Portraits stoke mystery of Hajji Gasnodien
OF THE numerous historical paintings and maps displayed at the Cape Town Castle, one of them is especially significant for the Muslim community in South Africa.
The paintings of Hajji Gasnodien (Hasan al-Din), alias Carel Pilgrim, and his wife Nasea are to be found in the Castle gallery. They were painted by George French Angas. These images might well be the first confirmed ones of Cape Muslims in South Africa from the early 19th century.
Hajji Gasnodien lived in the Bo Kaap and died in Buitengracht Street in 1863. He was a freed slave who had a dual Dutch slave-Muslim name. He kept his slave name of Carel once he was freed, as it made relations with the colonialists easier.
Although it cannot be confirmed, it is assumed that Gasnodien was born Muslim, since his tombstone gives his father’s name as Abdullah.
Jackie Loos writes that Gasnodien was the first Cape-born pilgrim to visit Mecca. But interestingly, his descendants claim that he always had a connection with the Ottoman Empire. So, who exactly was this Hajji Gasnodien?
Hajji Gasnodien was born circa 1785, to Abdullah, also known as Johan Gottlieb Barends, and a slave mother, Pakka van de Kaap.
The soldier historian John Mayson mentions Gasnodien for the first time in his book, The Malays of Cape Town, in 1861. He says that Carel was the first Muslim man to go on pilgrimage from the Cape. Unisa’s Auwais Rafudeen states that Hajji Gasnodien completed the Hajj between 1834 and 1837.
Local historian Achmat Davids notes that Gasnodien was a prominent imam. He converted a premises in Castle Street into a mosque and madrasah. They no longer exist today.
Interestingly, on 8 June 1855, the Natal Witness reported that Gasnodien had publicly announced his congregation would not countenance petitions for state aid. This could hint to an interest in gaining future Ottoman support at the Cape, as opposed to the colonial parliament.
According to Ottoman archival records, Gasnodien’s son, Mahmoud Fakih Effendi was originally from Mecca. The holy city was governed by the Ottoman Caliphate in the 19th century, and “Effendi” was an honorific title for scholars.
It is believed Mahmoud Effendi had studied in Mecca for an extensive period due to his father’s connections. For this reason, Mahmoud Effendi was appointed as the principal of the Ottoman Arabic School in Cape Town in 1894, possibly on the same premises his father had used years earlier.
We know that Mahmoud was the son of Gasnodien due to Adli Jacobs, a descendant of Gatea, the daughter of Hajji Gasnodien. He provided oral evidence that Gasnodien and Fatima were the parents of Gatea, and that her brother was indeed Mahmud Effendi.
After examining the death notice of Fatima, we saw that Gasnodien did indeed have a son named Magmoet. And Mahmud Effendi’s own death notice confirmed his parents’ names as Gasnodien and Fatima. Furthermore, to bolster our thesis, The Cape Argus reported in 1909 that Mahmoud Effendi’s father was the first Muslim to go to on Hajj.
We also discovered that Hajji Gasnodien had been mentioned in Ottoman archival documents as the father of Mahmoud Effendi.
One must now ask how an Ottoman citizen became a slave in South Africa, as this would have been highly unusual. Unfortunately, there is currently no evidence to enlighten us. However, a Turkish archival document does provide a significant clue.
It reveals that an Ottoman merchant from the Arabian Peninsula, Hajji Abdullah, was robbed and captured while on board a ship in Maputo in 1772.
There is no record of Hajji Abdullah after the incident, but if he were captured and sold as a slave, he could be the father of Gasnodien from the Cape. The other hypothesis is that Gasnodien's father could have only been a slave, and not an Ottoman merchant.
A subject that requires more research – but which seems to support our initial theory – is how a slave could have made enough money to go to Hajj immediately after emancipation in 1834. If Gasnodien was indeed the son of merchant Abdullah, who was waylaid in Maputo, he would probably have been aware that he came from a wealthy Meccan family.
As we have said, we are not sure whether this relates to Gasnodien's father or not, but chronologically, the dates do correspond to the abduction of the Ottoman merchant Abdullah, and later the birthdate of Gasnodien to Abdullah at the Cape.
Apart from that, the name Gasnodien is still a popular name in the Effendi family, signalling that it has always given importance to its forefathers.
A descendant, Nathri Effendi, told us that when a journalist wrote an article about Carel Pilgrim in in 2003, his late father, Mahmoud Effendi, had called saying he was the descendant of Gasnodien, and that that there were some errors. This showed us that awareness of their Ottoman lineage had been passed down the generations of the Effendi family.
Now, one might ask: are there any more images of Gasnodien? And indeed, we believe there are. When the Ottoman theologian, Sayyid Abu Bakr Effendi, came to South Africa from Istanbul in order to educate Muslims in 1863, Gasnodien was still alive, but he was already about 85 years old.
A photo of a group of Cape Muslims with Sayyid Abu Bakr Effendi (no relation to Mahmud Effendi) was taken on the 16th of January 1863. Gasnodien might be in this photo, taken upon the Effendi's arrival to the Cape. Gasnodien died just after a few months after Abu Bakr Effendi's arrival, on the 21st of May of 1863.
Indeed, several Turkish archival documents illustrate the relationship between Mahmoud Fakih Effendi and his Arabic school at 119 Castle Street.
Turkish archival documents indicate Mahmoud Effendi was appointed to the Ottoman Arabic School in Cape Town, not only because of his Islamic knowledge, but because of his relations with the Ottoman Empire.
The title “Effendi” is further proof for his connection to the Ottoman State. According to official records, Gasnodien was the first Hajji of Cape Town and of Ottoman descent. This can also be noted on his son Abdullah’s death notice which indicates his name as “Abdullah Gasnodien Effendi”.
In this case, it would be possible to say that Hajji Gasnodien was the first Muslim from the Cape to establish relations between Turkey and South Africa in the first half of the 19th century.