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TRADE AND CULTURE: INDIAN OCEAN INTERACTION ON THE COAST OF
MALABAR IN MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Dr. Hussain Randathani,
ABSTRACT
The paper, ‘Trade and Culture; Indian Ocean Interaction on the Coast of Malabar in
Medieval Period’ deals with the trade and cultural exchanges between the foreigners and
Malabar and preservation of trade culture in the area. Arab trade relation with Malabar had
started from time immemorial and there existed continuous cultural exchange between the
two from those times onwards. Even the Greek texts like Periplus of Erythrian Sea had
reference of Nabati Arabs who frequented Malabar coast for trade in 50-60AD. Omani Arab
merchants maintained close contact with the coast from first century on wards that the
Omanis imported coconuts from Malabar Coast to Arab and North African lands. During the
time of Prophet Muhammad Persians were predominant in the field of oceanic trade. Even
after the prophet the Persians continued their supremacy as Muslims and they performed
their religious duty as missionaries. The first missionary who entered India, Malik Dinar and
his comrades, were originally Persians who spread far and wide in Arab lands from ancient
times onwards. The Persian Sassanid Empire and the trade activities were responsible for
this rapid spread of Persians in Arab lands. The Persian influence continued during the
period of Abbasid Caliphate who took their seat at Baghdad , a Persian city.
The paper analyses various ways through which the trade and the commodities affected
the life and culture of the people and how the trade was secured through the cultural life of
the people. The spread of Islam along with trade and the missionary zeal of traders who as
the agents of trade and religion, maintained the honesty and truthfulness which brought
them admiration from the natives and the rajas. The paper discusses these aspects with the
help of official and local records.
Key Words: Malabar, Arabs, Persian, Tamil, Makhdum
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TRADE AND CULTURE: INDIAN OCEAN INTERACTION ON THE
COAST OF MALABAR IN MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Dr. Hussain Randathani,
Arab trade relation with Malabar had started from time immemorial and there existed
continuous cultural exchange between the two from those times onwards. Even the Greek
texts like Periplus of Erythrian Sea had reference of Nabati Arabs who frequented Malabar
coast for trade in 50-60AD.1 Omani Arab merchants maintained close contact with the coast
from first century on wards that the Omanis imported coconuts from Malabar coast to Arab
and North African lands2. During the time of Prophet Muhammad Persians were
predominant in the field of oceanic trade. Even after the prophet the Perisans continued their
supremacy as Muslims and they performed their religious duty as missionaries. The first
missionary who entered India, Malik Dinar and his comrades , were originally Persians who
spread far and wide in Arab lands in the early times. The Persian Sassanid empire and the
trade activities were responsible for this rapid spread of Persians in Arab lands. The Persian
influence continued during the period of Abbasid Caliphate who took their seat at Baghdad
in Persia.
With the advent of Prophet Muhammad and the spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula
in the first half of the 7th century, and the subsequent conquest of Persia, trade across the
Indian Ocean was increasingly dominated by Arab Muslim merchants from ports on the Red
Sea and the Gulf. Unlike the Persian and Turkic invasions of North India which established
major states and empires, the Muslim impact upon the coasts of South India from the 8th
century onward was predominantly based on trade enterprises of Persians and Arabs. The
medieval Hindu kingdoms of South India and South East Asia and East Africa, eager for
revenues from overseas commerce, allowed Arab merchants-many of whom acquired local
wives by whom they fathered Indo-Muslim progeny-to establish a dominant economic
position in port settlements such as Ma’bar (Coromandel Coast) and Malabar. 3 The Qur-an
has frequent references to ships and trade and Makkah, where prophet was born was a trade
city. When Persian and Roman empires came under the suzerainty of the caliphs most of the
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important ports came to Muslims and this the trade prospered under the caliphate. In Iraq,
the trade activity increased when the port of Ubella was conquered by Caliph Umar in 636
AD. Ubella was a centre of Indo Chinese trade and the ships of the port frequented India.
This port was also known as Farjul Hind meaning the ‘Movement to India”4. In 636
Sulyman al Thaqafi, the governer of Bahrain send his two sons to India in search of trade
and they reached Broach and Dabul.
