Basmala Australia –Urs /Hawl Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jailani, November 4, 2023
It is a privilege to be invited to present at this event honouring our spiritual forefather. It is
hoped that through this short talk something of the history of the Qadiriyya Sufi Order in
Australia can be conveyed along with the wider importance of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani
for Sufism in Australia.
Maccasans
The engagement between the Makassan fishermen of Indonesia and the Indigenous peoples
of Northern Australia is one of the earliest, sustained engagements between Muslims and
Australia. The forays into Australian waters by Macassar fishermen in search of trepang, sea
cucumbers, occurred from as early as the sixteenth century and continued until South
Australian customs effectively outlawed their visits in 1906. These annual visits to north-east
Arnhem Land, spanned from December to April, leaving profound imprints on the cultures
and languages of Australia’s far north shores. During these visits cultural exchange occurred,
with some Makassans participating in Aboriginal feasts and ceremonies and some Aboriginal
peoples creatively adapting aspects of Islam. As a result, it is interesting to examine what type
of Islam was being introduced into Northern Australia.
The local kingdoms of South Sulawesi, from where many of the Makassan fishermen hailed,
embraced Islam early in the 17th century, with the spread of Islam throughout Indonesia
coming in large part at the hands of the Sufis. The influence of Sufism in the uptake of Islam
in Indonesia is seen by some to have a continuing influence and given the period during which
Islam spread through Indonesia and the earliest estimates of the arrival of Makassans in
Australia, it is possible that Indigenous Australians were witness to these religious
developments through the visiting fishermen. It is plausible that these early and sustained
engagements of Muslims with Australia were either directly connected with, or at least
influenced by, Sufism.
The cultural exchange that has been documented between the Makassan fishermen and
Indigenous Australians indicates a significant level of linguistic and spiritual influence. There
is remnant vocabulary in Yolngu rituals that is derived from Muslim prayer, and it has long
been observed that some Indigenous religious ceremonies are strongly inflected with
Macassan influences with references to Muslim prayer surviving in some secret/sacred
incantations on the northern Australian shores to the point that before British colonization
some of Australia’s Indigenous peoples were engaging with Muslim life-worlds at a much
deeper level than has been presumed.
The first Indonesian author who expressly claims to have been initiated into the Qadiriyya,
along with several other orders, is the famous 17th century Shaykh Yusuf Makassar. He was
initiated into the Qadiriyya, Naqshbandiyya, the Shattariyya and the Khalwatiyya turuq.
Whilst originally from Central Sulawesi, after his travels through the middle east, Shaykh Yusuf
Makassar settled in Banten, west of Jakarta, while remaining in correspondence with the royal
elite of South Sulawesi. While Shaykh Yusuf did not teach the Qadiriyya but the Khalwatiyya,
there is evidence from his texts that he incorporated elements from the other turuq that he
had mastered. From the late 18th century onwards there is increasing evidence of the
Qadiriyya across Indonesia, with Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir acquiring considerable prestige as a
powerful protector.
Whilst this is far from conclusive evidence, given the influence of Sufism generally, and the
Qadiriyya tariqa particularly, on the development of Islam in Indonesia, it is interesting to
suggest that future research will find links between the Qadiriyya Sufi order and the
Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia through their engagement with the Maccasans.
Cameleers
Between 1860 and 1920 approximately 20,000 camels were imported to Australia to cart all
manner of goods across the country. To manage these beasts between 2,000-4,000
Cameleers were utilised. Most of the Cameleers hailed from different provinces which later
became Pakistan, such as Baluchistan, Punjab, the Sindh, the Northwest Frontier Province, as
well as the protectorate Kingdom of Afghanistan, other parts of India, and what was to later
become Bangladesh, areas which all have rich heritages of Sufism. Most scholars researching
the Cameleers hint at a connection between the Cameleers and Sufism, though to date there
has been a lack explicit evidence of such a connection. As the colonial powers of the time
were more interested in the camels than those that tended them, much that would provide
valuable insight into the practice of Sufism amongst the Cameleers has been lost.
There are possible glimpses of Sufism amongst the Cameleers in newspaper reports, provided
such reports are read with an understanding of Islamic and Sufic orthopraxy. For instance, a
1902 newspaper report on the conditions within Afghan camps documented a “new terror in
the shape of corroborrees or what ever [sic] the Afghans call their ear splitting evening
concerts,” which are distinguished by “the howls and wails of the men with bandage pants
who work themselves up into a voice far exceeding concert pitch.” Read with an
understanding of Sufi practice, it is possible that this is one of the earliest, if not the first,
documented recording of a Sufi congregational gathering (dhikr) in Australia.
Beyond the transportation of goods, the Cameleers also build the earliest known mosques in
Australia. These include locations such as Maree, Coolgardie, Adelaide, Broken Hill, Perth, and Brisbane. At its peak, Broken Hill had two camel camps, each with their own dedicated
mosques, though as the town expanded and reliance on the camel lessened, the west camel
camp mosque was relocated, eventually to be behind the north camel camp mosque. These
two simple structures represent the oldest existent mosques in New South Wales and some
of the few remaining Cameleer build mosques in Australia. Today the entrance room to the
Broken Hill Mosque is an exhibition room with a small collection of Cameleer artefacts. These
artifacts have received ongoing attend and recently a book previously mislabelled a Qur’an
was identified as a copy of Kasasol Ambia a 500 page volume of Bengali Sufi poetry. Also
recently identified is a handwritten manuscript which we will discuss shortly. Of note, a 1926
newspaper article, along with listing other mosques in Australia, mentions “a Zaweya in
Broken Hill.”
