Jamatkhana or Jamat Khana (from , literally "congregational place") is an amalgamation derived from the Arabic word jama'a (gathering) and the Persian word khana (house, place). It is a term used by some Muslim communities around the world, particularly Sufi ones, to a place of gathering.Azim Nanji and Razia Nanji, The Penguin Dictionary of Islam (London: Penguin, 2008), s.v. jamat khana. Among some communities of Muslims, the term is often used interchangeably with the Arabic word musallah (a place of worship that has not been formally sanctified as a masjidFiqh of Masjid & Musalla or is a place that is being temporarily used as a place of worship by a Muslim). The Nizārī Ismā'īlī community uses the term Jama'at Khana to denote their places of worship.Sami Nasib Makarem, The Doctrine of the Ismailis (Beirut: The Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 1972), 70.
The Jamatkhana as a place of gathering and prayer While the masjid (literally: the place of a Muslim's sujood or prostration before God) or mosque (in English) is the term used by the Qur'an to denote the primary space of salaat (communal Muslim prayers), a range of spaces for Islamic communal purposes can be currently found throughout the Muslim world.Renard, John. Seven Doors to Islam: Spirituality and the Religious Life of Muslims. University of California Press, 1996, pp. 168-175 Some are concentrated within particular geographic regions while others are in use by specific communities. Some of these include: husayniyyasDeeb, Lara. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi'i Lebanon. Princeton University Press, 2006, p. P. 144. (also known as ashurkhanas,Pinault, David. The Shiites: Ritual and Popular Piety in a Muslim Community. Palgrave Macmillan: 1992, p. 80. imambaras,Das, Neeta. Architecture of Lucknow: Imambaras and Karbalas. B. R. Publishers 2008. matams,Fuller, Graham E. and Rend Rahim Francke. The Arab Shi'a: The Forgotten Muslims. Palgrave Macmillan: 2000, p. 122–123. or takyehs in IranAghaie, Kamran Scot. The Martyrs of Karbala: Shi'i Symbols and Rituals in Modern Iran. University of Washington Press, 2004.) used by Ithna 'Ashari Shi'i communities; khanqahs,Peters, Francis E. The Monotheists: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Conflict and Competition – Vol. 2 – The Words and Will of God. Princeton University Press: 2003, p. 278-279. ribats,Bonner, Michael David. Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice. Princeton University Press, 2008., p. 136. takyasNorris, H. T. Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society Between Europe and the Arab World. University of South Carolina Press: 1993. and zawiyasMojuetan, Benson Akutse. History and Underdevelopment in Morocco: The Structural Roots of Conjunture. Lit Verlag: 1995, p. 41. used by mystically-oriented Muslim communities commonly referred to as Sufis; the cemeviSökefeld, Martin. The Alevi Movement in Germany and in Transnational Space. Berghahn Books: 2008, pp. 144-177. of the Turkish Alevis; the cemxane of the Kurdish Alevis; and the majlis and of the Druze.Abu-Izzeddin, Nejla M. The Druzes: A New Study of their History, Faith and Society. E. J. Brill: 1993. For Nizārī Ismā'īlīs, the primary space of religious and social gathering is the Jamatkhana. The term Jamatkhana is also used to refer to spaces used by a number of other Muslim communities with bases in South Asia, such as the Chisti Sufi tariqa,Mohamed, Malika. The Foundations of the Composite Culture in India. Aakar Books: 2007, p. 179. and various branches of the Musta'li Ismaili communityRoy, Shibani. The Dawoodi Bohras: An Anthropological Perspective.B. R. Publishing: 1984, p. 77. including the Dawoodi Bohras and Alavi Bohras.
The Chisti Sufi tariqa utilizes their Jamatkhanas as a meeting space for conversation and counsel with the pir or teacher. The Shi'i Bohra Ismaili communities use the term to designate their space for social gatherings and communal meals. It is customary amongst many Musta'li Ismaili communities in South Asia and their diasporas to have a Jamatkhana in the same complexes as their masjids. While the latter is the primary site for formal religious activities of the different branches of Bohra Ismailis – including the Da'udi, Sulaymani, and Alevi – the Jamatkhana acts as a site for less formalized religious gatherings, weddings, feasts and other events aligned with special days. Among Sunni Muslims known as Memons, the term Jamatkhana is used to denote a space for cultural gatherings and special occasions. Spaces designated as Jamatkhanas can also be seen in Mughal complexes, such as that of the Taj Mahal in Agra.
The Jamatkhana in Nizārī Ismā'īlīsm
The exact origins of the use of Jamatkhana in the Nizārī Ismā'īlī tradition are not as yet clear. However, communal memory, oral traditions and individual Ginans (Indo-Muslim religious poems) narrate that Pirs Shams (fl. between 13th and 15th centuries)Kassam, Tazim R. Songs of Wisdom and Circles of Dance: Hymns of the Satpanth Ismaili Saint, Pir Shams. SUNY Press: 1995. and Sadr al-Din (fl. 14th century),Asani, Ali. Ecstasy and Enlightenment. I. B. Tauris: 2002, p. 33. emissaries appointed by the Ismaili Imam in Persia and sent to the South Asia in the service of the faith, established the first such spaces for the nascent Nizārī Ismā'īlī communities in Sindh, Punjab, KashmirDaftary, Farhad. The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 443. and ChinaPir Shams. "Mansamjhani," (Khojki Script). Khoja Sindhi Press, 1912, p. 259, v. 4. during their lifetimes. Jannatpuri, a long composition known as a granth and belonging to the genre of the Ginans, by Sayyid Imamshah (d. after 1473) situates one of the earliest of these Jamatkhanas to a place by the name of Kotda, which is thought to be in modern-day Sindh in Pakistan.Sayyid Imamshah, Jannatpuri. Gujarati Language composition written printed in the Khojki Script by Lalji-Bhai Devraj, Bombay: 1905, v. 84 The same composition also mentions that the village headman, the mukhi (Sanskrit: mukhya) was closely associated with the Jamatkhana as an official.
