Malabar Muslims or Muslim Mappilas are members of the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

community found predominantly in

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

and the

Lakshadweep Lakshadweep () is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands divided into three island subgroups: the Amindivi Islands in the north, the Laccadive Islands (separated from Amindivi roughly by the 11th parallel north), and th ...

islands in Southern India. The term Mappila (Ma-Pilla) is used to describe Malabar Muslims in Northern Kerala. Muslims share the common language of

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

with the other religious communities of Kerala.Miller, Roland. E., "Mappila" in "The Encyclopedia of Islam". Volume VI. E. J. Brill, Leiden. 198

pp. 458–56. According to some scholars, the Malabar Muslims are the oldest settled native Muslim community in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. In general, a Muslim Mappila is a descendant of

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

lower caste natives who converted to Islam.Hafiz Mohamad, N. P. "Socioeconomic determinants of the continuity of matrilocal family system among Mappila Muslims of Malabar" Unpublished Ph.D. thesis (2013) Department of History, University of Calicu

/ref>P. P., Razak Abdul "Colonialism and community formation in Malabar: a study of Muslims of Malabar" Unpublished Ph.D. thesis (2013) Department of History, University of Calicu

/ref> Mappilas are but one among the many communities that form the Muslim population of Kerala. No Census Report where the Muslim communities were mentioned separately is also available. The Muslim community originated primarily as a result of West Asian contacts with Kerala, which was fundamentally based upon commerce (" Spice trade, the spice trade"). As per local tradition,

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

reached the

Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

and Kerala as early as the 7th century AD. Before being overtaken by the Europeans in the spice trade, Malabar Muslims were a prosperous trading community, settling mainly in the coastal urban centres of Kerala. The continuous interaction of Mappilas with the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

has created a profound impact on their life, customs, and culture. This has resulted in the formation of a unique Indo-Islamic synthesis—within the large spectrum of Kerala culture—in literature, art, food, language, and music. Most Muslims in Kerala follow the

Shafi'i school The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionis ...

, while a large minority follow movements such as

Salafism The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a Islamic fundamentalism, fundamentalist Islamic revival, revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" ...

. Contrary to a popular misconception, the

caste system A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

, like in other parts of

, does exist among the Muslims of Kerala. (Although all Muslims are allowed to worship in all Kerala mosques, certain communities are held in "lower status" to others.) A number of different communities, some of them having distant ethnic roots, exist as status groups in Kerala.Kunhali, V. "Muslim Communities in Kerala to 1798" PhD Dissertation Aligarh Muslim University (1986

/ref> Among the Mappilas, there are numerous social groups. Various factors such as intermarriage, migration and conversion had led to creation of these groups, these groups were Sayyids (Thangals), Koya (Malabar), Keyis (Koyas), Baramis, Themims, Pusalars, and Ossans found in different regions of Kerala.

Terminology

The name ''Mappila'', otherwise transliterated as Māppila or Moplah, is a straightforward transliteration of the contemporary

lexeme. Although its etymology is not established, it is usually assumed to have originally been an honorific, created by combining mahā ("great") with piḷḷa ("child"). Traditionally, the name was given to foreign visitors and immigrants, including

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and

as "''Nazrane Mappila''" and "''Juda Mappila''", respectively, either as a general term of respect or in a technical sense to mean "bridegroom" or "son-in-law." The second sense implies a practice of intermarriage, a reading which is supported by current vernacular usage in

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

dialects. Other hypotheses, including those of an

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

etymology, have been proposed, but are not generally accepted. Mappila later became a name for the native

community of Malabar, although it is still used sporadically of Syrian Christians who live in South Kerala.

Demographics and distribution

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, about one-quarter of Kerala's population (26.56%) are Muslims. The calculated Muslim population (2011) in Kerala state is 88,73,472. The number of Muslims in rural areas is only 42,51,787, against an urban population of 46,21,685.T. Nandakumar, "54.72 % of population in Kerala are Hindus" ''The Hindu'' August 26, 201

/ref>

Distribution

The number of Muslims is particularly high in the northern Kerala (former

Malabar District Malabar District, also known as British Malabar or simply Malabar was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792–1800), Madras Presidency (1800–1950) and finally, Madras State (1950–1956) in ...

). Mappilas are also found in

islands in the Arabian Sea. The Mappilas inhabiting the islands of Androth, Kavaratti, Agatti and Kalpeni in the

were descended from Hindu migrants from the mainland who had converted to Islam in the fourteenth century. A small number of Malayali Muslims have settled in the southern districts of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

, while the scattered presence of the community in major cities of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

can also be seen."Remittances and its Impact on the Kerala Economy and Society – International Migration, Multi-local Livelihoods and Human Security: Perspectives from Europe, Asia and Africa", Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands, 30–31 August 2007 When the British supremacy on Malabar District was established, many Mappilas were recruited for employment in plantations in

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

and for manual labor in

South East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

n concerns of the British Empire. Diaspora groups of Mappilas are also found in Singapore and Malaysia. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of Muslims have left Kerala to seek employment in the Middle East, especially in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. The 2011 Census of India collected data on the district-wise distribution of the Muslim population.

Portuguese distinctions

The Muslims present in Kerala were distinguished by the Portuguese historians into two groups: * Mouros da Terra ("Moors of the Land"). * Mouros da Arabia/Mouros de Meca ("Moors from Arabia/Mecca"). The latter, also known as the "Paradesi Muslims", in fact came from all over the Islamic world. They included Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Turks, Iraqis, Gujaratis, Khorasanis and Deccanis (and Melakans, Sumatrans, Bengalis). These Muslims were not unsettled navigators but had settled in Kerala. Historians hold differing views on the origin of the Mappila community, with no consensus on the matter. A Mappila is either, # A descendant of any native convert (vast majority were

Nair The Nair (, ) also known as Nayar, are a group of Indian Hindu castes, described by anthropologist Kathleen Gough as "not a unitary group but a named category of castes". The Nair include several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom hi ...

Ezhava The Ezhavas, () also known as ''Thiyya'' or ''Tiyyar'' () in the Malabar region, and Chovar () in the south, are a community with origins in the region of India presently known as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the po ...

Thiyya The Ezhavas, () also known as ''Thiyya'' or ''Tiyyar'' () in the Malabar region, and Chovar () in the south, are a community with origins in the region of India presently known as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the po ...

Pulaya The Pulayar (also Pulaya, Pulayas, Cherumar, Cheramar, and Cheraman) is a caste group mostly found in modern-day Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka and historically in Tamil Nadu. They are classified as a Scheduled Caste under India's reser ...

