The Muslims of Kerala, primarily in the northern region of the state called Malabar, are referred to as Mappillas. This book is a study of the social and institutional changes of the Malabar Muslims during the colonial period. It presents the Mappilla community in a wider Indian context and analyses its social, economic, religious, theological, political and educational aspects in detail. Particular emphasis has been laid on their women who are socially more powerful than their counterparts in the rest of the subcontinent. The Mappilla tharavaadus, which are matrilineal joint families, and kaarnotis, the female matrilineal heads of these families, are central to the understanding of the social history of this community. The British colonial system disrupted this traditional social order. The book argues that Mappillas do not per se represent a monolithic community, but show inter- and intra-regional variations and social hierarchies. The position and status of the Mappilla community in the twenty-first century has been compared with its Muslim counterparts in the other regions of the country. The book would be of interest to academics, researchers and graduate students of South Asian History and Sociology. NGOs working on the social welfare of minorities and general readers interested in the Islamic community of the west coast of India will find this book useful.

Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, a distinct form of Islamic thought and practice developed among Muslim trading communities of the Indian Ocean. Sebastian R. Prange argues that this 'Monsoon Islam' was shaped by merchants not sultans, forged by commercial imperatives rather than in battle, and defined by the reality of Muslims living within non-Muslim societies. Focusing on India's Malabar Coast, the much-fabled 'land of pepper', Prange provides a case study of how Monsoon Islam developed in response to concrete economic, socio-religious, and political challenges. Because communities of Muslim merchants across the Indian Ocean were part of shared commercial, scholarly, and political networks, developments on the Malabar Coast illustrate a broader, trans-oceanic history of the evolution of Islam across monsoon Asia. This history is told through four spaces that are examined in their physical manifestations as well as symbolic meanings: the Port, the Mosque, the Palace, and the Sea.

This book reinterprets the Muslim architecture and urban planning of South India, looking beyond the Deccan to the regions of Tamil Nadu and Kerala - the historic coasts of Coromandel and Malabar. For the first time a detailed survey of the Muslim monuments of the historic ports and towns demonstrates a rich and diverse architectural tradition entirely independent from the better known architecture of North India and the Deccan sultanates. The book, extensively illustrated with photographs and architectural drawings, widens the horizons of our understanding of Muslim India and will no doubt pave new paths for future studies in the field.

This book explodes the myth that food from Kerala is just mountains of rice, coconut and fish curry. It introduces the gourmet to the subtle flavours of over a hundred traditional recipes, presented for the first time with easy-to-follow instructions.

Conversion to Islam is a phenomenon of immense significance in human history. At the outset of Islamic rule in the seventh century, Muslims constituted a tiny minority in most areas under their control. But by the beginning of the modern period, they formed the majority in most territories from North Africa to Southeast Asia. Across such diverse lands, peoples, and time periods, conversion was a complex, varied phenomenon. Converts lived in a world of overlapping and competing religious, cultural, social, and familial affiliations, and the effects of turning to Islam played out in every aspect of life. Conversion therefore provides a critical lens for world history, magnifying the constantly evolving array of beliefs, practices, and outlooks that constitute Islam around the globe. This groundbreaking collection of texts, translated from sources in a dozen languages from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries, presents the historical process of conversion to Islam in all its variety and unruly detail, through the eyes of both Muslim and non-Muslim observers.