The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s4.61

c7.s4.61

The Arabs are said not only to have monopolised the early carrying trade between Arabia and Malabár, but also to have made many settlements on the Malabár and Konkan coasts.¹ Although some of these colonies in Kánara and Malabár are well known,² nothing certain can be adduced as to any in the Konkan. Still, in treating of the different races and castes of the district, reasons will be given for believing the very distinct class of Mahomedans known in Bombay as "Konkani Musalmáns" to be descended from the old Arab settlers. It is also stated, but the authority is not given, that the Abyssinians had planted colonies along the whole western coast of India from Cape Comorin upwards at a very early period of the Christian era, of which Rájpuri is one of the last remaining.³