Hadrami Diaspora: Origin, Migration, Destination

 

Sama Lavoni

 

ABSTRACT:

This paper is an attempt to understand and analyse the migration through the Indian Ocean basin by the Hadrami Sayyids from Hadramawt in Yemen. The consequent of the diaspora thus undertaken are diverse leading to many socio-cultural, economic and also to some extent political alterations in the place of migration as well as back at homeland. Genealogy has been one of the most distinct and essential element in the whole passage of the diaspora that enabled the itinerants to absorb in the local set up and predisposed them in a cosmopolitan character. Moreover the Alawi Sufi Way also has a greater say in the whole of the state of migration connecting the site of origin from the graves of Tarim, diaspora and the point of destination back at the graves in Tarim. This paper should be, in its essence, read as a review of the Graves of Tarim by Ho Engseng.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

The Graves of Tarim is an enthral scrutiny of diaspora of the Hadrami Sayyids along the Indian Ocean littoral. Engseng Ho has very dexterously elucidated the elaborate and multifarious connection concerning the diaspora, people, identity, traditional socio-religious beliefs and the notion of territorial patriotism. The narrative encompasses a wide portion of time and space, starting from the burial ground of Tarim, in Hadramawt, the history of the region is traced from fifteen century down to pre colonial times to the age of European colonial dominance trailed by emergence of nation state in twentieth century. ¹ Ho's diaspora is made up of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (through his daughter Fatima, cousin and Son in law Ali), who are buried in the graves of Tarim and whose progeny is spread all across the Indian Ocean basin, disseminating their names, identity, knowledge in genealogical diffusion, scholarships, genes, and the `Alawi wayof Sufi Islam² thus creating a transregional community and writing new lineage histories.

 

The Society of Absent, Genealogies and the Alawi Sufi Way

An endeavour on the part of the author can be witnessed who made an attempt to highlight the presence of what he identifies as society of the absent, with regard to the Hadrami diaspora in the work. ³ Ho denotes the diaspora of Hadramis as a society of the absent because “invisible hands”, as for instance the dead buried in Tarim, are a “constant incitement to discourse” (p. 19). Tarim in due course of time assumes the characteristic of originator from destination. The Alawi Sayyids from Iran migrated to Tarim as a destination of diaspora between tenth to twelfth centuries. Ahmad b. Isa the migrant, Ali the endower of Qasam were the earliest Alawi settlers who gradually introduced a systematic (Alawi) Sufi way, built mosques, established settlements and finally pilgrimage destination.

 

They in doing so transformed the landscape of Hadramawt, whereby the burials of the Sayyid saints converted Tarim from a place of destination into an origin. In this way grave turns to be a starting point because of its semiotic characteristics in the form of place, name, person and text. The person within the grave and the engravings in the tombstone endorse a passage from silence to vocalization, enabling the dead and silent person within the grave to be inaugurated into discourse and their presence felt (pp. 24-5).

 

In recapping the Hadrami diaspora, Ho makes use of the genealogies, which highlighted the ‘presence’ of those buried in the graves of Tarim, establishing the linkage between the living and the dead. However, he takes them up through theirexpression with the structure of a diaspora as a transregional ethical polity. Genealogy is not perceived as “arboreal metaphors of tree, branches, root and soil”, but collection of texts, in essence hagiographies of the most distinguished families in Hadramawt, as they migrated through a complex geography and were further enlarged into the standard of ‘hybrid’texts by creole biographers. The relentless restoration and revitalization of the diasporic people was accomplished and concluded by the genealogies related to the Alawi way, altered and redrafted by the side of diaspora, which on occasion extended generations, afar and ahead of, revisiting to, and circumventing Tarim. While the so called hybrid texts restricted the development of diaspora, as they allowed ‘communities of diverse origins to articulate with each other in new relations of mutuality and moral engagement’ (p. 197).

 

The Alawi Sufi way has played a crucial role in Hadrami diaspora. The significant amounts of the written sources for the diaspora were engendered by the Alawi way. Though the narratives were composed in varied parts of Indian Ocean basin and in diverse national literatures, but a close inspection of the manuscripts facilitates the reader to take notice of the reminiscence of names, families, motifs, style of expression and the ideas that connect the texts across the time and spaces in the history of Hadrami mobility. These narratives elaborate upon the discourses of mobility and experiences gained therein and also extend its scope to the oral tradition in disseminating those experiences. This in turn aided in the formation of new communities as well as in the development of interaction among transregional and indigenous social assemblage. On the other end of the spectrum the Alawi way transformed the character of a place from a site of destination to a homeland and again to a place of origin. To quote Ho, “Landmarks became signs within the discourses of mobility, and particular places became signposts in the historical formation of the Alawi way. Conversely, as the Alawi way settled and developed in Hadramawt, the significance of the place changed, transforming from a destination to an origin” (p. 31). It becomes transparent here that the aforesaid sufi way has been very fundamental in formation of certain geographical scales and origination of Hadrami Sayyids through the emergence of Alawi way.

