From Kerala to Salalah

Oman-India ties: Across Sea and Space takes its readers on a visual journey outlining the rich historical relationship between the two great civilizations of Oman and Indian which goes back more than 5000 years.

Published by Oman Observer in association with Indian Embassy Muscat and written by Samuel Kutty (Senior Editor of the Observer) and Sandhya Rao Mehta (Associate Professor of SQU), the book is an attempt to document, archive and disseminate this relationship from its historical past to the present time where these relations have taken new wings.

Extracts from the book will continue to appear on this space every Saturday.

A thousand kilometres south from Muscat, the city of Salalah is less often associated with historical trade in the Indian Ocean than its beautiful Khareef winds. But in prehistoric times, the port of Sumhuram (now approximately 35 kilometres from Salalah) was a major trading site with ideal sea conditions.

Archeological evidence shows that this ancient port engaged with trade as far as the Mediterranean. As the traditional regional capital, the city’s history stretches back two millennia, when, thanks to its strategic location, it was an important stop on the frankincense and silk trading routes. In the 19th century the region was incorporated into the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, and Salalah served as the country’s working capital from 1932 until the accession

of the late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said in 1970 who relocated the capital to Muscat.

Salalah has various holy sites central to Islam, including the tombs of Nabi Hub and Nabi Ayoub but there are also other places which reflect connections with the

western Indian coast with its multiple layers of history and legend.

Embodying its closer links with coastal India, there is another tomb that is of legendary importance and points to the pre-Islamic connections between India and Oman.

The legend is that Cheraman Perumal Rama Varma Kulashekhara became interested in the stories coming out of Mecca and decided to make a pilgrimage there. Keralolpatti, a work in Malayalam dealing with the rise of Kerala, narrates the story thus: “Cheraman Perumal, the last Perumal ruler of Kerala, who became enamoured of Islam, partitioned the Kingdom and secretly left for Mecca with some Arab traders and lived for a few years in obscurity and peace in Arabia. There he visited the Prophet and embraced the new faith. On his return, Perumal died and was buried on the Arabian coast.”

In Mecca, King Cheraman declared his conversion to Islam in the presence of the Prophet and adopted a new name, Thajuddin. He later performed Haj. As per the wishes of the Prophet, a team of his companions led by Malik bin Dinar started their journey with Thajuddin to propagate Islam in Kerala. But along the way the king fell sick and died in Oman during his return journey. He was buried in Salalah under his local name Adbur Rahiman Samiri.

Cheraman’s meeting has been mentioned in the Hadith by Imam Bukhari and Abu Saeed Al Khudri. The Hadith says: “A king from India presented the Messenger of Allah with a bottle of pickle that had ginger in it. The Prophet distributed it among his companions. I also received a piece to eat.”

He is said to have sent messengers, led by Malik bin Dinar, who established the first ten mosques on the west coast of south India. Malik bin Dinar landed in Kodungallore where the first mosque was established.

The mosque at Kodungallore is still a standing place of worship and is considered to be the first mosque built in India. In Salalah, the tomb of Cheraman has the

inscription “Abdur Rahiman Samiri arrived in Arabia in Hijara 212, died 216 A.H”.

“Worship is offered at an old grave in Dhofar even today, believed to be belonging to a royal convert from Kerala,” William Logan mentions in the Malabar Manual (1879) Although the dates may continue to be debated, the presence of this Hindu king who converted to Islam and died on his way back from Mecca, facilitating the first mosque in southern India, is uncontestable. He remains a testament to the richly layered history of ties between the two coasts of Oman and India which continued well into documented history, as more traders travelled, interacted and put down root.