Islam is the second-most practiced religion in Kerala with 24.7% of the population according to the 2001 Census of India figures.[1] The religion reached Kerala by the Arabs merchants in coastal regions, prior to the arrival of Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans in India.
There had been considerable trade relations between Arabia and Kerala even before the time of Islamic prophet Muhammad. Islam might have been introduced in the region by the Arab traders in the 7th or 8th century AD itself. Like the Jews and Christians, the Arabs also settled down at Cranganore and established a separate colony of their part of the town. According to a tradition, which as no basis in fact, Cheraman Perumal, the last of the Chera kings, became a convert to Islam and traveled to Mecca and this event helped the spread of Islam.[2]
The patronage of the Zamorins of Kozhikode was also an important factor in the spread of Islam in north Kerala.[2] The Muslims were a major power to be reckoned with with in the kingdom and had great influence in the court. The arrival of the Portuguese in 1498 checked the then well-established community's progress. However in the later Colonial period Muslims increased by conversion chiefly among the "outcaste" Hindu groups of southern interior Malabar as Muslim traders turned inland in search of alternative occupations to commerce. By the mid-18th century the majority of the Muslims of Kerala were landless laborers, poor fishermen and petty traders, and they were in a psychological retreat. This trend was reversed during the Mysore invasions of the late 18th century. For a little over a quarter of a century after 1766 the Muslims were a dominant community. The victory of the British and princely Hindu confederacy in 1792 placed the Muslims once again in economical and cultural subjection.[3]
These conditions found expression in a recurrent form of violent protests known as the Moplah Outrages (1836-1919) and the Moplah Rising (1921-2).[4] The Muslim community of Kerala has also been influenced by "the wind of change" in the last century. Both social and religious leaders worked hard for social uplift and moral regeneration in the society. They exhorted Muslims to give up all un-Islamic practices, take to Western liberal education and promoted education of women in the
There had been considerable trade relations between Arabia and Kerala even before the time of Islamic prophet Muhammad. Islam might have been introduced in the region by the Arab traders in the 7th or 8th century AD itself. Like the Jews and Christians, the Arabs also settled down at Cranganore and established a separate colony of their part of the town. According to a tradition, which as no basis in fact, Cheraman Perumal, the last of the Chera kings, became a convert to Islam and traveled to Mecca and this event helped the spread of Islam.[2]
The patronage of the Zamorins of Kozhikode was also an important factor in the spread of Islam in north Kerala.[2] The Muslims were a major power to be reckoned with with in the kingdom and had great influence in the court. The arrival of the Portuguese in 1498 checked the then well-established community's progress. However in the later Colonial period Muslims increased by conversion chiefly among the "outcaste" Hindu groups of southern interior Malabar as Muslim traders turned inland in search of alternative occupations to commerce. By the mid-18th century the majority of the Muslims of Kerala were landless laborers, poor fishermen and petty traders, and they were in a psychological retreat. This trend was reversed during the Mysore invasions of the late 18th century. For a little over a quarter of a century after 1766 the Muslims were a dominant community. The victory of the British and princely Hindu confederacy in 1792 placed the Muslims once again in economical and cultural subjection.[3]
These conditions found expression in a recurrent form of violent protests known as the Moplah Outrages (1836-1919) and the Moplah Rising (1921-2).[4] The Muslim community of Kerala has also been influenced by "the wind of change" in the last century. Both social and religious leaders worked hard for social uplift and moral regeneration in the society. They exhorted Muslims to give up all un-Islamic practices, take to Western liberal education and promoted education of women in the
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