Origin and Early History of The Muslims of Kerala 700AD - 1600AD

Book excerpt: History of Mappila Muslims is known to scholars in the English-speaking world thanks to certain works which carved a niche in what later came to be known as Mappila studies. Although these works are considerably a few and their importance has been slighted by the coming generations as per the ever-evolving standards of historicity, they could set a paradigm in this area of historical exploration. Tuhfatul Mujahidin and Fatah al-Mubeen in the days of yore and Roland Miller’s Mappila Muslims of Kerala in the last century are among the paradigmatic texts which Other Books has either published or will soon publish. Classical works like Tuhfa and Fatah al-Mubeen are the masterpieces which resist any overlooking as per any standards of historical analysis, chiefly because they speak of the space and time in which their authors encountered the bloody enactment of a historical event: Gama’s arrival on the coast of Malabar. All other events preceding 1498 are narrated in these works in relation to or in the context of that apocalyptic coup d’etat. By publishing JBP More’s Origin and Early History of the Muslims of Keralam-700 AD 1600 AD, we would like to shed as much light as possible on the history preceding, as well as the history of more than a century succeeding, Gama’s arrival on the coast of Malabar. We have the same objective behind publishing the Malayalam translation of Roland E Miller’s Mappila Muslims, which too comes out all but simultaneously. As befitted a historian, More has gone through several sources, which he has duly footnoted, in the analysis of historical events narrated in the work. We hope these works will serve as lighthouses to guide explorations in the sea of literatures and oral narratives, chronicled or yet to be chronicled, on the history of Malabar and Mappilas. Since these works are second-hand sources, we request you to subject their historicity to scrutiny more than we do the historicity of classics. For example, a section of this book deals with Cheraman Perumal’s conversion into Islam- an incident in the history of Kerala which elicits many questions from academics and historians on its chronology and the nature of incident. Author’s discussion of the incident may not be agreeable to many readers. For example, in page 112 of the book, the author states that ‘if the prophet had really met Cheraman Perumal it would have been mentioned in the Hadith literature’. But in Al- Musthadrak of Hakim (1002- 03), a collection of ahadith, the following event is reported on the authority of Abu Saeed Al-Khudri, one of the famed companions of the Prophet and widely remembered Helper (Ansar) who has reported around 1170 prophetic narrations: "A king from India presented the messenger, a bottle of ginger, which the messenger handed to his companions for eating. He gave me some, too". The Indian king is believed to be Cheraman Perumal based on the analysis of narration. However, Other Books aims to bring out and strengthen many and varied discources on otherwise less discussed issues in the history of Kerala. We hope those readers will judiciously collate their data, compare them with the author’s sources and form an opinion accordingly.