Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c17.s7.1

c17.s7.1

In Malabar, Muslim population increased considerably during the period of fourteenth-fifteenth-sixteenth centuries. In Quilon, the pearl fishery was monopolized by the Muslims who were there in large numbers. Such was their strength and influence that, although the ruler of Quilon and his armed retainers were always close by the city, the real arbiters of justice in local affairs seemed to be the wealthy "Moors" who ran the fishery.⁶³ Both Barbosa and Barros talk of the large number of Muhammadans, both foreign and indigenous, in Malabar. The foreigners included Arabs, Persians, Gujaratis, Khurasanis and Deccanis. The local ones were called Moplahs. They were mostly Sunnis, lived in cities and made their living by trade. They comprised about 20 per cent of the total population.⁶⁴ Barbosa contends that they were so numerous that the advent of the Portuguese alone prevented Malabar from becoming "a Moorish state."⁶⁵ A letter from Goa of the year 1568 asserts that "the Malabar nation is Muslim, and they are almost all pirates and hostile to the Christians."⁶⁶