The Sufis of Kochi, South India

The cultural fabric of Kochi has been elegantly woven by the beauty of Islam. Known as the ‘Princess of the Arabian Sea’, the city is a well known tourist hotspot and one of the most visited in all of Kerala, India, but the influence of Islam here, is still relatively understated, if not unknown.

Though Islam on the Malabar coast of Kerala has been widely studied and discussed, Kochi’s case is quite different. It is generally seen as a modernised city on the seashore, attracting tourists from all over the world, rather than known for its (much neglected) Islamic culture. As Mehardad Shokoohy observes, in India, there are few historic towns which have been remodelled and reconstructed as Kochi,¹ which was rapidly modernised.

Still, the aesthetics of Islam though hidden under a veil, are definitely notable and worthy of discussion. Islam in Kochi is marked by its uniquely local character, and influenced by the Sufis who lived and enriched this once lively trading port, something which has sadly been left unattended. This article seeks to analyse the Islamic culture of Kochi through the traces left by the Sufis, and scholars of the city. Walking through the old wooden mosques of Kochi evokes a nostalgia for the tradition and splendor of Islam, and a time when sufis and saints wandered along these narrow streets and soft shores. 

The streets of Kochi have been an abode for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Today, its population is thought to be made up of 42 diverse communities, a quarter of them Muslim. While the city is well known for its Jewish settlement, its rich Muslim heritage has so far remained in the shadows.² Some have suggested that this could be due to the fact that unlike Calicut, another city of Islamic influence, Kochi was never a highly influential commercial area, and therefore its heritage remained somewhat hidden.³

Written accounts of Kochi have been recorded by many historians and voyagers. The renowned globe trotter Ibn Battuta mentions his journey to the city in his Rihla:

“The journey from Calicut to Quilon (Kūlum) will take almost ten days to reach, whether on land or water. I preferred to travel on water and hired a Muslim to carry my belongings. It is common among those who travel on the water to come ashore in the dusks to the coastal villages and proceed with their trip the next morning, we did the same.  My servant was the only Muslim on the boat, but he drank toddy in every stop together with the infidels, muttering at me, making me even more depressed.  On the fifth day, we reached Kunji Karī which is situated above a hill and its population are the Jews who have their community leader, and who pay their tribute to the king of Quilon.”

Chembitta Mosque

Chembitta Mosque, locally known as Chembitta Palli or the ‘Copper mosque’ is one of the best examples of Islamic heritage in Kochi. Termed as a ’monsoon mosque’, an architectural style specific to the Malabar coast, it is arguably Kochi’s most prominent. It is sometimes referred to as Shafi’i Jami, or the Shafi’i Mosque.

The building has a wooden structure and a prayer hall with a colonnaded entrance porch on its eastern side. The outer walls are constructed of stone and the doors have been adorned with Hadith inscriptions in Arabic and old Tamil that refer to the etiquettes related to visiting a masjid. These inscriptions date back to 926AH/1519AD. 

As with every monsoon mosque, it is designed in a way to block out sunlight. A silent theology underlies this form of architecture: that in the darkness, free from distraction, a greater sense of khushu (humility and tranquility) and taqwa (God consciousness) emanates in the heart. This can be also read in accordance with the Islamic practice of khalwa (seclusion).

The decorated mihrab is particularly stunning.

The Sufis and the Making of a Muslim Kochi

Around the masjid complex, you will encounter the shrines of a number of Sufi figures who are credited not only with establishing the masjid, but also a vibrant Muslim community. Syed Ismail Bukhari and his son Syed Fakhruddin Bukhari helped make Muslim Kochi prosperous, as exemplars in their faith and teachings. Their shrine is located near the masjid and is often visited locally. The building includes an anti-chamber leading to two interconnected burial chambers, each containing the resting places of these two individuals. The shrine itself is a small, simple but elegant structure designed in the local style with stone walls and a wooden roof covered with terracotta tiles. 

Shaykh Ismail Bukhari was the only son of Syed Ahmed Jalaluddin Bukhari, the first Bukhari Syed (descendant of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through the saint Jalaluddin “Surkh-Posh” Bukhari from Bukhara in modern day Uzbekistan), who came to Kerala, in 928AH/1521AD. After his studies, Syed Ismail travelled from his hometown Valapattanam, in north Kerala to Kochi, where few Musilms resided at the time. He was a learned scholar who propagated Islam in the city. His three sons, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, Syed Muhammed Bukhari, and Syed Ba Fakhruddin Bukhari were also great scholars and Sufis who contributed to the making of Muslim Kochi. The Saadat (pl. of Syed) genealogy in Kerala begins with Syed Fakhruddin.

Shaykh Makhdum is another scholar considered among the architects of Muslim Kochi. Shaykh Zainuddīn al-Makhdūm Al Ma’bari (1465- 1522) was originally from Yemen and came first to Nagore in Tamil Nadu in the early fifteenth century.  Later, he moved to Kochi and established himself as a teacher and spiritual leader in the region, playing a significant role in the conversion of the local people to Islam. Zainuddīn Al Makhdūm is also said to be the founder of the original Jami’ (mosque) which once stood on the site of the present Chembittapalli, and was a historian, writing the first account of Portuguese colonialism on the Malabar coast.

Zainuddīn al-Makhdūm had two sons, Ibrāhīm and Alī. After his death, he was buried in Kochi, and while his son ‘Alī remained in Kochi as the Qadi (religious judge) of the town, Ibrāhīm moved to Pannauni to be the Qadi there.⁴ Syed Ba Fakhruddin was the spiritual guide (murshid/murabbi) of Shaykh Zainuddin Makhdum.

The mureed-murabbi (mentor and disciple / teacher and student) nexus is one of the keystones of Keralite Islam, and Kochi is where the seeds were sprouted. The Pannauni, for example, one of the earliest Muslim settlements in south India, known popularly as the Mecca of Malabar, was considered a centre of learning in the region where students would travel to study under scholars of the Makhdum family. The roots of this scholarly family can of course, be traced back to Shaykh Makhdum of Kochi.

Apart from the Bukhari Saadat of Kochi, there are other Syed families (Qabila) associated with the city, such as Aidarus, Jamalullail, Ba Faqih, and Jilani.  Syed Abdurahman al-Aidarus, locally known as Bamb Thangal is considered one of Kochi’s great Sufis.  His resting place is a beautiful small old mosque called Thakya.

All of this points towards the integral position Kochi occupies in the cultural and historical making of Keralite and south Indian history in particular. Since the Malabar coasts of this period were cosmopolitan,⁵ attracting both traders and scholars from Africa, Europe and the Middle East alike, it is imperative that Kochi should be noted as significant within global Islamic history also.

A local man told me, “These Sufis, who made Kochi a beautiful and remarkable land, must be remembered and regarded as the founders of the city.” They were the architects of this city. Just as Usman Dan Fodio in West Africa, Moinuddin Chishti in Hindustan and Yunus Emre in Anatolia transformed their lands into centres of scholarship and sufism, so too did the Sufis of Kochi. Their influence is still visible – you just have to lift the veil a little in this aesthetically mesmerising city.

Footnotes

¹ Shokoohy, Mehrdad. “The Town of Cochin and Its Muslim Heritage on the Malabar Coast, South India.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 8, no. 3, 1998, pp. 351–94. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25183570. Accessed 5 Sep. 2022.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Shokoohy, Mehrdad, 1998.

⁵ Pearson, MN and Mahmūd Kūria, Malabar in the Indian Ocean : Cosmopolitanism in a Maritime Historical Region (Oxford University Press, First edition., 2018)

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