Dr.Hussain Randathani.
When the Portuguese traveller Vasco da Gama stepped on the shores of Malabar no one thought that it would be a turning point in the history of the sub continent. The havoc that brought by the Portuguese gave the natives of Malabar the bitter taste of colonialism and it was the first of its kind in the history of the world. Basically the aim of Vasco da Gama and his successors of Europe were to cut down the monopoly of the Arabs in overseas trade and thereby curtailing their influence in the world. Malabar, being the centre of Arab trade, the Portugal ruler Henry decided to send Gama to Malabar to make an agreement with the Zamorin, the ruler of Malabar to expel the Arabs from Malabar trade. Paradoxically enough, it was a Muslim navigator, Ibn Majid who piloted Gama to Malabar and the Muslims of Calicut led him to the court of Zamorin.
Gama lost no time in harassing the Arabs and Mappila Muslims on the coast and blocked the Arab commerce in the Arabian Sea. The Nairs, who hitherto acted as the army of Zamorins had no experience in the naval war that they couldn’t resist the invaders successfully. Moreover the religious taboos prevented them touching the sea water which was an anathema to the religion. The peace and tranquillity of Zamorin’s territory was vanishing due to the intrusion of the Portuguese. The waves of Arabian Sea now began to tell the tales of knife and dagger instead the stories of love and humanity. The coast of Malabar, has now loosing its glorious past of prosperity and mutual coexistence. The Kunhali Marakkars who maintained the supremacy of internal trade on the coast along with the Arabs, now faced a foreign enemy who waisted no opportunity in destroying the Muslim monopoly on trade. The religious life was also not secure since the Portuguese took drastic steps to annihilate the Muslim people all over the world.
The Coromandal Coast, like Malabat, prospered due to overseas trade in the Bay of Bengal. As Mappilas in Malabar, the Kunhalis acted as intermediaries between the foreign traders particularly, the Arabs and the natives on the Coromandal coast. The influence of Marakkars increased when the centre of maritime trade was shifted to Malabar region where they also played a vital role in politics and religion. When Kunhalis settled in Kochi area they brought religious scholars from their home town at Kayalpatanam on the Coromandal coast and this provided the ground for the migration of the Makhdums who were the influential sufi family in Kayalpatanam, to Malabar.
The Makhdums
The word Makhdum literally means one who deserved to be served, a sufi epithet given by the people to eminent Sufis. Here the word was used by this particular family because one of the ancestors of the family was known with this name. Generally peer, sheikh, murshid and Muqaddam are the common titles given to sufi teachers.
The ancestors of Makhdums belonged to South Yemen. It is believed that they settled in Kayalpattanam and Kilakkara region in around twelfth century. The family roots of the Makhdums reach to Hazrat Abubakkar, the first Kahlifa of Islam. Shaikh Ahmad Ma’bari, the grand father of Shaikh Zainuddin Makhdum was the first Makhdum to migrate to Kochi from Kayalpattanam. He led the missionary activities in the region. Later his son Zainuddin Ibrahim beacame the qazi of Kochi. It was here at the Makdhum house in Kochangadi Shaikh Zainuddin Makhdum, the senior was born as the son of Ali Al Ma’bari, the brother of Ibrahim.. His date of birth is given as 12th Sh’aban 871 AH(18th March 1467)
Qazi Ibrahim later migrated to Ponnani and seated at Thottungal Palli as the Qazi of the region. Unfortunately Zainuddin’s father died and he was brought by his uncle Ibrahim to Ponnani where he continued his studies. Later he went to Calicut for further studies under Qazi Abubakkar Faqruddin Al Shaliyati. After spending here for seven years Zainuddin migrated to Makkah where he studied under Allama Shihabuddin Yamani.
Zainuddin continued his journey till he reached at Al Azhar Uninversity, Cairo, Egypt. He was the first Malayali student at Al Azhar. Here his main teacher was Qazi Abdu Rahman al Adami. He visited famous Islamic scholars of Egypt. They include Imam Jalauddin Suyuti, Imam Abubakkar Hadrami, Sayyid Abubakkar al Aidaruzi, and Zakariya al Ansari. Zainuddin had his spiritual exercises under Shaikh Zutubuddin son Khwaja Fariduddin known as Baba Farid. Later he was appointed as the representative(khalifa) of Chishti and Qadiri orders of Sufism. He was also initiated to the Shatari order of sufism by Zabit bin Ayn.
