Saints and Tombs of Cape Town

Cape TownDied 1111 AHView

Sheikh Yusuf al-Maqassari (Cape Town Kramat)

A Khalwati sheikh born in Makassar (Indonesia), chief qadi and adviser to Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, who led the Banten resistance against the Dutch. Exiled to the Cape in 1693 and settled on Zandvliet farm (today Macassar), his teaching gave rise to the Cape's first Muslim community. He died on 23 May 1699. His remains are reported to have been returned to Makassar in 1705; nonetheless his kramat on the Faure hillside is preserved as South Africa's foremost shrine — the burial itself is disputed, the kramat being the site of pilgrimage. (His birthplace record is filed separately under ID/Makassar.) Sources: SA History Online; Cape Town Museum; Cape Mazaar Society.

Sheikh Abdurahman Matebe Shah

One of the last sultans of the Malacca Sultanate; after resisting the Dutch he was exiled to the Cape in 1667 and settled in Constantia. Among the earliest Muslim saints brought to the Cape, he won many enslaved people to Islam through his teaching beside the stream where he performed his ablutions and prayers. He died in 1682 and was buried at the gateway to Klein Constantia; his kramat is one of ten declared national heritage sites in 2021. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; SA History Online; SAHRA gazette (2021).

Cape TownDied 1682View

Sheikh Noorul Mubeen

Banished to the Cape in 1716 and imprisoned on Robben Island, from which by tradition he escaped and made his home on the desolate Oudekraal shore, teaching Islam by night to the surrounding enslaved people and fishermen. His kramat lies on a wooded slope below the Twelve Apostles range, reached by a stairway from Victoria Road; it is among the shrines declared national heritage in 2021. His year of death is uncertain. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; SA History Online; SAHRA gazette (2021).

Sayed Jaffer

A sheikh of the Alawiyya order, reported to have been banished to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company. His grave was identified at the end of the nineteenth century by the scholar Sheikh Abdurahman ibn Muhammad al-Iraqi. His kramat at Bakoven lies near the graves of his disciple Sayed Alie and his wife, and that of Sheikh Muhammad Zaid. A severe storm in the early 1970s washed away the tomb structure, though the grave is said to have remained unscathed. His year of death and precise numeric coordinates are not documented. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; Boorhaanol Islam Movement kramat guide.

Tuan Guru (Imam Abdullah ibn Qadi Abdus Salam)

A scholar of the Tidore (Ternate Islands, Indonesia) nobility, exiled by the Dutch to Robben Island in 1780. A hafiz, he wrote copies of the Qur'an and a work on Islamic jurisprudence from memory while imprisoned. Freed in 1793, he settled in Cape Town and founded the Auwal Mosque (1794), the first mosque in South Africa, and its first madrasah. He died in 1807 and was buried at the Tana Baru cemetery in Bo-Kaap; his kramat is among the most revered shrines of the Cape Malay Muslim community. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; South African History Online; Auwal Masjid archive.

Cape TownDied 1807View

Sayed Mahmud

A religious leader of the Malacca Empire; captured with Sheikh Abdurahman Matebe Shah and exiled to the Cape in 1668, settling in Constantia. A hafiz who had memorised the Qur'an to the letter, he used to preach in the mornings at the site of his kramat. Among the earliest documented saintly shrines of the Cape; his kramat at the end of Summit Road (Constantia) was declared national heritage in 2021. His year of death is not firmly recorded in the sources. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; SA History Online; SAHRA gazette (2021).

Tuan Sayed Alawie

A missionary from Mocha (Mocca) in Yemen. Imprisoned at the Cape in 1744 by the Dutch (together with Tuan Matarah); after twelve years' captivity he was freed and taught Islamic learning to the Cape's enslaved and Muslim community. He died in 1803 and was buried at the Tana Baru cemetery in Bo-Kaap, near Tuan Guru. His kramat is a visited shrine. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; SA History Online; Boorhaanol Islam Movement kramat guide.

Cape TownDied 1803View

Tuan Nuruman

One of the spiritual leaders of the early Cape Muslim community, brought to the Cape in 1779. He provided Islamic education to the community and is recorded to have undertaken public works such as building roads and wells. He died in 1810 and was buried at the Tana Baru cemetery in Bo-Kaap, beside Tuan Guru and Tuan Sayed Alawie. His kramat is one of the three visited Tana Baru shrines. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; SA History Online; Tana Baru cemetery records.

Cape TownDied 1810View

Tuan Matarah (Sayed Abdurahman Motura)

A scholar also known as 'Hadji Matirim' for having performed the pilgrimage. Exiled from the Indonesian archipelago (probably Sumatra) and sentenced in 1744 to life imprisonment in chains on Robben Island. He is said to have given spiritual comfort and healing to fellow prisoners. He died in 1755; a kramat was built over his grave in 1969. This shrine on Robben Island is regarded as a symbol of the struggle to establish Islam at the Cape. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; SA History Online; Robben Island Museum.

Cape TownDied 1755View

Sheikh Abdurahman ibn Muhammad al-Iraqi

A scholar of Basra (Iraq) origin who came to the Cape in the nineteenth century, teaching Islamic learning and writing works on Islam in Arabic-Afrikaans. He is remembered for locating the graves of the Cape's early spiritual figures (including that of Sayed Jaffer) and reviving the community's historical memory. He was buried in the Gamediyah cemetery at Mowbray. His year of death and precise numeric coordinates are not documented. Sources: Cape Mazaar Society; Boorhaanol Islam Movement kramat guide.