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Mission and Vision statement
For providing the truthful, with evidence, information of:
- Who were Memons, before 1454?
- When did they revert back to Islam?
Memons.net website must be able to provide meaningful history of Memons.
Goals & Objectives
- The goal of this website is to keep our generation informed of our heritage and provide our history that is so rich. Our objective is to provide our young generation to learn from our mistakes and improve their approach of handling their future and make it more progressive and meaningful for humanity.
History of Memons
When I first created our school site, I wanted to write about our family’s roots, and that is also why I wrote
a simple article on MEMONS. The stories of Memons and our genealogy have been passed down from generation to generation. I have been discussing and researching this topic with several of the community members during my visits to Karachi. One of the persons of the Jetpur Memon community who impressed me the most was Mr. Yahya Hashim Bawani. I interviewed him and wrote several notes on the topic some ten years ago, before I started writing this book about the Memons.
The credit goes to everyone. I have tried to compile the history from a variety of reliable sources. Google over the internet has been a big help. Books written by Mr. Yahya Hashim Bawani, Memons of Jetpur, and recently a book on the Heritage of Bawanys inspired me to finish this topic and put it into circulation.
While I was working for King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center (KFSH&RC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, one of the DJ Science College Class fellows who later became Clinical Physician, suggested I get a genetic test at KFSH&RC. To my surprise I was carrying some European genes. This may be the reason why my mom in Jetpur was called Momin European. There is no way to trace back our ancestors so far. We know that today’s humans have found over 5000 years mummies, and if I am able to trace my genes up to 500 years that is 10% of 5000 years. It is possible that there may have been some cross marriages when India was invaded by Arabs of European decent.
I still remember the day in first grade (year 1960) when I was invited by my teacher Yunus Jaliawala to come and see him in the teachers’ lounge. During the discussion, I found out that he was a very close friend of my Dad and that he had recently come back from England after completing his higher education. He asked me why my name was Anwar Abdul Karim. I could not answer him. He said that since my surname was Moton, I should change my name at the school to Anwar Moton. It finally became Motan several years later during new school registrations and Board exam registrations (I guess, through a simple mistake by clerks). When I came home, I told my Dad the whole story. He said that the correction was justified, and that day he told me the names of our ancestors. He also said that these names were repeated by every member in the family and that everyone was asked to remember them by heart. The names starting from my name were Anwar Mohammad Abdul Karim Kassim Ayub Ghani Natha Vera Thara Juma. The surname of Moton started from Ghani, my sixth grandfather in the sequence.
I pray to Allah to guide me to accurately compile the stories that I have heard and read over last 30 years or so.
One thing most common in these stories is that all Memons were Hindus about 550 to 600 years ago, and they came from the Lohanas community of Hindus. I have tried to go as far back in history as possible to depict the right picture of our heritage.
Unfortunately, some tragic remnants of Hindu culture persist in the Memon community today. For example, the ill treatment of our daughters-in-law by our mothers-in-law is a carry-over from ancient Hindu culture that 550 years of Islam have not erased. Moreover, today in the Memon community, most families still strive to acquire 15 and 16-year-old girls as wives for their 25+ years old sons. To make matters worse, these innocent girls are often ill-treated in the boys’ families and are not encouraged to pursue higher education. Finally, in some families, parents forbid their sons to seek higher education, so that they might continue to run the family businesses, as they have for generations. We need to break the bonds of these very sad vestiges of a previous culture.
If we Memons would like to get ahead in society and take on expanded responsibilities in society, we will have to send our kids to universities and colleges for higher education. We must give our daughters time to get the education and come out of the innocence before we marry them off or allow them to be married off.
Thank you Note:
I am extending my extreme thank you note to Yahya Hashim Bawany, who provided me with so many leads and enough documents to start writing this book. He promised me to provide me his book on Memon Script, but he passed away in 2007.
May Allah forgive all his sins and provide him highest place in Heaven. I also recognize my two good friends (although both call me BABUJI), Harsh and Prashant from Jetpur who helped me locate my family members in our original home as well as provided so many pictures of Jetpur. Also, my cousin Farook Abdulmajeed provided some key grave pictures of Rauf Mamoo and Nana Nani. Lastly my distant Niece in UK Mariam Bahloul who provided me enough information of my DNA using my result file. THANK YOU once again, I could not have done it without you.