18.11.2014 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE<br />

The Marakkayars, Labbais <strong>and</strong> Rowthars are monolinguals. Tamil b <strong>the</strong>ir mo<strong>the</strong>r<br />

tongue. They are trained to read <strong>and</strong> write Arabic. They think, speak <strong>and</strong> unite In chaste<br />

Tamil. But in <strong>the</strong> spoken dialect <strong>and</strong> kinship terms among <strong>the</strong> Marakkayars we can find<br />

an admixture <strong>of</strong> Arabic words. This helps for <strong>the</strong>ir individual identity. From <strong>the</strong> earlier<br />

times <strong>the</strong> Tamil Muslims also wrote Tamil in Arabic script <strong>and</strong> this new language was known<br />

as Arabic - Tamil. Europeans like Portugese, Dutch, Danes set up colonies mostly in <strong>the</strong><br />

coastal towns <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Corom<strong>and</strong>el Muslims had opportunity to move with <strong>the</strong>m directly <strong>and</strong><br />

some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> words <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir language are exclusively in use among <strong>the</strong> Marakkayars <strong>and</strong><br />

Labbais in <strong>the</strong> coastal towns.<br />

Muslims all over <strong>the</strong> world have inherited lslam along with it's language, Arabic. The<br />

religious terms <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ological phrases <strong>of</strong> lslam are indispensible for every Muslim for <strong>the</strong><br />

proper performance <strong>of</strong> his religious duties which are inter woven with his day today life. It<br />

is difficult to translate <strong>the</strong> Arabic terminologies In to an indigenous language. Thls resulted<br />

in <strong>the</strong> absorbtion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> indispensible Arabic words into <strong>the</strong> indigenous languages <strong>and</strong> such<br />

words came to be written in Arabic script.<br />

With <strong>the</strong> advent <strong>of</strong> lslam in peninsular India, a parallel development took place in <strong>the</strong><br />

region. The contact <strong>of</strong> Islam with <strong>the</strong> language <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> region had changed <strong>the</strong> character <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> languages by imposing Arabic script on <strong>the</strong>m adding new dimensions to <strong>the</strong>m. This<br />

resulted in <strong>the</strong> growth <strong>of</strong> Arabic-Telegu, Arabic-Malayalam <strong>and</strong> Arabic Tamil, by which <strong>the</strong><br />

Muslims used to write <strong>the</strong> respective language dialects in Arabic script.<br />

Arabic is considered to be a sacred language to <strong>the</strong> Muslims. They are familiar with<br />

<strong>the</strong> Holy Quran <strong>and</strong> as a result <strong>the</strong>y are acquinted with Arabic xript. This mah <strong>the</strong>m to<br />

read eady any thq in Arabic script. Scholars <strong>and</strong> missionaries who wanted to communicate<br />

with <strong>the</strong> local Muslims <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> average st<strong>and</strong>ard found it easy to express <strong>the</strong> ideas In <strong>the</strong><br />

Indigenous languages. Even those who are not competent enough to read <strong>the</strong>ir

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!