Calcutta: The spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra community reached the city on Monday evening on a 10-day visit.

This is the first visit of Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin to the city after he took over as the 53rd leader of the community in 2014.

He will deliver the Chehlum Waaz sermon on Thursday to mark the 40th day of martyrdom of Imam Hussain.

The Syedna will deliver the sermon at Topsia's Burhani Masjid, one of the two mosques belonging to the community in Calcutta.

"We are expecting about 9,000 people at the mosque. The martyrdom of Imam Hussain is a defining point in Islam and the sermon on the 40th day of his martryrdom is another important event in the mourning calendar," Janab Quresh Bhai Saheb, head priest of the Dawoodi Bohra community in the city said.

There are 4,200 Dawoodi Bohras living in the city. Some 4,000 non-Calcuttans have registered for the Thursday event, he said.

Registering online will ensure specific seats inside the mosque when the Syedna delivers his sermon that usually stretches for about four hours, a community member said. The online registration is open till Wednesday.

The sermon will also be webcast across the world.

Zainab Sayeed, an Indian Revenue Service officer who attended the Syedna's welcome at the Topsia mosque on Monday evening, said he spoke generously about Calcutta.

"He said his father and predecessor as the community's spiritual leader had visited Calcutta in 2011," Sayeed said.

"The Syedna said people of Calcutta had shown such reverence to his father that he stayed in the city for 26 days, which was unusual since he never stayed for more than five or six days in one place."

The Syedna landed in Calcutta after a long stay in Karachi, where his sermons had attracted 70,000 people.

The other Dawoodi Bohra mosque in Calcutta is on Brabourne Road. It was built in the early 20th century. The one at Topsia was built in 2011.