• Anilkumar. K

The Mappilas are either the descendants of the Arab traders or of Hindu converts to Islam. The Arab trade with Malabar dates from as early as the fourth century A.D; right from the decline of the Roman Empire. The Arabs came to dominate the Indian Ocean. Malabar became the chief center of their trading activities and by the seventh century, several Arabs had taken permanent residence in some of its ports. The earliest Islamic influences came to Malabar through the Arabs almost immediately after the faith was founded, before the end of the seventh century1. However, the earliest inscriptional evidence for the presence of Muslims in Kerala dates back to the mid-nineth century with Tarisappalli copper plates, in which, details relating to a grant given to Syrian Christians by Sthanu Ravi Varma, the king of Quillon, were recorded. This grant was witnessed by Jews and Muslims 2. Between the nineth and sixteenth centuries, several Muslim settlements developed around important trading ports, particularly Cannanore and Panthalayani Kollam [Quilandy]; and Calicut had considerable Muslim population during this period. Ibin Batutta, the fourteenth century traveller found Muslim settlements in several ports of Kerala. Durate Barbosa who lived in Malabar between 1500 and 1516 observed that the’ Muslims were so rooted in the soil throughout Malabar and they were the fifth part of its people, spread over all its kingdom and provinces.3’ Half a century later, Sheik Zein-ud-din, author of the Tuhfat-ul-Mujahidin, placed the Mappila population at ten percent of the total 4. However, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Mappila population became predominantly rural. In the absence of a detailed demographic data, it is difficult to map out the actual process of this shift. Increase in conversion, particularly from the lower caste, is a possible explanation. More important, however, was the European dominance in trade during the post 1500 period and consequent decline in the fortunes of the Mappilas. Earlier, they had been participants and collaborators in Arab trade, a large number of them being engaged in procurement of goods, transportation and other incidental jobs.

Mappilas- Malabar-Anchai- Jenmy- Kannam Rights- Jenmam Rights- Naduvazhi- Arab Merchants. Ophier Thankam.

"Culture Setting of Mappila Muslims in the 17 the and 18th Century", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.4, Issue 3, page no.460-467, March-2017, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1703089.pdf

"Culture Setting of Mappila Muslims in the 17 the and 18th Century", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.4, Issue 3, page no. pp460-467, March-2017, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1703089.pdf