Many religious minorities are distributed all over the Arab world, and many people do not know much about them, especially in Yemen, due to the ambiguity that surrounds the lives of their followers socially and religiously, especially the closed non-missionary sects such as the Bohra sect in Yemen.
“Bohra” according to many open sources on which “Khuyut” relied on, is a Shiite sect, which is a branch of the Musta’li Ismaili sect, which is the second largest of the Shiite sects after the Twelver Shi’ites, belongs to Ismail bin Jaafar al-Sadiq, descended from the dynasty of Hussein bin Ali bin Abi Talib, Imam al-Musta’li, and after him al-Amir and then his son al-Tayyib, and that is why they call it “Tayyibiyyah.” Ismailis are divided into: “Daudi” after Dawud bin Qutb, and they are known as Bohra, and their main center is in India in the city of Mumbai, and they are also present in Pakistan and Egypt. and Emirates. And the second section: “Al-Sulaymaniyah”, in relation to Suleiman bin Hassan, and these are their main center in northern Yemen and the border city of Najran with Saudi Arabia, and they are present in abundance and are known as “Al-Makarma”.
The term “Bohra” originates from India, meaning “merchant”, as its followers were famous for their trade, and their origin goes back to the Shiite Fatimids who were in Egypt during the Fatimid era. At the end of the era, the followers of the sect migrated to India and took it as their center. They are currently headed by Sultan Mufaddal Saif al-Din, who was appointed in 2014, following the death of his father, the former Sultan Dr. Muhammad bin Burhan al-Din.
In this regard, a member of the Yemeni Scholars Association, Sheikh Ali Al-Qadhi, sees in an interview with "Khuyut", that the Bohras have a complex of esoteric beliefs.
A mysterious Denomination
The followers of the Bohra sect in Yemen are characterized by the secretive practice of their rituals and beliefs, in addition to their closeness and isolation away from involvement in society, and they tend to be conservative and intermarry only, which makes the majority of people do not know anything about them, but some believe that this is a legitimate right of any religious sect.
The Bohra sect considers that the teachings of their religion should be taught only to the sincere followers of the sect, so it is difficult for others to find clear instructions or written practices, and this is a special affair of the group.
A researcher at Lund University, Sweden, and executive director of the Insaf Center for Defending Freedoms and Minorities, Dr. Mohammad Al-Mahfali, stated to “Khuyut” that: “Each sect has its own concept of religion and its own interpretation of its texts, and it has its own way of applying it and practicing its rituals.”
He added, "The Bohra sect considers that the teachings of their religion should be taught only to the sincere followers of the sect, so it is difficult for others to find clear instructions or written practices, and this is a special matter for the group."
People’s lack of knowledge of this sect or the lack of information about it, as a result of their reservations, led to the emergence and circulation of many allegations and rumors about them, which they in turn deny. Here, people confuse the followers of the sect (Dawoodi), who are known as Bohra, and are located in eastern Haraz, and between (Makarma), who are the second division of the Ismailis (Sulaymaniyah), as we mentioned, and they live in the city of Najran, Saudi Arabia, and in Yemen, west of Haraz, such as Mazanah, Kahil and Shibam, and their sultan is currently called Abdullah Bin Mohammad Najran.
The Sheikh of the Bohra sect, Ahmed Mahalla, who belongs to the Dawoodi Ismailis, had confirmed in press statements seen by "Khuyut", that there are no differences between the Dawoodiya and Sulaymaniyah, and that the books and writings of the two sects are one, but their former preachers later separated, which led to the independence of the two sects.
The war and its aftermath
The war, which is entering its seventh year in Yemen, has greatly affected the followers of the sect inside and outside the country, in India in particular. As a resuly, they were unable to perform their religious rituals that they had been accustomed to before the war, such as visiting and circumambulating the tomb of Hatim Al-Hadrat, in the presence of the sect leader, the Sultan Al Mofadhal Saif, who organizes the followers' visits, meetings, and distributes gifts and money. His last visit to Yemen dates back to 2014, when he and thousands of his followers came to the city of Jableh in Ibb Governorate, to visit the tomb of Queen Arwa bint Ahmed Al-Sulayhi, before their visit to the Hadrat shrine.
