Marakkar

Indian Muslim community
the Indian film

The Marakkarsefn|Marakkar is the Malayalam spelling. Other spellings include Maricar, Marecar, Marikkar, Markiyar, Marican, Marecan, Tamil Marrakayar and Sinhalese Marakkala. The community trace their ancestry to marriages between early Arab Muslim traders of the high seas and indigenous Paravar coastal women on the Gulf of Mannar coast and with Mukkuvar coastal women. Arab traders have also married other South Asian women in India and Sri Lanka, but their descendants are not necessarily members of the Marakkar community.

The Islamized Arabs who arrived on the Coromandel and Malabar Coast brought Islamic values and customs and inter married with the indigenous women who followed the local Buddhist, Jain & Hindu customs. Naturally, their children will have embedded Islamic and local values and transmitted them to their descendants. From the outset, the Arabs must, in all probability, have asserted the centrality of Islamic values in their relationship with the local women while making the necessary adjustments to local customs. This is the pattern that has survived to this day. The Marakayars have dominated the educational and economic landscape in Tamil Nadu since the 17th century.

There are two main hypotheses regarding the term "Marrakayar" etymology and its various forms. The first is from the term 'Marakala+aayar', which may mean those who controlled or owned boats. The Marakkars of Sri Lanka falls under the 'Sri Lankan Moors group, defined by the Sri Lankan government as a separate ethnic group. that Tamil Marakkayars have always looked down upon converted Muslims and had a higher social standing directly linked to Arabs. She states the Sunni Shafi Madhab connection to Arabia as proof of their identity. They (marakkars) strictly maintained the sect by intermarriage between the Marakkayars of Malabar and Tamil Nadu. She states that the Labbais sect follows the rules, like marrying the father's sister's daughter (Murapennu a famous South Indian "Kalyana murai"). Nagore, Kulasekarapattinam, Kayalpattanam, Kilakkarai, and Adiramapattanam are the main centres with old mosques and remains of ancient Sahabi saints. Bayly mentions Patattu marakkayar signifies a title or Pattam having been granted to one of these families. Could that be the Pattu Marakkar that we know from Cochin? The Kayal Patanam Quadiri Sufis had connections with the Calicut Sufi families. This confirms the relationship between the Calicut, Cochin and Kayal Marakkayar families and the Arabic links. The Marakkayar port of Porto Novo (Mahmud Bandar) was popular and busy in the later years. In Ramnad, however, the Marikkars mainly handled trade for the Setupati royal family.

In Kerala, Marakkar, known as Marikkars, are primarily concentrated in and around Malabar. They were traditionally boatmen. According to tradition, Marakkars were originally marine merchants of Kochi who left for Ponnani in the Samoothiri Raja's dominion when the Portuguese came to Kochi. They offered their men, ships and wealth in defence of their motherland to the Samoothiri of Kozhikode The Raja, who took them into his service and eventually became the Admirals of his fleet. They served as the naval chiefs in the Zamorin's army. Kunjali Marakkar, one of the first Keralites to rebel against the Portuguese, hailed from the Marikkar community.