Mukkuvar Mukkuvar is a maritime ethnic group found in the Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Eastern and North Western coastal regions of Sri Lanka. They are mostly found on the Malabar Coast, and Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, who have tradit ...

and

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

) to Islam (or) # A descendant of a marriage alliance between a

Middle Eastern The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

individual and a native low caste woman According to

Duarte Barbosa Duarte Barbosa (c. 14801 May 1521) was a Portuguese writer and officer from Portuguese India (between 1500 and 1516). He was a scrivener in a '' feitoria'' in Kochi, and an interpreter of the local language, Malayalam. Barbosa wrote the ''Book o ...

, a Portuguese commercial agent, Mappilas were an indigenous Muslim community and displayed cultural affinity with Hindu castes like

Nayars The Nair (, ) also known as Nayar, are a group of Indian Hindu castes, described by anthropologist Kathleen Gough as "not a unitary group but a named category of castes". The Nair include several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom his ...

. He also made a distinction between them and ''Pardeshis'', who were mostly wealthy expatriate Arab merchants and not permanent residents of Kerala.

Stephen Dale Stephen Frederic Dale, also known as Stephen F. Dale, is a historian and academic, Emeritus Professor at the Ohio State University, known for his studies on eastern Islamic world (southern and central Asia).Freitag, Sandria B. ''The Journal of Asi ...

states that Barbosa accurately "identified the two aspects of Muslim-Hindu social relations," which were the primary causes of the growth of Muslim society in later centuries when the number of Arab traders had dwindled with the arrival of the Portuguese and other European powers in the Indian Ocean. These two aspects were conversion and intermarriage, he argued that "the Heathen, if displeased with anything at all, become Moors." He also noted the frequency of multiple marriages among Muslims and their concubinage of lower-caste women as having served as the genesis of a local Malayalam speaking Mappila society. Till the 16th century, as noticed by the contemporary observers, Muslims settled mainly along the coastal tracts of Kerala (especially in major Kerala ports such as

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

(Kozhikode),

Cannanore Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city and commercial hub ...

(Kannur), Tanore (Tanur), Funan (

Ponnani Ponnani () is a Nagar Palika (Municipality), municipality in Ponnani Taluk, Malappuram District, in the state of Kerala, India. It serves as the administrative center of the Taluk and Block Panchayat of the same name. It is situated at the est ...

), Cochin (Kochi) and

Quilon Kollam (;), is an ancient seaport and the fourth largest city in the Indian state of Kerala. Located on the southern tip of the Malabar Coast of the Arabian Sea, the city is on the banks of Ashtamudi Lake and is 71 kilometers (44 mi) nort ...

(Kollam)). They were traditionally elite merchants who were all part of the brisk foreign trade. Until well into the European period, the Muslims were almost exclusively concentrated in the port cities. Middle Eastern sailors had to rely on lighterage at most of the Kerala ports in the medieval period. This led them to enter into mutually beneficial relationships with the traditional sea fishermen community. A large majority of fishermen, once low-caste Hindus, in northern Kerala now follow Islam.

Inland Growth

According to Dale, the "great majority" of conversions to Islam "must have come from lower castes," as lower castes, feeling degraded by the caste system, had the most reasons to convert, corroborating Zayn al-Din al-Malibari's attribution of conversion as the reason behind the rapid growth of Muslim settlements on the Malabar Coast. After and during the Portuguese period, some of the Muslim merchants were forced to turn inland (Malabar) in search of alternative occupations to commerce. Some acquired land and became landowners and some became agricultural labourers. Between 16th and 20th centuries, the collective Mappila numbers increased rapidly in Malabar and Travancore and Kochi regions, chiefly by the conversion among the lower and 'outcaste' Hindu groups of the

South Malabar South Malabar refers to a geographical area of the southwestern coast of India covering some parts of the present-day Kerala state. South Malabar covers the regions included in present-day Kozhikode and Thamarassery Tehsil, taluk of Kozhikode dist ...

interior. The peak of the Muslim distribution in Kerala had gradually shifted to the interior Malabar District. William Logan, comparing the Census Reports of 1871 and 1881, famously concluded that within ten years some 50,000 people from the Cheruma community (former untouchables) converted to Islam. Muslim growth in the 20th century has considerably outpaced that of the general Kerala population due to higher birth rates.

British distinctions

During the British period the so-called Mappila Outbreaks, ''c.'' 1836–1921 led the officials to make and maintain a distinction between the interior Mappilas and the 'respectable' Mappila traders of the coastal cities, such as

. The two other regional groupings are the high-status Muslim families of

in North Malabar — arguably converts from high caste Hindus — and the Muslims of

Travancore The kingdom of Travancore (), also known as the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor () or later as Travancore State, was a kingdom that lasted from until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvanan ...

and

Cochin Kochi ( , ), formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. The city is also commonly referred to as Ernaku ...

. The Colonial administrates also kept a distinction between coastal and inland Mappilas of the

. *

Thangal The Thangals (also spelled Tangals) are a social group among the Muslims of Kerala, south India.Kunhali, V. "Muslim Communities in Kerala to 1798" PhD Dissertation Aligarh Muslim University (1986/ref> The Thangals are often regarded as roughly e ...

s (the

Sayyid ''Sayyid'' is an honorific title of Hasanid and Husaynid lineage, recognized as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali, Hasan and Husayn ibn Ali, Husayn. The title may also refer ...

s) – at the top were the aristocratic Tangals (the Sayyids), who claim descent from the family of

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

. * Landed Aristocracy - the Arabis were followed by the landed aristocracy, centred on

North Malabar North Malabar refers to the geographic area of southwest India covering the state of Kerala State, Kerala's present day Kasaragod district, Kasaragod and Kannur district, Kannur districts, Mananthavady taluk of the Wayanad District, Wayanad distr ...

, arguably converts from high caste Hindus. * Lastly, there were the converts from the Backward and Scheduled Hindu castes (such as the South Malabar interior Mappilas, Pusalars/Puyislans and the

Ossan Ossan is a community/status group of Muslims in Kerala, south India. The Ossan men were the traditional circumcisers among the Muslims of the central Malabar Coast (northern Kerala).Kunhali, V. "Muslim Communities in Kerala to 1798" PhD Disser ...

s).

History

Arrival of Islam in Kerala and Lakshadweep

Kerala has been a major spice exporter since 3000 BCE, according to

Sumerian records Sumerian Records is an American record label based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen. Kerala's spices attracted ancient

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

Babylonians Babylonia (; , ) was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as an Akkadian-populated but Amorite-ru ...

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

ns and

Egyptians Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...

to the Malabar Coast in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE.

Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...

established trade with Kerala during this period.

s and

were the first to enter

to trade

Spice In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

s. The Arabs on the coasts of

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

, and the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

, must have made the first long voyage to Kerala and other eastern countries. They must have brought the

Cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

of Kerala to the

. The Greek historian

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

(5th century BCE) records that in his time the cinnamon spice industry was monopolised by the Egyptians and the Phoenicians. Islam arrived in

, a part of the larger

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

rim, via spice and silk traders from the

. It is generally agreed among scholars that Middle Eastern merchants frequented the

, which was the link between the West and ports of East Asia, even before Islam had been established in Arabia. The western coast of India was the chief centre of Middle Eastern trading activities right from at least 4th century AD and by about 7th century AD, and several West Asian merchants had taken permanent residence in some port cities of the Malabar Coast. According to popular tradition,

was brought to

, situated just to the west of

, by Ubaidullah in 661 CE. His grave is believed to be located on the island of

Andrott Andrott Island, () also known as Androth, is a small inhabited island in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, a group of 36 coral islands scattered in the Arabian Sea off the western coast of India. It has a distance of west of the city of Koch ...

. A number of foreign accounts have mentioned about the presence of considerable Muslim population in the coastal towns of

. Arab writers such as Masudi of Baghdad (934–955 AD), Idrisi (1154 AD), Abul-Fida (1213 AD) and al-Dimishqi (1325 AD) mentions the Muslim communities in Kerala. Some historians assume that the Mappilas can be considered as the first native, settled Islamic community in South Asia. The Southwestern Coast of India was known as "Malabar" (a mixture of ''Mala'' and Arabic or Persian ''Barr'', most probably) to the West Asians. Persian scholar

al-Biruni Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (; ; 973after 1050), known as al-Biruni, was a Khwarazmian Iranian scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been called variously "Father of Comparative Religion", "Father of modern ...

(973–1052 AD) appears to have been the first to call the region by this name. Masudi of Baghdad (896–965 AD) speaks about the contacts between Malabar and Arabia. Authors such as Ibn Khurdad Beh (869 – 885 AD), Ahmad al Baladhuri (892 AD), and Abu Zayd of Ziraf (916 AD) mentions Malabar ports in their works.Mohammad, K.M. "Arab relations with Malabar Coast from 9th to 16th centuries" Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol. 60 (1999), pp. 226–234. Scholar C. N. Ahammad Moulavi has mentioned that he has seen at Irikkalur near Valapattanam a tombstone bearing the date 670 AD/Hijra 50 (it seems that the tombstone is now lost). Inscriptions found on a tombstone on the beach outside the Juma'h Mosque in Panthalayani Kollam record the death of one Abu ibn Udthorman in Hijra 166. The mosque itself contains two medieval royal charters, one on a block of granite built into the steps of the mosque tank and another one a loose stone lying outside, of the Kodungallur Chera king Bhaskara Ravi Manukuladitya (962–1021 AD). The position of the royal Chera charter (in Old Malayalam) inside the mosque suggests that the city belonged to the Muslims or included them or came into their possession at a later stage. A few Umayyad (661–750 AD) coins were discovered from Kothamangalam in the eastern part of Ernakulam district. The earliest major epigraphic evidence of Muslim merchants in Kerala is a royal charter by Ayyan Atikal, the powerful governor of Kollam under the Chera king of Kodungallur. The Quilon Syrian Copper Plate (c. 883 AD, "the Tabula Quilonensis"Prange, Sebastian R. ''Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast''. Cambridge University Press, 2018.) is written in Old Malayalam in Vatteluttu script, and concludes with a number of "signatures" in Kufic Arabic, Middle Persian in Pahlavi script and Judaeo-Persian. The charter shows Atikal, in presence of the royal representative from Kodungallur (prince Kota Ravi Vijayaraga) and regional civil and military officials, granting land and serfs to the Tarisapalli, built by Mar Sapir Iso, and conferring privileges on Anchuvannam and

Manigramam Manigiramam, or manigramam, typically refers to a medieval merchant guild organized by itinerant ethnic Indian traders, primarily active in southern India. Along with the ainurruvar (the Ayyavole Five Hundred) and the anjuvannam (the anjuman), ...

. The attestation to the copper plates in the

Kufic script The Kufic script () is a style of Arabic script, that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts ...

reads: " nd witnessto this Maymun ibn Ibrahim, Muhammad ibn Manih, Sulh

Salih Saleh or Salih () is a prophet mentioned in the Qur'an who prophesied to the tribe of Thamud in ancient Arabia, before the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The story of Salih is linked to the story of the She-Camel of God, which was t ...

ibn 'Ali, 'Uthaman ibn al-Marzuban, Muhammad ibn Yahya, 'Amr ibn Ibrahim, Ibrahim ibn al-Tayy, Bakr ibn Mansur, al-Qasim ibn Hamid, Mansur ibn 'Isa and, Isma'il ibn Ya'qub". The presence of non-Christian signatures and the names found in the charter prove that the associates of Mar Sapir Iso included Jews and Muslims too. Muslim Arabs and some Persians must have formed permanent settlements at Kollam by this period. The charter gives proof of the status and privileges of trading guilds in Kerala. "Anjuvannam", mentioned in the copper plate, was a merchant association composed Christians, Jews and Muslims. In keeping with Kodungallur's significant role in the spice trade, the legends of Kerala Christians, Jews and Muslims all depict this port city as the focal point for the spread of their respective faiths. According to the legend of Cheraman Perumal, or as per one version of it, the first Indian mosque was built in 624 AD at

Kodungallur Kodungallur (; formerly also called as Cranganore (anglicised name), Portuguese language, Portuguese: Cranganor; Mahodayapuram, Shingly, Vanchi, Muchiri, Muyirikkode, and Muziris) is a historically significant town situated on the banks of Per ...

with the mandate of the last the ruler (the Cheraman Perumal) of

Chera dynasty The Chera dynasty ( or Cēra, ), also known as Keralaputra, from the early historic or the Sangam period in Tamil-speaking southern India, ruled over parts of present-day states Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Cheras, known as one of the mu-ventar ...

, who converted to Islam during the lifetime of

(c. 570–632). Perumal's proselytisers, led by Malik ibn Dinar, established a series of mosques in his kingdom and north of it, thus facilitating the expansion of Islam in Kerala. It is assumed that the first recorded version of this legend is an Arabic manuscript of anonymous authorship known as "

Qissat Shakarwati Farmad ''Qissat Shakarwati Farmad'' (alternatively ''Qissat Shakruti Firmad'', literally ''"Tale of the Great Chera Ruler"'') is an Arabic manuscript of anonymous authorship.O. Loth, ''Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office'' (London: Secr ...