However, in 2016, the followers of the Bohra were subjected to grave violations in the old city of Aden, ranging from killing, abuse and kidnapping, by extremist groups that were called (death groups), in addition to the closure of Bohra stores in the old city market that bore their name, amid the inaction of the authorities at the time.
Moreover, the followers of the Bohra sect are distinguished by the uniformity of dress for men and women. Men wear white hats embroidered with golden threads on their heads. They have a religious center in Sana’a in Haddah zone, called “Al-Fayyadh Al-Hatami”, which was closed in 2015 by the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) who control the capital Sana’a. The closure of their center took place after a car bomb exploded in front of the center at the time, killing and wounding 6 people, according to the Ultra News website. The sect also has a famous market in the city of Aden known as the Al-Bohra market, which includes shops for the sect’s followers only.
Shrines and Beliefs
The Bohra sect was active in Yemen at the end of the eleventh century AD, the tenth AH, by two Yemeni preachers, namely: (Abu Abdullah al-Kawkabani) and (Abu Ahmad al-San’ani), and their main center is in the Haraz area of the governorate of Sana’a, and also in the Al-Udain district in the city of Ibb and in Hodeidah and Aden. Bohras follow their sultan Al Mufadhal Saif Al-Din in India, who was appointed by "Salman Rashid" as his representative in Yemen, an Indian with American citizenship, and their number reaches about 25 people, according to previous research by the Insaf Center for Defending Freedoms and Minorities which Khuyut had reviewed.
Furthermore, Al-Bohra has religious shrines belonging to the Fatimid state, such as the tomb of Hatim bin Ibrahim Al-Hadrat, the Fatimid preacher who was buried in the village of Al-Hutib in Haraz (west of the capital, Sana’a). Followers of the sect from Yemen and India flock to it to perform Hajj rituals, and the tomb of Queen Arwa in Jableh in the city of Ibb. Ibrahim al-Hazarat is the third preacher of the Ismailis. His father was the second preacher, while the first preacher was appointed by Queen Arwa bint Ahmed al-Sulayhi.
Among the most prominent beliefs of the Bohra is that they do not perform prayers in Muslim mosques, but rather perform their prayers in mosques of their own, and their prayers are to the hidden Ismaili imam from the descendants of “Al-Tayyib bin Al-Amir”. However, they go to Mecca for Hajj like the rest of Muslims, and they consider the Kaaba a symbol of the imam, according to some press statements by some sect ancestor leaders.
On the other hand, the representative of the sect in Yemen, Salman Rashid, told "Khuyut", that his group "believes in the mandate of Ali bin Abi Talib after the Prophet Mohammed, then Hassan, Hussein and the Imamate descendants of Hussein Bin Ali."
Al-Bohra calls the twenty-third night of Ramadan as the night of “Al-Ghadir”, and information has been circulated among the people about it stating that they celebrate in invented and unfamiliar ways, but its leadership denied this, saying that their mosques are open to the world, and they perform prayers there until the morning, in Haddah and Noqum, distributing men and women fpllowers in separate mosques.
Bohra political project
The Bohra sect was famous for trade, real estate and industrial investment, and money exchange. It is considered one of the wealthiest Ismaili sects in the world, as it seeks to adopt service and development projects in the country. At the beginning of the war in early 2015, the sect’s followers carried out a clean-up campaign on the streets of Sana’a and took care of workers’ wages. In 2018, they launched an initiative to replace Qat trees with Coffee trees in the Haraz area, where they are resided, as instructed by their leader who advised them to get rid of Qat which he called as evil plant.
Their interest in trade kept them away from politics, and while researching “Khuyut” and tracing the sect’s past in Yemen, it was found that they had no political ambitions, and if they had political participation, it is individual cases and in the capacity of citizenship, and not in the name of Bohra as a sect. Many members of the sect won the Yemeni local elections in the capital Sanaa and the Haraz district.
But despite this, some sources that speak of them say that they have ambitions and plans to establish their own state, by drawing on the sect’s political history and its conflicts with Islamic countries throughout their history, whether in Yemen or in other countries.
