Occupation of Arab Immigrants

Source 1: An extract about the jobs undertaken by the Arabs in Singapore during the 19th century.

Syed Omar bin Ali Aljunied was a prominent businessman, philanthropist, and a leader of the Arab community in Singapore. He was an Arab from Hadhramaut (located at the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula) who ventured to India and Palembang before coming to Singapore in 1819. He was a prominent trader and owner of considerable real estate. The goods he traded included spices and textile, and he is attributed with the introduction of muslin for men’s clothes in Hadhramaut. He was famous for his piety, donated generously to charity, and endowed a number of mosques. Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka at Keng Cheow Street (off Havelock Road) was built in 1820 as a wooden structure on land which he donated. He also gave land for the Pauper’s Hospital in 1844 which later became the Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Reference:

National Heritage Board. (2012). Kampong Glam A Heritage Trail.  Retrieved from https://www.nhb.gov.sg/~/media/nhb/files/places/trails/kampong%20glam/kgglamtrail.pdf

Source 2: A description of an Arab spiritual leader in Singapore during the 19th century.

Imam Hassan Al-Attas comes from a long line of spiritual leaders. Over dinner at his house, where he and his wife live with their extended family, he and Syed Farid Alatas talk about the history and faith of their ancestors. “Many people say the Hadhramis came to spread Islam, but, of course, the majority of them were not doing that,” Alatas says. “There were a lot of push factors—instability, infighting and one of the most driving forces: famine.

“At the same time, there were some real scholars that came over,” adds Imam Hassan, whose family is a living example. “They came because they were being called to take certain positions as the community grew. And sometimes they were doing both—you would be a preacher, but you would supplement that with trade.”

Reference:

Yunis, A. (2014).The Arab Traders of Singapore. Saudi Aramco World. 65(4), 38. https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/201404/the.arab.traders.of.singapore.htm

Source 3: A history of the Arabs in the real estate industry during the 19th century Singapore.

That meant the Arabs, who owned much real estate in central Singapore, had to give up properties at prices much below market value. Indeed, only one major property remains in Singaporean Arab hands: the Treetops Executive Residences, a luxury apartment complex on the outskirts of the city center where a private villa of the Talib family once stood. It was converted to apartments in 1953 and then demolished to make way for Treetops in 2000.

Khaled Talib, a journalist and author whose grandfather bought the Treetops land with his brothers in the 1800’s, notes that his family also suffered losses of land due to the Land Acquisition Act. “We had more than 600 shophouses in Singapore, and today we only have about 40,” he says. “Some we sold [at market value], but many were acquired.”

Reference:

Yunis, A. (2014).The Arab Traders of Singapore. Saudi Aramco World. 65(4), 38. https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/201404/the.arab.traders.of.singapore.htm

Source 4: An extract of the Arabs in the newspaper industry.

The lively Malay newspaper scene was “financed and to that extent, controlled by the non-Malay-Arabs, Malay-Arabs and Jawi Peranakan”. For instance, Anglo-Asiatic Press, the publisher of Warta Malaya, was owned by the Alsagoffs, a wealthy Arab family in Singapore. After three years as editor of Warta Malaya, Onn was succeeded in 1933 by Syed Alwi Syed Sheikh Al-Hadi, who in turn was replaced the following year by the newspaper’s proprietor, Syed Hussein bin Ali Alsagoff.

Reference:

National Library Board. (2013). Warta Malaya.  Singapore Infopedia, National Library Board. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2013-09-13_160521.html

Source 5: An extract of Arabs in the food and beverage industry.

Café le Caire at No. 39. Opened by Dr Ameen Talib in 2001, the café occupies the first shophouse owned by his grandfather, Sheikh Salim bin Mohamed bin Talib, on Arab Street. Sheikh Salim was a native of Hadhramaut who came to Singapore around 1902 where he engaged in trade and invested in real estate.

Reference:

National Heritage Board. (2012). Kampong Glam A Heritage Trail.  https://www.nhb.gov.sg/~/media/nhb/files/places/trails/kampong%20glam/kgglamtrail.pdf 

Source 6: An extract of the types of jobs taken up by the Arabs in Singapore since the 19th century.

Most of the Arabs became small traders and shop-keepers, trading in rubber, sago, coconuts, coffee, cocoa and pineapples. Apart from being horse traders, some of them were also well known as slave owners and dealers, together with the Dutch and the Chinese in the Archipelago.

Nonetheless, Arabs in Singapore were mostly associated with the business of transporting Haj pilgrims for their annual pilgrimage to Mecca, as they maintained their dominance in the maritime world from their base in the new port of Singapore. By 1848, Singapore was already established as a port in the Archipelago from where Arab steamers departed for Jeddah. 

In 1874, the Alsagoff Singapore Steamship Company transported 3476 pilgrims to Mecca, including 2250 pilgrims from the Netherlands East Indies.

Reference:

Yahaya, Nurfadzilah. (2006).Good friends and dangerous enemies: British images of the Arab elites in colonial Singapore (1819 -1942) (Unpublished master’s thesis). National University of Singapore, Singapore retrieved from http://docplayer.net/74764086-Good-friends-and-dangerous-enemies-british-images-of-the-arab-elite-in-colonial-singapore-nurfadzilah-yahaya.html

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