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Lisaan ud-Da'wat (Arabic: لسان الدعوة‎‎, Lisan ud-Dawat, "language of the Dawat") is the language of the Dawoodi Bohras of Gujarat, a sect within the Ismā'īlī branch of Shia Islam.

Lisan al-Dawat is for the most part based off of the South Asian vernacular of Gujarati language, but incorporates a heavy amount of Arabic, Urdu, and Persian vocabulary and is written in the Perso-Arabic script.

Origin
The Dawoodi Bohra community are are a sect within the Ismā'īlī branch of Shia Islam. The 18th Faatemi Imaam Maulaana Mustansir Billah (478 AH/1094 AD), was holding the seat of the Fatemi Empire in Egypt. In his period, the first missionaries, lead by Moulai Abadullah, were sent by him to South Asia. Here they encountered the Gujarati vernacular for the first time, only it is referred to as “lughat al-hind”. It is said that not only did these first missionaries learnt the new language from the local inhabitants but that they acquired a level of proficiency in them, “wa tamahhara biha>”. This proves that the language was not only learnt by these missionaries as a means for daily life but to aid in the propagation of Dawat and the spreading of its doctrine amidst the indigenous population.

In the 16th century the Dawat Hadiya was transferred to Gujarat, India from Yemen in 1539. Such an undertaking involved an extended period of seventy-five years because it meant transferring “religious lore, a vast manuscript library, language, literature and traditions”. For the first time after the advent of Islam, Dawat is based out of a non-Arabic speaking land. Initially, the missionaries sent by Imam communicated with the indigenous population in Gujarati. As was in Yemen, however, the lingua franca of the literati remained Arabic as it is today. Prior to the transplantation of Dawat to the subcontinent, Dawoodi Bohra scholars from India would travel to the Dai‟s court in Yemen to learn from him and rise in the religious hierarchy. For this reason, Indian scholars were fluent and able in the Arabic language. To make this knowledge and Tayyibi doctrine accessible to the general population of South Asia to whom they would return, the Dai‟s representatives in Gujarat formulated a system of introducing the Arabic language into the vernacular. Due to their expert knowledge of the Arabic language, the initial missionaries, and later on the Indian Du’a>t were able to slowly alter the vernacular that was spoken in the community. As the lexicon from Arabic and Persian grew, the lexicon from Sanskrit and other vernaculars lessened. What remained, for the most part, was the morphological and syntactical structure of Gujarati.

As for the term Lisan al-Dawat as a specific reference to this newly formed language, it does not occur until 18th century in the period of Syedna Abdeali Saifuddin. He composed the famous work "Ilm na moti jaro" (Arabic: علم نا موتي جرو)[10] in Lisan al Dawat which is memorized by every Dawoodi Bohra member. Before this period, this language was either referred to as lughat al-hind, the language of India, or al-lughat al-gujra>ti>, the Gujarati language. One should note however, that despite being called Gujarati, it was still written in the Arabic script as present day Lisan al-Dawat is.

Dialects
In the development of Lisan al-Dawat in the subcontinent, one will also notice slight nuances between the Lisan al-Dawat of different regions of Western India. For instance, the Ujjaini dialect of Lisan al-Dawat differs, mostly in lexicon, from the Surti or Ahmedabadi versions.

It also tends to differ from one place to another. This is a reflection of the local influence on the language, thus creating dialects.