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Help with researching Muslim lineages in South Africa

Started by Sharon Doubell on Tuesday, April 19, 2011
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I'm doing research for a Travel SA project: http://www.geni.com/projects/CUZZIN-COUNTRY-Travel-SA-with-Geni-con...
and am having difficulty searching for famous Muslim profiles from the Cape Malay Quarter (now the Bo-Kaap).

Does anyone know if there these lineages are on Geni?

Tuan Guru, (Imam Abdullah Ibn Qadi Abdus Salaam)
He was a political exile from Tidore in the Trinate Islands -who traced his lineage to the Sultan of Morocco - was imprisoned on Robben Island where he wrote several copies of the Quraan from memory. He was released after 14 years on Robben Island at the age of 82 and passed away at the age of 95 in 1807. He lies buried in [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0120708/kramatsf/Bo-kaapf.htm Tana Baru Cemetry] on Signal Hill, Cape Town (at the top-end of Longmarket Street). He had exerted a considerable influence on the Cape Muslims, especially in the field of Islamic education. Imam Abdullah ibn Kadi abdus Salaam (Tuan Guru) was a prince from Tidore in the Trinate islands and a descendant of the Sultan of Morocco. His ‘crime’ for being enslaved is not clearly known but records show that he was involved in a conspiracy with the English against the Dutch. He was captured by the Dutch, brought to the Cape and imprisoned on Robben Island in April 1780. When he was released twelve years later he resided in Dorp Street, Cape Town, the main Muslim residential area at that time. In 1793 he instituted the Dorp Street Madressah as his main interest was to teach his students, mainly freed black and eastern children, to read and write Arabic and thus he was called “Tuan Guru” which means “Mister Teacher”. Tana Baru cemetry, despite its closure, has always been regarded as the most hallowed of Muslim cemeteries in Cape Town. Within its confines lie some of the earliest and most respected Muslim settlers of South Africa: Imam Abdullah ibn Kadi [Qadi] Abdus Salaam [Tuan Guru], Tuan Sa’id Aloewie [Sayyid `Alawi],Tuan Nuruman [Paay Schaapie], Abubakr Effendi, along with prominent Muslim women of the time, such as

Saartjie van de Kaap
(a muslim woman born to slave parents, who donated the land for the first Mosque in South Africa) and Saamiede van de Kaap .

Sheikh Noorul Mubeen
was apparently banished to the Cape in 1716 and was incarcerated on Robben Island. According to popular legend he escaped from Robben Island by unknown means and came to make his home in this desolate spot.

Sheikh Abdurahman Matebe Shah:
arrived at the Cape on 13th of May 1668 as prisoner and sent to work n the Company’s forest in Constantia. He was regarded as Orang Cayen, a title which means ‘man of power and influence’ and was considered particularly dangerous to the interest of the Company.

Sheikh Yususf of Mucassar (Indonesia)
a revered Sufi scholar whose Kramat is situated today at Macasser on the Cape Flats. When Sheikh Yusuf arrived at the Cape on the Voetboog, on 27 June 1693, he was royally welcomed by the then Dutch Governorof the Cape , Simon van der Stel. His Indonesian background necessitated the he and his 49 followers be settled well away from Cape Town in order to limit his influence on the normal slaves at the Cape.

Jan van Boughies [Imam Asnoon]
the most prominent of the slaves from Celebes to arrive at the Cape of Good Hope, had a remarkable administration as imam of the Palm Tree Masjid [also known as Jan van Boughies Masjid] during the first half of the 19th century. He and

Frans van Bengalen
purchased a property in Long Street, Cape Town, after a dispute over succession to the imamate of the Auwal Masjid. They initiated their own congregation and opened a prayer room which later was converted into the Palm Tree Masjid, the second oldest in South Africa. Jan, also known as Imam Asnoon, succeeded

Imam Abdolgamiet [ `Abd al-Hamid]
from 1808 to 1846. Jan, who had been manumitted by

Salia van Macassar
[a free Muslim woman], later married her. Jan died in 1846 at the age of 112, leaving behind his second wife,

Sameda van de Kaap,
who dedicated the property as a masjid in memory of her late husband and called it “De Kerk van Jan van Boughies” [The Masjid of Jan van Boughies].

Abdul Ghaliel
was a slave who served the Muslim community of Simonstown, Cape, as their imam. In 1823 a land grant was made in his favour to be used as a burial site by the Muslim community of Simonstown. Abdul Ghaliel was the first slave to be granted a piece of land in Simonstown.

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