April 18, 2004

Who are the Sidis and where did they come from? J. Mark Kenoyer and Kuldeep K. Bhan shed light on the origins of this race in South Asia

Most historians have assumed that the Sidis are descendants of black slaves or mercenaries who accompanied early Muslim traders and later armies that came to pillage and eventually conquer Sindh, Gujarat and parts of South India. While this may be correct for some communities, there is some evidence to suggest that African traders and merchants may have been present along the coastal regions long before the advent of Islam. Furthermore, Africans who did accompany the ‘Arab’ armies were made up of many different ethnic groups derived from populations throughout North Africa with additional mixture involving other Near Eastern communities, especially Arabs.

According to early Arab geographers and later historians, two distinct groups of Africans can be identified, the ahabish (singular habshi) who are from Abyssinia or Ethiopia, and the zunuj (singular zanj) who are from eastern or central Africa. Generally speaking the zanj were described as being dark black with frizzy hair, while the true Abyssinians had ‘long hair and were of yellow, reddish or brown colour and had “no slavish appearance”. Few, if any of the Sidis in Gujarat or Makran would fit closely with either of these descriptions and therefore we must assume that the people referred to as Sidi in these regions are the result of many hundreds of years of intermarriage between different communities of African origin, as well as with Arab groups and other local communities in Sindh, Makran and Gujarat.

The Sidi communities in different parts of the subcontinent are therefore the result of many different historical events and should not be grouped together as a single community without careful qualification. In the following sections we will focus primarily on the Sidi communities living in Gujarat and participating in the agate industry and trade.

Sidis’ arrival
When did the Sidis arrive in the subcontinent? This question is also quite difficult to answer because it appears that people of African origin have been travelling back and forth across the Arabian Sea for quite some time. Archaeological excavations at the site of Rojdi in central Gujarat have revealed the presence of domesticated grains that had their origins in Africa. These include finger millet dating to around 2500-2300 BC and sorghum from around 2000 BC. These grains probably came to Gujarat with traders moving between Harappan and Omani settlements on either side of the Arabian Sea. The movement of these grains into the Arabian peninsula can be dated slightly earlier, indicating a gradual spread from Africa along the Arabian trade routes, but it would not be surprising to find evidence for this as new research is undertaken.

The earliest literary evidence for the presence of Africans in the subcontinent dates to around 77 AD in the accounts of Pliny. He states that the town of Barygaza (modern Bharuch [Broach] in Gujarat) was considered to be an ‘Ethiopian’ town. One might assume that this meant the presence of significant Ethiopian merchants, traders, and administrators and that the administration of the city was dominated by Ethiopians.

Unfortunately there is no South Asian evidence to support this claim. Based on coins and inscriptions found in western India, this was a period of time during which Bharuch was under the rule of Nahapan of the Saka-Kshatrapas. Nevertheless, there was considerable trade with western regions during the period between 20 BC-217 AD and during the Kshatrapa period many sites in Gujarat and Sindh show evidence of Greek and Roman artefacts.

Since we have considerable evidence of Roman and Byzantine sea contact with Africa, especially Ethiopia, it is not unlikely that Ethiopians and other black Africans were involved in the trade and also reached the shores of South Asia. With careful excavations in the city of Broach and its environs, it might be possible to determine if Ethiopian individuals actually lived there during the early centuries AD.

A later reference in the second century records the presence of an established slave trade of black Africans who were sold into slavery by local rulers to traders along the Arabian peninsula and then sold throughout the coastal communities of the Arabian Sea. By this time, it is not unlikely that some Africans were present in the region, either as traders, mercenaries or slaves. We know that Ethiopian traders, mercenaries and slaves were common in towns of the Arabian peninsula, such as Makkah.

These communities appear to have played an important role in the commerce and everyday activities of the region and the Prophet Muhammad declared that no ‘holy war’ was to be carried out against them. At this time, most of the Ethiopians in Arabia and adjacent regions were probably Christian, and associated with the Aksumite kingdom that converted to Christianity in the 4th century.

However, we also know that one of the first converts to Islam was a black slave named Bilal, and that subsequently many black slaves were converted and in some cases freed. It is assumed that the black slaves in Arabia included individuals of Ethiopian origin, as well as people from the interior and eastern Africa.

Once a person living in Arabia had been converted to Islam, he often became identified to outsiders as Arab even if he was ethnically quite distinct from the natives of the Arabian peninsula. Consequently, when we read that the trade dominance of Ethiopians (that is Ethiopian Christians) was eclipsed by Arab traders, it is not clear if these Arab traders are actually individuals ethnically related to Arab nomad communities or if some of them were Muslims of Ethiopian origin living in Arabia.

