Who are the Memons?

''Excerpt from the World Memon Organisation

Overview
Memons are a Muslim ethnic group originating from the Indian subcontinent. Traditionally, the Memons have been a mercantile community focussing on business operations.

Memons are known for their involvement in philanthropy. Several mosques, orphanages, sanatoria, and more, have been built by the Memons at various times and places.

A large number of Memons reside in India and Pakistan but due to a variety of reasons, they have migrated to different parts of the world. Significant communities are based in the United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Middle East, South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi, Kenya, Mauritius, Singapore, Burma and Australia.

Language
The language that Memons speak is called Memoni. Memons of different regions have slightly different styles of speaking the language, thanks to local influences and years of isolation from each other. However, these dialects remain mutually intelligible.

Memoni is believed to have originated as a dialect of Sindhi then diversified through isolation and foreign influences. It is mutually intelligible with Kutchi, a language also with origins from Sindhi.

Memoni as a language does not have a writing script. However, in the past, there have been attempts to write Memoni using the Gujrati and Urdu scripts. Due to the prevalence of the internet, Memoni is typically written in the Latin script. This wiki page is attempting to write Memoni using a modified version of the Sindhi script so that it will be accessible to Muslim-speaking populations and easier to match sounds for people who are new to the language.

History
Nirun Kot (present Hyderabad-Sindh), Debal, Sama & Lakha forts and the surrounding areas were populated by a Hindu community known as the Lohanas. This region was called Lohana Desh or Lohana Puraganas. Thattha and the surrounding region were also included in the Lohana Desh. Brahamanabad was their chief city.

Members of the Lohana community were engaged in all types of trades, industries, animal husbandry and agriculture. They followed the teachings of Gautama and were converted to Buddhism. Over time, Buddhism lost its hold over the community and they slowly became Hindu.

Due to the spread of Islam, South Asia was ruled by a series of Sultanates that followed Sunni Islam. This long-term occupation led to a heavy influence on the language, culture and lifestyle of the people in the region. In 1422 AD, Abu Zakaria Yahya Yusufuddin, a direct descendant of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani of Baghdad came to Sindh to spread Islam. After labouring for 10 years, he succeeded in the conversion of 700 Lohana families to Islam. These 700 families would go on to form a community called the Momins, meaning true believers of God and faithful followers of Islam. Over time, the word Momin was distorted and the word Memon took its place.

Due to this conversion, a conflict arose between the neo-Muslim and the Hindu Lohanas with whom they had very close social relations. On Sayyid Yusufuddin’s advice, these 700 families migrated to Variya, which was situated near Thattha. A few years later, about 600 Memons migrated to Halar in Kathiawar and settled there permanently. They came to be known as the Halari or Halai Memons. A 100 years later, the remaining families at Variya migrated to Bhuj, the Capital of Kutch and came to be known as the Kutchi Memons. This is where the Kutchi language originates from. A few of these Kutchi Memons migrated to Okha and have come to be known as the Okhai Memons. Memon farmers who had opted to stay in Southern Sindh were called Sindhi Memons.

These Memons in Halar, Kutch, Okha and Sindh were isolated in their respective regions and developed their own characteristics and dialects of the Memon language. Memons have further diversified into several more groups but are all united by their cultural identity and language.