A Bequest of Trade Winds:

Kerala’s Islamic Legacy

By Ammini Ramachandran



Centuries before Mahmud of Ghazni (modern Afghanistan and northeastern modern Iran), lured by tales of the fertile plains and the fabulous wealth of Hindu temples first attacked northern India in 1000 AD, the coastal region of the Indian Ocean between India, the Persian Gulf, East Africa and the China Sea was an area of active commercial exchange. People along these coasts, blessed with wide open waters and natural harbors, excelled in maritime trade with distant lands. Both Indian merchants and the inhabitants of the Persian Gulf regions were active traders and intermediaries long before the birth of Christ.

Ancient Chera kingdom (Kerala) enjoyed a flourishing spice trade with the Arabs of coastal Yemen and Oman. By the early Christian period south India was transformed into a commercial hub linked to the West and the East through emporiums located along the coastal and inland routes. Arab traders left their shores in July, at the height of the southwestern monsoon season to the heart of the pepper country, and returned, carrying their precious cargo of many spices, with the northwest monsoons in November.

Even during the height of Roman trade, old Arab channels of trade continued to flourish thanks to the age-old alliances and agreements between the original Arab and Indian traders. Cinnamon, the spice that made fortunes for the Arab traders in earlier times, still remained an Arab monopoly. The Romans could find it only at Arab ports; the source of cinnamon in India was scrupulously guarded from them. Throughout the Kerala Coast the Romans were offered only malabathrum, the leaves of the same tree that produced the fragrant bark. Such was the loyalty between the ancient traders of the Indian Ocean. ....more>