Abstract
M.A. (Semitic Languages)
The history of Muslims in Pretoria began two decades after the arrival of the first Muslims
to Natal from India and over two centuries after those in the Cape.
Historians and researchers have undertaken the study of the Cape Muslims and pioneers of
Natal. There is no book written on the Muslims in the Transvaal region. The two main
centres in the Transvaal are Pretoria and Johannesburg.
The village of Pretoria was founded in 1858, two and a half decades before Johannesburg.
The first Muslims came to the vicinity in the 1880's, when it was still a small village
consisting of 12 shops. The pioneer Muslims witnessed the growth and development of this
village into a city.
It is from the Pretoria region that the Muslims moved into the interior of Transvaal. The
problems of the Muslims began in this city, and later spread to other town areas. This city
was the centre of trade and business links to the other towns.
As a Muslim citizen of Pretoria, it was considered best to undertake the study of the
Muslims in this area. It was assumed that there would be no difficulty in obtaining basic
source material on the historical aspect of the Muslims of Pretoria from the first arrival to
the end of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Z.A.R.) Government. At one stage the
exercise of collecting data on this subject proved futile.
However, it was after referring to a few books on the history of Indians in general, that it
gave me some direction of the situation in the Z.A.R.