Streets have long offered a way to read large histories at an intimate scale. Accounts of London’s Fleet Street trace the printers, newspapers and literary circles that made its name synonymous with the British press. College Street in Kolkata is renowned as a hub for booksellers and buyers. Streets like Cairo’s al-Muizz Street bring centuries of religious, commercial and domestic life into view through their monuments and surviving markets. In the old quarters of Surat, Devri Mubarak has its own legacy cherished by the Dawoodi Bohra community.
Unfolding within a neighbourhood of rather unique façades, to walk through it is to encounter this legacy at close range: the brick pattern underfoot, a balcony projecting above the lane, an inscription worked into a wall, and the entrance to a revered institution of learning.
Origins of the name
Devri (also rendered devdi) denotes a threshold: the Urdu word ديورهي (day-o-rhi) refers to an entrance or covered passage into a house and may also designate the residence beyond it. Mubarak, meaning blessed, indicates the spiritual significance of the area for the community.
The Kamaan: The entrance
Walking down Devri Mubarak is tantamount to unravelling a chapter in the nearly 300-old legacy of the Dawoodi Bohra community in Surat. The approach begins from the main thoroughfare of Zampa Bazaar, Khaari, amidst closely packed buildings of old Surat.
Cream and weathered grey walls rise above the street; windows, projecting balconies and shop signs occupy successive layers of view. Pedestrians and vehicles share the narrow approach. Before entering, a glance upwards reveals architectural details, including pointed windows and floral ornament along their upper edges.
The kamaan—meaning arch—marks the entrance into Devri Mubarak. Its deep reddish-brown frame surrounds a broad, scalloped opening. Along the outer border, curling stems and flowers form a continuous band. Within this frame, a tighter interlacing pattern covers the surface above the arch. Two circular floral medallions sit on either side, with another flower arrangement above the centre.
Throughout the day, light catches the raised edges of the decoration, while the recessed pattern appears darker. The arch’s curved, repeated lobes temper the rectangular frame around it, making the opening itself a striking feature.
Passing beneath it feels like stepping back in time. The view resolves into a paved pedestrian lane. Farther along, reddish and terracotta-coloured paving blocks are laid in a herringbone pattern: short rectangular pieces meeting at right angles to form a continuous zigzag. Their warm colour runs between pale walls, with narrow borders defining planting beds and the edges of the path.
Dark green shrubs and lighter, strappy leaves soften the bases of the buildings. Near the entrance, a tiered fountain occupies a pointed recess, with trailing foliage above it.
Beneath this arch, it is easy to imagine an earlier walk along Cairo’s al-Muizz Street, where decorated entrances, bricked buildings, places of learning and homes historically stood close together.
During the gathering of al-Istifada al-Ilmiyya in 2026, a blue canopy printed with white clouds stretches above the lane. In daylight, it adds a cool blue surface above the warm paving. After dark, a constellation of lights across it becomes prominent, while illumination gilding the façades draws attention to columns, arches and cantilever balconies.
Historic landmarks
The first landmarks the eyes fall on through Devri Mubarak are the qibab, or domed mausoleums, just to the left. Two white marble structures— Qubba Najmiyya and Qubba Izziya—that together constitute the resting places of seven Dawoodi Bohra leaders, known as Duat Mutlaqeen, and a legacy of succession spanning two hundred years.
Their pale surfaces and rounded domes give this part of the precinct a different character from the narrow approach. The domes rise in clearly defined sections towards gleaming brass finials. In strong daylight, their white and creamy tones become particularly bright, while the projecting architectural details produce small, sharp shadows.
Just beyond stands Masjid-e-Moazzam. Its yellow-cream frontage is punctuated by pointed arches with warmer peach-coloured recesses.
Two tall, square minarets frame the building, each capped by a white dome. Their vertical proportions make them recognisable above the surrounding rooftops. Seen together, the masjid and mausoleums form a serene sanctum within the dense urban scape of Zampa Bazaar.
The original masjid dates to 1804 and was built by Syedna Abdeali Saifuddin. Decades of discourses, celebrations and memories reverberate within its walls. Following its latest reconstruction, it was inaugurated on 11 December 1996 by the 52nd al-Dai al-Mutlaq Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin and is a testament to the Fatimi architectural legacy.
Mahad al-Zahra: Quranic learning with a global reach
Turning right and continuing northwards, the first building on the left is Mahad al-Zahra, established by Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin in 1976 to encourage students to learn and understand the Quranic arts and sciences.
Mahad al-Zahra’s work extends beyond students enrolled at Aljamea. It supports learners through residential programmes, classes and online teaching, allowing members of the community in different countries and at different stages of life to pursue Quranic memorisation. From this building in Surat, the walk therefore opens onto a much wider educational network.
Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah: Two hundred years of learning
Parallel to Mahad is Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah, the Dawoodi Bohra community’s principal educational institution.
Its beginnings date to 1810, when the 43rd Dai, Syedna Abdeali Saifuddin, founded the academy and named it Dars e Saifee. Previously, Tullab al-Ilm (students) would travel to where the Syedna presided to partake in Asbaaq (akin to time-tabled classes). Syedna Saifuddin laid the foundation of a dedicated institution of higher learning within the Dawoodi Bohra community by establishing the Darse Saifee in Surat.
