Student Highlight: Yusuf Umrethwala

Yusuf is an MA candidate for the Columbia and Aga Khan University dual degree in Islamic Studies and Muslim Cultures. He pursued his undergrad and Master’s at Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah in Surat, India, with a major in Arabic literature (ʾAdab), and went on to lecture and research at the same university.

His past research interests include the expression of emotional intensity and visceral imagery by the use of lingual derivations in the poems of Ṭayyībī-Ismaʿīlī Laureates of Yemen in the 13th century. His current research is on the study of the trans-national socio-religious migratory history of his community, the Dawoodi Bohras from India starting from the early 19th century to the present day, his findings on which were recently self-published in a book, Travel and You Shall Prosper: The History of Migrations of the Dawoodi Bohras. This book covers the migratory history of the Dawoodi Bohras to over 40 countries from India across 9 geographical regions with a detailed account of the early migrants and community developments. Since nothing of this kind was previously documented, his work relies mostly on oral history and ethnographic research and is also complemented with a rich collection of old images and archives, each of which tells and complements the vivid history of migrations. He hopes to deepen his research and use his Master's experience to augment and enrich his work. He has also studied and written on the iconography of an old wooden artifact belonging to the Western Fatimid Palace in Cairo (9th Century).

His life-long dedication to Islamic Studies, as well as his interactions with the Dawoodi Bohra diasporic communities around the world, have inspired him to study how early traders of the community travelled far and wide and established themselves as an enterprising mercantile community vis-à-vis safeguarding their cultural heritage. He believes that, as we face the loss of cultural traditions around the world, spreading scholarly awareness is as crucial as conservation. Understanding the relevance and applicability of the rich Islamic intellectual and cultural heritage to the present age has been the primary focus of his studies, and this is what he hopes to continue doing by pursuing the dual degree program.

Currently, he co-leads an Arabic reading group at Columbia University called ʾIqrā: Readings in Classical Arabic Texts. His idea behind this initiative is to engage and discuss classical Arabic Islamic texts and understand their relevance and contributions in a modern-day framework.