Story of Islam in Kerala - Part 2

In the first post, we had a look at the geographical nature of Kerala and the importance of the spice trade and the way it shaped the maritime contacts of its people.

Today we take a look at the trade relations in more detail of people who had relations with the land throughout the centuries .

Greeks, Romans and Egyptians
During the 3rd and 2nd millienia BC, the Assyrians, the Babylonians in Sumer (Iraq) and the Egyptians had extensive trade with spices from Malabar . Biblical references to the spices indigenous to Kerala also point to this thriving trade contact of these civilizations with the land of Malabar. Kesari Balakrishna Pillai opines  that there might have been Indian colonies to the East of River Tigris in BC 3102. (1) 

The 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus refers to the spices traded by the Arabs but he wrongly believed the spices originated in Arabia.His accounts though point to strong trade between Arabs and Malabar in his time. Later the Greeks themselves learnt to reach Malabar by sea. In the first century AD,  Hippalus  is believed to have discovered a new and faster route to Kerala using the Monsoon winds. Whether this was learnt from the Arabs or something the Greeks discovered is unknown, but in the following centuries there was a very strong trade relation between the Egyptians, the Romans (Egypt was under the Romans in those days) and the Malabar. (2) This trade played an important role in the rise of Alexandria as a major trading port in the early centuries of the Christ era. Myos Hormos, a Red Sea port in Egypt was the place where goods from Malabar were disembarked and taken to Alexandria. Indian merchants had settlements in Alexandria as evident by the massacre of a colony of Indian merchants by Caracella in the beginning of the third century.(3) The journey from Myos Hormos to Muziris took almost 40 days. The number of coins discovered in Muziris belonging to each era of the Roman empire point to the Roman trade peaking during the time from Augustus (d. AD 14) to Nero (AD 68) after which there was a marked decline in the following centuries, with the last Roman coins upto the time of Flavius Zeno (AD 491) being discovered in South India. There was even a temple dedicated to Augustus in Muziris, and significant populations of Romans inhabited colonies in Muziris. (4) Once the Roman trade declined, the Indian traders went back to the Arab mariners to take their goods to the markets in Europe and elsewhere.

Christianity 

Christianity is believed by some to have reached Malabar in the first century AD through St Thomas but many question the authenticity of this tradition. The accounts of the Jews who came to Cranganore in 68 AD and the Alexandrian scholar Pantaneus' writings are cited as proof though some say the latter was just referring to Arabia as India like some Greeks did in those days. Others also point out that Eusebius, the fourth century historian who narrated Pantaneus accounts might have referred to the Indian community in those trading ports of Ethiopia and Arabia. These traders might have later carried their beliefs to their native places thereby laying foundation for Christianity in India in the early centuries of the Christ era.The Jewish presence in AD 68 itself is not accepted completely by historians though it is widely seen as a believable tradition. (12) Tamil traditions narrate a Shaivite believer Maakka Bhaskar who defeated two Christian families in debates and converted them to Hinduism in AD 279. (9)The oldest widely accepted historic origins of the Christian community in Malabar though refers to Thomas of Cana, a merchant from Syria (historical Syria included all of or parts of modern day Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon) who landed at  Cranganore in AD 345 with 400 Christians from 72 families.(5)(6) These immigrants belonged to the Syrian Orthodox Church but later, after the arrival of the religiously fanatic Portuguese, they forced to Latinise the Church, leading to the famous incident of Coonan Cross Oath (Koonan Kurishu) in 1653 that lead to the formation of the Malankara Church. The initial arrival of the Portuguese though, were welcomed by sections of the community as "the mercy of God upon the Christians of Kerala"(13). Today significant populations of Latin Catholics are found along the coastal regions especially in the South.

Jews

The first Jews are believed to have landed in AD 68 in Cranganore fleeing Roman persecution with some accounts putting their number at 10,000. Though not completely supported by evidence, historians consider this a probability, given that there was trade relations between Malabar and the Jews back in the era of King Solomon in 1000 BC.(12) In the fourth century, the Himyarite rulers of Yemen had converted to Judaism thereby establishing a large Jewish community in Yemen.They were later defeated by the Ethiopian Christian kingdom of the Aksumites in 530 AD* and many Jews who had trade contacts with Malabar migrated from Arabia and settled in Chaliyam and Kodungalloor following the defeat. These Arab Jewish communities existed in these places till the days of Abul Fida in the early 14th century as noted in Thaqveemul Buldan.(8) The Bhaskara Ravi Varman copper plates of AD 1000 (some say it dates to the 4th century AD)  point to an established Jewish community settled in Kerala by the 10th century AD. Later waves of migration also occured after the ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Jews by the Christian Spanish rulers known in history as The Reconquista.(12) 

