Malabar Muslims or Muslim Mappilas are members of the Muslim community found predominantly in Kerala state and the Lakshadweep 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 with the other religious communities of Kerala.
According to some scholars, the Malabar Muslims are the oldest settled native Muslim community in South Asia. Mappilas are but one among the many communities that form the Muslim population of Kerala. No census report where the Muslim communities are mentioned separately is available.
The Muslim community originated primarily as a result of West Asian contacts with Kerala, which was fundamentally based upon commerce ("the spice trade").
Most Muslims in Kerala follow the Shafi'i school, while a large minority follow movements such as Salafism. Contrary to a popular misconception, the caste system, like in other parts of South Asia, 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. 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), Keyis (Koyas), Baramis, Themims, Pusalars, and Ossans found in different regions of Kerala.
Traditionally, the name was given to foreign visitors and immigrants, including Christian, Jews and Muslim 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." When the British supremacy on Malabar District was established, many Mappilas were recruited for employment in plantations in Burma, Assam and for manual labor in South East Asian concerns of the British Empire.
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!
!District
!Total Pop
!Muslims
!% of Pop
!% of Muslims
|-
|rowspan ="15"| 300px
|Kasargod
|1,307,375
|486,913
|37.24%
|5.49%
|-
|Kannur
|2,523,003
|742,483
|29.43%
|8.37%
|-
|Wayanad
|817,420
|234,185
|28.65%
|2.64%
|-
|Kozhikode
|3,086,293
|1,211,131
|39.24%
|13.65%
|-
|Malappuram
|4,112,920
|2,888,849
|70.24%
|32.56%
|-
|Palakkad
|2,809,934
|812,936
|28.93%
|9.16%
|-
|Thrissur
|3,121,200
|532,839
|17.07%
|6.00%
|-
|Ernakulam
|3,282,388
|514,397
|15.67%
|5.80%
|-
|Idukki
|1,108,974
|82,206
|7.41%
|0.93%
|-
|Kottayam
|1,974,551
|126,499
|6.41%
|1.43%
|-
|Alappuzha
|2,127,789
|224,545
|10.55%
|2.53%
|-
|Pathanamthitta
|1,197,412
|55,074
|4.60%
|0.62%
|-
|Kollam
|2,635,375
|508,500
|19.30%
|5.73%
|-
|Thiruvananthapuram
|3,301,427
|452,915
|13.72%
|5.10%
|-
|All districts
|33,406,061
|8,873,472
|26.56%
|100.0%
|}
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. 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, Ezhavar, Thiyyar, Pulayar, Mukkuvar and Brahmin) to Islam (or)
- A descendant of a marriage alliance between a Middle Eastern individual and a native low caste woman
According to Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese commercial agent, Mappilas were an indigenous Muslim community and displayed cultural affinity with Hindu castes like Nayars. He also made a distinction between them and Pardeshis, who were mostly wealthy expatriate Arab merchants and not permanent residents of Kerala.
Stephen Dale 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. The peak of the Muslim distribution in Kerala had gradually shifted to the interior Malabar District. The Colonial administrates also kept a distinction between coastal and inland Mappilas of the South Malabar.
- Landed Aristocracy - the Arabis were followed by the landed aristocracy, centred on Cannanore, North Malabar, arguably converts from high caste Hindus. Kerala's spices attracted ancient Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians and Egyptians to the Malabar Coast in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. Phoenicians established trade with Kerala during this period. Arabs and Phoenicians were the first to enter Malabar Coast to trade Spices. 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, Islam was brought to Lakshadweep, situated just to the west of Malabar Coast, by Ubaidullah in 661 CE. His grave is believed to be located on the island of Andrott. A number of foreign accounts have mentioned about the presence of considerable Muslim population in the coastal towns of Kerala. 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.
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 (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. thumb|Quilon Syrian Copper Plate (c. 883 AD) |294x294pxScholar 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).) 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. 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.
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. The Koyilandy Jumu'ah Mosque contains an Old Malayalam inscription written in a mixture of Vatteluttu and Grantha scripts which dates back to the 10th century CE. It is a rare surviving document recording patronage by a Hindu king (Bhaskara Ravi) to the Muslims of Kerala. Fortunes of these merchants depended on the political patronage of the native chiefs of Calicut (Kozhikode), Cannanore (Kannur), Cochin (Kochi), and Quilon (Kollam).
thumb|left|Early Arab settlements in Kerala up to 1496
The Middle Eastern Muslims controlled the lucrative western arm of the overseas long-distance trade (to the ports of the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf) 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, Maldives and Coromandel Coast, and other Bay of Bengal shores) with the Chettis from Coromandel Coast. Muslims, with Gujarati Vanias, also took part in the trade with ports of Gujarat. 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.
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. Following the discovery of a direct sea route from Europe to Kozhikode in 1498, the Portuguese began to expand their territories and ruled the seas between Ormus and the Malabar Coast and south to Ceylon. In the first two decades of 16th century 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.|235x235px]]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. 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. It was first printed and published in Lisbon. A copy of this edition has been preserved in the library of Al-Azhar University, Cairo. Tuhfatul Mujahideen also describes the history of Mappila Muslim community of Kerala as well as the general condition of Malabar Coast in the 16th century CE.
The Kingdom of Mysore, 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 and, consequently, Malabar was organised as a district under Madras Presidency.
thumb|center|A Mappila from Malabar District (1926–1933)|339x339px
Conversion to Islam 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 Islam 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 Islam, they continued to occupy a lower social position in the Mappila hierarchy. The uprising — which initially had the support of Indian National Congress leaders such as Mohandas K. Gandhi- was suppressed by the colonial government, with martial law being temporarily instituted in the region and the leaders of the rebellion tried and executed. Calicut International Airport, currently the twelfth busiest airport in India, was inaugurated in 1988. An Indian Institute of Management (IIM) was established at Kozhikode in 1996 and National Institute of Technology 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. Lulu Group chairman M. A. Yusuf Ali, 19th richest man in India, is the richest Malayali, according to the Forbes magazine (2018). Azad Moopen, chairman of the Dubai-headquartered Aster DM Healthcare, 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. particularly during the medieval period, continued to practice aspects of the Nair matrilineal system, known as Marumakkathayam (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 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.
Theological orientations/denominations
Most of the Muslims of Kerala follow the traditional Shāfiʿī school of religious law (known in Kerala as the traditionalist Sunnis) while a large minority follow modern movements that developed within Sunni Islam. The latter section consists of majority Salafists (the Mujahids) and the minority Islamists.
The Sunnis referred here are identified by their conventional beliefs and practices and adherence to the Shāfiʿī madhhab, 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.
- Shāfi'ī 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. (also called Dubh Muttu) was an art form prevalent among Muslims of Kerala, using the traditional duff, or daf, 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 Kerala, Persian, Yemenese and Arab food culture. This confluence of culinary cultures is best seen in the preparation of most dishes. Kozhikode biriyani and Ponnani biriyani are prepared by the Mappila community. pazham nirachathu (ripe banana filled with coconut grating, molasses or sugar), and more.