". While there is no concrete historical evidence for this tradition, there can be little doubt of the early Muslim presence, and of the religious tolerance based on economic imperatives, on the Malabar Coast. The account of conversion of Islam by the then Cheraman Perumal is generally considered apocryphal by mainstream scholars. First mosques of Malabar according to the ''Qissat Shakarwati Farmad'' According to the ''Qissat'', the first mosque was built by Malik ibn Dinar in Kodungallur, while the rest of the mosques were founded by Malik ibn Habib. It is believed that

Malik Dinar Malik Dinar (, Malayalam: മാലിക് ദീനാര്‍) (died 748 CE)Al-Hujwiri, "Kashf al-Mahjoob", 89 was a Muslim scholar and traveller. He was one of the first known Muslims to have come to India in order to teach Islam in the I ...

died at

Thalangara Thalangara is a part of Kasaragod Town, the district headquarters of the Kasaragod district in the South Indian state of Kerala. Malik Denar Juma Masjid and Dargah is located here. Its economy is dependent on remittance from expatriate workers ...

Kasaragod Kasaragod () is a municipal town and the administrative headquarters of the Kasaragod district in the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1966, Kasaragod was the first municipal town in the district. It is the northernmost district of Kera ...

town.Pg 58, Cultural heritage of

: an introduction, A. Sreedhara Menon, East-West Publications, 1978 The Koyilandy Jumu'ah Mosque contains an

Old Malayalam Old Malayalam, or Early Malayalam, the inscriptional variety found in Kerala from ''c.'' mid-9th to ''c.'' 13th century CE, is the earliest attested form of Malayalam language. The language was employed in several administrative records and tran ...

inscription written in a mixture of ''

Vatteluttu ''Vatteluttu'' (, ' and , ', ), also transliterated as ''Vattezhuthu'', was an alphasyllabic or syllabic writing system of south India (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) and Sri Lanka formerly employed for writing the Tamil language, Tamil and Malayalam ...

'' and

Grantha script The Grantha script (; ; ) is a classical South Indian Brahmic script, found particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Originating from the Pallava script, the Grantha script is related to Tamil and Vatteluttu scripts. The modern Malayalam script ...

s which dates back to the 10th century CE.Aiyer, K. V. Subrahmanya (ed.), ''South Indian Inscriptions.'' VIII, no. 162, Madras: Govt of India, Central Publication Branch, Calcutta, 1932. p. 69. It is a rare surviving document recording patronage by a

king (Bhaskara Ravi) to the

s of Kerala. The Arabic inscription on a copper slab within the

Madayi Mosque The Madayi Mosque (), also known as the Matayi Palli, and as the Pazhayangadi Mosque or as the Malik ibn Dinar Mosque, Madayi, is a Shāfiʿī Sunni mosque, located at Pazhayangadi, in the Kannur district, in the northern part of the state of K ...

records its foundation year as Hijra 518 (1124 AD). The mosque in the heart of the old Chera capital, the Kodungallur Mosque, has a granite foundation exhibiting 11th–12th century architectural style.

Growth of Islam in Kerala

The Middle Eastern Muslim traders and Kerala mercantile community went through a long period of peaceful intercultural growth till the arrival of the Portuguese explorers (early 16th century). Quilon (Kollam) in south Kerala was the southernmost of the Kerala ports associated with black pepper. It served as the region's gateway to the eastern Indian Ocean. East and Southeast Asia were the primary markets for Kerala's main export, the spices, until at least the c. 15th century. In 1403, it seems that, the

Ming The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, t ...

court first learned of the existence of

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

from one pepper merchant, a Muslim believed to have come from the Malabar Coast. According to Miller, from the very beginning, Hindu outcastes preferred working under wealthy Arab merchants, as this imposed fewer restrictions on them than they would have faced as outcastes. Moroccan traveller

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

h (14th century) has recorded the considerably huge presence of Muslim merchants and settlements of sojourning traders in most of the ports of Kerala. Immigration, intermarriage and missionary activity/conversion — secured by the common interest in the spice trade — helped in this development. The monopoly of overseas spice trade in the Arabian Sea was safe with the Arab and Persian shipping magnates from the Malabar Coast. Fortunes of these merchants depended on the political patronage of the native chiefs of Calicut (Kozhikode), Cannanore (Kannur), Cochin (Kochi), and Quilon (Kollam). The chiefs of these tiny kingdoms derived a great part of their revenue from taxing the spice trade. A 13th century granite inscription, in Old Malayalam and Arabic, at Muchundi Mosque in Calicut mentions a donation by the king to the mosque. The inscription is the only surviving historical document recording royal endowment by a

ruler, in the form of a grant, to the Muslim community in Kerala.M. G. S. Narayanan. "Kozhikkodinte Katha". Malayalam/Essays. Mathrubhumi Books. Second Edition (2017) By the early decades of the 14th century, travellers speak of

Calicut (Kozhikode) Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth largest urban agglomerat ...

as the major port city in Kerala. Some of the important administrative positions in the kingdom of Calicut, such as that of the port commissioner, were held by Muslims. The port commissioner, the "shah bandar", represented commercial interests of the Muslim merchants. In his account, Ibn Batttutah mentions Shah Bandars in Calicut and Quilon (Ibrahim Shah Bandar and Muhammed Shah Bandar). The "nakhudas", merchant magnates owning ships, spread their shipping and trading business interests across the Indian Ocean. The famous nakhuda Mishkal who possessed ships for the trade with China, Yemen and Persia was active in Calicut in the 1340s. But unlike in some of the other regions of the Indian Ocean, in Kerala, it seems that the nakhudas did not held any positions of commercial, communal leadership. The Muslim line of Ali Rajas of Arakkal, near Cannanore, who were the vassals of the Kolathiri, ruled over the

. Zayn al-Din Makhdum (c. 1498–1581) estimates that 10% of the population of Malabar was Muslim by the midpoint of the 16th century AD. Samarqandi said that in Calicut he met Muslims among the "horde of infidels", and that both kings and beggars wear the same thing but that the Muslims wear fine clothing in the Arab fashion. Early Muslim Settlements

The Middle Eastern Muslims controlled the lucrative western arm of the overseas long-distance trade (to the ports of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

, and the

) from the Malabar Coast. Export items across the Arabian Sea included spices such as pepper, ginger and cardamom, trans-shipped textiles, coconuts and associated products. Gold, copper, and silver, horses, silk and various aromatics were imported into Kerala. The native Muslims dominated the trade to Pegu, Mergui, Melaka (in Myanmar and Malaysia) and points east, and the Indian coastal trade (Canara, Malabar,

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, Maldives and Coromandel Coast, and other

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

shores) with the Chettis from

Coromandel Coast The Coromandel Coast is a coastal region along the southeastern front of the Indian peninsula. Its delimitations are numerous, but generally admitted to be bounded by the Krishna River, Krishna river River mouth, mouth to the north, the Bay of B ...

