th Dai al-Mutlaq.

This was the third consecutive nass within the same family line in Jamnagar — the 34th Dai had designated the 35th, the 35th designated the 36th. This continuity is not without precedent in the dawat’s history, and it is not “hereditary” in the dynastic sense — each nass is a fresh spiritual act of designation, performed on the basis of the candidate’s qualities, not merely his lineage. But the family pattern in Jamnagar reflects a community that had found in this family the qualities it needed for this era: deep learning, political steadiness, pastoral care, and the spiritual authority to bear the Imam’s walaya in difficult times.

The nass on Syedna Musa Kalimuddin (RA) was performed with the full deliberateness that the tradition requires — in the presence of witnesses, with the words of designation spoken clearly, with the implications for the community’s obligation of obedience made explicit. The 35th Dai left the community not only with the inheritance of his own service but with a clearly designated successor, ensuring that the chain of the Imam’s authority would continue unbroken.

The Bohra Trading Towns: The Community’s Material Life

Surat: The Gateway to Mecca

Surat — Suryapur in Sanskrit, the city of the sun — was the most important port city in the Mughal Empire and, for much of the 17th century, one of the busiest ports in the world. The great trade routes of the Indian Ocean converged on Surat: the textiles of Gujarat going out, the silver of the New World (via the Portuguese and Dutch) and the spices of the East coming in, the hajj ships departing annually for Jeddah carrying pilgrims from across the subcontinent.

The Bohra community in Surat was among the most commercially significant in the city. Bohra merchants were active in the Arabian Sea trade — with strong connections to Aden, Muscat, and the Persian Gulf — and in the internal trade of Gujarat. Their mohalla (neighborhood) in Surat was a center of community life: the masjid, the madrasa, the communal spaces where the dawat’s life was lived.

In the 35th Dai’s era, the ‘amil of Surat was one of the most important figures in the dawat’s administrative structure — responsible for a large and prosperous community, managing the complex relationship between commercial success and spiritual commitment that characterized Bohra life in the major trading cities.

The Surat riots of 1668 — a major communal disturbance in which Bohra property was targeted — occurred before the 35th Dai’s tenure, during his father’s time. But the community that had survived that violence was the community he led — shaped by the experience of vulnerability and the need for both commercial resilience and spiritual depth.

Ahmedabad: The Old Capital

Ahmedabad — founded in 1411 CE by the Muzaffarid Sultan Ahmad Shah, named after the Prophet Ahmad (SA) — had been the Dawoodi Bohra community’s spiritual center for much of the early Indian period. The mazaar of the 27th Dai Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din was in Ahmedabad; the mazaarat of several other early Dais were there; the community had deep roots in the city’s religious and commercial life.

Under Aurangzeb, Ahmedabad faced increased Mughal administrative control and the active presence of the emperor’s religious policies. The Bohras of Ahmedabad navigated this environment with the combination of commercial activity and religious discretion that characterized the community in this era.

The 35th Dai maintained close connection with the Ahmedabad community despite his residence in Jamnagar — the ‘amil of Ahmedabad reported to Jamnagar regularly, and the flow of scholars, merchants, and community members between the two cities maintained the connection.

Burhanpur: The Deccan Crossroads

Burhanpur — city of the Burhan Shah sultans of Khandesh, gateway between the Mughal north and the Deccan south — was an important center of Bohra commercial activity. The city sat astride the trade routes connecting the Mughal heartland to the Deccan, and Bohra merchants were active in the overland trade that flowed through it.

The Deccan Wars of Aurangzeb’s later reign — the campaigns that ultimately destroyed Bijapur and Golconda and exhausted the Mughal Empire in a generation of guerrilla warfare against the Marathas — passed directly through the territory around Burhanpur. The Bohra community there experienced the commercial disruption and physical danger of proximity to warfare, and the 35th Dai’s guidance to that community was a practical matter of how to maintain spiritual life under conditions of martial disruption.

Jamnagar: The Dawat’s New Heart

Under the 35th Dai, Jamnagar was not merely a refuge but a genuine home — the place where the dawat’s heart beat most strongly, where the Dai’s physical presence concentrated the community’s spiritual life. The city’s harbor connected it to the Arabian Sea trade routes; its position under the Jadeja Rajputs gave it political independence from the Mughal imperial administration; its growing community of Bohra residents made it a place of real commercial significance.

The 35th Dai invested in Jamnagar — in its masjids, its institutions of learning, its community infrastructure. The city carried the marks of his attention and care: the places of prayer, the places of learning, the mazaar where he himself would eventually be buried.

