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Sake Dean Mahomed

Sake Dean Mahomed (Bengali: শেখ দীন মুহাম্মদ Shekh Din Muhammôd; Arabic: شيخ ين محمّد Shaykh Din Muhammad; Anglicized: Sake Dean Mahomet) (1759–1851) was a Bihari traveller, surgeon and entrepreneur who introduced shampooing and the Indian take-away curry house restaurant in Britain, and was the first Indian to have written a book in the English language. He was also one of the most notable early Bengali, Indian and Muslim immigrants to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Contents

Early life

Born in 1759 in Patna, Bihar, Dean Mahomed, according to his own account, came from an elite Muslim family, being related to the Nawabs of Bengal and Bihar, his ancestors having risen in the administrative service of the Mughal Emperors.

Sake Dean Mahomed grew up in the Bengal region of British India in a Bengali Muslim family. He served in the Bengal army of the British East India Company as a trainee surgeon. He became attached to the army at the early age of 10, and was taken under the wing of Captain Godfrey Evan Baker, an Anglo-Irish Protestant officer. Mahomet remained with Captain Baker's unit until 1782, when the Captain resigned in disgrace. That same year, Mahomed also resigned from the Army, choosing to accompany Captain Baker, 'his best friend', to Britain.[1]

In 1784, Mahomed emigrated to Cork, Ireland, with the Baker family.[1] There he studied to improve his English language skills at a local school, where he met Jane Daly, a 'pretty Irish girl of respectable parentage'. The Daly family was opposed to their relationship, and the couple thus eloped to another town to get married in 1786.[1][2] They later moved to Brighton, England, at the turn of the 19th century.[2] Mahomed converted from Islam to the Anglican denomination of Christianity.[3][4]

The Travels of Dean Mahomet

In 1794, Mahomed published his travel book, The Travels of Dean Mahomet. The book describes several important cities in India, and describes a series of military conflicts with local Indian principalities. Mahomet's tone in the book is supportive of the British East India Company's military conquests in India.

Michael Fischer claims that several passages from the book were plagiarized from other travel narratives written in the late 18th century.

Restaurant venture

In 1810, after moving to London, Dean Mahomet opened the first Indian take-away restaurant in England: the Hindoostanee Coffee House in George Street, Central London.[5] This venture, however, was unsuccessful.

"Dr. Brighton"

In 1814 he moved with his Irish wife Jane to Brighton. The couple opened the first shampooing vapour masseur bath in England, on the site now occupied by the Queen's Hotel. He described the treatment in a local paper as "The Indian Medicated Vapour Bath (type of Turkish bath), a cure to many diseases and giving full relief when every thing fails; particularly Rheumatic and paralytic, gout, stiff joints, old sprains, lame less, aches and pains in the joints".[6]

This business was an immediate success and Dean Mahomet became known as "Dr. Brighton". Hospitals referred patients to him and he was appointed as shampooing surgeon to both King George IV and William IV.[6]

Family

Sake Dean Mahomed and his Irish wife Jane Daly had five children: Rosanna, Henry, Horatio, Frederick, and Arthur.[2] They also had a daughter named Amelia in 1808.[7]

His son, Frederick, was a proprietor of Turkish baths at Brighton,[8] and also ran a boxing and fencing academy near Brighton. Frederick's own son, Frederick Henry Horatio Akbar Mahomed (c. 1849-1884),[9] became an internationally known physician,[2] who worked at Guy's Hospital in London,[10] and made substantial contributions to the study of high blood pressure.[11]

Another of Sake Dean Mahomed's grandsons, Rev. James Kerriman Mahomed, converted to Christianity and was appointed as the vicar of Hove, Sussex, later in the 19th century. This highlights the degree to which his descendants had eventually assimilated into Christian English society.[2]

Recognition

According to Pakistani literary critic Muneeza Shamsie, Sake Dean Mahomet began to lose prominence by the Victorian era and until recently was largely forgotten by history. She notes that he also authored the books Cases Cured and Shampooing Surgeon, Inventor of the Indian medicated Vapour and Sea Water Baths etc.[6]

Modern renewal of interest in his writings followed after poet and scholar Alamgir Hashmi drew attention to this author in the 1970s and 1980s. Michael H. Fisher has written a book on Sheikh Dean Mahomet: The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomet in India, Ireland and England (Oxford University Press, Delhi — 1996).

On 29 September 2005 the City of Westminster unveiled a Green Plaque commemorating the opening of the Hindoostane Coffee House.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Dean Mahomed's Early Life in India". Moving Here: Tracing Your Roots. http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/asian/tracingasianroots/dean_mahomed.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Ansari, Humayun (2004), The Infidel Within: The History of Muslims in Britain, 1800 to the Present, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, pp. 57-8, ISBN 1850656851 
  3. ^ The Travels of Dean Mahomet - University of California press
  4. ^ Deen Mahomed [1759-1851: soldier, writer, businessman]
  5. ^ a b "Curry house founder is honoured". BBC News. 29 September 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4290124.stm. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 
  6. ^ a b c Teltscher, Kate (2000), "The Shampooing Surgeon and the Persian Prince: Two Indians in Early Nineteenth-century Britain", Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 1469-929X 2 (3): 409–23 
  7. ^ "Dean Mahomed in London". Moving Here: Tracing Your Roots. http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/asian/tracingasianroots/dean_mahomed2.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
  8. ^ "Mahomed, Frederick Henry Horatio Akbar". Royal College of Physicians. http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/heritage/munksroll/munk_details.asp?ID=2909. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
  9. ^ O'Rourke, Michael F. (1992), "Frederick Akbar Mahomed", Hypertension (American Heart Association) 19: 212-217 [212-3] 
  10. ^ O'Rourke, Michael F. (1992), "Frederick Akbar Mahomed", Hypertension (American Heart Association) 19: 212-217 [213] 
  11. ^ O'Rourke, Michael F. (1992), "Frederick Akbar Mahomed", Hypertension (American Heart Association) 19: 212-217 [212] 

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