Although Kerala Muslims claim
emergence of Islam in this area through early missionaries from Arabia, their
culture exhibits similarities with Persian culture in some basic areas. For instance, the word used for ‘call for
five time prayer’ – baank – has Persian origin. Another word which is
used for stone on the grave is ‘nishan kallu’ also has Persian origin. Nishan
in Persian means ‘sign’. nishan kallu is compound of persian word nishan
meaning ‘sign’ and Malayalam word ‘kallu’ meaning ‘stone’. It jointly means
‘sign stone’. common use of these Persian words signifies early cultural
interactions with Muslim traders from Persia.
It is obvious that Persians had
been more dominating in maritime trade with Malabar and China in early medieval
period. Many of the Arabs got engaged in maritime trade after Persians
following the Arab conquest of Persia in seventh century. Arabs have been using
Persian words for many things which are related to the maritime trade. For
instance the word used for harbour in Arabic is ‘Bandar’ and the word used for
captain is ‘Nakhuda’. It shows that the Persians were dominating the maritime
trade in the early centuries of Islam. Many Persian traders who converted to
Islam had been interacting with Malabar and they transmitted this new culture
of Persianized Islam to the local population of Kerala.
Another word which has been used
commonly in Kerala is ‘Mullah’. The word ‘Mullah’ or ‘Mollaka’ signifies the
religious official in the Masjid who calls for prayer and teaches the students
in primary classes of religious seminary. ‘Mullah’ is Persian word used for
teacher.
There are a good number of
Persian words which are transmitted into Malayalam language. But some words are
used only in some regions of Kerala. An exploration into such words will help us
to understand large scale interaction between Persian traders and people of such
regions.
For instance word 'Kanoth' is used to denote the function of tying wedding knot (Nikah) at Nadapuram area which is situated north of Calicut in the banks of Mazzayi river. The word 'Kanoth is formed by joining two words - Persian word 'kan' meaning 'ear' and Malayalam 'oothu' meaning dictation. During the 'Nikah' ceremony, the religious jurist of the locality of the bride or bridegroom dictates special words marking the marriage bond between two in the ear of bride groom and the guardian of bride. Therefore this ceremony is known as 'kanoth'. Some other cultural practices of this area confirms our notion of Persian interaction. People in this area start serving food on marriage feast with serving of 'Hareesa' - sweet made up of wheat, sugar cubes and ghee etc. This food item has been a Persian dessert served in the moments of merry and joy. This system transmitted to the people of this region through their continuous interactions with Persian traders in the early phases of Muslim community development.
It is an interesting topic to discuss cultural transmission from Persian culture to the culture of Muslims in Kerala.
Comments and additions in this regard are most appreciated and welcomed.
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