The relationship between the dawat and the Jam Sahib (the Jadeja Rajput ruler of Jamnagar) in this era was one of mutually beneficial respect. The Bohra merchants contributed to the commercial vitality of the port; the ruler provided political protection; the Dai maintained good relations with the court without compromising the community’s religious independence. This balance — the classic posture of a minority community under a more or less benign non-Muslim ruler — was managed with skill and steadiness by the 35th Dai.

The Urs and Its Observance

The Annual Memorial

The urs — the anniversary of the wafat — is among the most sacred occasions in the Dawoodi Bohra calendar. For the 35th Dai, the urs falls on 12 Zil Qa’dah — observed each year with the prayers, recitation, and communal gathering that mark the anniversary of each Dai’s departure from this world.

The theology of the urs is the theology of presence in absence: the Dai is gone from the world, but his ruh (soul) is present with the Imam, and his barakat continues to flow to those who visit his mazaar, recite qasidas in his honor, give sadaqa (charity) in his name, and maintain the covenant of love that the mumineen hold with each of the Dais.

The urs is not mourning in the ordinary sense — though grief is present. It is more accurately a celebration of the Dai’s completion of his service: he lived his life in the Imam’s service, he preserved the dawat, he transmitted the ‘ilm, he cared for the community, and when his time came, he returned to his Lord. The urs celebrates this completion while renewing the community’s connection to the Dai’s lasting spiritual presence.

Ziyarat in Jamnagar

For the Dawoodi Bohra community, ziyarat — the visit to the shrine of a Dai or other sacred figure — is among the most spiritually potent acts available to the mumin. The mazaar of Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) in Jamnagar is a destination of pilgrimage for the community, visited particularly on the occasion of his urs but also throughout the year by those who seek his shafa’at (intercession) and barakat.

The act of ziyarat is understood theologically as a renewal of the covenant: by visiting the mazaar, the mumin affirms their love for the Dai, their recognition of his spiritual authority, and their continuing participation in the chain of walaya that connects every Bohra back through the Dais to the hidden Imam and through the Imam to the Prophet (SA). The ziyarat is not idol worship — it is a visit to one who is alive in the barzakh (the intermediate state), connected to the Imam, capable of intercession for those who love him.

The specific prayers of the ziyarat — the salaam (salutation) recited at the mazaar, the du’a for the Dai’s soul and for the visitor’s needs — are among the most beautiful expressions of the Bohra devotional tradition. They combine theological precision with emotional depth: naming the Dai, recalling his virtues, asking for his intercession, affirming the covenant.

His Wafat and the Succession

Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) passed away on 12 Zil Qa’dah 1110 AH / 1699 CE in Jamnagar — having completed a tenure of twenty-five years (by this reckoning) in the dawat’s service. His wafat came in the final decade of Aurangzeb’s reign — the great emperor himself would die in 1707, and the Mughal Empire would begin its century-long decline. But the dawat would continue.

He was buried in Jamnagar, where his mazaar stands as a place of sacred remembrance for the community. The mazaar of the 35th Dai in Jamnagar is part of the sacred geography of the Kathiawar region — a node in the network of holy sites that the mumineen visit on their ziyarat journeys through Gujarat.

His successor — his son, Syedna Musa Kalimuddin (RA), the 36th Dai al-Mutlaq — received the dawat’s full inheritance: the ‘ilm, the institutions, the community relationships, and the spiritual weight of the Imam’s vicegerency. The Jamnagar era of the dawat would continue.

The Legacy He Left

The legacy of Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) can be understood at multiple levels:

Institutional: He deepened and extended the scholarly and administrative institutions that his father had established in Jamnagar, ensuring that the dawat had a sustainable foundation in its new home.

Scholarly: His own compositions and the scholarly formation he provided to the next generation maintained the vitality of the Fatimid ‘ilm tradition in the Indian context.

Political: He managed the complex politics of late Mughal India with skill and steadiness, maintaining the community’s safety and freedom of practice during one of the most difficult eras of Mughal religious policy.

Spiritual: He sustained the community’s inner life — its majalis, its devotional practices, its covenant with the hidden Imam — through the external pressures of the Aurangzeb era, ensuring that the mumineen emerged from this period with their faith deepened rather than diminished.

Generational: He designated a qualified successor, ensuring the continuity of the chain. The nass on the 36th Dai was his final service to the community — the act of passing the trust to the next in line, with the full authority of the living Dai behind it.

