Muslim Trade Networks and Islamisation in Kayalpattanam
Keywords:
Horse trade, Pandyas, Rasulids, Taqî al-Dîn Tibi, Marakkayars, ArwiAbstract
The history of South India’s trade contact with the Arab world, particularly Arabia, Persia, Egypt and Syria, goes back to ancient times, long before Islam came into foothold in the region. The growth of Islam in the seventh century led to a large-scale movement of maritime Muslims that accelerated a massive expansion of the Muslim trade in the thirteenth century. It ultimately paved the development of numerous Islamic communities across the Oceanic rim. One such predominant Muslim community has been shaped at Kayalpattanam on the Coromandel Coast, which flourished into a unique Muslim diasporic community in Tamil Nadu. These Muslims of Kayalpattanam stood instrumental in the process of Islamisation that has reflected in its affiliation to Shafi’i madhab, Sufism, Arwi and Arabic languages and the construction of numerous Islamic monuments.
References
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Mehrdad Shokoohy, Muslim Architecture, op.cit.,76-87. Shokoohy assumes Sultan Jamaluddin might have Jalal al-Din Ahsan, the founder of the Madurai Sultanate.
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