 

Territorial Patriotism, Traditional Social Status and Identity

One of the noteworthy aspects of the diaspora was the willingness of Hadhrami emigrants to uphold a sagacity of identity and traces of their ancestors in connection to their homeland, while acclimatizing themselves in their countries of diaspora. The book substantiates with examples where people constantly transmit money to their families back home in Hadramawt⁴, dispatch their sons⁵ i.e. creoles or muwallads to engross the inherent Hadrami principles and ethics and come into terms with the local way of life, and often stay back at home. These incidents shows the affinity possessed by the emigrants towards their homeland underlining the notion of territorial patriotism, which in passage of time shall witness a total opposition in later period when new descendants will acknowledge them as less associated with their ancestor’s homeland.

 

The author very ably illustrated the migration of the Hadrami Sayyids by putting them into the framework of their literary compilations like genealogies, hagiographies and by examination of diverse ways of interaction between them and the host societies in foreign lands. Ho highlights that within the diasporic societies, the Sayyids entered into more intimate and prolonged relationships with the local populace by adopting themselves into local arrangements wherever they went. ⁶ The Sayyids after reaching to certain new places offer the native authorities their precious gift of genealogy (tracing their descendance from the Prophet) which enabled them to acquire privileged status like, statesmen, judges, educators, envoys etc in the administration of the natives and also by entering into matrimonial ties with them and so on. As for instance the Hadrami diaspora into Malay lands triggered reciprocal familiarity through shared cultural expressions. To quote Ho, “Kinship idioms played an important role in the constitution of these politics, and therefore interethnic unions, creoles, cross cultural alliances, multilingual families, and transregional networks of kinsfolk became integral to the social substance of such politics”. ⁷ In due course of time they rose to such powerful positions that Ho suggests that in many cases like in seventeenth century Surat and nineteenth century Singapore, the East India Company had to rely on these more established Hadramis, whom he called the Portfolio Capitalists⁸, a term borrowed by the author from Sanjay Subramanian and C. A. Bayly.   Thus genealogies and ancestral name and their traditional social prestige itself backed up the diaspora to gain popularity in the foreign lands.

 

With regard to the name and its importance in identity formation one can witness the far reaching impression achieved by the (honorific) word Sayyid, and its meaning and usage in the early twentieth century. When the Europeans (Dutch and Britain), imposed the rule of possession of passports by the citizens to keep a tight control over the mobility between diaspora and homeland, the old contention among the Alawis and Irshadis broke open again. The Alawi-Irshadi discord is an ideological wrangle pin pointed on social repute and religious influence asserted by the Alawis, which is contested by Irshadis as obstinate variance as the strongly hold viewpoint by them (Irshadis) was the one based on equality. During the period many non-Sayyid people applied for the passports and visas to visit their homeland. But what new they did was to affix the title of ‘Sayyid’ along with their name so that the concerned authorities did not discriminate them on the basis of categorical distinctions. As for instance, a thirteen year old boy from Java holds a passport identifying him as Sayyid Abdullah b. Hamid al-Jaayd applied for visa to visit Hadramawt for education. Suspicious of being Sayyid, authorities enquired, only to discover that his father was not a Sayyid but he would like to see his son known as a Sayyid. ⁹ Such efforts and their incidence were severely opposed by the Sayyids.

 

Later the Irshadis came up with new set of historiography¹⁰ in antagonism with the Sayyids by questioning their identity, discretionary power, and so on. The British intervention in the matter for the better understanding of the discrepancy between the two groups with the help of al Haddad reveals that Sayyids were the peacemakers and a powerful set of people back home, who held high prestige and honour. Sayyids are also acclaimed as learned people, who were the propagators of the true religion among the ignorant (p. 57). Consequently, Irshadis or any other non Sayyids were not allowed to assume or steal the title, else the category would lose its worth (pp. 280-81).