Syedna Saifuddin’s successors strengthened that foundation and built capacity in terms of both infrastructure and intake as Aljamea became a coveted institution of learning. During his time, the 51st Dai, Syedna Taher Saifuddin, stewarded a large-scale redevelopment project and introduced frameworks for better administration of the academy.
Thereafter subsequent expansion under his successor, the 52nd Dai al-Mutlaq, Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin saw the introduction of more state-of-the-art facilities alongside residential lodgings for both boys and girls. The buildings encountered today belong to this continuing development of an institution founded more than two centuries ago.
Walking across Devri Mubarak highlights the difference between the academy’s textured surfaces and the smoother, more delicately ornamented residential façades nearby. Sand-coloured and pinkish-buff wall surfaces are divided into rectangular blocks. Pale columns establish a repeated vertical pattern below, while cream ornamental elements and white calligraphic panels stand out above.
Looking closely at the openings, curving, fan-like grilles and recessed architectural panels introduce depth into the frontage. In daylight, the joints between the blocks and the irregular surface texture are easy to distinguish. As the light becomes more oblique, small projections cast longer shadows. With the evening lighting, the columns turn warm ivory and gold, while the recesses behind them appear darker.
Another detail to recognise is the hexagonal geometric designing. Six-sided, honeycomb patterns recur across the Surat campus, including the balconies. This design, dedicated to Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah, signifies the honeybee’s hive. The symbolism alludes to the Quranic verse where a student is encouraged to be like a honeybee: gather from varied sources and turn knowledge into beneficial outcomes.
The campus has developed through successive building projects, but its spaces remain closely connected. Teaching, study, prayer and residence all take place within a compact setting, making the lane an everyday route between different parts of student life.
The historic residence of the Dawoodi Bohra leaders
Exactly across Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah’s buildings is al-Qasr al-Mutahhar, the residence associated with generations of the community’s leaders.
Surat became the seat of the community’s leadership in 1795. The connection between residence and education was made especially close in 1810, when Syedna Abdeali Saifuddin laid the foundation of the new academy across his home. Its location expressed the importance he attached to students and their education, where from Devri Mubarak's passage, the connection between the residence and the academy can be understood simply by looking from one to the other.
Al-Qasr al-Mutahhar is perhaps best appreciated by looking upward slowly, from the entrance to the balcony and then to the upper windows. At ground level, pale fluted columns—columns with vertical grooves—support the frontage. Their decorative capitals carry curling, leaf-like forms. Behind them, dark brown door frames and hanging lamps introduce a richer, warmer register of colour.
Above, the projecting balcony is one of the most detailed features of the lane. Slender columns support scalloped arches, each composed of a succession of small curves and the balcony railing alternates pierced geometric latticework with solid panels of floral ornament.
Aljamea’s baab: The historic ceremonial entrance to the academy
From al-Qasr al-Mutahhar, the path leads down to Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah’s main door to be welcomed into the Mabna al-talim or academic halls.
The institution behind this entrance has accommodated students from distant places since its early years. A survey accompanying an 1817 map of Surat recorded approximately 200 youngsters studying and boarding at the academy, including students from Agra and Delhi. The building was arranged around an open-to-sky central courtyard, with students and teachers living and studying within it.
Today, Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah’s eleven-year programme has expanded to include thousands of students across five campuses in Surat, Marol, Karachi, Nairobi and now Sidhpur, combining a wide range of contemporary disciplines, including literature, humanities, sciences, social sciences and languages. Students progress through successive stages of study, with an emphasis on applying what they learn and developing their character as well as their academic abilities, as they blossom into leaders who serve and benefit society.
Aljamea’s shi’aar: Understanding the emblem
Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah’s emblem, or shi’aar as it is known in Arabic, conveys key concepts of Fatimi learning and upbringing. Its elements were selected by Syedna Taher Saifuddin to express the academy’s educational principles.
The outermost arch is a replica from an arch in the transept of al-Jame al-Azhar, in Cairo. The inscription uses floriated Kufic: an angular style of Arabic lettering enriched with leaf-like ornament.
The emblem’s elements include two Quranic verses concerning the encouragement of academic vigour, teaching, and learning. At the centre is a saying of the Prophet Mohammed ﷺ, and the lower portion contains couplets in Arabic composed by Syedna Taher Saifuddin. The academy’s Arabic name appears at the base.
Homage to Fatimi architecture
By reaching the end of the Devri Mubarak, a moment can be taken to absorb all of the various features. In the cream and beige combination of colours and intricate Fatimi architectural elements, a deep appreciation arises for how it all came to be. The manifestation of an educational and cultural legacy.
Such details help explain how the campus might be viewed. The architecture, the colours and the old-world charm have identifiable sources and meanings. Aljamea incorporates this heritage into the setting in which students study, making the Fatimi tradition visible in the buildings around them.
During al-Istifada al-Ilmiyya, the community’s annual educational gathering, people from all walks of life gather in Surat for seminars and workshops which enrich their understanding and appreciation of a range of traditional and contemporary disciplines.
More than two centuries after the academy’s foundation, Devri Mubarak still invites the lifelong learner to pursue its path, remaining a familiar destination towards which community members perennially return.
