Kerala belies Bhagwat’s invader theory on Islam

Vappala Balachandran
Ex-Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s call on June 2 not to “look for a Shivling in every mosque” has been welcomed by all. According to the media, he had also said: “The Gyanvapi issue is on. Gyanvapi has a history which we cannot change now. We did not create that history. Not today’s Hindus, not Muslims. It happened then. Islam came here with the invaders.”

There is, however, one example of Islam coming to India not with the invaders. That was in Kerala. This was chronicled in 1887 by William Logan of Madras Civil Service. This Scottish officer spoke Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. He served from 1862 to 1887 in the Malabar-Cochin-Travancore area in many capacities, the last as Collector and Magistrate of Malabar district. In 1884, he thwarted a local land grab by predators and saved the “Silent Valley”, one of the last remaining rain forests in the world.

In 1887, he published two volumes of Malabar Manual based on East India Company archives, local records, oral history and an earlier book, The land of the Perumauls of Cochin, in 1863 by Dr Francis Day, Civil Surgeon of British Cochin.

Logan mentions two theories on how Islam came to Kerala. The indigenous “Mappilla” manuscripts indicate that the first convert had audience with the Holy Prophet who instructed him on the “Fourth Vedam”, i.e. Koran. The Prophet addressed his followers on that occasion and named the first convert as “Thiaj-ud-din” (Crown of the Faith).

The “Malayali Arabs” however say that Islam was not introduced into Malabar until 200 years after Hejira. This was recorded by Arab merchant traveller Sulaiman in AH 237 (Anno Hegirae, “in the year of the Hejira”) which would correspond with CE 851-52. Sulaiman had said that he did not trace any Chinese or Indians who were Muslims or spoke Arabic. Also, “Thiaj-ud-din does not figure in the list of Assahabi”, or persons who saw the Prophet.

Logan says that the last king or emperor of Malabar, Cheraman Perumal who reigned in Kodungallur (Muziris of the Greeks) dreamt that “the full moon which appeared on the night of the new moon in Mecca had split into two at the meridian — the other half descending to the foot of a hill called Abikubais, when the two halves joined together and then set”.

Later, a group of Mohammedan pilgrims on their way to the sacred Footprint Shrine at Adams Peak in Ceylon visited Perumal. Sheikh Sekke-ud-din, one of the pilgrims “related to the Perumal the apocryphal story of Muhammad having, by the miracle about which the Perumal had dreamt, converted a number of unbelievers.”

Perumal then decided to relinquish his title and “unite himself to them”. He designated his successors and waited for Sheikh Sekke-ud-din to take him to Arabia. On their way, they reached Pantayani-Kollam, a medieval port in north Kerala which was a trade centre for the Moors and Chinese. From there, they went to Dharmadam, also called “Poyanaad”, meaning the last stop from where Perumal sailed to Mecca. They stayed there for three days and sailed to Shahr in Arabian coast. Perumal stayed there for some years.

No explanation was given why the Perumal did not proceed further. At Shahr, he was in the company of people like Malik-ibn-Dinar and his family, where he converted to Islam, changed his name as Abdul Rahman Samiri and married a lady named Rahabieth. Instead of going to Mecca, he decided to return to Malabar and prepared for the return voyage. However, his health deteriorated, and he passed away in Shahr or Zaphar where his tombstone exists with the inscription: “Arrived at Zaphar, AH 212. Died there AH 216”, corresponding to the years 827-832 CE.

Before his death, he had prepared letters to his successors to grant lands to build mosques for the new religion. He asked Malik-ibn-Dinar to grant land only in Kodungallur, Pantayani-Kollam, or Southern Kollam. Some years after his death, Malik-ibn-Dinar and his family reached Kodungallur where they were received cordially by the Southern Raja who gave them land for the first mosque, now called “Cheraman Perumal Jumma mosque”. Malik-ibn-Dinar became the first Kazi.

From there, Malik-ibn-Dinar went to Southern Kollam where the Southern Kolattiri (Travancore Raja) received him with honours. The second mosque was built where Hassan, one of Malik’s sons became the Kazi. After this, they went to North Kerala to meet the Northern Kolattiri (Chirakkal Raja) and established the third mosque. Later, they went to Bakkanur (Barkur), Manjalur (Mangalore) in Karnataka region and Kanyrode (Kasargode).

Logan says: “There is good reason for thinking that this account of the introduction of Mohammadanism into Malabar is believable.” He says that by the ninth century CE, Arabs had penetrated beyond India and even to China for trade, when these events were said to have happened.

Besides, it is notable that all the places where mosques were built were either the headquarters of the small potentates of the region, or such places which had facilities for trade, and in some cases, the places had the additional advantage of having the chieftains’ strongholds like Kodungallur, Kollam etc. Also, Malik-ibn-Dinar would not have been able to build so many mosques so quickly without local help.

Noted historian Sreedhara Menon, a Fulbright scholar at Harvard, who has written an excellent book on Kerala’s history does not, however, accept Logan’s theory as “the Perumal could not have met Muhammad, the Prophet, at Jeddah” as the periods did not tally with the life of the Prophet. However, Logan had never claimed that the Perumal had met the Prophet. Menon’s objection is also that there was never a Cheraman Perumal.

Logan has also quoted Sheikh Zin-ud-din in Tahafat-ul-Mujahidin that Perumal’s death had happened “200 years after the flight of the Prophet”. In the footnote on Page 196 of his book, he also adds that the Mappillas “assert” that it was a “Zamorin” (Samoothiri of Calicut) because of the name “Samiri” on the tombstone. To conclude, the invaders did not bring Islam to Kerala.

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