6. An Indian Ocean Ribāṭ: War and Religion in Sixteenth-Century Ponnāni, Malabar Coast

2019 ◽  
pp. 147-174
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Malabar Coast

Polyglossic Malabar: Arabi-Malayalam and the Muhiyuddinmala in the age of transition (1600s–1750s)

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-539
Author(s):  
P. K. YASSER ARAFATH
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Poetic Discourse ◽  
Textual Tradition ◽  
Malabar Coast ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ocean Region ◽  
Textual Traditions ◽  
Classical Arabic

AbstractThis article examines the relations between trade, faith, and textual traditions in early modern Indian Ocean region and the birth of Arabi-Malayalam, a new system of writing which has facilitated the growth of a vernacular Islamic textual tradition in Malabar since the seventeenth century. As a transliterated scriptorial-literary tradition, Arabi-Malayalam emerged out of the polyglossic lingual sphere of the Malabar Coast, and remains as one of the important legacies of social and religious interactions in precolonial south Asia. The first part of this article examines the social, epistemic and normative reasons that led to the scriptorial birth of Arabi-Malayalam, moving beyond a handful of Malayalam writings that locate its origin in the social and economic necessities of Arab traders in the early centuries of Islam. The second part looks at the complex relationship between Muslim scribes and their vernacular audience in the aftermath of Portuguese violence and destruction of Calicut—one of the largest Indian Ocean ports before the sixteenth century. This part focuses on Qadi Muhammed bin Abdul Aziz and his Muhiyuddinmala, the first identifiable text in Arabi-Malayalam, examining how the Muhiyuddinmala represents a transition from classical Arabic theological episteme to the vernacular-popular poetic discourse which changed the pietistic behaviour of the Mappila Muslims of Malabar.

The Portuguese build an empire.

2021 ◽  
pp. 222-234
Author(s):  
James F. Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Total Weight ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Fair Game ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Protection Racket ◽  
Alternative Routes ◽  
Far Eastern

Abstract Albuquerque's victory in Malacca gave Portugal a major foothold in the Far Eastern pepper trade, but the Portuguese were never able to fully dominate it. The chapter summarizes the struggles of Portugal's building of its empire. It also discusses the cartaz system, where the Portuguese claimed suzerainty over the Indian Ocean and no one else was allowed to sail unless they purchased a safe conduct pass. The cartaz obliged Asian ships to call at a Portuguese-controlled port and pay customs duties before proceeding on their voyage. Ships without this document were considered fair game and their goods could be confiscated. It was, pure and simple, a protection racket. The cartaz system, plus customs duties and outright piracy, provided most of the funds defraying the costs of the Portuguese navy and its garrisons. The chapter also outlines the importance of Indian cotton in the Spice Trade and the routes of spices into Europe. Further, the chapter provides highlights of the Portuguese profits on spices. Portuguese imports of pepper held strong over most the sixteenth century. The total weight of the spice cargoes averaged 40,000 to 50,000 quintals (1 quintal = 130 pounds or 59 kilograms) annually in the first half of the century and 60,000 to 70,000 quintals later on. Records have been left of one cargo in 1518 that totalled almost 5 million pounds (2.27 million kilograms), of which 4.7 million pounds (2.13 million kilograms) was pepper, 12,000 pounds (5443 kilograms) cloves, 3000 pounds (1360 kilograms) cinnamon and 2000 pounds (907 kilograms) mace (Krondl, 2007). Most of the pepper and other spices were purchased in Malabar on the open market. Portuguese profits on the pepper trade could run as high as 500%. Lastly, the chapter briefly discusses how other European countries looked for alternative routes to the spices.

Maritime Archaeological Studies in India

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aniruddh S. Gaur ◽  
Kamlesh H. Vora
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Maritime History ◽  
Indian Coast ◽  
Indian Ocean Trade ◽  
History Of ◽  
Detailed Work

India has played a major role in Indian Ocean trade and the development of shipbuilding technology. The study of the maritime history of India commenced in the first decade of the twentieth century and was largely based on literary data. Maritime archaeological investigations have been undertaken at various places along the Indian coast, such as in Dwarka, Pindara, the Gulf of Khambhat, the Maharashtra coast, the Tamil Nadu coast, etc. Despite a long coastline and a rich maritime history, there are no proper coastal records or records of shipwrecks that are preserved, except some literary references, which suggest a large number of shipwrecks dating between the early sixteenth century and the nineteenth century. This article discusses important shipwrecks on which detailed work is in progress.

