page_title: Lisan ud-Dawat
section_title: First Documented Work
hierarchical_section_title: Lisan ud-Dawat / First Documented Work
caption_attribution_description: English: understanding of some of the words in the said MSS old and new style
context_page_description: Lisaan ud-Da'wat or Lisaan o Da'wat il Bohra or Lisan ud-Dawat is the language of the Alavi Bohras and Dawoodi Bohras basically from Gujarat, an Isma'ili Shi'a Muslim community, following the Taiyebi doctrines and theology. It's dialect is based on a Neo-Indo-Aryan language Gujarati, but incorporates a heavy amount of Arabic, Urdu, and Persian vocabulary and is written in the Arabic script naskh style. Originally a ritual language, since the period of the missionaries-دعاۃ in Ahmedabad around 1005 AH/1597 AD it has also been propagated as the vernacular language for members of the Bohra communities, but the version used by their religious leader-Saiyedna and his assembly members or clergy still differs slightly from the Gujarati spoken by their community members. The reason is that the religious sermons is highly loaded and peppered with the inputs and sentences of Arabic language having direct references with ancient sectarian Bohra literature linked with Egyptian and Yemeni phase of Da'wah. The earliest Bohras were Indian, and they spoke Gujarati.
context_section_description: The missionaries-Du'aat of Ahmedabad has a distinction over the Du'aat of Yemen.  Yemeni missionaries had their mother tongue Arabic and thus the literature of Taiyebi Isma'ilism between 532-975 AH/1138-1568 AD has been entirely written in Arabic.  The same sectarian literature was taught in religious schools-madrasahs under the direct supervision of Da'i al-Mutlaq to not only Yemeni people but also to those who had come from western India to acquire knowledge of different theological branches.  Clever and dedicated Indian students were elevated to some status and were gradually assigned Da'wah services in India.  Those scholars or designated people-Maulaai who came back to India brought with them the Yemeni Da'wah Arabic. 
  These learned men taught in turn the fundamentals of Taiyebi faith wrapped in the multi-lingual robe. When the 25th Da'i al-Mutlaq Saiyedna Jalaal Fakhruddin (d. 975 AH/1567 AD) was in Ahmedabad and his predecessor was on the throne of Da'wat in Yemen, the last batch of Maulaai from Ahmedabad and other towns were given guidance and training to shoulder the responsibilities of Taiyebi Bohra community.  Now the seat and centre of Da'wat e Haadiyah was going to be shifted from Yemen to Ahmedabad.  25th, 26th and 27th Da'is were among the last missionaries to get an opportunity to study in Yemen.  They then ordered scholars to teach clever followers Arabic, Persian and Urdu.  At that time there were at least 140 places in and around Gujarat where all branches of learning were taught in madrasahs to Bohra students.  To make religious learning more simple and understandable, scholars made serious efforts in using Gujarati as a medium of communication with masses and thus giving it a new form as Arabicized Gujarati. As the case with many languages, it was initially verbal then got documented and written in many works of missionaries. It was not the work of a day or two, but it took one and the half century to reach its peak.  This coincided with the Mughal control over Gujarat in the 17ᵗʰ century AD.
  Here, we will examine pages taken from "Sahifat us Salaat" (Book for the Understanding of Prayer) written by the pupil of 29th Da'i al-Mutlaq Ali Shamsuddin (d. 1046 AH/1637 AD) in Ahmedabad during the time of his grandfather 28th Da'i al-Mutlaq Shaikh Aadam Safiyuddin (d. 1030 AH/1621 AD) in 1025 AH/1616 AD.
caption: Understanding of some the words of LDA used in the said MSS having old style of writing
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