 Jinnah 's given name at birth was <unk> Jinnahbhai , and was born most likely in 1876 , to Jinnahbhai <unk> and his wife Mithibai , in a rented apartment on the second floor of Wazir Mansion , Karachi now in Sind , Pakistan , but then within the Bombay Presidency of British India . Jinnah 's family was from a Gujarati , <unk> ( Shia ) Ismaili background , though Jinnah later followed the Twelver Shi 'a teachings . Jinnah was from a middle @-@ income background , his father was a merchant and was born to a family of weavers in the village of <unk> in the princely state of <unk> ( Kathiawar , Gujarat ) ; his mother was also of that village . They had moved to Karachi in 1875 , having married before their departure . Karachi was then enjoying an economic boom : the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 meant it was 200 nautical miles closer to Europe for shipping than Bombay . Jinnah was the second child ; he had three brothers and three sisters , including his younger sister Fatima Jinnah . The parents were native Gujarati speakers , and the children also came to speak <unk> and English . Except for Fatima , little is known of his siblings , where they settled or if they met with their brother as he advanced in his legal and political careers . 
