The Crescent at the Cape, the True Story of Shayykh Abu-Bakr Efendi 1814-1880 by: Shafiq Morton

By 1872, Tuan Guru – founder of South Africa’s first mosque and madrasah – had been in his grave for half a century. The Cape Muslim population had exploded in size but was sliding into decline. Many of the imams, lacking education, had become ignorant and entitled. There was an unending conflict in the community, which was fought out in the Cape High Court.

In the same year, a group of concerned community elders made a call for a teacher to be sent to the Cape from Istanbul. No-one knows who these people were, but it was their intervention that saw the arrival of Shaykh Abu-Bakr Effendi, an Ottomon scholar in early 1863.

Welcomed by those keen to learn, he faced abuse from Coterie of imams who felt threatened by him. Sadly, it is their malcontent that has so jaundiced his story for over 140 years.

In this well-researched biography, Shafiq Morton reveals for the first time the true story of Shayykh Abu-Bakr Efendi, one of the stand-out historical figures in the growth of Islam at the foot of Africa.