Malabar Mappila

Malabar Mappilas Arab merchants propagated their faith along the Malabar Coast. The community that came into existence through the marriage of local women to Arab sailors are known as the Mappilas or Moplahs. The Arabs are believed to come from many regions of present day Arabia notably from the Red Sea coastal areas and the Hadhramaut region of present day Yemen as most present day Mappilla Muslims are Shafi'i. Muslims and the Muslims in Maldives, Sri Lanka, and coastal Karnataka also share a similar history and culture. In the 16th and 17th centuries they are known for their fight against Portuguese inquisition and conversion to Christianity of native people of Malabar coast. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Mappilas were known for active armed attacks against the British, including the 1921 Moplah rebellion. Mohommed Haji was proclaimed the Caliph of the Moplah Khilafat (Caliphate) and flags of Islamic Caliphate were flown. Ernad and Valluvanad were declared Khalifat kingdoms.

In recent years, many Kerala Muslims, along with other Malayali communities have found work in the Middle East (especially in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates ), sending remittances home to support their families in Kerala. This makes Kerala one of the main contributors of foreign exchange to Indian economy.

Like the Bearys of Tulunadu, most Mappila Muslims follow the Shafi'i school of Muslim Jurisprudence (in contrast to the Hanafi school followed by most South Asian Muslims). The Pakistan Movement (which drew its strongest support from Muslims in northern India) received a lukewarm reception amongst Muslims in Kerala though relatively few Mappilas migrated to Pakistan following partition.

According to the 2001 census, about one-quarter of Kerala's population (or 7,863,842 people) were Muslims. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of Mappilas have left Kerala to seek employment in the Middle East, and some have settled in other states within India. There are substantial numbers of Mappilas in nearby Kodagu (Coorg), Mangalore, Bangalore, Coimbatore) etc. Nowadays the Mappila diaspora is spread around the world from United States in the west to Australia in the east.

Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mappila