The Perth Mosque development came about through the Cameleers banding together, with
at least 204 contributing to the initial funding. While it was not the first mosque in Western
Australia, it is the first mosque to be built separately from the Ghantowns the other Cameleer
mosques were annexed to and represents an awareness of group identity independent of
their trade, during a time of political and racial tension within Australia. The current design
includes the original building built by the Cameleer community though this part of the building
is concealed from outside by more recent extensions that were built to accommodate the
growing Muslim population in Perth. The basement of the Perth Mosque is where another
handwritten Cameleer manuscript was found.
Interestingly, the handwritten Cameleer manuscripts from the Broken Hill and Perth mosques
highlight an explicit connection to the Qadiriyya tariqa. The Broken Hill Mosque manuscript
was written in 1322AH/1901CE by Ahmed al-Qadiri to Ahmed Akbar Khān al-Afghānī. It
contains the author’s genealogy (nasab) and spiritual chain (silsila), both of which trace back
through Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, indicating membership of the Qadiriyya Sufi order.
Along with the genealogy (nasab) and spiritual chain (silsila), this manuscript also contains
a hadith Qudsi with two chains of transmission (sanad), a licence (ijaza), spiritual work (wird),
some honorific titles of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, and a list of some of the children of
Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī. The Perth Mosque manuscript is a prayer book containing
supplications and their purposes along with four silsilas, being Chishti, Suhrawardi, Qādirī,
and Kubrawi. Of these four only the Qādirī silsila is complete and follows the spiritual
genealogy (silsila) found in the Broken Hill mosque manuscript, with a few additions of the
more recent representatives of the Qadiriyya. Taken together, the Broken Hill and the Perth
Qadiri silsilas indicate both a familial and spiritual lineage through Sayyid Hasan Gailani to
Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani to the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. Sayyid Hasan Gailani was born in Baghdad around 1862 and was, along with his brother Sayyid Abdul Rahman Gailani, Naqib al-Ashraf of Baghdad until he left and moved to Afghanistan in 1905, where the Gailani family remains prominent both politically and as spiritual representatives of the Qadiriyya. Whilst it is currently unclear what relationship either Ahmed al-Qadiri, author of the Broken Hill mosque manuscript, or ʿAbd al-Salām al-Qādirī, first in the Perth Mosque manuscript Qadiri silsila, had to Sayyid Hasan Gailani, the manuscripts indicate both familial and spiritual ties. With the possibility of one or both manuscript authors being amongst the Cameleers, there is an interesting possibility there were descendants of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani residing in Australia during the late 19th or early 20th centuries. While Cameleer manuscripts are extremely rare, it can now be seen there are two handwritten manuscripts associated with the Cameleers whose contents are closely aligned, both of which strongly indicate there were adherents of the Qārdiriyya Sufi order amongst the Cameleers in Australia.
Burhaniyya
The importance of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani extends beyond the Qadiriyya tariqa to other
taruq that are found within Australia. One such order that traces their silsila through Shaykh
‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani is the Burhaniyya-Dasuqqiyya-Shadhiliyya Sufi Order. The Burhaniyya
tariqa in Australia have operated under Murishid F. A. Ali ElSenossi for many years. From
Perth in the early 1980s, to Tasmania in the early 1990s, to Broken Hill in the early teenies,
Murishid F. A. Ali ElSenossi, Shaykh of the Burhaniyya-Dasuqqiyya-Shadhiliyya Sufi Order and
Spiritual Director of the Almiraj Sufi and Islamic Study Centre, has established representatives
in most states of Australia, as well as Indonesia, America, Canada, and Mauritania, amongst
others. Murshid Ali established Australia’s first Sufi bookshop in Perth 1983. When Murshid
Ali moved to southern Tasmania in 1990 the Centre and bookshop relocated too, initially
opening at the Margate train and later in Hobart. In 2012 the bookshop relocated to Broken
Hill and has become the largest comparative spirituality bookshop in the southern
hemisphere. Australia’s first Sufi magazine, The Treasure, has been published under his
guidance since 1998. Finding a permanent home in Broken Hill, the Almiraj Sufi and Islamic
Study Centre includes the zawiya, prayer area, library, bookshop, and bakery. Jummah is
conducted at the Sufi Centre, along with the weekly gathering for dhikr, tarawih in month of
Ramadan, and the celebration of the two Eids. As part of the goals of the Centre are “to
introduce Islam in its totality to the community” the Centre has hosted numerous
researchers, school groups, and university groups over the years to open various aspects of
the teaching to interested audiences.
The Qadiriyya was one of the earliest Sufi orders to Sufi order to emerge as a structured
organisation and it is perhaps fitting that it looks to be one of the first Sufi orders to have
established roots on Australian soil. Given the importance of the Qadiriyya Sufi order in the
history of Islam in Australia, it is hoped that the influence of its founder, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir
al-Jilani, continues to be felt amongst the adherents of Sufism in this country and beyond for
years to come.