History of Memon Community

History of Memon Community
Memon is a famous caste of subcontinent. Traditionally, the name Memon is corrupted version of "Momin" derived from Arabic, meaning faithful. This was given used when this community converted to Islam.
Sindhi Origins
More than one narration has been proposed about the origins of the Memon community, These narrations, although similar, differ in their details, but all historical facts prove that Memon community originally belongs to Sindh. According to Dadani, Memon community came into existence in 824 Hijri (1422 CE) when 700 families comprising of 6178 persons belonging to the Lohana community of Sindh accepted Islam.
According to Anthovan, those Lohanas of Thato (District Thatta near Karachi city), who had also converted to Islam and became Memons, were invited by Jarejho Roa Khanghar, ruler of Bhuj (1548-1584) to settle in Bhuj. It is from there that Katchi Memons migrated to Kathiawar and Gujrat. Surat in Gujrat was an important trading center during 1580 to 1680 and Memons made their bounty there. Later, the Memons reached Bombay and settled there to carry their business. Diwan Bherumal M. Advani writes that all the Memons of Bombay, Gujrat and Kutch are Lohanas from Sindh. (A volume written by Mr. Anthovan, part 2, pages 52 and 53).
Another theory states that Memons originated in 1422 CE from Thatta in Sindh. The converts were first called Momins of Mumins and term with the march of time, changed to Memons. The story related therein states that some 700 Lohana families, (inclusive, perhaps of some earlier covert and neo-Muslim converts) comprising of some 6178 individuals, accepted Islam at the hands of one Syed Yusuffuddin Qadri and finding themselves banished by their erstwhile Hindu brothers were forced to migrate. This was also stated by Husssain Kassim Dada from his Presidential Chail at the first ever All India Memon Conference in Rajkot in the year 1931.
Memon community has also branch wise identification. Those who trace their ancestors from Kutch region are identified as Kutchi Memon and they speak Kutchi accent Sindhi. Those who trace their ancestry to Kathiawar are identified as Kathiawadi Memons or Halai Memons and they speak Memoni type Sindhi. Those Memons who remained in Sindh (Their ancestor never migrated to neighboring regions such as Kutch and Kathiawar) are identified as simply Memon or Sindhi Memon and they speak pure Sindhi Language.
Many Memon, especially Kathiawadi Memon, further distinguished themselves into various sun-groups which generally refer to their ancestral villages or towns such as Bantva Memons, Jutpur Memons and Deeplai Memon. It is estimated that the number of only Kathiawadi Memon, other than Kutchi and Sindhi Memon, worldwide are over one million.
Generally a Memon is a Sindhi Muslim person born within a Memon family which traces its ancestry back to the descendants of the community originating from Sindh and purely Sindhi speaking, whosemembers first embraced Islam, they all were known according to their areas as Halai Memon, Okhai Memon, Katchi Memon, Kathri, Tharati, Nasarpuria and others.
Mother tongue of Memon community is Sindhi, but most Memons who came back to their mother land from India at the time of participation in 1947, speak Sindhi with a tone of voice mixing to the indic North-Western Zone family of language dialect called Memoni. Memoni accent Sindhi is spoken only by Muslims, while the pure Sindhi language is spoken by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Memoni referes exclusively to the vernacular of the Kathiawadi Memons who are predominately Sunni Muslims that migrated from Sindh to the neighbouring regions of Kutch and Kathiawar in Gujarat several centuries ago but they did not forget Sindhi language and even today in stress, intonation, and eaveryday speech, Memoni is very similar to Sindhi, however it borrows vocabulary extensively from Gujarati, Hindustani and lately English.
Identification of Memon community living in Karachi is falling into disuse due to various reasons:-
They are forgetting their origin that they are from Sindh and Sindh is their mother land.
The new generation incline to Urdu and think that they migrated from India therefore they are "Mohajir" that is why the second generation parents do not know their mother tongue themselves. fear of being discriminated or being ridiculed by some urdu speaking development of inferiority complex about their heritage by many Memons.

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