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TRADE AND CULTURE: INDIAN OCEAN INTERACTION ON THE COAST OF MALABAR IN MEDIEVAL PERIOD

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 lands[2]. 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 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 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 India[8].

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 Koyas[12] 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 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 be put in them without their colours changing or being spoiled” [17] 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 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, “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)[30]started 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 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.  Kayalpatanam[35] 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 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:  

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[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.

[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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