The Dawat in the Larger Islamic World of His Era

The Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Persia

While the Dawoodi Bohra dawat was navigating Mughal India, the broader Islamic world was shaped by two great imperial powers: the Ottoman Empire (Sunni, centered in Istanbul, controlling the Arab heartland including Mecca, Medina, Syria, and Egypt) and Safavid Persia (Twelver Shia, centered in Isfahan, patron of Persian culture and scholarship).

The Dawoodi Bohras — Ismaili, not Twelver — had a complex relationship with both. They were not aligned with the Ottomans (who represented the Sunni caliphate the dawat regarded as having usurped the Imams’ rightful authority) or with the Safavids (whose Twelver theology differed from the Ismaili position on the Imamate). The dawat maintained its independence from both imperial religious spheres, preserving its distinctively Fatimid tradition in the Indian context.

The connection to Yemen — where the early Dais had been based, where the Yemeni Tayyibi community (which had maintained a branch of the dawat in Yemen) still existed — gave the Indian dawat an Arab cultural dimension that marked it off from both Ottoman and Safavid cultural spheres. The Arabic scholarly tradition of the dawat was ultimately Yemeni Fatimid in origin, not Ottoman Sunni or Safavid Persian.

The Mughal Empire’s Religious Complexity

The Mughal Empire was far more religiously diverse than Aurangzeb’s reign might suggest. Akbar’s famous Din-i-Ilahi experiment, his construction of the Ibadat Khana (House of Worship) where scholars of different faiths debated — these were expressions of a Mughal imperial ideology that, for a period, genuinely engaged with religious diversity. Even under Aurangzeb, the Mughal court included Hindu nobles, Shia advisors (the Deccan Shia traditions were significant), and Sufi figures of various orders.

The Dawoodi Bohra community existed in this complexity — not fully assimilated into any of the Mughal religious identities, but connected to the commercial and administrative life of the empire through their trade networks. The 35th Dai’s management of the community’s position in this complex environment was a sophisticated act of political and spiritual navigation.

The East India Companies’ Arrival

The period of the 35th Dai’s tenure also saw the consolidation of European trading companies in Indian ports — the English East India Company (founded 1600), the Dutch East India Company (VOC, founded 1602), and the French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales, founded 1664) were all active in Surat and along the Gujarat coast by the 1680s.

The Bohra merchants — active in the same trading networks as these European companies — had commercial interactions with the Europeans well before the British colonial era. The Europeans, for their part, noted the Bohras as skilled traders with extensive networks. The Mughal-British confrontation of 1686–1690 (the “Child’s War,” in which the English attempted to pressure the Mughal Empire into trade concessions and were humiliatingly expelled from Surat) was a significant event of the 35th Dai’s tenure — demonstrating that the Mughal Empire was still powerful enough to expel European pressure, at least for another generation.

The 35th Dai’s era thus stands at the hinge between two periods of Indian history: the height of Mughal power under Aurangzeb, and the beginning of the European colonial era that would follow. The dawat would navigate both transitions.

His Position in the Chain of Dais

To understand the significance of Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) fully, it helps to see his position in the complete chain of those who preceded and followed him:

Preceding Him (Selected):

26th Dai: Syedna Dawood ibn Ajabshah (RA) — the great Dai in whose succession the community’s name was settled
27th Dai: Syedna Dawood Burhan al-Din (RA) — he who gave the community its name “Dawoodi”
28th Dai: Syedna Shaikh Adam Safiuddin (RA)
29th Dai: Syedna Abdul Tayyib Zakiuddin I (RA) — the first bearer of this name
30th Dai: Syedna Ali Shamsuddin (RA)
31st Dai: Syedna Qutbuddin Sulayman al-Shaheed (RA) — the Martyr
32nd Dai: Syedna Feer Khan Shujauddin (RA) — the steadfast one who kept the dawat together after the martyrdom
33rd Dai: Syedna Ismail Badruddin I (RA) — who brought the dawat to Jamnagar, father of the 35th Dai

Following Him:

36th Dai: Syedna Musa Kalimuddin (RA) — his designated son, the continuation of the Jamnagar line

The Arabic Salawat and Du’a

سَلَامُ اللهِ وَصَلَوَاتُهُ وَتَحِيَّاتُهُ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ عَلَى مَولَانَا الدَّاعِي الأَجَل الفَاطِمِيِّ الحَمدَانِيِّ عَبدِ الطَّيِّبِ زَكِيِّ الدِّينِ الثَّانِي ابنِ مَولَانَا إِسمَاعِيل بَدرِ الدِّينِ الأَوَّل الدَّاعِي المُطلَق الخَامِسِ وَالثَّلَاثِين

The salutations of Allah and His prayers and His greetings and His blessings be upon our Master the Dai al-Ajal al-Fatimi al-Hamdani, Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin the Second, son of our Master Ismail Badruddin the First, the 35th Dai al-Mutlaq.

