The Muchundi Mosque (), also known as the Muccunti Palli, and formerly known as the Muchiyan/Machinde/Muchandi Palli, is a Šāfiʿī

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, located at

Kuttichira Kuttichira or Thekkepuram is a quarter located inside the city of Kozhikode in the Indian state of Kerala. Its approximate boundaries are the Arabian Sea on the West, the Kallai river on the South, Vellayil (a fishing village) on the North, ...

, in the

Kozhikode district Kozhikode (), is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, along its southwestern Malabar Coast. The city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, is the district headquarters. The Kozhikode Municipal Corporation has a corporation l ...

in the state of

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 ...

, India. Kuttichira is the medieval Muslim quarter in the city of Calicut. The mosque is situated south of

Mishkal Mosque The Mishkal Mosque (), also spelled Mithqal Mosque is a Šāfiʿī mosque located in Calicut on Malabar Coast, in the state of Kerala, India. The mosque, one of the few surviving medieval mosques in Kerala, is regarded as an important cultural, ...

, Kuttichira Tank, and the Kuttichira Jum'ah Masjid. The mosque does not conduct the

jum'ah Friday prayer, or congregational prayer (), is the meeting together of Muslims for communal prayer and service at midday every Friday. In Islam, the day itself is called ''Yawm al-Jum'ah'' (shortened to ''Jum'ah''), which translated from Arabic me ...

prayers – the special noon service on Friday that all adult, male, free Muslims are obliged to attend.

Overview

Built in the Kerala-Islamic style, the mosque does not have

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

s, domes, or arches. The ceiling of the mosque contains elaborate calligraphy of the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

ic verses, decorated with carved flowers on the side. It is reasonable to assume that the

foundations Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

have supported one of the oldest mosques in Kozhikode. The Muchundi Mosque has a granite inscription that dates from the 13th century CE. The inscription is the only surviving document recording endowment by a

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 ...

king (the Zamorin of Calicut) to the Muslims of Kerala. The inscription states that the mosque was established by Shahab al-din Raihan. Historians tentatively assume that "Muchiyan" might be the old

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 ...

name given to Raihan by the people of Kozhikode. Raihan must have been a wealthy Arab merchant who settled at Kozhikode. A medieval Muslim aristocratic house called "Muchintakam" is situated close to the mosque. A traditional ''jaram'' – a mausoleum/tomb – called "Muchiyante Jaram" is also located near the mosque. The Zamorins of Calicut remained the protectors of the mosque throughout the medieval times. The salary of the ''qadi'' of the mosque was paid by from Kozhikode. The mosque is sometimes associated with Shaikh Zain-ud-Din Makhdum II, the 16th century polymath, and the famous author of '' Tuhafat al-Mujahidin''.

Inscription

William Logan, former Collector and Magistrate of

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 ...

, made a reference to the Muchundi inscription in his manual ''Malabar'' (1887). Logan called the mosque "Machchinde Mosque". The inscription was eventually deciphered by historians M. G. S. Narayanan, M. R. Raghava Warrier and Kunhu Muhammed. The highly damaged, worn and fragmentary donative inscription is engraved on a granite stone slab. The inscription is undated, but can be positioned on paleographic grounds to CE. The content is divided on functional grounds between

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 ...

and

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 ...

languages. The concluding portion is in Arabic, while the functional portion recording the specific details of the endowment is in Old Malayalam. The script of the Old Malayalam portion is

Vattezhuthu ''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 ...

, a type of medieval script closely related to modern

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 ...

. The letters are not carved into the stone surface – like the usual Kodungallur Chera style – but are raised on the stone in imitation of the standard practice in Islamic inscriptions.

Text

The text is divided into two distinct halves. First half has 32 very short Vattezhuthu lines in Old Malayalam. It describes the assignment of revenues accruing from certain lands for the expenditure of Muchundi Mosque. The inscription mentions two local place names, "Kunnamangalam" and "Pulikkizhu". According to M. G. S. Narayanan, the old Malayalam (Vatteluttu) portion is translated in English as: The Arabic portion, the second half, starts with the opening prayer from ''

''. It reads that certain Shahab al-din Raihan purchased the piece of land and constructed thereon the mosque, and made provision for its ''imam'' and ''mua'dhdhin''. Z. A. Desai translated the Arabic portion into English as:

Ibn Batutah 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 ...

, a 14th-century traveller, indicated that Shihab-ud-Din Khasaruni was a ''Shah Bandar'' of the Samoothir of Kozhikode.

Notes

References

External links