. Muslims, with Gujarati Vanias, also took part in the trade with ports of Gujarat.Subrahmanyam, Sanjay."The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India 1500–1650" Cambridge University Press, (2002) The Indian coastal trade included goods such as coconuts, coir, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and rice. Rice was a major import item into Kerala, from the Canara and the Coromandel Coast. Low-value but high-volume trade in foodstuffs that passed through the Gulf of Mannar was also handled by the native Muslims. According to Stephen Dale, upcountry trade was carried mostly by Mappilas, many lower caste Hindus from the local countryside converted to

in the settlements established by them. The women from fisher and mariner castes often intermarried with Arabs. Andre Wink states that extensive conversion to Islam took place due to the history of trade, seafaring, and interaction with the Arabs. The Mukkuvans were among the communities that converted to Islam, becoming known as Pusalars. Dale concludes that, in contrast to the influence of Sufis and other popular movements in the spread of Islam across the Asia, the Mappilas instead gradually grew through "peaceful conversion" due to the contradiction between a "dynamic, egalitarian mercantile" Muslim community and the "exceptionally conservative" version of the Hindu caste system.

The European period

In the past, there were many Muslim traders in the ports of Malabar. Following the discovery of a direct sea route from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

1498 Year 1498 ( MCDXCVIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1498th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 498th year of the 2nd millennium, the 98th year of the 15th century, and the 9t ...

, the Portuguese began to expand their territories and ruled the seas between

Ormus The Kingdom of Ormus (also known as Hormoz or Hormuz; ; ) was located in the eastern side of the Persian Gulf and extended as far as Bahrain in the west at its zenith. The Kingdom was established in the 11th century initially as a dependency of ...

and the

and south to

. In the first two decades of

16th century The 16th century began with the Julian calendar, Julian year 1501 (represented by the Roman numerals MDI) and ended with either the Julian or the Gregorian calendar, Gregorian year 1600 (MDC), depending on the reckoning used (the Gregorian calend ...

CE (c. 1500–1520), Portuguese traders were successful in reaching in agreements with the local Hindu chiefs and native Muslim (Mappila) merchants in Kerala. The major contradiction was between the Portuguese state and the Arab and Persian traders, and the Kingdom of Calicut. In January

1502 Year 1502 ( MDII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events January–March * January 1 – Portuguese explorers, led by Gonçalo Coelho, sail into Guanabara Bay, Brazil, mistaking it for the mouth of ...

, the

First Battle of Cannanore The First Battle of Cannanore was a naval engagement between the Third Portuguese Armada under João da Nova and the naval forces of Calicut, which had been assembled by the Zamorin against the Portuguese in order to prevent their return to Port ...

between the Third Portuguese Armada and

Kingdom of Cochin The kingdom of Cochin or the Cochin State, named after its capital in the city of Kochi (Cochin), was a kingdom in the central part of present-day Kerala state. It originated in the early part of the 12th century and continued to rule until i ...

under

João da Nova João da Nova (; ; ; in Maceda, Ourense, Galicia, Spain – July 16, 1509, in Kochi, India) was a Galician-born explorer in the service of Portugal. He is credited as the discoverer of Ascension and Saint Helena islands. The Juan de Nova ...

and Zamorin of

's navy marked the beginning of Portuguese conflicts in the

. The big Mappila traders in Cochin supplied large quantities of Southeast Asian spices to the Portuguese carracks. These traders, along with the Syrian Christians, acted as brokers and intermediaries in the purchase of spices and in the sale of the goods brought from Europe. Wealthy Muslim merchants of the Malabar Coast – including Mappilas – provided large credits to the Portuguese. These businessmen received large trading concessions, stipends and privileges in return. Interaction between the Portuguese private traders and Mappila merchants also continued to be tolerated by the Portuguese state. Kingdom of Calicut, whose shipping was increasingly looted by the Portuguese, evolved into a centre of Muslim resistance. In February

1509 Year 1509 (Roman numerals, MDIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events January–March * January 21 – The Kingdom of Portugal, Portuguese first arrive at the Seven Islands of Bombay and land at M ...

, the defeat of the joint fleet of the

Sultan of Gujarat The Gujarat Sultanate or Sultanate of Gujarat was a late medieval Islamic Indian kingdom in Western India, primarily in the present-day state of Gujarat. The kingdom was established in 1394 when Muzaffar Shah I, the Governor of Gujarat, declar ...

, the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, and the

Zamorin The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edi ...

with support of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

and the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

Battle of Diu The Battle of Diu was a naval battle fought on 3 February 1509 in the Arabian Sea, in the port of Diu, India, between the Portuguese Empire and a joint fleet of the Sultan of Gujarat, the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt and the Zamorin of ...

marked the beginning of Portuguese dominance of the

Spice trade The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices, such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove, and turmeric, were known and used in antiquity and traded in t ...

and the

. Sooner rather than later, tensions arose between the wealthy Mappila traders of Cannanore and the Portuguese state. The ships of the Cannanore Mappilas again and again fell prey to the Portuguese sailors off the coast of Maldives, an important point between Southeast Asia and the Red Sea. Interests of the Portuguese ''casado moradores'' in Cochin, now planning to capture the spice trade through the Gulf of Mannar and to Sri Lanka, came into the conflict with Mappilas and the (Tamil) Maraikkayars. The narrow gulf held the key to the trade to Bengal (especially Chittagong). By the 1520s, open confrontations between the Portuguese and the Mappilas, from Ramanathapuram, and Thoothukudi to northern Kerala, and to western Sri Lanka, became a common occurrence. The Mappila traders actively worked in even in the island of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

to oppose the Portuguese. The Portuguese maintained patrolling squadrons off the Kerala ports and continued their raids on departing Muslim fleets at Calicut and Quilon. After a series of naval battles, the once powerful Mappila chief was finally forced to sue for peace with the Portuguese in 1540. The peace was soon broken, with the assassination of the qazi of Cannanore Abu Bakr Ali (1545), and the Portuguese again came down hard on the Mappilas. In the meantime, the Portuguese also entered into friendship with some of the leading Middle Eastern merchants residing on the Malabar Coast (1550). The mantle of the Muslim resistance was now taken by the Ali Rajas of Cannanore, who even forced the king of Calicut to turn against the Portuguese once again. By the close of the 16th century, the Ali Rajas had emerged as figures with as much influence in Kerala as the Kolathiri (Chirakkal Raja) himself. Before the 16th century, Middle Eastern Muslims dominated the economic, social and religious affairs of Kerala Muslims. Many of these merchants fled Kerala in the course of the 16th century. The vacuum created economic opportunities for some Mappila traders, who also took on a greater role in the social and religious affairs in Malabar. The Portuguese tried to establish a monopoly in the spice trade in India, using violent naval warfare. Whenever a formal war was broke out between the Portuguese and the Calicut rulers, the Portuguese attacked and plundered, as the opportunity offered, the Muslim ports in Kerala. Small, lightly armed, and highly mobile vessels of the Mappilas remained a major threat to Portuguese shipping all along the west coast of India. Mappila merchants, now controlling pepper trade in Calicut in the place of the West Asian Muslims, drew Mappila corsairs and used them to transport the spices past Portuguese blockades. Some Mappila traders even tried to outwit the Portuguese by reorienting their trade to Western Indian ports. Some chose an overland route, across the Western Ghats, for the export of spices. By the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese were finally able to deal with the "Mappila challenge". Kunjali Marakkar was defeated and killed, with the help of the Calicut ruler, in c. 1600 AD. The Ali Rajas of Cannanore was given permission to send ships to even to the Red Sea, as a way of ensuring their cooperation. The relentless battles led to the eventual decline of the Muslim community in Kerala, as they gradually lost control of the spice trade. The Muslims — who had been depended solely on commerce — were reduced into severe economic perplexity. Some traders turned inland (South Malabar) in search of alternate occupations to commerce. The Muslims of Kerala gradually became a society of small traders, landless labourers and poor fishermen. The once affluent, and urban, Muslim population became predominantly rural in Kerala. The ''

Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen ''Tuhfat al-Mujahidin fi ba‘d Akhbar al-Burtughaliyin'' (Arabic:تحفة المجاهدين في بعض اخبار البرتغاليين, often shortened as ''Tuhfat al-Mujahidin'') is a historical work by Zainuddin Makhdoom II on the struggle ...

'' written by

Zainuddin Makhdoom II Sheikh Ahmad Zainuddin Makhdoom bin Sheikh Muhammad Al Ghazzali (Arabic: شيخ احمد زين الدين بن شيخ محمد غزالي المليباري; Ahmad Zayn al-Din ibn Muhammad al-Ghazāli al-Malibári), grandson of Sheikh Zainu ...

(born around 1532) of

during 16th-century CE is the first-ever known book fully based on the history of Kerala, written by a Keralite. It is written in

and contains pieces of information about the resistance put up by the navy of

Kunjali Marakkar Kunjali Marakkar was the title inherited by the Admiral of the fleet of the Zamorin, King Samoothiri / Zamorin, the King of Calicut, in present-day Kerala, India. There were four Marakkars whose war tactics defended against the Portuguese Emp ...

alongside the

Zamorin of Calicut The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edi ...

from 1498 to 1583 against Portuguese attempts to colonise

Malabar coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

. It was first printed and published in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. A copy of this edition has been preserved in the library of

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

.A. Sreedhara Menon. ''Kerala History and its Makers''. D C Books (2011)A G Noorani. Islam in Kerala. Book

/ref> ''Tuhfatul Mujahideen'' also describes the history of Mappila

community of Kerala as well as the general condition of

in the 16th century CE. For decades, the Malabari Mappila Muslims which representing the Mughal empire are already patronized

Aceh Sultanate The Sultanate of Aceh, officially the Kingdom of Aceh Darussalam (; Jawoë: ), was a sultanate centered in the modern-day Indonesian province of Aceh. It was a major regional power in the 16th and 17th centuries, before experiencing a long pe ...

. The

Kingdom of Mysore The Kingdom of Mysore was a geopolitical realm in southern India founded in around 1399 in the vicinity of the modern-day city of Mysore and prevailed until 1950. The territorial boundaries and the form of government transmuted substantially ...

, ruled by Sultan Haider Ali, invaded and occupied northern Kerala in the late-18th century. In the following Mysore rule of Malabar, Muslims were favoured against the high caste Hindu landlords. Some were able to obtain some land rights and administrative positions. There was a sharp increase in community's growth, especially through conversions from the "outcaste" society. However, such measures of the Mysore rulers only widened the communal imbalance of Malabar. The East India Company — taking advantage of the situation — allied with the Hindu high castes to fight against the occupied regime. The British subsequently won the Anglo-Mysore War against Mysore ruler

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (, , ''Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu''; 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799) commonly referred to as Sher-e-Mysore or "Tiger of Mysore", was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery ...

and, consequently, Malabar was organised as a district under

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

. Conversion to

continued into the British period. In the 1871 census report, the Cherumars numbered 99,000, but in the following decade, their population dwindled to 64,725. The Cherumars, a low-caste Hindu peasant group, were mass-converted to

by Mappila peasants during the Mappila uprisings. L. R. S. Lakshmi states that the census report attributed this decline to conversions, which could be explained by the "poor economic conditions" among the Cherumars, who saw "possible work incentives available within the flourishing Mappila community." Despite converting to

, they continued to occupy a lower social position in the Mappila hierarchy. The discriminatory land tenure system — tracing its origins to pre modern Kerala — gave Muslims of Kerala (and other tenants and labourers) no access to land ownership. This led to a series of violent attacks against the high caste landlords and colonial administration (the Mappila Outbreaks, ''c.'' 1836–1921) and in 1921–22; it took in the form of an explosion known as Mappila Uprising (Malabar Rebellion). The uprising — which initially had the support of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

leaders such as

Mohandas K. Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ru ...

- was suppressed by the colonial government, with

martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

being temporarily instituted in the region and the leaders of the rebellion tried and

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

Post-colonial era

The Muslim material strength — along with the extent of modern education, theological "reform", and active participation in democratic process — recovered slowly after the 1921–22 Uprising. The Muslim numbers in provincial and central government posts remained staggeringly low. The Mappila literacy rate was only 5% in 1931. Even by 1947, only 3% of the ''taluk'' officers in Malabar region were Muslim. The community was able to produce a number of high-regarded leaders in the following years. This included

Mohammed Abdur Rahiman Mohammed Abdur Rahiman Sahib (1898 – 23 November 1945) was an Indian freedom fighter, Muslim leader, scholar, and politician from Kerala. He served as president of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee(Malabar) in 1939. Early life and educatio ...

, and E. Moidu Moulavi of the

Congress Party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement t ...

, and most crucially, the inspirational K. M. Seethi Sahib (1898–1960). Although the

Muslim League Muslim League may refer to: Political parties British India *All-India Muslim League, led the demand for the partition of India resulting in the creation of Pakistan ** Punjab Muslim League, a branch of the organization above **Unionist Muslim L ...

faded into memory in the rest of India, it remained a serious political force in the state of Kerala with leaders such as Syed Abdurrahiman Bafaki Tangal, P. M. S. A.

Pukkoya Tangal Sayyid Ahmad al-Shihabuddin Ba Alawi, or P. M. S. A. Pukkoya Thangal, of the Pukkoya family of Panakkad, South Malabar, was an Indian sayyid (thangal) community leader and Indian Union Muslim League politician from Kerala. He was born in 1913 ...

, and

C. H. Mohammed Koya Cheriyankandi Muhammad Koya (15 July 1927 – 28 September 1983) popularly known as C. H. Muhammad Koya was an Indian statesman who served as the 8th Chief Minister of Kerala from October to December 1979. He is more often noted for being the M ...

