Kaderbhoy Adam

Adam had a son Kader, nicknamed Kadra, and Kader had 2 children, a daughter Lilbai and a son Rahimtoola. Nothing is known about other members of the families of Adam and Kadar except a recollection of Hooseinally, a grandson of Rahimtoola, that the elders used to say that some relations used to come to meet Manbai, the wife of Rahimtoola, and that some relations had migrated to Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), East Africa.

Kader migrated to Bombay round about 1838 to earn a living. He started in a very small way, as he was poor, buying and selling small items. When he had some money, he purchased a property on Tandel Street, (adjoining Pir Mohamed Shah’s Dargah and Ismaili Burial Ground at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Road East, (old Sandhurst Road East) Bombay, known in those days as Dargah Mohalle. The property was purchased in the name by which Kader was popularly known i.e. Kadra Adam, and stood in this name in the Bombay Municipal records upto about 1955 when the property was sold to the Massalawalla Co-operative Bank (now merged with the Ismailis Co-operative Bank under the new name of Development Co-operative Bank).

Kader died in Bombay but the year of his death is not known. He was buried in the Ismaili Burial Ground somewhere, according to present-day reckoning, on the rear side of the Mausoleum of Pir Mohamed Shah. Kader left, besides the property at Tandel Street, two small properties in Khojawad at Jamnagar, which were known as the properties of Kadra Adu.

"Mr. Hooseinally M. Rahimtoola had round about 1940, prepared some Family Notes. He had also kept, prior to his departure for Africa, some rough notes with his younger brother Suleman and, later on, some more notes with his son Jaffar.

This paper is an attempt to put together the available data for future generations of the family. It is hoped that the younger members of the family will periodically up-date this paper."

Sultanali Rahimtoola, Bombay 1988.