Post Roman Era

After the Roman trade declined, the Arabs and Persians continued their trade journeys to Malabar and back. The Greek historian Procopius tell us about an ambassador sent by Justinian  to unite the Christian rulers of Yemen and Ethiopia so that the Ethiopians " by purchasing silk from India and selling it among Romans" can make a good profit which was impossible then for "the Persian merchants  locate themselves at the very harbours where Indian ships first put in". (10) This points to an upper hand for the Persians in their trade during the 6th century. In the second quarter of the sixth century, Ceylon was the entrepot of trade between China and the Near East. Chinese ships sailed all the way upto Ceylon and from there the Persians and the Aksumites (Ethiopians) dominated the trade routes westward. The Persian Nestorian Church even sent bishops to Ceylon for missionary activities and established churches in the port of Male (Maldives). Some accounts also suggest Persian ships went all the way upto China from the port of Al-Ubullah (near Basra). The port was also referred to as 'Farj Al Hind'** or frontier of India during the seventh century pointing to a very well established trade route between Persia and India at the time.(15) B By the third quarter of the sixth century, Yemen had come under the control of the Sassanians (Persians) who had sided with Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan in the quarrel between the successors of Abraha, the king who was killed in AD 571 by divine punishment from Allah according to the Holy Qur'an (Chapter Al-Fil or the The Elephant) while on an expedition to Mecca to destroy the Holy Ka'aba. So, put in context it can be safely assumed that the trade with India was almost completely in the hands of the Persians throughout the sixth and early seventh century. (16) The dominance of trade through the Persian Gulf continued even after Persia came under Islamic rule till the 10th century when the rise of Cairo and demand from Italian cities shifted the trade to the Red Sea. Under Abbasid rule, the capital of the Islamic Caliphate had moved to Baghdad and Basra in Iraq and Siraf on the Iranian coast flourished as the centres of  Indian ocean trade. Goods from Basra were transported to Baghdad by river and then taken to Syria via desert routes and from there to other parts of Egypt and Europe. By then though, Arabs, Jews and Persians were all involved in the trade with Arab ships sailing from Ubullah (Basra) to India and even upto China.(17)

It is in this context that the early accounts of arrival of Islam in Kerala, and the conflicting dates of the same stories needs to be studied and analyzed. The Perumal legend dates back to the Prophet's era, while different accounts about Malik Ibn Dinar are conflicting. Some narrations suggest he was from Basra in Iraq while others suggest he was a companion of the Prophet living as his contemporary. Given the facts above, we'll analyze in our next post the first accounts of Islam in Kerala, and a comparison with the accounts of Islam in the other lands in the trade routes between Arabia and India, ie. China and South East Asia.

* Read Chapter The Colonial Era in Arabia by F.E. Peters in Muhammad and the Origins of Islam for a picture of Arabia in the last centuries before Prophet Muhammad PBUH
** Tabari refers to Al Ubullah as Farj Al Hind while Baladhuri in Futuhul Buldan refers to it as Furdat Al Bahrayn Wa Al Uman Wa Al Hind  Wa Al Sin, port from where ships sail to Bahrain, Oman, India and China. This also points to the trade route in the Persian Gulf.


Part three of the series can be found here.

References:

(1) Pg8 Charithrathinte Adiverukal ( quoted by KM Bahauddin - Kerala Muslims: The Long Struggle. Mal. Ed by IPH Pg 27 )

(2) Pg 24 - 29, Arab seafaring in the Indian Ocean in ancient and early medieval times - George Fadlo Hourani, John Carswell

(3) Pg 29,Influence of Islam on Indian Culture By Tara Chand

(4) PG 121-141, Indian Shipping - A History of the Sea-Borne Trade and Maritime Activity of the Indians from the Earliest Times (1912)By Radhakumud Mookerji

(5) Pg 140-141,The apocryphal acts of Thomas By Jan N. Bremmer

(6) Pg 107, A short Survey of Kerala History, A Sreedhara Menon

(8) Pg 34, Malabar, Shamsullah Qadiri , Malayalam Edn ,Other Books.
(9) Tamilian Antiquary, Vol 1 No VI pp 53-505-73-39 as quoted in Malabar, Shamsulla Qadiri pg 33.
(10) Pg 62-63, History of the Wars, Books I and II (Persian Wars) By Procopius
(11) Pg 297, Spread of Islam in China, TW Arnold, Preaching of Islam
(12) Pg 109,  A short survey of Kerala History, A Sreedhara Menon.
(13) pg 300,  “The Latin  Christians of Kerala”, Br Leopold
(14) pg 13, "Three Letters of Mar Jacob Bishop of Malabar, 1503-1550
(15) Pg 40-42, Arab seafaring in the Indian Ocean in ancient and early medieval times - George Fadlo Hourani, John Carswell
(16) Richard Frye. The History of Ancient Iran. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/fryehst.html 
(17) Pg 44, A history of the Arab peoples  By Albert Habib Hourani, Malise Ruthven