Communication and social interaction between Muslims of Calicut, Kayalpattinam, and
Colombo were once a great deal freer than they are today. From about the ninth century
onwards, coastal societies and cultures had been undergoing a metamorphosis from simpler,
parochial forms to more complex versions of themselves. Religion, of course, is closely
related to culture. It articulates man’s perceived relationships with his world. Like culture it
is composed of bundles of symbols which unites the physical organic world and man’s
experience of it with the socio-moral order. The three major aspects of Islamic culture which
clashed with the cultures in South India were (1) the unshakable faith in monotheism, (2) the
broad outlook of universal brotherhood and (3) the life is not an illusion but a life to be lived
in all seriousness. But the assimilative power of India succeeded in fusing the culture into
unity and Islam stood as a product of assimilation. To the natives, particularly to lowest
class, conversion to lslam symbolised emancipation, equality and prosperity. With
conversion they entered the brotherhood of lslam with freedom from bondage and
opportunity for uplift.
The significant Arab mercantile activities, starting from time immemorial had brought
the synthesis of Arab and coastal cultures in the Indian Ocean regions of Asia and Africa.
When Prophet Muhammad appeared in Arabia, the merchants and missionaries carried the
new message and the impact of Arab or Muslim culture became evident in these regions. It
has been often stated by historians that the commercial expansion of early centuries of
second millennium of Indian Ocean was a part of phase of “Arab dominance” or even more
generally that the area was a “Muslim Lake” and that the years after 750 AD saw the
formation of Islamic world economy in the Indian Ocean.5 To quote Mr. Sebastian Perang,
“Maritime trade has connected the shores of the Indian Ocean since the earliest days of
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seafaring, creating elements of cohesion as well as crystallizing contrasts.” 6 According to
Kirti Chaudhauri, the exchange of ideas and material objects created “a strong sense of unity
“ amid the social and cultural diversity of the Indian ocean littoral.” 7 Around the ninth
century, Aden replaced Siraf as the primary seaport at the western end of the Indian Ocean
trade routes linking them to the Red Sea trade with Jeddah, Aydhab and Egypt , the Arabian
caravan routes as well as to the commerce with the Sawahili coast and India8.
Yemen connections with Malabar in Medieval period is evident from a chronicle of
Yeman’s Rasulid dynasty, that in 1393 a Merchant envoy Calicut arrived at Rasulid court to
request permission that the khutba (Friday Sermon)in Calicut’s mosque be read in Sultan’s
name.9 Mr. Perang brings to light the statements in an Arabic source that during the Rasulid
ruler Muzaffar Yusuf (1249-95) there existed brisk trade between Aden and Malabar. The
Rasulid rulers also used to send stipends to Muslim missionaries in Malabari ports. 10 With
the establishment of Mamluk rule in Egypt in 1250 the Indonesian trade came under their
control and Egypt became the centre of the Asian Maritime trade. At times, the centre of
activity moved between Malakka in South East Asia and Hormuz in Persian Gulf. The Raja
of Calicut had profited much from the Hormuz trade, not as a trading partner but through
tributes and taxes. The merchants from all parts of the world were centred on Calicut,
making it as a centre of distribution of commodities to South East Asia and China. When
Mamluks established their power in Egypt during thirteenth century, they facilitated the
European demand of goods by reorganizing the Red Sea commerce. It was further
developed by the Karimi and Chinese merchants.11 In Calicut as in certain other kingdoms
with access to the sea, the rulers left trade in the hands of Mappilas who were close to the
Arabs and transaction was quite easy. The paradesi traders included Arabs, Chinese,
Gujaratis, Tamils and those from Siraf, Basara, and parts of Persia. The Mappila Muslims
called Koyas12 played a prominent role in developing the trade centered around Hormuz and
Calicut.
The importance of Hormuz is further illustrated by Abdu Razak Samarqandi(1413-
1802), who, as the ambassador of Timurid Sulthan Shah Rukh, came to Calicut from
Hormuz in a horse trading vessel sailing to Calicut. 13 The influx of traders from all parts of
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the world to Calicut reached its zenith during the reign of Manavikrama (1466-74), who as a
patron of arts created a congenial atmosphere for a cultural confluence of the different
communities, by raising Calicut as the centre of Malabar trade and culture.
