Religious Education : Similarities Between Kerala and South Arabia

Muslims in Kerala are blessed to have a good past in the area of religious education. It is primarily owed to their age-old cultural relationship with the people from south-Arabia, especially parts of Yemen and Oman. Prophet Muhammed (s) started system of imparting education firstly in Darul- Arqam in Makkah and secondly in the Masjid of Prophet in Madinah. The system of imparting education as part of the masjid system was followed in various parts of Islamic world. Masjid based education imitated the learning atmosphere which was found in the Masjid of Prophet (s). In this system teacher is considered as focal point and students heard each and every word spoken by teacher with highest level of calmness and attention. students greatly respected the teacher so as they considered him as sources of divine blessings. In Islamic perspective knowledge is considered as emanating from revelation or basic source of knowledge is revelation. Therefore every useful knowledge is deemed to be respected as the revelation and guidance from God is respected. And the person who teach students is considered similar to the Prophets who imparted revelation. therefore the teacher got respected as the companions respected Prophet Muhammed (S). 

Cultural Interaction with the Persian Traders

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. 

Culture of Muslims in the State of Kerala, India

Kerala is a small geographical area which is situated in the southern part of India (South-India). The state is intertwined with the Arabian Sea in its west. Wonderful beaches of this state, especially at Kovalam and Cherai beech attract large number of tourists from various part of the world. This state is blessed with beautiful greenery in mountainous parts which is situated in the east of the State. Munnar in Idukki district and Nilgiri hill ranges in Wayanadu district are such tourist destinations of Kerala. This state is a narrow stretch with the sea from its north to south and is populated by those who speak Malayalam language. It has tropical climate and is rich with tropical plants and cultivation.

During the medieval period the whole state of Kerala had been called as Malabar. During the medieval period this geographical area got world wide fame as land of black pepper. Greeks and Romans visited Malabar in ancient times to load their vessels with black pepper, much wanted product in Europe. In the similar way Chinese and Persians also collected black pepper from Kerala during the ancient period. Foreign traders especially from Egypt and Syria introduced ancient religions including Judaism and Christianity to the Kerala population. A good number of Jews and Christians had been settled in various port cities of Kerala. As we mentioned in previous posts, continuous interaction by means of trade caused changes in the culture of people living in the state of Kerala. 

In fourth century of Christian Era, Roman empire become weak and Persians and the Arabs from Oman, Bahrain and Yemen developed as major players in the Indian Ocean. Persian ships traded with India and China and worked as middlemen in international maritime trade of pepper, silk and other Chinese products. In seventh century Arab army under Caliph Umar invaded Persia and most of Persian population embraced religion of Islam. Majority of maritime traders who traded with India and China during the early medieval period were Muslims from Persia and South Arabia. Such Muslim traders who collected pepper from Malabar introduced religion of Islam to the Kerala population. 

Cross-cultural Interaction: Various Responses

In our story of the tribal region of Lohiana State, the tribal people who got free elementary education from IIM adopted new aspects of dress culture before the rest of tribal people. They imitated the students of IIM more than other tribal men in their dressing and other culture. Since they had continuous interactions during their stay in the campus. A good number of tribal youth who often visited the market, where IIM students roamed around in the evening, also adopted new dressing patterns. Continuous interaction with the students of IIM in the market and youths' passion for novel things prompted them to adopt changes in their life style. However, the elder people of the tribal area who mainly depended on agricultural labours and hunting and gathering in forest were more traditional in life. Elder people had limited or little interaction with the students of IIM. Therefore changes had little effect among this portion of tribal population.

These new changes which were more fascinating for the youth among their friend circles were not similarly welcomed by their parents. Many of them defended these changes as they feared that such changes might cause fury of their deities and awkward results in their life. They directed their children to stick to their old customs, traditions and way of life. It created tensions and problems in their society. However, changes had been getting ground among local population although in a medium pace.

Such processes of cross-cultural interaction are common to every time and place. Each community living in a particular geographical area comes in contact with another community by various means. In our example ‘new educational institution’ is a mean for bringing cross-cultural interaction in practice. Similarly trade interactions, migrations, missionary activities etc worked as means for cross-cultural Interaction. 

Cross-Cultural Interactions and Cultural Change

A new educational institute known as international institute of management (IIM)  was started last year in a tribal region of Lohiana State. People living in this tribal area never wore upper garments such as shirts nor they were used to wear chappals. Students of IIM belonged to distant urban areas where they followed western way of dressing. During the evenings students wandered around tribal areas and enjoyed the wonderful sights of nature including small jungles, various types of birds and animals. They were also fascinated by the natural water streams and wonderful weather of that area. Above all they were attracted by simplicity and hearty love which they could observe in tribal population.  

