The extensive coast and the availability of spices attracted foreign merchants to the Malabar coast from very early times. The Bible and early Greek and Roman writers bear testimony to this fact. Referring to Solomon's period the Old Testament says that in his period gold was obtained from Ophir and once in three years came the navy of Thurshis bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacock.

All these objects except gold were products of Malabar and the Hebrew names for the last two objects, Kapim and Tukim are obviously the Tamil Kavi and Thikai. In view of this, it is not perhaps an altogether idle fancy which identifies Ophir with Beypore a port near Calicut at the mouth of the river of the same name which is famed for its auriferious sands. The similarity again between the Greek names for rice (onyza), ginger (zinziber) acinnamon (karpion) and the Malayalam Ari, Inchiver and Karpuram indicates that trade existed in these articles between Greece and Malabar the only part of India where all these products grow in abundance.

Trade with  Rome

 

The conquest of Egypt by the Romans (about 30 BC) made them masters of the trade route to the East. Hippalu's discovery of the possibility of sailing straight across the Arabian sea by the aid of the South - West monsoon had an immense impact upon commerce in the first century A.D. For some centuries after the time of Ptolemy trade was carried on steadily with Roman Empire.

The Peutingerian tables compiled in the third century AD mention that a considerable Roman settlement existed at Cranganore which was the greatest metropolis of trade on the coast. Roman coins which had found their way into Malabar during that period have been dug at various places on the West Coast. They belong to the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero.  

Arab Relation with the  Malabar Coast from 9th to 16th Centuries

The West Coast of India was known as Malabar to the Arabs. Al Biruni appears to have been the first to call the country by its proper name, Malabar. Before him, Kosmos Indicopleustus (522 - 547) who, for the purpose of trade made voyages to India mentions a port named MALE, "where the pepper grows", on the West Coast of India which, he says, was frequented on account of its extensive trade in spices. The word Malabar is therefore probably, in part at least, of foreign origin. The first two syllables are almost certainly the Dravidian word Mala (the hill or the mountain) and Bar is probably the Arabic word Barr (land or ground). From the time of Comos Indicopleustus down to the eleventh century A.D., the word Malabar was applied to the coast by the Arab navigators: and the seafaring population who flocked thither subsequently for pepper and other spices. Malibar, Manibar, Mulibar and Malabar were the various forms of the name, which meant the hilly or mountainous country, a name well suited to its configuration.

The early phase of this relationship between the Arabs and the Malabar coast was based mainly on trade. In the later phase, many Arab settlers in the area engaged themselves in literary, religious and other activities and produced an impressive corpus of Arabic literacy, historical and religious works, many of which were acknowledged by scholars for their authenticity and importance.

 

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