Recently, The President of India, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam visited the Cheraman Juma Musjid in Kodungallur (ancient Muziris) in Kerala. This mosque, believed to have been built by Malik bin Dinar in 629 AD, is considered to be the oldest mosque in India. If this date is accurate, then this mosque was established much before the time of Adi Shankara (if we go by the dates ascribed by the Sringeri Peetam) and around the same time Huen Tsang was in India. This mosque has quite a history
As the tradition goes, a Chera king, Cheramanperumal of Kodungallure, left for Makkah, embraced Islam, and accepted the name Thajudeen. He married the sister of then King of Jeddah. On his return trip, accompanied by many Islamic religious leaders, led by Malik-ibn-Dinar (RA), he fell sick and passed away. But he had given introductory letters for the team to proceed to ‘Musiris’ (Kodungallur, the Chera capital. The visitors came to Musiris and handed over the latter to the reigning king, who treated the guests with all respect and extended facilities to establish their faith in the land. The king also organised help for the artisans to build the first Mosque at Kodungallur, by converting Arathali temple into a Juma-Masjid. It was build in 629 A.C., and the area around it had been ear-marked for the team’s settlement.[Cheraman Juma Masjid A Secular Heritage]This story seems to be a myth propagated in the book Keralolpathi (The origin of Kerala) and repeated many times over. None of the reputed history books[1] mention this story, even the ones by eminent historians[3]. According to Sreedhara Menon[9]
The Cheraman legend is not corroborated by any contemporary record or evidence. None of the early or medieval travelers who visited Kerala has referred to it in their records. Thus Sulaiman, Al Biruni, Benjamin of Tuleda, Al Kazwini, Marco Polo, Friar Odoric, Friar Jordanus, Ibn Babuta, Abdur Razzak, Nicolo-Conti – none of these travelers speaks of the story of the Cheraman’s alleged conversion to Islam.A mention of the Cheraman Perumal legend appeared in the 16th century book Tuhafat-ul Mujahidin by Shaik Zainuddin, but he too did not believe in its historical authenticity. But later cut and paste historians seem to have forgot to add his disclaimer.
Sreedhara Menon also authoritatively states that Kerala never had a king called Cheraman Perumal and quotes Dr. Herman Gundert, the German who composed the first Malayalam-English dictionary and the grandfather of Herman Hesse for this. But there seems to have been a Cheraman Perumal, whose history is overlaid by legend. According to Saiva tradition, he had an association with a Sundaramurti, the last of the three hymnists of Devaram. This Cheraman Perumal vanished in 825 A.D, about 200 years after Muhammed thus confirming that all that Mecca trip was a fanciful legend.[10]
Footnotes:
[1] Picture of the old mosque and the renovated one
[2] India Archaeology Messages 2112, 2123
Comments (9)
Which means, the Mallus have been going to the Gelf for centuries, not just recently ;)
Posted by Ravages | August 13, 2005 6:17 PM
Posted on August 13, 2005 18:17
The 'renovated' mosque is just ugly. At least the old one looked like a nice tharavad. Hope these guys don't go around renovating other buildings.
Posted by Karthik R | August 14, 2005 1:43 AM
Posted on August 14, 2005 01:43
Looks like I'm on a blacklist.. can't post comments here :-)
Posted by Anil Kandangath | August 14, 2005 10:07 AM
Posted on August 14, 2005 10:07
Anil, I have not explicitly blacklisted you. Maybe one of the spammers came from your domain?
Posted by JK | August 14, 2005 11:47 AM
Posted on August 14, 2005 11:47
1. Given the dates that Wikipedia article on Prophet Mohammed has given ( that Prophet Mohammed gets access to Mecca in only 628 AD and that the first hajj pilgrimage was supposed to be on 629 AD ) doesn't it seem unbelievable that Cheraman goes to Mecca and returns during or before 629 AD when the mosque was supposed to have been built?
2. How does the nAyanAr tradition's version of Cheraman Perumal vanishing about 200 years after Mohammed contradict the other tradition ( atleast the part that he did actually convert and go to Meccah? ) - I am puzzled by your use of the word "thus" after "about two hundred years after Muhammed" there.
Posted by froginthewell | August 16, 2005 1:31 PM
Posted on August 16, 2005 13:31
froginthewell, Sreedhara Menon writes that legend 1 never happened. He says that there was no Cheraman Perumal at all in Kerala and let's believe various historians and say legend (1) never happened.
Now Nilakanta Sashtri says that there was a Cheraman Perumal, but he lived about 150 odd years after Muhammed. So if you put both these together, all that Mecca trip can be believed to be a made up story (atleast with the information we have now)
Posted by JK | August 17, 2005 12:33 PM
Posted on August 17, 2005 12:33
The arguments seem to be good. But you seem to missing one crucial point.
Prophet Muhammed had performed a miracle by the leave of Almighty during his lifetime... Namely the splitting of the moon.... Yes, that is right the moon was split into two pieces...
It is said that even people in Kerala saw it, and the kings and nobles who could afford the journey set out to Mecca, to meet the prophet...
Chakravarti Farmas was one of them. The old manuscript in the 'India Office Library' contains several other details about King Chakrawati Farmas and his travel.
By the way if you find the miracle of splitting of moon too hard to digest, the NASA scientists have recently published the result of a painstaking study of moon, which says that there is a belt of extending into the interior of lunar structure, which can only be possible if the moon had been previously split and joined together again... A British became Muslim after this report caught his eye...
Anyways this only goes to say that, there were other kings in Kerala who set out journey to Mecca, so I don't find Cheruman Perumal's incident so strange...
Posted by A Stranger | April 4, 2007 2:13 AM
Posted on April 4, 2007 02:13
A Stranger, Sure, I think I have seen this in some cartoon movies also - splitting the moon.
Posted by JK | April 4, 2007 10:49 AM
Posted on April 4, 2007 10:49
JK,
LOL :-)
Posted by Gaurav | April 5, 2007 3:53 AM
Posted on April 5, 2007 03:53