 

Therefore the Sayyid designation customs permitted the extensive passage through time and space as well as across culture. It also concluded in the hybridization of genus of genealogy and produced representational outline without which diaspora would not have existed. It is rightly observed by the author that, “Without their genealogies, Sayyid families cannot travel transculturally and remain Sayyid” (p. 323). It is because of this title that the Hadramis were well received in the littoral and the natives too involved into kinship ties with them.

 

Hadrami Cosmopolitanism: Assimilation or Indigenization (Creolization)?

The migration of the Hadramis transported them to south east Asia, India, Swahili, Africa and so on. In the course, the immigrants had to confront with varied regional circumstances, categorized by different environments, economic and political set ups, and socio-cultural locale. The cosmopolitan character of the Hadramis can be traced from the thoroughness of the author in his work where he strives to work out the itinerants’ dilemma of connection and implementation of native way of life while upholding adherence back home. With the passage of time the male Hadramis who settled along the Indian Ocean littoral married the local women and the offspring of such mixed parentage were awarded with the designation of muwallads, whom Ho named as creoles. On the other hand one can notice the asymmetric kinship relations being maintained by the Hadramis where the (Sayyid) males are permitted to marry any one irrespective of origin but the females were restricted to marry only a Sada (Sayyid) male member to maintain the line of purity. This corresponds to the belief that the “Sayyids could be wife takers and wife givers”, since the non Sayyids do not posses Kaafa or sufficiency in terms of hierarchical rank to marry a Sharifa or the female decedent of the prophet (pp. 139, 150). On a long run the intermarriages in diaspora resulted in few phenotypical variations among the Hadramis and the natives. Consequently the creoles were basically indigenized in language, clothing, food habits, cultural practices etc while cosmopolitan in religion and genealogy.

 

Also the ‘uxorilocal marriage tradition’¹¹ as suggested by the author which was practiced by the Hadramis resulted in the formation of scattered families residing across the Indian Ocean basin as well as back home. The development of the kinship network is the obvious upshot where people socialized with the distant foreigners as kinsmen and as Muslims. Thus the author opines “In each place, the members of such families were both locals and cosmopolitans”. ¹²

 

Here again genealogy played an upper hand in the evolution of the cosmopolitan character of the migrants. It backed the diaspora and the settlement of immigrant population to new land. Moreover it also facilitated in the development of ever evolving genealogical texts, biographies and other literary sources by the migrant scholars. The essence of narrative corresponds with the respect in which this set of itinerants were communally and collectively incorporated through Creolization and not assimilation in these far off domain. To quote Ho, “The local cosmopolitans who populate the Hadrami diaspora around the Indian Ocean participate in this field of signification and contribute to its dynamism. The diaspora multiplied tremendously the numbers of persons and texts, and the range of places they circulated through”. ¹³

 

Formation of Nation-States, Modernity and Hadrami Diaspora

By the turn of twentieth century, there comes change in authority, emergence of modernity, rise of nation states which all together begun to shape the mindset of people in quite a different manner than that of their predecessors. Native states and colonies came into being as independent states. Hadramawt too gained independence in 1967 and became the part of People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. Banners of socialism prevailed, the state assumed the characteristic of Marxism, where peasants organized into popular militia and sort to uprisings against local social categories like tribal chiefs who were perceived as feudalist, sayyids were seen as priests so on.  In such a situation the connection between homeland and diaspora were brutally shortened consequently giving away to the thought of diaspora by the Hadramis.

 

On the other hand when the ‘hybrid’ Hadramis or the creoles and muwallads were asked to decide upon their identity and confine to the same, which appeared to be quite difficult for them. It was so because they were adept to their own social sphere, recognizing themselves more with the place of their birth rather than the one of their ancestors. Notwithstanding their immense range of ethnic and socio-cultural milieu, they were Sayyids wherever they were, and hence were likely to correspond to some specific potentials and codes of behaviour which collided with their individual desire, goals, outlook and disposition. The examples quoted by the author in the essay named ‘Repatriation’ clearly depict the way of ‘stuckness’ witnessed by the muwallads. He underlines the complications encountered by many individuals, varying from passport problems to ideological clashes. Also the instances of ‘Zaynab, Yusuf’s half-sister’¹⁴ and ‘Aisha’¹⁵ represent the prevalence of the notion of public and private domain in the Hadramawt society where the female folk are confined to certain traditional norms demarcating the division of spaces in the society. So such conditions made people experience dislocation rather than homecoming and also encounter with the consciousness of geographical fixity.

