{"id":2732,"date":"2020-08-13T14:01:50","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T14:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/?p=2732"},"modified":"2020-08-13T14:01:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T14:01:52","slug":"arakkal-dynasty-a-story-of-the-moors-of-malabar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/2020\/08\/13\/arakkal-dynasty-a-story-of-the-moors-of-malabar\/","title":{"rendered":"Arakkal dynasty: A story of the moors of Malabar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Vinaya. K<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image credits: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most powerful of all the moors, who maybe regarded almost as an independent prince resides at Cannanore. He is entitled as Ali Rajah, king of the islands\u2026\u201d In the beginning of the 18th<\/sup> century, this is how a ruling house of Malabar was described by the Dutch captain Jacob Visscher in his letters. This ruling house, the Arakkal royal family, which ruled what is today known as Kannur<\/em> and the Lakshadweep<\/em> islands, is the first and the only Muslim royal house of India\u2019s southern coastal state, Kerala. This Muslim royal line unlike its counterparts of the world strictly followed Hindu matrilineal succession. The firstborn child regardless of its sex ruled the kingdom; if it were to be a boy, he were to be \u2018the Ali Rajah\u2019 (Adi Rajah) and if were to be a girl, she were to be the \u2018Ali Rajah Beebi\u2019 (Adi Rajah Beebi). This Hindu custom of succession had later been sanctioned by the Caliph as the \u2018custom of the land\u2019 in one of his letters. The origins of the house still remain obscure. From keralolpathi<\/em>, an ancient Malayalam text to the recent historical studies, there are at least four prominent stories related to the origin of the Arakkal royal family but one thing that is clear from these \u2018stories\u2019 is the Arakkal family\u2019s relation with another local ruling house Chirakkal<\/em> and the Kolathiri<\/em> of Kolathnadu<\/em>. Earlier, the feudatories of the Kolathiri<\/em>, the Arakkal house of Cannanore came into prominence by establishing its political power in and around Cannanore by the middle of the 16th century. It enjoyed a monopoly of trade in the area. Through the attainment of political influence and economic prosperity, the house later claimed independence from the kolathiri<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image credits: Wikimedia commons<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIn its glorious days, the house administered its own laws, maintained its own currency and had trade relations with Persia and Arabia. Eventually, the Portuguese came followed by the Dutch, following the footsteps of Vasco da Gama. \u201cWhen Malabar became a theatre of expanding European mercantilism and contesting interests, the Arakkal house was also placed in a new historical situation like many other chieftains of Malabar.\u201d The history of Malabar in the 16 and the 17th<\/sup> centuries is intimately tied with the intrusions by Europeans. The fickleness of political alliances and rivalries between the ruling houses of Malabar and the European powers makes this period all the more engaging. When Samoothiri<\/em> and Kolathiri<\/em> lost their grounds in the political turbulence created by the Portuguese, the Arakkal royal family, which suffered more hostility because of its religious identity, stood firmly against what didn\u2019t appeal to it. The Arakkal family has a long history of the stiff resistance against the Portuguese. The St. Angelo fort built by the Portuguese in 1505, captured by the Dutch in their zenith of power and later captured by the British, is situated a gunshot away from the Arakkal palace and mosque. This very fact points out to the position of the Arakkal family during the colonization of Malabar by the Europeans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1497, when Vasco da Gama set out from Portugal, it was the dawn of a grand-new epoch in human history for, it not only changed the fortunes of the western world but of all the people who came to have contacts with it. The Malabar Coast was one of the many first places to have developed such contact. It has a long and tiring history of connections, cultural friendships, rivalries and \u2018colonialism\u2019 for people to talk about than other regions of the subcontinent. \u201cThe visitor to India [who] rarely finds his way to Malabar; he misses much\u201d, said Sir Evan Cotton in his forward to prominent historian K.M Panikkar\u2019s book \u2018Malabar and the Dutch\u2019. Such was the diversity of cultures, customs, caste, ethnicities, etc., that existed there, combined with \u201cdelightful scenery\u201d .The \u2018Hindu\u2019 rulers, the \u2018Muslim\u2019 rulers and the \u2018Christian\u2019 rulers eventually competed with each other to have political supremacy over the land. Even though religious bigotry and economic motivations were the majorly cited forces behind the violence that existed between them, it was never the sole driving force and the political picture. It was never the \u2018us vs. them\u2019 scenario. All local rulers united against the Portuguese by the end of the 16th<\/sup> century which eventually led to the decline of the power of the Portuguese in Malabar. Later, the Ottoman rulers wanted to follow matriliny, as it was \u201cthe custom of the land\u201d. And now is a perfect time to recall what happened in the past, for this is an age when dominant ideologies reduce history into a mere political tool. \u2018Arakkal kettu<\/em>\u2019, the palace where the glorious Ali Rajas and Ali Raja Beebis resided, still stands even though the royal swords have rusted and the stories of resistance looms only in the myths and songs. It\u2019s clear that the legacy lives, reminding us of the culture and diversity of the land. After all, all history is not something that happened long ago, but it indeed is a \u201cconstant conversation between the past and the present\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India has a sumptuous royal history of its rulers. From Rajputs to Nawabs to Marathas and Mughals, we have had it all. But the moors of Malabar have another story to tell, another royalty, another ruler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2059,2089,2077,2065,2071,2056,529,2080,2086,2092,2087,2091,276,2062,2076,2090,2083,2061,2058,2088,2070,2084,2060,2085,2067,2066,2064,2082,2072,2068,2055,2093,2081,2079,2075,2057,2063,2069,2074,2078,383,2073],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-ali-rajah","tag-ali-rajah-beebi","tag-arabia","tag-arakkal","tag-caliph","tag-cannanore","tag-caste","tag-chirakkal","tag-coastal-state","tag-cultures","tag-currency","tag-customs","tag-diversity","tag-dutch","tag-economic-prosperity","tag-ethnicities","tag-europeans","tag-islands","tag-jacob-visscher","tag-k-m-panikkar","tag-kannar","tag-keralolpathi","tag-king","tag-kolathiri-of-kolathnadu","tag-lakshadweep","tag-letters","tag-malabar","tag-malabar-and-the-dutch","tag-malayalam-tex","tag-matrilineal","tag-moors","tag-ottoman-rulers","tag-persia","tag-political-influence","tag-political-power","tag-prince","tag-royal-family","tag-ruling-house","tag-sir-evan-cotton","tag-st-angelo-fort","tag-trade","tag-vasco-da-gama","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2732"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2827,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions\/2827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}