After returning to Ponnani Zainuddin started an era of revivalism in Keralite Islam. His first decision was to start a centre of Islamic learning in the model of Al Azhar and with this purpose he started the construction of the present Grand mosque. In the construction of the mosque he was patronized by the local chieftain Thirumanasseri Tampuran. The initial construction was completed in 925/1518. The mosque became a centre of learning and students from various parts of the globe moved to Ponnani seeking knowledge in various branches of religion.
While the religious revivalism was going on at Ponnani, Malabar witnessed the onslaughts of the Portuguese that directly affected the existence of the Muslims as well as the prosperity of the region. Vasco da Gama , the Portuguese invader and his successors played havoc in Malabar and the surrounding areas. Zamorin, the raja of Calicut was at Ponnani when Almeida, the Portuguese commander attacked the city and destroyed houses and ships. His successor Menezes put fire to the buildings and killed a number of people. Zamorin’s army retaliated vehemently and the Portuguese ran away out of the city.
However, it was not easy for Zamorin to fight away the enemies in the sea due to religious taboos. He appealed to Zainuddin to help him by recruiting Muslims to organize a naval war. Zainuddin composed a war song in the name, Tahriz ahl Iman ala jihad abdat al Sulban al marghabat fil jinan al munqidat min al Niran ( Giving Inspiration to the believers to fight against the slaves of the Cross and there by longing the paradise and saving one self from hell). The poem had the desired effect up on the local Muslims who made a battle call against the Portuguese under the Kunhali Marakkars who were mailnly rice merchants from Tamil Nadu.
Makhdum’s help to the Zamorin was not in the war front alone. He was behind the economic prosperity of the king. He acted as an ambassador in the trade transactions with the Muslim countries and when Muslim merchant lords came to Malabar he was the mediator to start trade relations with Malabar. It was with the assistance the Makhdums and the Kunhalis the Zamorin became the defacto ruler in the region. Before entering to any alliance with the Muslim traders the Zamorin sought the advice of the Makhdum and the trade agreements were signed in his presence.
Shaikh Zainuddin wanted to reform the society with the egalitarian ideals of Islam. His preaching of manhood among the down trodden society led to the conversion of many of the fishermen castes converted to Islam and shook away their caste discrimination. At the same time he became the close friend of the Brahmins and Nairs as the land lords and lieutenants of the Zamorin. He constructed his mosque and seminary very near to the Hindu Temple, Thrikkavu where Zamorin made his seat for long. His reformist zeal centred not only on the coastal region alone, but also in distant areas where his disciples preached his mission and many belonging to lower class were integrated to the core of the Islamic society. Zamorin also assisted conversion since the converted people were mostly neglected out castes and they became a great help in his naval wars.
The Muslims themselves also were greatly inspired through the mission of the Makhdum. His presence was a great relief to them when their very existence was challenged by the Portuguese. His spiritual leadership gave dynamism to the Muslim society to activate themselves in the social and political field. In the personal life of the Muslims his spiritual ideals brought spiritual integration. Beng a preacher of the Qadiri sufi order he spread the message of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani of Baghdad reforming the inner hearts of the Muslims. He himself wrote a book namely, Hidayat al Adkiya ila Tariq al Awliya to spread his sufi ideals.
Zainuddin Makhdum , the elder died on Friday 10th July 1522(16th Sh’ban 928 AH) by leaving three sons and two daughters. He had several books to his credit of which twenty two books are known to us. Most of his books were intended to teach the students of his academy. However his masterpiece Hidayat al Adkiyah remained as manual of Sufism in Malabar. He was succeeded by Abdul Aziz Makhdum who followed the footsteps of his father.
Shaikh Zainuddin, the Junior.