Mr. Perang, quoting the words of Tansen sen brings light to the record of a ChineseYuan
mission to the Malabar coast in 1281. The Chinese sailed to the southwestern India during
this period.14 Marco Polo, a decade later, draws particular attention to the scale of Malabar
spice trade with China: “ Ships come hither from many quarters, but especially from the
great province of Manzi (southern China). Course spices are exported hence both to Manzi
and to the west and that which is carried by the merchants of Aden going to Alexandria.” 15
In the first half of the fourteenth century, Ibn Battuta was similarly struck by the great
Chinese merchant fleets at Calicut; his contemporary Wang Dayuan Yuan described the
town as the principal port of the “Western Ocean”. 16 Yuan sent numerous missions to
Malabar (four alone between 1280-830) that reflected the commercial importance between
China and Malabar. Chinese traders not only frequented Indian ports, but also used the
Coromandel and Malabar coasts of southern India as major transit points for their trips to
the Persian Gulf. This was more evident during Yuan(1271-1368) and Ming(1368-1644)
period. Among the Chinese porcelain exported to India were platters, which, had
“remarkable properties; they can fall from a great height without breaking and hot food can
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be put in them without their colours changing or being spoiled” The Ming ruler, in turn,
customarily invited the envoys from Calicut, along with other foreign representatives, to
lavish banquets and conferred titles and return gifts. On one occasion, in October 1405, the
ruler of Calicut, an individual named Shamidi (Zanorin?), reportedly travelled to the Ming
court and had an audience with the emperor.18 According to Ma Huan (died c.1460) the
author of Ying-yai Sheng-lan (The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores), the Ming court
“ordered the principal envoy the grand eunuch Cheng Ho (Zheng He) and others to deliver
an imperial mandate to the king of this country (ie., Calicut) and to bestow on him a patent
conferring title of honour, and a grant of a silver seal, [also] to promote all the chiefs and
award them hats and girdles of various grades”19 Contact with China had its influence on the
life and cultural of the Malabar people including Mappilas. Many Chinese articles became
part of the life of the people and even Chinese words entered into the local dialect. 20 Ibn
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Battutta met the traders of Arabia, Persia, China, Mahal dweep, Sree Lanka and Yemen at
Malabar. The port officers of Malabar ports were always Arabs, At Calicut the officer was,
Ibrahim, a native of Bahrain.21
The qazis and traders of Malabar hailed mainly from Arab lands. Besides the house hold
articles of Arab lands found their way into Malabar changing the life styles of Malabar
people. Conversions to Islamic faith extensively brought the people of Malabar close to
Arabs bringing a synthesis of Arab and Malabari culture. From the Muslim side, the
travellers and the missionaries took joint efforts to spread the faith among the coastal
communities in a positive order that conversion to Islam never hindered the co existence of
the natives with the only difference that the converts have to adhere to the tenets of the new
faith which may automatically bring changes in their life. As put by Michael Pearson, “For
Muslims, the recitation of the shahada, the declaration of faith (“There is no god but God,
and Muhammad is the prophet of God”), is something to be going on with…..Conversion is
thus to be seen as a continuing process, even extending over several generations.” 22 The
relative success of the travellers and missionaries thus created a strong element of unity all
around the shores of the Indian Ocean. This was done through the conversion of the natives
on one part, and the spiritual bond that brought by the spiritual men through their Baraka
(blessing) and prayers. Besides, in the absence of a common legal system for the trade
network, Islamic systems helped the traders of all classes and regions to settle their trade
issues. The political decentralization, characteristic of the region favoured the spread of
Islamic legal practice, especially in the larger autonomous mercantile communities that
dominated port cities, while local authorities summoned Muslim holy men and scholars for
legal advice or adjudication.23 In Malabar as elsewhere in the Indian Ocean region, the ruler
Zamorin provided a free hand to the Muslim holy men in developing his trade activities.