This situation makes it very difficult to use written texts to determine when African traders or merchant communities arrived in the subcontinent since they may have been referred to as Arabs rather than as habshi or zanj. Archaeological excavations, however, might provide one way to identify early African communities in India.

Another way to investigate this question is through the study of oral traditions. If you were to ask any Sidi in Gujarat where he came from, he would probably say that he originally came from Africa, either directly or via Arabia. In the current information age, with the widespread availability of modern literature, films, and TV, most Sidi communities along the coasts of India and Pakistan have developed strong associations with Africa.

In fact, many Sidis say that they are African, but most individuals are unable to provide details about where in Africa they originally came from or how they ended up in the subcontinent.

There are, however, a few elders who have provided us with a more detailed history of their movement from Ethiopia or Abyssinia, through Arabia, and eventually to the Makran coast, and then Gujarat or South India. One of our main informants was the late Sidi Kamar Badshah, an outspoken leader of the Sidi community, who lived near the famous hill called Gori Pir, in Broach district. Many aspects of Kamar Badshah’s accounts match well with what earlier scholars had recorded from interviews with his ancestors, but we were also able to obtain some interesting new insights.

Gori Pir
According to interviews with Kamar Badshah taken over the past ten years, one of the first Sidis to arrive in agate mining regions near Rajpipla was Gori Pir, who came with his twelve brothers. He did not know if there were any Africans in the region prior to the arrival of Gori Pir, but was able to confirm that Gori Pir originally came from Ethiopia, which would have included a wider region than that of the modern nation and may have included modern Yemen.

Gori Pir travelled to Makkah where he stayed for some time before moving on to the Makran coast near modern Karachi. After arriving on the subcontinent he spent many years wandering as a religious mendicant and bead trader. He stayed in eleven different localities and Sidi communities in these different regions still have festivals in his memory.

He travelled in the Makran and Sindh, and stayed at the shrine of Mungho Pir near modern day Karachi, where even today there is a large Sidi community who gather for the Urs of Mungho Pir. He eventually travelled throughout Saurashtra, north Gujarat and finally settled in Nadod, which is the modern town of Rajpipla. Here he established an agate bead workshop and then expanded his business to other major towns such as Limbodara and ports such as Khambhat. Some of his brothers, one of whom was not a Sidi (Bava Savan), assisted him in the bead industry which produced various types of agate beads for export to Africa and the Near East, as well as to regions in East and South East Asia. The Tomb of Bava Savan is located at the edge of Khambhat town.

An older story provides a bit more detail on the motivation for coming to Gujarat and setting up a bead factory. In this account there was a temple on the top of the hill that is now called Gori Pir. The goddess Makhan Devi (Butter Goddess) lived on the hill and near her a lamp, fed by fifty pounds of butter, burned continuously. The light of the lamp was so strong that it was visible as far away as Makkah. According to the legend, the Prophet Muhammad of Makkah noticed the light and asked Shaikh Gori Sidi (Gori Pir) to investigate its source.

As Gori Pir approached the hill, the goddess Makhan Devi sank into the ground and Gori Pir set up his residence and a workshop. If this tradition is true, then Gori Pir would have arrived in Gujarat sometime during the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (570-632 AD), almost a century before the conquest of Sindh by the Arabs in 711 AD. While this tradition does not seem to be supported by other historical and oral traditions, the association of Gori Pir with the Prophet Muhammad probably reflects a legitimization of their Islamic heritage and mission.

According to Sidi Kamar Badshah, when Makhan Devi sank into the ground her long braid was left sticking out, but Gori Pir was unable to destroy the goddess because he was a man and could not touch her. He sent for help from his sister Mai Mishra. Because she was a woman, it was possible for her to attack the goddess, which she did by taking her shoe and beating on the braid until it was swallowed up in the ground. Other traditions say that after twelve years Gori Pir’s sister Mai Mishra and his younger brother Bava Habash came looking for him and then stayed to live with him and help him with his business. When Mai Mishra died she was buried in a tomb located at the southwest corner of the modern platform holding the tomb of Gori Pir. Bava Habash is buried to the southeast on a low hill.

Excerpted with permission from

Sidis and Scholars: Essays on African Indians
Edited by Amy
Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Edward A. Alpers
Rainbow Publishers Available in Pakistan with Indus Publications, 25 Fareed Chambers, Abdullah Haroon Road, Karachi
Tel: 021-5660242, 4801429
ISBN 81-86962-64-6
226pp. Indian Rs475

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)