The Renaissance movement among the Muslims of Malabar started by Makhdum, the senior was continued by his successors. At the same time the political turbulence due to the onslaughts of the Portuguese was also continuing. Both the religious and temporal leadership of the Muslims was still in the hands of the Makhdums that Shaikh Zainuddin, the junior also emerged as the leader.
The junior was born as the son of Muhammad al Ghazali at Chombal in North Malabar in 938/1524. After his primary studies he migrated to Ponnani where he sat under the feet of Shaikh Abdul Aziz who was an erudite scholar and freedom fighter. He then went to Makkah and after the hajj he remained there to acquire knowledge and became an expert in Hadith (prophetic traditions) and at Makkah he was known as Muhaddith ( one who is expert in Hadith literature). The world famous scholar Ibn Hajar al Hythami was his chief teacher and Hythami is said to have visited Ponnani later when the Makhdum was the chief of Ponnani Academy. The Makhdum became the spiritual disciple of Abul Hasan al Siddiq al Bakari who appointed him as the khalifa(representative) of the Qadiri sufi order.
From Makkah Zainuddin returned to Ponnani where he became the Principal (mudarris) of the academy. Besides being an Islamic scholar , he maintained contacts with the rulers of the time. He had contacted with Akbar the Great, the Mughul emperor and the Bjapur ruler Ali Adil Shah appointed him as a member of his court. Zainuddin’s historical treatise Tufat al Mujahidin was dedicated to Adil Shah. He was very close to Zamorin and the Muslim rulers like Mamluk Sultans of Egypt and Ottoman rulers of Turkey continued their relations with the Zamorin through the Makhdum. Makhdum was behind organizing a confederation of the sulthans and zamorin against the Portuguese. He sent letters to different Muslim rulers of the time to join the confederacy in fighting away the Portuguese from India. The Kunhalis sought his advice in the naval wars .
During his time there were large scale conversions to the fold of Islam. Most of them were fishermen who actively joined the naval force the Kunhalis. Besides, mosques were constructed at different parts of Malabar where the disciples of the Makhdum started mosque academies to train the local Muslims in religious observances. Makhdums followed the shafi jurisprudence of Islam and to propagate it he wrote a text book in the name Fathul Muin fi sharhi Qurrat al Ayn. The book is basically a commentary of his earlier work Qurrat al Ayn which he had written in 1578. The book contains all the observances and litanies which a Muslim had to follow and all those connected with the Islamic way of life. The book became a text book in Islamic academies not only in Malabar but even in Al Azhar University of Egypt and in the countries where the shafi school of law prevailed.
However, the most famous contribution of Zainuddin al Saghir is the Tuhfat Al Mujahidin Fi Ba’th akhbar al Burtughaliyyin (Tribute to the Holy Warriors in respect of a brief account of the Portuguese)which is the first of its kind in Arabic dealing with the history of Malabar and the struggles between the forces of the Zamorin and the Portuguese on the coast. The book generally known as Tuhfat al Mujahideen, is a small one , but with first hand information on the contemporary history of Malabar. It was translated into the Portuguese, French, Spanish , Czech, English and to many Indian languages. The first English translation was brought by M.J.Rowlandson in 1833. Later Amerson, Jameson Berg, and Muhammed Husyn Nainan also brought English translations. Ibrahim Ferishta translted parts of the book into Persian and Hakim Shamsullah Qadiri to Urdu. The Malayalam translations were brought by Moosan Kutty Moulawi, Velayudhan Panikkasseri and C. Hamza. Now a team under Dr. K.K.N.Kurup including Prof. Ismail and myself is working to bring out translations of the book in Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi with the assistance of Central Language Institute. The team has already prepared a revised version of the work in Arabic. The Saghir also wrote many other books with the aim of propagating the religion.
Zainuddin Makhdum, the Junior died in 1619/1027 at Chompal near Mahe in Malabar. Some put the date as 1583. The Makhdum family continued as the religious heads of the Jama masjid or Valiya palli and even now that succession is continued. Now Pudiyakath Sayyid Muthukoya Thangal is the Makhdum and he is fortieth on the line.
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