Earliest Jamatkhanas The Jamatkhana was a space particular to several localized Ismaili communities of the South Asia, primarily in delta regions.Bovin, Michel. Ismaeliens d'Asie du Sud: Gestion des Heritages et Productions Identitaires. Editions l'Harmattan: 2008, p. 85. It was subsequently adopted by a wider range of Indian Ismaili communities in subsequent decades and centuries. These diverse groups, each with their own histories, identities and social organization identified themselves using various names such as Momin (or Mumna),Ali Asani. Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia. I. B. Tauris: London, 2002, p. 2. Shamsi,See for example, Dominique-Sila Khan's Crossing the Threshold: Understanding Religious Identities in South Asia. I. B. Tauris: London, 2004, p. 47. KhojaAzim Nanji. The Nizārī Ismā'īlī Tradition in the Indo–Pakistan Subcontinent. Delmar: NY, 1978. and Gupti.See for example, Domique-Sila Khan's Conversion and Shifting Identities: Ramdev Pir and the Ismailis of Rajasthan. Manohar, Delhi: 2003, p. 54. Collectively, these communities adopted the practice of Satpanth (lit. true path), a designation for Shi'i Ismailism of this period in the Subcontinent which included communal congregation in the Jamatkhana.Azim Nanji. The Nizārī Ismā'īlī Tradition in the Indo–Pakistan Subcontinent. Delmar: NY, 1978.
The term seems to have come in use to designate the place of Satpanthi religious gathering fairly late, possibly not until the last decades of the 18th or early years of the 19th centuries.The prefix jamat does not seem to appear in front of the term khana amongst the Nizārī Ismā'īlīs in oral renditions or the earliest written texts. The first reference in the English language to the Jamatkhana appears to be in relation to a court case filed against the Khojas of Bombay by Aga Khan I in 1829, but which was later dropped, suggesting the term was in circulation by that point. See Aga Khan Case, pp. 352, 363, 363a. The term darkhana as applied to a Jamatkhana and not simply the Imam's residence was first seen in usage in 1870 when it was applied to a Jamatkhana in Bombay's Khadak district. Amongst the Imamshahis, the term khana is still used to designate the space used for congregational practices of the community. The term Jamatkhana is absent from their discourses. The term gatjamat referring to the congregation who gathered in this communal space can be found in many ginans. The most common term used in the Nizārī Ismā'īlī ginans to refer to these spaces is the term gat.One of the most commonly recited ginans that includes this reference is "Gat Maa(n)he Aavine" (Come to the Space of Communal Congregation) attributed to Pir Sadr al-Din in the Khoja Nizārī Ismā'īlī tradition and Sayyid Imamshah in the Imamshahi tradition. Numerous other ginans also make reference to the gat as the congregational space of the community and the importance of the rituals that take place within it.
Evolution of the Jamatkhana By the mid-19th century, as Nizārī Ismā'īlī communities migrated from towns and villages to urban centres throughout the Indian Ocean littoral, the khana seems to have become a distinct space housed in a separate structure, usually located within a mohalla, or enclave, of Satpanthi believers. Several of the oldest extant examples of Jamatkhanas go back to this period. Most, however, have subsequently been renovated and added to, to accommodate the changing functional needs and ritual practices of the jamats (congregation) that they serve. The oldest of these urban structures can be found in places such as Gwadar (present day Pakistan), Zanzibar and Bombay (present day India). More modest examples that date from this period can also be found throughout Kutch and in Jerruk in interior Sindh, the residence of Aga Khan I upon his arrival to the South Asia. The architecture and organization of these spaces tell us that there was no single architectural template or model of the Jamatkhana, but rather each was constructed based on a series of circumstances including such things as location, cultural environment, architectural practices of the period and resources available. The variations from one Jamatkhana to the next also gives us clues to the nature of practices, the use and allocation of space and the nature and function of social relationships. Some of these were due to the cultural milieu in which the Jamatkhanas were situated while others followed general traditions of pietic and religious culture, which in turn informed rules of decorum and etiquette within these spaces.
In 1870, the Bombay Jamatkhana in Khadak became the first Jamatkhana assigned as a darkhana.However, it is possible that the term was in use somewhat earlier. In Kahak, Iran, there are a number of gravestones which speak about one "Kamadia Datardina Wandani of Darkhana jamat" who came to visit the Imam. The Gujarati-language Khojki inscription places Wandani's death in 1803. See Ivanow, W. "Tombs of Some Persian Ismaili Imams," Journal of the British Bombay Royal Asiatic Society, New Serial, Vol. 14 (1938), pp. 58-59. In the contemporary period, the Ismaili Centre, London was dedicated as the first darkhana on April 24, 1985 upon its opening. The term, was initially used to designate the chief residence of the Imam. In later years, however, it came to stand for the principal Jamatkhana in a national context. Today, nine countries have Darkhana Jamatkhanas in the Nizārī Ismā'īlī tradition. These include India, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Canada, Pakistan, England, Portugal, and the USA.See Aga Khan IV, "The Constitution of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims", Article 10 and Schedule 6. Original version in 1986 and revisions in 1998.
Jamatkhana as the Centre of Nizārī Ismā'īlī Practice