In memoriam: Zawahir Moir

Students and researchers at the IIS, particularly those studying Satpanth Ismaili traditions will remember with great admiration and affection an esteemed scholar, Zawahir (Noorally) Moir, who passed away in London on 9th February 2024 at 91.

Zawahir was born in Karachi in 1933. She obtained a BA in Arabic and Islamic Culture from Karachi University in 1956, where she went on to study for her masters in Islamic History in 1958. After completing her studies, she received a scholarship from His Highness the Aga Khan to pursue her MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. After completing her MA, she returned to Karachi and joined the then Ismailia Association for Pakistan for almost 15 years before returning to London in 1979. Once back in London, she worked at IIS, cataloguing Khojki manuscripts in its collection. Even after leaving the IIS, she continued to teach Khojki to interested IIS students. She participated in multiple international conferences in France, Iran, India, Pakistan, and the UK.

Zawahir’s contributions to research on Satpanth Ismaili history and literature have left a lasting impact on the study of the Indian Ismaili tradition. Professor Ali Asani, a scholar of Ginanic studies and a member of the IIS’ Board of Governors, acknowledged, “We are all indebted to Zawahir Moir for her pioneering studies on the Satpanth Ismaili tradition…”. On hearing the news about Zawahir’s passing away, Zayn Kassam, the Director of IIS, exclaimed, “

I find myself filled with gratitude for Zawahir’s presence—for the person she was, and the many, many contributions she made in training students in reading Khojki, the study of gināns, and for her fine scholarship on the subject.

There is hardly any contemporary scholar of Ginanic studies who has not benefited from her academic advice and support. She often mentioned how Gulshan Khaki requested her assistance in reading and deciphering some Khojki Ginan manuscripts preserved at the then Ismailia Association for Pakistan (now ITREB Pakistan). In her diary, she mentions how Professor Azim Nanji benefitted from the first cataloguing work of 110 Khojki manuscripts that she carried out in Karachi. She often fondly spoke about Professor Ali Asani’s visit to Karachi as a graduate student studying at Harvard and their continued association for decades. While remembering her contribution, Professor Tazim Kassam writes, “Zawahir Moir, a much beloved scholar, laid the foundation for work on Khojki manuscripts with her painstaking work on the first catalogue of Khojki manuscripts”.

The list of researchers who benefited from her expertise, academic advice and generosity in sharing manuscript copies and materials is too long to be recounted here. Dr Wafi Momin highlighted: “She was a great person and always selflessly supported students and younger scholars in their research and scholarship.” He added the importance of acknowledging “her important contributions, and especially the support and learnings, both formal and informal, she provided to IIS students in a number of areas, Khojki [script], South Asian Ismaili tradition, and Ginans.” On hearing the news, Dr Laila Halani wrote: “she has spent a considerable amount of her time helping IIS students study Khojki so that we had enough scholars to read and analyse the Khojki manuscripts in our collection.” 

Zawahir’s published works continue to guide students of Ginanic studies. She has published widely in this area, making significant contributions, especially on the history of the lives of the Satpanth pirs (saint-teachers), and on the period of the arrival of the first Aga Khan to India. Further, the book she co-authored with her friend and colleague Professor Christopher Shackle, Ismaili Hymns from South Asia (1992), was a major intervention in the study of Satpanth literature. Not only did it provide a translation and analysis of several poems from the corpus of ginān literature into English for the first time, its critical introduction also assessed the history, philology, and prosody of the Ismail ginān literature in pathbreaking ways. 

The scholarly accomplishments of Zawahir Moir and the care she and her husband had for their students and colleagues are noted by many who would visit her to learn more about gināns. As Christopher Shackle writes in the book that was produced in her honour, Ginans: Texts and Contexts (2010), ‘Martin and Zawahir’s wonderfully embracing and hospitable attic flat in Hampstead… must, over the years, have been the scene of more ginānic interchanges than any other home in London.” Another close friend of Zawahir, the late Dominique Sila-Khan, similarly notes in her Conversions and Shifting Identities (1997), “The growth of the field of ginān studies owes so much to Zawahir Moir’s ability to succor others, to her encouragement of their efforts, and her consistent willingness to share knowledge without looking for personal returns or even due acknowledgement”.

Her contribution to the field is not limited to two major Catalogues of the Khojki work (unpublished) but numerous articles that she contributed to academic journals, edited volumes and community publications. 

Zawahir was working closely with scholars of Ismaili studies in the 1960s and 70s. Wladimir Ivanow, a Russian orientalist and leading pioneer in modern Ismaili studies, regularly communicated with her and relied on her support during his stay in Karachi. In September 1968, when approached by Dr Farhad Daftary to help him with his research on the history of Ismaili Imams, Ivanow requested Zawahir to put Dr Daftary in touch with Bernard Lewis. She participated in the historic conference that was held in Paris in 1975. The conference deliberations led to the establishment of The Institute of Ismaili Studies in 1977.

Her enriching life stories and deep commitment to the poetic traditions of South Asia, and especially the Ismaili gināns, will continue to inspire the researchers. The maxim ‘those who love us never leave us’ will remain ever true for us in our memories of Zawahir. Although she now rests, the legacy of her scholarly work, and her enthusiastic spirit, will continue to shape the field of Ismaili Studies in the years to come. The South Asian Studies Unit at the IIS will dedicate a panel in her honour at its upcoming conference, Listening in Many Tongues: Multilingual Interpretive Communities that will be held at the AKC, London (21-22 October 2024). 

May her soul rest in Eternal Peace.  

Note: Those interested in knowing more on her life and works can refer to “a bio-bibliography of Zawahir Moir” put together by Wafi Momin, her student and now the Head of the Ismaili Special Collections Unit at the IIS, in Ginans: Texts and Contexts (2010).