Shaikh Zainuddin, a Muslim holy man who was well received by Zamorin, to his newly
founded capital, Ponnani, was the main pillar behind his prosperity and he wrote letters to
Muslim rulers to help the king when his principality was threatened by colonial invaders.24
The advantages of conversion was also considerable in the region, that the indigenous
people flocked to Islam and the sufi missionaries and local rajas provided a peaceful
atmosphere for the large scale conversion of the people. As observed by Shaikh Zainuddin,
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“the Muslims and their trade prospered because of the regard showed to them by the rulers
not withstanding that these rulers and their troops were all unbelievers; their respect for
the ancient customs of the Muslims, and the absence of enmity except on rare occasions.” 25
When Shaikh Mamukkoya, a mysitic (d.1572) reached Calicut, the Zamorin visited him
and sought his advice regarding the facilities which have to be given to Muslims. The
Shaikh himself led the Mappila army in the battle against the Portuguese at Chaliyam and
the Zamorian’s mother appealed to the Shaikh to pray for the victory of her son in the
battle.26 The merchants were attached to guilds led by sufis who acted as the saviors of trade
from all the natural calamities. Thus commerce and Islam were “increasingly over lapped
due to the often close involvement of merchants in the tariqa (sufi brotherhood). …Due to
the tariqa- merchant alliance, Islam by the late thirteenth century dominated the main Indian
Ocean World maritime trade routes between the Red Sea and Indonesia.” 27 The mass
conversion to Islam was easily and peacefully carried by accommodating the local culture
with that of Islamic beliefs. It was the flexibility of the Hadrami Sayyids, who largely
migrated to Indian Ocean towns and also the merchant missionaries that reflected the
pragmatism of Islam that enabled it to move beyond being the religion of the conqueror to
becoming the religion of the conquered.28
With the establishment of the Grand mosque at Ponnani, the Arab trade developed
through the Marakkayars, the Muslim merchants from Tamil region of Kayal pattanam and
it paved the way of tamilization of Malabar Islam. 29 The Makhdums, starting from Shaikh
Zainuddin Makhdum (1467-1522)30started an era of renaissance in Islamic education by
establishing a centre of higher learning called dars in the grand mosque and this accelerated
the academic growth of Islam in the region. Gradually, Malabar Islam began to develop with
more exclusive characters asserting its malabari character which never waited for Arabs and
scholars of other lands to lead it. The Grand mosque academy provided Imams and
preachers, generally called as Musliyars, required for Malabar Islam. Besides, as in Tamil
Nadu and East Africa a new script, writing local dialect in Arabic script, was also developed
by the Ponnani school. The dialect later came to be called Ponnani script and in later period
as Mappila language or Arabi Malayalam language, though it cannot be considered as a
distinct language.31 It was about the same period, Malabar witnessed a series of attacks by
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the Portuguese, paving the way for anti colonial struggles in Asia. The Marakkars with the
support of the Makhdums and Zamorins, the local rulers, took the banners of resistance in
their hands and it continued for several years. The struggles also helped the growth of
Malabar Islam, through the conversion of the natives and bringing the zamorins and
Muslims more close, than before. When the religious taboos prevented the Nair militia of
the zamorins, they entrusted the responsibility of the naval wars up on the Marakkayars, the
Muslim mariners, by appointing one of them as the naval commander with the royal name
Kunhali.32 When there was shortage of men in the navy, the Zamorins “directed that one or
more male members of the families of Hindu fishermen should be brought up as
Muhammadans and this practice had continued down to modern times.’’33
Early commercial contact of Malabar with the Tamils and the relationship of Tamil
rulers with Malabar coast played a significant role in the evolution of Mappila culture. The
Arabs who migrated to Coromandal coast in early times had brought the Persian elements to
the Tamil land. There existed Arab centres in Tamil Nadu and with the rise of Islam these
centers developed into those of Muslim activities.34 The chief protagonists of Islam in this
area were South Arabian Muslims who established Islamic academies in the model of
Nizamiyya in Baghdad and the scholars of this tradition espoused the Perso Arabian Islamic
traditions followed in South Arabia. Kayalpatanam35 an ancient port of Tamil coast
developed into the main centre of Islamic activities and it was from here the renowned
Muslim scholar family, the Makhdums migrated to Malabar.
With the advent of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century, the peaceful co existence
existed on the coast gave way to political and cultural animosity and this, as mentioned
earlier, created incessant warfare between the colonialists and the rajas of Malabar. Even
when the persecutions were going on either side and the colonialists playing all kinds of
deceptions, the cultural exchange was not lagging behind. The Portuguese introduced the
cultivation of cash crops and spread coconut farming in the region. They also introduced
new seeds and fruits like cashew nut, chilly, tomato, coriander – all of which changed the
food habits of Malabar people. They brought bakery food items and introduced their own
type of architectural designs in the region. Many new Portuguese words entered into the
regional language. The trade, thus paved way for the cultural enrichment and exchange on
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the coast of Malabar by providing a peaceful coexistence among different communities and
providing a higher state of cultural assimilation and life style transformation.
REFERENCES:
1 W. H Schoff, ed., Periplus of Erythrian Sea,Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a merchant of the first
Century, London, 1912,Chapters 21-22
2 Jawwad Ali, Al Mufassal fi Tarikhil Arab Qabl al Islami, Beiruth, 1980, Vol. 4, p.245
3 For details see R. Michel Freener,Terenjit Sevea, Islamic Connections, Muslim Societies in South and South
East Asia, Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore, 2009
4 Saiyid Sulyman Nadwi, Arab ki Jahaz Rani, Bombay Islamic Research Association, 1958, 19-245
5 For details,Sanjay Subramanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama, Cambridge University Press,
1995.
