Community tradition, based on passages from Ismaili ginans, suggests that the earliest Ismaili jamatkhanas were established in the Indo-Pak Subcontinent during the 14th and 15th centuries.
Situating the jamatkhana within the tradition of Muslim piety, His Highness the Aga Khan made the following remarks on the occasion of the foundation laying ceremony for the Ismaili Centre in Dubai:
“For many centuries, a prominent feature of the Muslim religious landscape has been the variety of spaces of gathering co-existing harmoniously with the masjid, which in itself has accommodated a range of diverse institutional spaces for educational, social and reflective purposes. Historically serving communities of different interpretations and spiritual affiliations, these spaces have retained their cultural nomenclatures and characteristics, from ribat and zawiyya to khanaqa and jamatkhana. The congregational space incorporated within the Ismaili Centre belongs to the historic category of jamatkhana, an institutional category that also serves a number of sister Sunni and Shi‘a communities, in their respective contexts, in many parts of the world. Here, it will be space reserved for traditions and practices specific to the Shi‘a Ismaili tariqa of Islam.”
Source: Institute of Ismaili Studies
Next related:
Contemporary Role of Jamatkhana
Earlier related:
The custom of meeting in ‘Jamatkhana’
The meaning of ‘Jamatkhana’ and its use
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