السَّلَامُ عَلَيكَ يَا مَولَانَا عَبدَ الطَّيِّبِ زَكِيَّ الدِّينِ الثَّانِي السَّلَامُ عَلَيكَ يَا مَن رَسَّخَ الدَّعوَةَ فِي تُرَابِ الكَتيَاوَار السَّلَامُ عَلَيكَ يَا مَن حَفِظَ المِيرَاثَ لِمَن بَعدَه السَّلَامُ عَلَيكَ يَا مَن ثَبَتَ عَلَى الوَلَايَةِ فِي زَمَانِ البَلَاء السَّلَامُ عَلَيكَ يَا بَابَ الإِمَامِ فِي الغَيبَة الكُبرَى السَّلَامُ عَلَيكَ يَا حَافِظَ العِلمِ الفَاطِمِيِّ فِي أَرضِ الهِنَاد السَّلَامُ عَلَيكَ يَا مَن رَعَى المُؤمِنِينَ بِيَدَيهِ وَلِسَانِهِ وَقَلبِهِ

Peace be upon you, O our Master Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin the Second. Peace be upon you, O one who rooted the dawat in the soil of Kathiawar. Peace be upon you, O one who preserved the inheritance for those who came after. Peace be upon you, O one who stood firm in walaya in the time of trial. Peace be upon you, O gate of the Imam in the great occultation. Peace be upon you, O guardian of the Fatimid knowledge in the land of India. Peace be upon you, O one who cared for the mumineen with his hands, his tongue, and his heart.

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مَولَانَا عَبدِ الطَّيِّبِ زَكِيِّ الدِّينِ الثَّانِي وَارحَمهُ وَاغفِر لَهُ وَارزُقنَا شَفَاعَتَهُ وَزِيَارَتَهُ وَبَرَكَتَهُ وَمَحَبَّتَهُ وَاجمَعنَا مَعَهُ فِي حُضنِ مَولَانَا الإِمَامِ الطَّيِّبِ صَلَوَاتُ اللهِ عَلَيهِ وَعَلَى آبَائِهِ الطَّاهِرِينَ

O Allah, bless our Master Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin the Second, and have mercy on him and forgive him, and grant us his intercession, his ziyarat, his barakat, and his love, and gather us with him in the embrace of our Master the Imam al-Tayyib, the prayers of Allah be upon him and upon his pure forefathers.

Conclusion: The Steady Flame

The tenure of Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) — sixteen to twenty-five years in Jamnagar, depending on the dates adopted — was not an era of dramatic rupture or spectacular crisis. It was, in the best sense, an era of the steady flame: the dawat burning bright and consistent, neither extinguished by external pressure nor dimmed by internal division.

This steadiness is its own kind of achievement. In the history of the dawat, the dramatic moments — the martyrdom of al-Shaheed, the great schism of the Dawoodi-Sulaimani split, the miraculous preservation of the community through persecution — tend to attract the most attention. But the dawat’s continuity depends not only on dramatic moments of heroism but on the long sustained work of men like the 35th Dai: scholars who transmitted the ‘ilm, pastors who cared for the community, administrators who maintained the institutions, spiritual guides who sustained the covenant with the hidden Imam through decades of patient service.

The mumineen of his era received from him what every generation needs from its Dai: the knowledge that the chain is unbroken, that the Imam’s walaya continues to flow, that the dawat is alive, that the covenant holds. In an era of Mughal pressure, commercial disruption, and the constant shadow of the earlier martyrdom, this assurance was not a small thing — it was everything.

He passed the flame to his son, who passed it on, and the chain continues — unbroken, alive, warm — down to the present day.

اَلدَّاعِي إِلَى اللهِ، الهَادِي إِلَى الإِمَامِ، الأَمِينُ عَلَى العِلمِ وَالدَّعوَة. The one who calls to Allah, the guide to the Imam, the trustee of the ‘ilm and the dawat.

Syedna Abduttayyeb Zakiuddin II (RA) — The 35th Dai al-Mutlaq