6 Sebastian R Prange, “Like Banners of the Sea, Muslim Trade Networks and Islamization in Malabar and
Maritime Southeast Asia”, Michel freener and Terenjit Sevea, Islamic connections Muslim societies in south and
south east Asia, Institute of sea studies, Singapore, 2009, p.26
7 Kirti N Choudhuri, Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean, An economic History from the rise of Islam to
1750, Cambridge University Press , 1985, 21, quoted from Sebastian Perang, op.cit.
8 For details, Roxani E. Margariti, Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the life of a Medieval
Arabian port, Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press, 2007
9 W.Redhouse ed., The Pearl Strings: A History of the Resuliyy Dynasty of Yemen, 5 Volumes , London, Luzac
and Company-1906-18,V, pp.244-47; See also Sanjay Subramanyam, op.cit., pp.101-2
10 Muhammad Abdu Rahim Jazim (ed), Nur al Ma’arif fi Nuzum wa Qawanin wa A’araf al Yaman fi al Ahd al
Muzaffari al Warif, 2 vol., Sebastian Perang, Ibid.
11 See Sanjay Subramanyan, Career and Legend…. Op.cit., p.100; Tansen Sen, The Formation of Chinese
Maritime net works to Southern Asia 1200- 1450” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49,
no.4,2006, 421.
12 Koyas are originally the khojas migrated from Muscut and they increased in numbers after marrying Kerala
women and they supported Zamorins to expand their kingdom and trade activities.
13 See, Abd al Razzaq al Samarqandi, “ Narrative of Journey to Hindustan” in India in the Fifteenth Century,
trans. R.H.Major, Hakluyt Society, London, 1857
14 Tansen Sen, , The Formation of Chinese Maritime net works to Southern Asia 1200- 1450” Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient, 49, no.4.2006.424ff, Perang , op.cit., p.31
15 The Book of Marco polo, The Description of the World, Vol II,161, Perang,p.31
16 HAR Gibb, Translator and ed., The Travels of Ibn Battuta,AD 1325-1354 5 Vol. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society,
1956-2000,IV, pp. 812-14
17 Ibid., pp. 904-95
18 Tansen, op.cit.,p.438
19 Ibid.
20 Cheena Chatti (Chinese vessel), Cheena bharani (Chinese bowl), Cheena Vala (Chinese net), Cheena pattu
(China silk), Cheene mulaku (Chinese chilli) are some examples.
21 HAR Gibb, Translator and ed., The Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325-1354, op.cit, volume 5, pp. 812-17
22 Michael Pearson, “Consolidating the Faith: Muslim Travellers in the Indian Ocean World”, Devleena Ghosh
and Stephen Muecke (ed.), Cultures of Trade: Indian Ocean Exchanges, Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
Newcastle, UK,2007, p.11
23 Edward Simpson and Kai Kresse, Struggling with History, Islam and Cosmopolitanism in the Western Indian
Ocean, ,Uk, 2007, p. 51
24 C.Gopalan Nair, Malayalathile Mappilamar, Calicut, 1912, p.73
25 Shaikh Zainuddin, Tuhfat-al Mujahidin, Eng. Trans., S. Muhammad Husyn Nainar, University of
Madras, Madras, 1942, p. 538 22 Shihabudin Ahmad Koya Shaliyati, Kawakib-al-Majd al Malakuti, (1930),
Mal. trans., Abdulla Musliyar, Indianur, M.S.S. P.B. Chaliyam, 198 pp. 28.
26
27 Edward Simpson and Kai Kresse, op.cit., pp. 52-53
28 Ibid., p.53
29 For the Marakkars in Tamil Nadu , See Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings, Muslims and Christians
in South Indian Society, Cambridge, 1989
30 Hussain Randathani, Makhdumum Ponnaniyum, Ponnani, 2010, pp. 110-115
31 For Ponnani script, see Ibid., pp.210-213.
32 See O.K.Nambiar, The Kunhalis, Admirals of Calicut, Asia Publishing House, Delhi, 1963.
33 William Logan, Malabar Manual, Volume, 1, Madras, 1958, p.197
34 K.N.Chaudhari, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean, An Economic History from the rise of Islam to
1750,op.cit.
35 The town of Kayalpatanam is claimed to have been founded by a descendant of Abu Bakr, a certain
Muhammad Khalji from Cairo. The main source of this legend is a copperplate inscription claiming to date
from the ninth century which is clearly a forgery dating to the sixteenth century or even late. Muhammad
Yusuf Kokan, Arabic and Persian in Carnatic 1710-1760, Madras, 1974, pp.51-52,
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