. K. O. Ayesha Bai, a member of Muslim community, the first Muslim women to rise to public fame in modern Kerala, became the Deputy Speaker of the Communist Kerala Assembly in 1957. Active participation in the state elections gave rise to a psychology of accommodation that took the Muslims into cooperate relationships with Hindus and Christians of Kerala. The Communist-lead Kerala government granted the wish of the Muslim League for the formation of a Muslim majority district in 1969.

University of Calicut The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a State ownership, state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to ...

, with the former

being its major catchment area, was established in 1968.

Calicut International Airport Kozhikode International Airport , also known as Calicut International Airport (locally referred to as Karipur Airport), is an international airport serving the cities of Kozhikode and Malappuram in the state of Kerala, India. It also serves ot ...

, currently the twelfth busiest airport in India, was inaugurated in 1988. An

Indian Institute of Management The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are Centrally Funded Business Schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of business administrati ...

(IIM) was established at Kozhikode in 1996 and

National Institute of Technology The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are Centrally Funded Technical Institutes, centrally funded technical institutes under the ownership of the Ministry of Education (India), Ministry of Education, Government of India. They are gover ...

in 2002. Modern Mappila theological revisions and social reforms were initiated by Wakkom Maulavi (1873–1932) in Kollam. The Maulavi was initially influenced by Muḥammad 'Abduh and Rashīd Riḍā, and to some degree by the ideas of Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī and Muḥammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhāb. He notably encouraged the Mappilas to adopt English education. Notable reformers such as K. M. Seethi Sahib (1898–1960), Khatib Muhammad K. M. Maulavi (1886–1964), E. K. Maulavi (1879–1974) and M. K. Haji carried his work forward to the modern age. K. M . Maulavi tried to spread the new ideas of southern Kerala to the more orthodox Malabar region. C. O. T. Kunyipakki Sahib, Maulavi Abussabah Ahmedali (died 1971), K. A. Jaleel, C. N. Ahmad Moulavi, and K. O. Ayesha Bai were other prominent social and political reformers of the 20th century. An organisation known as the Muslim Educational Society (MES), founded in 1964 by P. K. Abdul Ghafoor and friends, also played a role in the development of the community. ''Aikya Sangham'' (founded in 1922, Kodungallur) and

Farook College Farook College is a government-aided, autonomous, arts and science college located in Feroke near Kozhikode, Kerala, India. It is the largest residential post-graduate aided institution in Kerala affiliated to the University of Calicut; it wa ...

(founded 1948) also promoted the higher education among the Muslims. A large number of Muslims of Kerala found extensive employment in the

Persian Gulf countries The Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Arab states (), refers to a group of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ...

in the following years (beginning in the mid-1960s). This widespread participation in the Gulf Rush produced huge economic and social benefits for the community. Great influx funds from the earnings of Mappilas employed followed. Issues such as widespread poverty, unemployment and educational backwardness began to change. The Mappila community is now considered as section of Indian Muslims marked by recovery, change and positive involvement in the modern world. Mappila women are now not reluctant to join professional vocations and assuming leadership roles. As per the latest government data, female literacy rate in

Malappuram District Malappuram (), is one of the List of districts of Kerala, 14 districts in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kerala, with a coastline of . The most populous district of Kerala, Malappuram is home to around 13% of the tot ...

, centre of Mappila distribution, stood at 91.55% (2011 Census).

Lulu Group LuLu Group International is an UAE based multinational conglomerate company that operates a chain of hypermarkets and retail companies, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Lulu Group India Head Quarters is located in Kochi, India I ...

chairman M. A. Yusuf Ali, 19th richest man in India, is the richest Malayali, according to the Forbes magazine (2018).

Azad Moopen Azad Moopen (born 15 April 1953) is an Indian healthcare entrepreneur. He is the developer of many healthcare facilities in Asia-Pacific. He is also the chairman and managing director of Aster DM Healthcare, a healthcare conglomerate in the M ...

, chairman of the Dubai-headquartered

Aster DM Healthcare Aster DM Healthcare Limited is a multinational for-profit private hospital network founded by Dr. Azad Moopen in 1987. The company has its corporate headquarters in Dubai, UAE, and is registered in Bengaluru, India. Aster DM Healthcare currentl ...

, is another major Muslim entrepreneur from Kerala. During his state visit to Saudi Arabia in 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the Saudi king Salman with a gold-plated replica of the Kodungallur Mosque. Ever since in the Indian Independence from the British in 1947, the overwhelming majority of Muslims in former Malabar District have supported the

. In south Kerala, the community generally supported

and in the north Kerala a small proportion vote Communist Left. Politically, the Muslims in Kerala have exhibited more unanimity than any other major communities in modern Kerala.

Nair Muslims and Marumakkathayam

Muslim converts from the

caste in North Malabar (Including some parts of Kozhikode), particularly during the medieval period, continued to practice aspects of the Nair matrilineal system, known as

Marumakkathayam Marumakkathayam was a system of matrilineal inheritance prevalent in regions of the Indian state of Kerala. It is similar to the Aliyasanthana system followed by the Bunt community in Karnataka. The word "Marumakkathayam" originated from the ...

(or Thaavazhi), even after conversion to Islam. This system, which traced descent and inheritance through the female line, centered around the Tharavadu (ancestral home), with the Karanavar (maternal uncle) serving as the head of the family. Despite Islamic law advocating an

egalitarian Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all h ...

system of inheritance, many of these converted families, especially in the Malabar region, retained matrilineal customs for several generations, reflecting the deep influence of pre-Islamic social structures. Over time, with the increasing influence of Islamic norms, most of these families gradually transitioned to an egalitarian system, though elements of the matrilineal system persisted in some communities, highlighting the complex interaction between cultural traditions and religious practices in Kerala.Koya, S. M. Mohamed (1979). "Matriliny and Malabar Muslims". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol. 40, pp. 419–431.

Theological orientations/denominations

Most of the Muslims of Kerala follow the traditional

Shāfiʿī The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al ...

school of religious law (known in Kerala as the traditionalist Sunnis) while a large minority follow modern movements that developed within

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

. The latter section consists of majority Salafists (the Mujahids) and the minority

Islamists Islamism is a range of Religion, religious and Politics, political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is su ...

.Miller, Roland. E., "Mappila" in "The Encyclopedia of Islam". Volume VI. E. J. Brill, Leiden. 1987 pp. 458–56. The Sunnis referred here are identified by their conventional beliefs and practices and adherence to the

madhhab A ''madhhab'' (, , pl. , ) refers to any school of thought within fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence. The major Sunni Islam, Sunni ''madhhab'' are Hanafi school, Hanafi, Maliki school, Maliki, Shafi'i school, Shafi'i and Hanbali school, Hanbali. They ...

