Cowasji Dinshaw Adenwalla

Who was Cowasji Dinshaw Adenwalla?

Cowasji Shavaksha Dinshaw was a Parsi trader who emigrated from Surat/Bombay to Aden around 1855, and went on to develop that town into a thriving port city. The family name Adenwalla was a later addition, and is the name by which he is today remembered.

Cowasji travelled extensively and set up trading posts in other British possessions/protectorates, most notably on the east-African coast in Zanzibar and Mombasa. He was however best known for his business acumen, and the foresight that Aden would become an important port within the framework of the Suez Canal.

He had an entire floating dock shipped from Britain in 1895 and was known locally as "Dinshaw Pontoon".

Although of the Zoroastrian faith, he also financed the construction of a mosque for the local Muslim population, which is known as Cowasji Masjid after him.