 

The Travelling Light and The irrigating Fount

Ho in particular discusses two important texts in connection to the Hadrami diaspora and their canonical texts. These are The Travelling Light and The irrigating Fount. The former text compiled by Qadir al Aydarus, celebrated the closing of the first millennium of Islam and recorded episodes and public figures of fifteen-sixteen centuries. It travels over an expanse extending from Gujarat, Africa, Egypt and so on offering an opening on cosmopolitan Muslim world across the Indian Ocean. The latter text was composed by al Shili. It focuses upon the diasporic accounts of the Travelling Lights and local Tarim stories from The Transparent Essence. Genealogy was given due importance in this text, augmented by law in the form of Hadith. It centred on the activities and accounts of Sayyids only unlike the Travelling Light which dealt with every individual, depicting a multi-cultural experience that is engrossed with travelling temperament and educational crafts of both Sayyids and non Sayyid Hadrami descents.¹⁶ Both the texts took inspiration from the discourses initiated by the graves and finally going back to and proffering graves as a place of return.  

Besides the above discussed texts, Ho has very skilfully put forward a huge textual exegesis through a spatial temporal recursive mobility and traffic linking texts and spots of pilgrimage. 

 

CONCLUSION:

The work epitomizes an extensive epoch of enduring cultural switch over among the coast regions of Indian Ocean and the itinerants, where the structure of the book is well designed and harmonizing to the subject matters broached by its author commencing with the creation of place via the entombment site by means of the outbound exodus to the diverse types of return to the point of origin. Diaspora as denoted by Ho is spawned eventually and its main derivative is absence, customarized and characterized over generations. Moreover kinship substituted places as the diaspora took place, even though place continued to be the loci of diaspora. The homeland is regarded as place of return, impressions of homeland in opposition to diaspora is sustained over generations construed in terms whereby genealogy and place are inextricably correlated and have root in the ground of homeland in its graves. An approach of ethnographic fieldwork is adopted by Ho which produced the indisputable connection of texts engendered along the Indian Ocean rim. By examining texts from different era and regions and by probing them in a contemporary circumstance, Ho begot the habitual topos of the texts, translocality as highlighted by the migrants themselves over centuries.

 

REFERENCES:

·          Ho, Engseng (2006)  Graves of Tarim, University of California Press

·          Ho, Engseng (2002) Names Beyond Nations: The Making of Local Cosmopolitans, EHESS

·          Manger, Leif, (2010) The Hadrami Diaspora: Community-Building on the Indian Ocean Rim, Berghahn Books

·          Steven Grosgy (2005) Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press

1.       For understanding Nationalism read Steven Grosby, Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2005

2.        The Alawi way of Sufi Islam can also be termed as Tariqa e Alawiyya, founded by Al FaqihMuqaddam as Sayyid Muhammad bin Al Ba Alawi al Hussaini. The Sufi order flourished in Hadramawt in Yemen and later on spread all along the Indian Ocean rim, an “institutional complex that commonly comprises a combination of lodge, leader, mystical genealogies, particular texts, litanies, chants and ritual practices”. In his scrutiny of Sufism among the Malay, Syed Naguib al Attas remarked Alawiyyah Sufi way, a different order where its silsilah or the spiritual genealogy is also composed of biological nature. ‘The order’ according to him ‘is the family tree and the tariqa is more or less a family concern’. Engseng Ho, The Graves of Tarim, p. 43

3.         “Absence rather than presence everywhere shapes diasporic experience”. Ibid  p. 4

4.        Ahmad b. Ali al Junayd of Tarim received an annual amount of five hundred French riyal from his brother Umar, a migrant in Singapore and hundred from Abdullah his another brother who migrated to North Yemen. Ibid, p. 69

5.        The anecdote of Yusuf, who lived in Mombasa, was sent to Hadramawt by his father when he learned about his son’s carefree and irresponsible lifestyle, in order to inculcate in him the moral virtues, back home. p. 235

6.        Ibid, p. xxi

7.       Ibid, p. 158

8.        Portfolio Capitalist is a system where merchants were not merely the agency  in effecting the distribution of goods between  different markets and regions, but have accumulated sufficient reserves of capital to control and dominate commodity production in general and artisans and artisanal production in particular.

9.        Ibid, p. 279

10.    One of the Irshadi works is, Political History of Hadramawt by Al Bakri, pub, 1936

11.    Ibid, P. 189

12.    Ibid, P. 189

13.    Ibid, P. 190

14.    Ibid, PP. 236-37

15.    Ibid, PP. 237-38

16.     Ibid, PP. 117-18, 147