Mavi Boncuk |The forgotten Effendi: Ottoman Muslim theologian, Mahmud Fakih Emin Effendi, and the real story of the Bo-Kaap Museum, c.1894-1978
Halim Gençoĝlu [1], University of Cape Town
gnchal001(at)myuct(dot)ac(dot)za
published in: New Contree: 2015 No 73 [13]
Abstract This article attempts to re-present the religious and educational activities of a forgotten Muslim scholar, Mahmud Fakih Effendi, in Cape history. The subject of the article is related to this Ottoman scholar, as well as the story of his house at 71 Wale Street in Cape Town, which is the Bo-Kaap Museum at present. In 1894, fourteen years after the death of Abu Bakr Emin Effendi, the Ottoman Caliphate in Istanbul appointed another Muslim scholar at the Cape, Mahmud Fakih Effendi. He resided at 71 Wale Street, living there until his death in 1914. After his death, his son, Muhammad Dervish Effendi, followed in his father’s footsteps as a Muslim scholar and also stayed in the same residence in the Bo-Kaap. Muhammad Dervish Effendi died in 1940 and left behind eight children. His widow, Mariam, along with the children continued to live in the house at 71 Wale Street. By 1978, when their house was converted into the Bo-Kaap Museum, it was identified as the house of Abu Bakr Effendi in error instead of as the former residence of Mahmud Effendi. This is because Mahmud Effendi did not leave behind any substantial written legacy as his predecessor Abu Bakr Effendi did, and therefore he and his son, Muhammad Dervish Effendi, became forgotten figures in Cape history. This article sheds new light on this matter as a result of new readings of Turkish and Cape archival documents. It aims to correct the historical inaccuracy of the origins of the Bo-Kaap Museum and to highlight the noteworth
FULL TEXT
[1] The Turkish scholar’s research reveals that the ‘real story’ of the Bo-Kaap Museum at 71 Wale Street involves a case of mistaken identity. Gençoĝlu, a PhD scholar in Hebrew Studies, says the original property belonged to Ottoman Muslim scholar Mahmud Effendi and not Abu Bakr Effendi, to whom ownership is ascribed in the museum’s own history and other archival material.
The museum is a cultural landmark in Cape Town, established by the apartheid government in 1978 after the authorities bought the house, the oldest property in the Bo-Kaap, and moved its owners. In error, it was identified as being the house of Abu Bakr Effendi.
Gençoĝlu spent months in the Turkish and Cape’s archives and his finding is supported by new readings of these archival documents.
Abu Bakr Effendi, a Sufi religious leader, was commonly known as Hanefi’i professor. He arrived at the Cape in 1863 and lived in Bree Street.
“He was sent here to resolve religious conflicts among Muslim groups and impart religious and cultural education,” Gençoĝlu said.
Fourteen years after Aby Bakr died, the Ottoman Caliphate in Istanbul appointed a Shafi’i scholar of Ottoman descent in the Cape, where the majority of Muslims followed the Shafi’i madhhab sect. He was Mahmud Fakih Emin Effendi and he lived at 71 Wale Street until his death in 1914.
While Abu Bakr Effendi and Mahmud Effendi shared a surname and even a neighbourhood (Abu Bakr Effendi owned another property at the corner of Wale and Bree streets, which was an Islamic school until 1899), they were not related.
“The title ‘Effendi’ was a former Turkish title of respect given to a man of high education or social standing, so both these Ottoman Ulama at the Cape became known as ‘Effendi’.”
Mahmud Effendi’s son, Muhammed Dervish Effendi, followed in his father’s footsteps as a Muslim scholar and lived at the same address in the Bo-Kaap. When he died in 1940 he left his widow, Mariam, and eight children who continued to live at 71 Wale Street until 1978.