, while the other theological orientations, of which the Salafi Mujahids constitute a large majority, are seen as modern "reform" movements within the Sunni Islam. Both the Sunnis and Mujahids again have been divided to a number of sub-identities. * Sunnī IslamIslamism and Social Reform in Kerala, South India
Modern Asian Studies **

Shāfi'ī The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al ...

— mainly two groups (majority of traditional Sunnis in Kerala are Shafiis). **

Ḥanafī The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the use of reasoning ...

* Salafists (the Mujahids)—with different splinter factions (with varying degrees of puritanism).

Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen (KNM) is an Islamic organization in the state of Kerala founded in 1950. The organization is part of the Islamic reformist ''Mujahid'' Movement and follows the principles of Salafism. The Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen ...

(K. N. M) is the largest Mujahid organisation in Kerala. *

( the Jama'at-i-Islami India)—representing

political Islam Political Islam is the interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It advocates the formation of state and society according to (the advocates understanding of) Islamic principles, where Islam serves as a source of poli ...

in Kerala. * Shīiah Islam

Culture

Literature

Mappila Songs/Poems is a famous

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

tradition emerged in ''c.'' 16th century. The ballads are compiled in complex blend of Malayalam/Tamil and Arabic, Persian/Urdu in a modified Arabic script. Mappila songs have a distinct cultural identity, as they sound a mix of the ethos and culture of Dravidian South India as well as West Asia. They deal with themes such as romance, satire, religion, and politics. Moyinkutty Vaidyar (1875–91) is generally considered as the poet laureate of Mappila Songs. As the modern Mappila literature developed after the 1921–22 Uprising, religious publications dominated the field. Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (1910–1994), followed by, U. A. Khader, K. T. Muhammed, N. P. Muhammed and Moidu Padiyath are leading Mappila authors of the modern age. Mappila periodical literature and newspaper dailies — all in Malayalam — are also extensive and critically read among the Muslims. The newspaper known as " Chandrika", founded in 1934, played as significant role in the development of the Mappila community.

Malabar Muslim folk arts

Oppana Oppana is a popular form of social entertainment among the Mappila (Kerala Muslims) community of Kerala, South India, prevalent throughout Kerala, especially in Malabar. The term Oppana is believed to be originated from the Arabic word "Affna" ...

was a popular form of social entertainment among the Muslims of Kerala. It is generally presented by women numbering about fifteen including musicians, as a part of wedding ceremonies a day before the wedding day. The bride, dressed in all finery, covered with gold ornaments, is the chief spectator; she sits on a peetham, around which the singing and dancing take place. While women sing, they clap their hands rhythmically and move around the bride in steps. Two or three girls begin the songs and the rest join the chorus. *

Kolkali Kolkali is a folk art performed in Malabar region of Kerala, India. The dance performers move in a circle, striking small sticks and keeping rhythm with special steps. The circle expands and contracts as the dance progress. The accompanying mu ...

was a popular dance form among the Muslims of Kerala. It is played in group of 12 people with two sticks. *

Duff Muttu Duffmuttu (also: Dubhmuttu) is an art form prevalent in the Malabar region of the states of Kerala and Karnataka in south India. It derives its name from the duff, a percussion instrument made of wood and ox skin. The word duff is of Arabic o ...

(also called Dubh Muttu) was an art form prevalent among Muslims of Kerala, using the traditional ''duff'', or

daf Daf (), also known as dâyere and riq, is an Iranian frame drum musical instrument, also used in popular and classical music in Persian-influenced South and Central Asia, such as in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, many ...

, also known as ''tappitta''. Participants dance to the rhythm as they beat the duff. * ''Mappila Ramayanam'' ballad singing is prevalent amongst people who practice folkloric traditions in the Mappila community of Wayanad. Unlike usual religious interpretations, ''Mappila Ramayanam'' evokes cultural memories and is set in Malabar Muslim milieu.

Cuisine

The Mohammaden Mappila cuisine is a blend of traditional

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Yemenese and

food culture. This confluence of culinary cultures is best seen in the preparation of most dishes. ''Kallummakkaya'' (

mussels Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, whic ...

)

curry Curry is a dish with a sauce or gravy seasoned with spices, mainly derived from the interchange of Indian cuisine with European taste in food, starting with the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and British, and then thoroughly internatio ...

, ''irachi puttu'' (''irachi'' meaning meat), ''parottas'' (soft flatbread), ''

Pathiri Pathiri (pronounced ) is a pancake made of rice flour. It is part of the local cuisine among the Mappilas of Malabar region in Kerala State of Southern India. Today, pathiri is still a popular dish among the Muslims in Kerala. See also * K ...

'' (a type of rice pancake) and ''

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from South Asia. It is commonly used for cooking, as a Traditional medicine of India, traditional medicine, and for Hinduism, Hindu religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by ...

'' rice are some of the other specialties. The characteristic use of spices is the hallmark of Mappila cuisine—

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...

and

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

are used profusely. The Malabar version of '' Mandi'', popularly known as ''Pit Mandi'' in

is another popular item, which has an influence from

. Various varieties of ''biriyanis'' like Thalassery ''biriyani'', Kannur ''biriyani'', Kozhikode ''biriyani'' and Ponnani ''biriyani'' are prepared by the Mappila community. The snacks include '' unnakkaya'' (deep-fried, boiled ripe

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

paste covering a mixture of cashew,

raisins A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, the word ''raisin'' is reserv ...

and

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

), '' pazham nirachathu'' (ripe banana filled with

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

grating,

molasses Molasses () is a viscous byproduct, principally obtained from the refining of sugarcane or sugar beet juice into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, the method of extraction, and the age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is usuall ...

or sugar), '' muttamala'' made of

eggs An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo begins to develop. Egg, EGG or eggs may also refer to: Biology * Egg cell, the female reproductive cell (gamete) in oogamous organisms Food * Eggs as food Places * Egg, Austria * Egg, Switzerland ...

, '' chatti pathiri'', a

dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal; the course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream, and possibly a beverage, such as dessert wine or liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly umami, ...

made of flour, like a baked, layered ''chapati'' with rich filling, ''arikkadukka'', and more.

References

External links

BBC Hindi on Muslims in Kerala
Muslim communities of Kerala Social groups of Kerala Social groups of Tamil Nadu Islam in Kerala South Indian communities {{notelist

Terminology

Demographics and distribution

Demographics

Distribution

Portuguese distinctions

Inland Growth

British distinctions

History

Arrival of Islam in Kerala and Lakshadweep

Growth of Islam in Kerala

The European period

Post-colonial era

Nair Muslims and Marumakkathayam

Theological orientations/denominations

Culture

Literature

Malabar Muslim folk arts

Cuisine

See also

References

Further reading

External links