Gradually a small town developed around this institute. There were two coffee shops, one restaurant, two stationery shops and one crockery. Students of IIM included major chunk of customers or these shops. Students had sound economic background and being from affluent families they had a lavish life. Day by day the market developed. Two new big shops, one with readymade clothes and textiles and another with bags,shoes and chappals were inaugurated with great pomp and advertisements. 

Gradually tribal population also depended this market for their daily necessities. 

Now the tribal population living around the institute had been accustomed with the culture of students living in the campus. Some tribal people got elementary education through free programmes conducted by the institute. Some tribal students started to wear chappals and shirts imitating the fashion of IIM students. 

Managers of textiles and chappals who got management education from modern institutions in urban areas were very much cunning. They offered 80 percentage off on normal chappals and garments. Many of tribal population bought garments and chappals because they perceived it as part of the culture educated and high status people such as inmates of IIM. Therefore  they considered it as a novel and good attribute to their culture.

The above mentioned story is a simple example for cross-cultural interaction. It explains how culture of particular community receives changes through interaction with the people who belong to another distinct culture. 

Our Culture is Our Heritage

A discussion on culture is very interesting because it is connected to the life of every common and educated man. Culture simply refers to the people's way of life. It includes our behaviour, way of thoughts, attitudes, food habits, dress etc. Who is not interested in discussing his own behaviour, thoughts, food and dressing style? And who does not boast in wellness and supremacy of his own styles and habits?

We boast in the supremacy of our culture because it is our heritage. It is the style which we inherited from our forefathers. We are eating the food which is peculiar to our region. We speak more in our local language. we observe religious ceremonies the way our fathers and grand fathers observed. Our manners of according welcome even for strangers is our heritage. In this way everything we own in our life out of genetic control is inherited from our forefathers. 

But a discourse is now on stage. If heritage is our culture then man will be primitive in all period of time. Man will always follow obsolete systems and way of life. Before many generations our forefathers only covered their private parts. They were hunters and gatherers. They bred cattle and considered it as their main source of life. They considered water and cow as pure and sacred. But depending on these things for our daily life is not possible in modern times. We can respect cow and water but we want changes in our patterns of earning livelihood. We want to make use of modern ways of enjoyment. We want to enjoy modern ways of cooking. We go on picnic on holidays. We dress modern to match with the customs and traditions which fascinate modern people.  

Yes, culture is our heritage. But we respect our heritage and we follow a modern way of life. 

We would like to form a middle path between modernity and heritage. Everybody agrees that we need changes in our way of life. Why do we reject good things which are beneficial for our life. using computer makes our life easy. Using mobile makes communication very faster. These facilities bring unimaginable changes in our day to day programs and we can perform big jobs with less efforts. Nobody will reject these changes in their personal life. Technical innovations are borrowed by man from his fellow beings without any hesitation. 
But there is another question of morality or cultural values. Many technical innovations affect cultural values of various communities. Internet and mobile phone application promotes western culture such as western dressing style and western style of greeting. There are many cultural aspects which are admired by modern educated population living in India. many such cultural aspects are being borrowed by the local population. For instance wearing pants, jeans and T-shirts became common being influenced by western media which is circulated via internet and mobile applications. Many of Indian women wore loose robes during the medieval period. They considered wearing tight jeans and T-shirts as a cultural deviance in early times. Only elder generation who advocate heritage of India wear loose robes in modern times. At last we conclude that the foreign elements of culture also transformed as part of our cultural over a period of time. But constituent elements of our culture which were part of the culture of our forefathers is our heritage. The rest is foreign and accommodated by one portion of native population and rejected by another portion. However, culture is changing over time through cultural diffusion or interaction with people who belong to another culture. 

Being A South Indian Muslim

Being an Indian, every citizen of India has a separate identity. Every Indian is part of great India, a large multicultural nation. In India we respect every religion and every citizen although he belongs to a different religion. Muslims contain a good share of Indian population. India is not only a multi-religious nation but also it is multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. People belonging to same religion also speak different language and dress differently.

Muslims of India include Muslim populations which speak Urdu, , Kashmiri, PanjabiTamil, Malayalam and Bengali languages. All of them have different cultural patterns regarding their dressing style, food habits, marriage and funeral rites etc.

So being a South Indian Muslim, a member of Muslim community in South India shares many cultural traits such as dressing style, religious ceremonies and food habits with his/her fellow community members. This blog will discuss many interesting cultural issues related to the culture of Muslims in South India.