The Religion and Culture of Indian Immigrants in Mauritius and the Effect of Social Change

1966 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Hazareesingh
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Indian Immigrants ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Mauritius is a British territory in the Indian Ocean 500 miles to the east of Madagascar. It measures 720 square miles and has a population of 700,000 people whose ancestors came from France (the original settlers), Africa (slaves), India (indentured immigrants), and China (shopkeepers). Mauritius was discovered by the Portuguese in the early years of the sixteenth century, and was subsequently occupied and finally abandoned by the Dutch, who exterminated the famous bird the Dodo. It was held by the French from 1715 until 1810 when it was conquered by the British at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Early History of the Sultanate of Angoche

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. D. Newitt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Early History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Set Up

The sultanate of Angoche on the Moçambique coast was founded probably towards the end of the fifteenth century by refugees from Kilwa. It became a base for Muslim traders who wanted to use the Zambezi route to the central African trading fairs and it enabled them to by-pass the Portuguese trade monopoly at Sofala. The Portuguese were not able to check this trade until they themselves set up bases on the Zambezi in the 1530s and 1540s, and from that time the sultanate began to decline. Internal dissensions among the ruling families led to the Portuguese obtaining control of the sultanate in the late sixteenth century, but this control was abandoned in the following century when the trade of the Angoche coast dwindled to insignificance. During the eighteenth century movements among the Macua peoples of the mainland and the development of the slave trade in the Indian Ocean laid the foundations for the revival of the sultanate in the nineteenth century.

Historical Study of Societal Transformations in the Extended Indian Ocean Realm

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-235
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
The West ◽  
Realistic Approach ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Western Historiography

Abstract Western historiography placed the indigenous Asia beyond the court political centers and the most commercially prominent ports-of-trade in the background of an exogenous (colonial) foreground. Western historical research from the sixteenth century onward privileged selected aspects and voices of the exogenous, focusing on the Arabic and Persian Middle East, India, China, and the West, represented from the nineteenth century onward by the terms Islamization, Indianization, Sinification, and Westernization. Today, historians who study the Indian Ocean give “agency” to things indigenous when they are juxtaposed to things exogenous. Local activities, events, beliefs, institutions, communities, individuals, and historical narratives are emphasized, given weight, and “privileged” over dependency on the exogenous. Simply taking agency away from the exogenous and giving it to the indigenous may seem to be a more realistic approach to overcoming the “from the deck of a ship” critique, but the issue of emphasis and privileging at the expense of “another” remains. Historians researching the non-West have tempered their previously held stance on this issue and now admit the depth and scale of influence that major exogenous civilizations (e.g., the Middle East, China, India, and the West) have had on some local cultures.

scholarly journals The Keyi Mappila Muslim Merchants of Tellicherry and the Making of Coastal Cosmopolitanism on the Malabar Coast

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
Santhosh Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Theoretical Context ◽  
Commercial Space ◽  
Malabar Coast ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Financial Relationships

Abstract The Keyi Mappila Muslim merchants of Tellicherry (Thalassery) on the Malabar Coast were one of the few early modern Indian merchant groups who succeeded in carving out a powerful political and social configuration of their own on the western coast of the Indian Ocean during the British period. Today, several branches of Keyi families remain a cultural unit in the Islamic community of Kerala. This article attempts to locate the group in the larger theoretical context of Indian Ocean cosmopolitanism and argues that the Keyis developed a distinct and significant type of coastal cosmopolitanism in an Indian Ocean setting; Chovakkaran Moosa, an influential merchant from a Keyi family during the colonial period, serves as a representative figure. Through their trade and financial relationships with British and local elites, and the characteristic architecture of their warehouses, residences, and mosques, the Keyis successfully integrated the practices of a global cosmopolitan space into a local vernacular secluded commercial space. This article presents a synthesis of a lively coastal urban and local rural cosmopolitanism that included several networks and exchanges, foreign and native collaborations, and an amalgamation of local and external cultural spheres.

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