maritime activities economy and social customs of the muslims of ...

withstand the strong mansoon winds and long voyages. Marcopolo writing in the later part
of fourteenth century mentions about the risky nature of Arab shipszo4. The ancient Tamil
maritime communities coming in contact with the Arabs used to adopt the best features of
their construction techniques in ship building for their mutual advantages. With the Arab
patrmaeo, the ancient Tamik built ships of high quality. The Arab merchants might have brought their
own carpenters in their vessels for their maintanence. Some of them might have also permanently
stationed in the ports of Tamil county, for attending such works in Arab ships. So the Arab colonies in
the eastern coast included their carpenten also. Manimekalai the Tamil epic of second centuy A.D.
mentions about the Yavana (Arab) carpenterszo5.
With this expertise in navigation, the rulers of Tamil county in the medieval period patronised
ship building and maintained large fleets of vessels, Their naval expeditions and colonial conquests
across the sea to Ceylon, Lakshadweep, Maldives, Andaman, and Nicobar, Burma, Malaya, Java and
Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries attest their naval powers2". Inscriptions and copper
plates of the Pdkvas, Pandyas and the Choks right from the seventh centuy to fourteenth century speak
about their naval strength and victories. The vessels were not only used for warfare but also for overseas
tradezo7.
lndian shipping industry developed remarkably by the end of fifteenth centuy. By European
stardads fairly lame ships were buiit in South India. The ships as they haw been recorded were between
350 to 800 tons burthen. Some of them were bigger than the Portuguese ships in lndian ocean. The
Namyaeth Muslim merchants of Gujamth built vey beautiful ships. The Muslim communities of peninsular
lndia had contributed much for the development of shipping in Indian oceanzo8. The ships of Bay of
Bengal region were generally built in sturdier fashion to withstand the occasional cyclones in the area but
they were slower to sail and they had to sail in time of favourable wind and weathe?09. Thomas Boway
who visited the Coromandel Coast in 1670 mentions about the superior crafts of the coast.
The Muslims of Coromandel owned many types of vessels for their sea faring activities. The
kbur and technical skill to operate them also came from them. the Portuguese records speak about the
carpentaw occupation of the Muslims of peninsular lndia and Ceylon. No doubt many of them were
mainb boat buildersz10.