Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah of Dawoodi Bohra community

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About the campus-

• Also known as Jamea, this is an academic institute exclusively catering to the education of young boys and girls from the Dawoodi Bohra community, a Shiite denomination spread across the world. 
• While the academy’s focus will primarily be on spiritual and religious studies, the academy will also provide its students with mainstream education in association with an internationally recognised school board curriculum.
• The Mumbai campus is spread around 850,000 sq ft in Andheri’s Marol and is the second such campus in India. 
• The first one was established over two centuries ago in 1810 in Surat, a town which is the home to a large Bohra population.
• The new campus boasts of magnificent white marble structures, with colourful designs engraved in different colours. 
• It has huge corridors, ceremonial halls decorated with beautiful chandeliers, and a multilevel landscaped courtyard housing a minaret surrounded by a series of fountains and water bodies indicating flow of knowledge.
• The Mumbai campus also has separate hostels for boys and girls, faculty residences, a multi-storey administration and classroom building, a library, dining halls, prayer halls and a building dedicated to teaching of Holy Quran. 
• The prayer area is inspired by the al-Jāmiʿ al-Azhar in Cairo, the original location of the Al Azhar University, one of the oldest extant universities in the world.
• Globally this will be the fourth campus of the Jamea after Surat (1810), Karachi (1983) and Nairobi (2017).

The Dawoodi Bohra community-

• The Dawoodi Bohras are Shia Muslims whose leader is known as the Al-Dai-Al-Mutlaq. A
• According to members of the community, there are around 1 million Dawoodi Bohras spread around the world.
• Their largest numbers reside in India, Pakistan, Yemen, East Africa, and the Middle East, with a growing presence across Europe, North America, South East Asia, and Australia.  
• They  are known to be a close-knit community who, like all Muslims, follow the tenets of Islam; namely reciting the Quran, observing the five daily prayers, fasting during the month of Ramadan, performing the pilgrimages of Hajj and Umrah and offering Zakat. 
• Whilst adherence to traditional values is important for the community, they are also known for their mercantilism and having a modernist approach to their lifestyles.
• The cultural heritage of this denomination is found in the traditions of the Fatimid Imams; direct descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima. 
• The Fatimids ruled over North Africa between 10th and 11th century CE.
• Mostly self-reliant, the Bohras are typically traders, businesspersons, and entrepreneurs. The word “Bohra”, in fact, comes from the Gujarati word vohrvu or vyavahar, meaning “to trade”.
• For over 400 years, the leader of the community has been based in India, including the current and the 53rd leader, His Holiness Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin.
• The leader of the community is recognised by the members as having the right to excommunicate its members. 
• In practical terms, excommunication means not being allowed to access a mosque belonging to the community or a burial dedicated to the community.
• Among the members of the community who have faced excommunication in the past are those who contested the headship of the leaders.

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