• Sukesh Kumaradas

Devotional fervor to see the traditional foot print of Adam in Ceylon was also a motive behind the frequent visits of the Arabs to India and Ceylon. Almost all the Arab writers mention about it. Owing to these favorable circumstances the accounts of Arab travelers, navigators and merchants who visited India during this period (from 9th to 15th century) contain more accurate and comprehensive information about India. There are earliest references to the Muslims in Malabar, however, in the notes of Arab travelers and geographers, Nainar, Geographers, p.3 correctly maintains that Muslim geographers are the main source for information regarding the ninth to twelfth centuries of Malabar history, and they continue to be an important source for history up to the fourteenth century. Western writers have been heavily dependent on the notes of European travellers. The Arab Accounts of India the Arabs who held the monopoly of the intercontinental trade of Asia, Europe and Africa in the ancient as well as the medieval times had been visiting he coastal cities of India, Ceylon and China and all the islands scattered over the vast ocean long before the rise of Islam. They carried the Eastern products to Yemen, from thence to Syria and Egypt via the Red Sea and the land route along the western coast of Arabia. These commodities were then transported to European countries from the Syrian and Egyptian ports via the Mediterranean Sea. Although the Indo-Arab commercial contacts are of ancient origin, the Arab merchants of pre-Islamic period have left little account of their mercantile activities in the Indian Ocean and islands. But the Arab’s knowledge observes Nainar, from the pre-Christian era down to the 6th century A.D. is a subject still awaiting the attention of scholars.

Arab accounts of Malabar and its legacy

"Arab accounts of Malabar and its legacy", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.4, Issue 1, page no.1536-1548, January-2017, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701634.pdf

"Arab accounts of Malabar and its legacy", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.4, Issue 1, page no. pp1536-1548, January-2017, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701634.pdf