Muslims in Mumbai
Muslims in Mumbai: On November 23, 1665 AD, Charles II of England commissioned Abraham Shipman to formally take over Mumbai (Bombay) from the Portuguese, following orders issued earlier on August 16 by the King of Portugal, Alfonso VI, to his viceroy in India to cede the seven-island archipelago as part of the dowry of his sister, Catherine of Braganza, who was married to the English monarch in 1661. Known as Heptanesia (Cluster of Seven Islands) to the Greek geographer Ptolemy in 150 CE, in the 3rd century BC, the islands had formed part of the Mauryan Empire, during its expansion and served as an important centre of Buddhism in Western India.
Subsequently, they came under the control of successive indigenous dynasties before being ruled from 810 to 1260 by the Silharas, who built the Jogeshwari Caves and Elephanta Caves. The Khalji Sultanate annexed the islands which were under Delhi’s rule until 1407 through its Muslim Governors of Gujarat, who then ruled independently, building many mosques, especially the shrine at Worli in honour of Iranian saint of Central Asia Haji Ali Bukhari in 1431. From 1429 onwards, the islands were a source of contention between the Gujarat Sultanate and the Bahmani Sultanate of Iranian origin of the Deccan.
In 1493, Bahadur Khan Gilani failed to secure Mumbai for the Bahmanis. Gujarat’s Sultan Bahadur Shah, growing apprehensive of the power of the Mughal emperor Humayun, signed the Treaty of Bassein with the Portuguese and on 25 October 1535 formally handed them the seven islands which became a centre of Christianity. Following the British takeover, the islands were frequently raided until 1735 by the Siddis (Abyssinian Muslimss) of Janjira, beginning with Siddi Sambhal’s changing of sides in 1672 from the Bijapur Sultanate to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, who used them to check the Marathas of Sivaji. The British also made sure the Marathas do not infiltrate the seven islands.
From 1782 onwards, the British city of Bombay started taking formal shape, and with the defeat in 1817 of Baji Rao II, the last of the Maratha Peshwas, the islands were saved from Maratha raids. By 1845, the seven islands coalesced into a single landmass by the Hornby Vellard Project via large scale land reclamation.
On 16 April 1853, India’s first passenger railway line was established, connecting Bombay to the neighbouring town of Thane. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 transformed Bombay into one of the largest seaports on the Arabian Sea. Today, Mumbai is the commercial capital of India and has evolved into a global financial hub.
According to the 2011 census the population was 12,479,608, of which 25 percent are Muslims. The city is also home to the largest population of Zoroastrians in the world, numbering about 80,000, who are known as Parsi and whose ancestors had migrated from Iran. The Marathas are relative newcomers to this cosmopolitan city which is also home to hundreds of thousands of people of Iranian origin, including the Iranian Muslims from Yazd (Iran) who came last century and are mainly in the restaurant and tea industry.