Muslim view of the Cheraman tale
In a paper titled ‘Historical Aspects of the Legend of Cheraman Perumal of Kodungallur in Kerala’, Dr Haseena V.A., assistant professor, Post Graduate Department of Economics, M.E.S. Asmabi College, Kodungallur, Kerala, mentions a popular story behind the Cheraman Juma Masjid:
Once a king – a Cheraman Perumal – was walking on the balcony of his palace when he spotted the moon splitting into two and the two halves becoming one again. Bewildered, he consulted his astrologers, who confirmed that such an event had indeed occurred and was not a mystical experience. A few months later, he met some Arab visitors on their way to Ceylon and from them, the king learned that Prophet Muhammad was behind this miracle and that he was the founder of a new religion.
The king did something drastic. He abdicated the throne, divvied up the kingdom and set sail to Mecca to meet this man. He met the Prophet and converted to Islam and lived in Arabia for a while. Then to spread the religion in his homeland, the converted Perumal returned to Kerala, but he died somewhere along the way.Later, some of his followers reach Kodungallur and it is they who set up the first mosques, including the one at Kodungallur.
According to Haseena-
This fascinating tale of a Kerala king meeting the Prophet was first recorded in 1510 CE by the Portuguese writer Duarte Barbosa. Barbosa, who would later become Ferdinand Magellan’s brother-in-law and would join him on his trip around the world, reached Kerala in 1500 with his uncle and stayed there for five decades. Quite conversant in the local language and based on his familiarity with the traditions and customs, he wrote the story of this Cheraman Perumal based on what he had heard.
Here’s Barbosa version:
Around 600 years before Barbosa’s time, there was a mighty lord named Chirimay Perumal, whose capital was a popular port for pepper trade. The Moors who came for trade had numerous discussions with the king and they converted him to Islam. He went to Mecca in their company and died either there or on the way back; the Malabar people never saw their king again. Barbosa also wrote that the single kingdom which Cheraman Perumal ruled was partitioned into three – Cannanore, Calicut and Quilon – with Calicut having the right of coinage.
Haseena picks up a discrepancy: Barbosa mentions that this incident happened 600 years back and not 875 years.
The next version of this story was written eight decades later by Sheikh Zeinuddin, a Malayali Muslim with Arab ancestry:
In his account, a set of Arab Muslims reached Kodungallur on their way to Ceylon. The king invited them to his palace and in what must be one of the easiest conversion attempts in the world, converted after listening to their conversation. He divided the kingdom and secretly went to Arabia with the pilgrims, which agrees with what Barbosa wrote. Zeinuddin also mentioned that this king was ruler of the land from Kasaragod to Kanyakumari and gives an important detail regarding the date. According to him, this incident did not happen during the lifetime of the prophet, but two centuries later.
In 1610 CE, another version of this story came out from another Portuguese writer named Joas de Barros. Barros was an administrator in the House of India and Mina in Lisbon and was responsible for dispatching various fleets to India. His work was completed by Diogo de Coutos.
As per this account, Cheraman Perumal was a great king and his kingdom was frequented by many Moors for commerce-
According to Barros, these Moors were religious fanatics and converted the king to Mohammedanism. He moved to Calicut and the Moors there made him believe that he had to go to Mecca to save his soul, which he promptly did after diving up his kingdom. This was the time when the Portuguese had to resort to sea voyages to avoid Muslim controlled land route and were in competition with the Muslim traders to gain favours with the kings of Kerala for trade rights. Some of that antagonism is visible in the language.
Coutos then adds a twist to the tale which makes this very interesting:
Perumal was close to the St Thomas Christians based in Kodungallur and would not do anything without consulting them. Coutos drops a bombshell by adding that he was converted to their holy faith, implying that the Perumal was converted to Christianity and not Islam. Coutos also mentions that the Perumal died in the house of Apostle St Thomas in Mylapore and thus disagreeing with the Mecca trip. (Since the Pope of the Vatican has himself repudiated the lies spun by Kerala Christians that the Apostle St Thomas set foot in India, we can safely assume this ‘twist’ isn’t true.)
In 1723, the Dutch chaplain Canter Visscher wrote about this story, with another twist. He agrees that Cheraman Perumal was a great king who distributed his kingdom and undertook a voyage. The journey was, “either to the Ganges in fulfilment of a vow or as the Moors say to visit Mahomet in Arabia for the purpose of embracing his religion” implying that there were multiple theories existing at that time.
Haseena adds:
The Cheraman Perumal story continued in the accounts of Dutch Commander Van Adriaan Moens (1781 CE), Francis Buchanan (1801 CE), Keralolpathi (17th or 18th century) and Granthavari (19th century).