Development of Islamic Scholarship in the 16th Century: Shaykh Zayn al-Dīn Makhdūm and the Indian Ocean Network

Shaykh Ahmed Zayn al-Dīn al-Makhdūm II ibn Shaykh Muhammad Al Ghazālī was a Sunni Islamic scholar, writer, historian, jurist, and judge born in Chombal in northern Malabar at South India in 1531 CE.¹ Known as Makhdūm II and Makhdūm al-Saġīr, he was the intellectual successor of his grandfather Shaykh Zain al-Dīn Makhdūm ibn Shykh Abdul Azīz (d. 1522), also known as Makhdūm I or Makhdūm al-Kabīr.² However, later legal scholars introduced him as the Ṣāḥib Fatḥ al-Muʿīn (Author of Fatḥ al-Muʿīn) due to the far-reaching reputation of his magnum opus Fatḥ al-Muʿīn in the Muslim world. He followed the Shāfiʿī school in law and the Ashʿarī school in theology. Thus, almost all his works have as their main subject the practicing of religious life according to Shāfiʿīsm and Ashʿarīsm. 

There is little historical evidence to sketch his life in detail. Most available information is traced to various secondary sources written by later scholars; early inscriptions from Ponnani Valiya Jumath Palli (The Grand Mosque of Ponnani), an old Masjid and Islamic education centre in South India; and Makhdūm II’s own texts. A few studies describe Makhdūm II’s life and family details from popular narratives, rather than authentic historic sources, due to the lack of historical sources written about Makhdūm II and his family.

Makhdūm II belonged to a scholarly family that originated from Yemen. Ancestors of this family had migrated from Ma’bar, an old city in Eastern Indian Ocean rim, to Malabar sometime before the fifteenth century. It was this Makhdūm family, often called the Makhdūm clan, which led the process of localization of Islam in Malabar during the sixteenth century.³ The exact date of their arrival in Malabar is unknown; however, some of the early sources confirm that the Makhdūm family had first come to Keelakkara, Madurai, and Kayalpattanam, all places in the present-day Tamil Nadu state in India. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, two family members, Shaykh ‘Ali ibn Ahmed al-Ma’bari and Shaykh Ibrahīm al-Ma’bari moved from Kayalpattanam to Kochangadi, two places in Kerala, South India.⁴ This is the second settlement of the Makhdūm family and their first arrival on the Malabar coast. 

Makhdūm I moved to Ponnani after his father’s death at the end of the fifteenth century. Since then, Ponnani became the centre of operations for the Makhdūm family. During the lifetimes of the first five generations, this scholarly family dominated the religious affairs of Muslims in Malabar.⁵ Unlike south-eastern coastal India, the south-western coastal regions of India were departure points for medieval traders who wished to travel to Arabia, Africa, and Europe. By virtue of this privilege, the Makhdūms could in turn redraw the intellectual map of Islam making new networks for Muslims in the Indian Ocean region.

To build the base of his future career, Makhdūm I set on a journey using the trade routes to Arabia and stayed in the Hijaz and Cairo for religious education. He spent seven years in Hijaz and five years in Cairo, mainly at Al-Azhar mosque. 

After twelve years of his educational and spiritual journey throughout fifteenth century Arabia, he returned to his homeland and started his career as an Islamic teacher. He built a mosque in Ponnani, now known as Ponnani Valiya Jumath Palli (The Grand Mosque of Ponnani), and started a new Islamic school there.

He developed a new teaching system and syllabus for the students, which was influenced by the curriculum of the Islamic educational institutions in Cairo and Hijaz. Ponnani Valiya Jumath Palli was not only an educational center but after him, all Makhdūm family members came to be known as “Makhdūm.” Even now, the Makhdūm family holds the position of qāḍī in Ponnani. 

Thereupon, Ponnani became one of the intellectual hubs of Islam in the Indian Ocean world. Many students came to Ponnani to learn various Islamic sciences, for whom traveling to Arabia was a difficult task in terms of transportation and finance. Post-Makhdūm Ponnani was also a significant contributor to the Arab-Islamic literary world.⁶

Makhdūm I’s son, Muhammed al-Ghazāli, went to northern Malabar and settled there with his family. Muhammed al-Ghazāli was a qāḍī in northern Malabar and had built a mosque in Chombal. His son, Shaykh Ahmed Zayn al-Dīn, would go on to be known as Makhdūm II. Makhdūm II’sprimary education in various Islamic sciences came from his father in Chombal. After that, his father sent him to Ponnani for higher education. His uncle, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Shaykh Makhdūm, was the qāḍī and head of Ponnani Valiya Jumath Palli at the time. Some historical accounts confuse the father and uncle of Makhdūm II.⁷ His uncle had also been included among the ten scholars mentioned in the Al-Ajwiba, a popular fatwa text written by him. Following his grandfather’s footsteps, Makhdūm II also wanted to seek knowledge of the Islamic intellectual world in Arabia.

Sixteenth century Arabia, especially the Hijaz and Hadarmawt, was the breeding ground for Islamic intellectual developments. After higher education from his uncle in Ponnani, Makhdūm II set out on his journey to Mecca to perform Hajj . He travelled in a cargo ship of traders from Malabar. He is then believed to have spent ten years in the Hijaz, Cairo, and Hadarmawt. In the Hijaz, he met many intellectual luminaries in the Muslim world and became their student and colleague. Some of his teachers included Shihāb al-Dīn Ahmed ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 1566), Abd alʿAzīz ʿIzz al-Dīn Zamzamī (d. 1568), Wajīh al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ziyād (d. 1568), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ṣafā, and Zayn al-ʿābidīn Abī Bakr al-Bakrī (d. 1545).⁸ In Al-Ajwiba and Fatḥ al-muʿīn, Makhdūm II uses the term “shaykhuna”, which means “our teacher” in Arabic, whenever he mentions the names of such scholars as Ibn Ḥajar and ʿIzz al-Dīn Zamzamī, whereas he only uses the term “al-shaykh,” which means just a “respected person”, while referring to other scholars who were just colleagues of his or people whom he had met during his itineraries. 

Meccan scholars called Makhdūm II a muḥaddith for his erudition in the ḥadīth.⁸ However, none of his surviving works are of ḥadīth literature. 

It is said that the Meccan scholar Ibn Ḥajar had visited Ponnani after Makhdūm II’s return to Malabar and had gifted him a lamp, which has been installed in the middle of Ponnani Valiya Jumath Palli. In association with this lamp, the later education process in Ponnani Valiya Jumath Palli has been known as “Vilakkath Irikkal” (Sitting around the lamp), and the graduates were known by the title “Musliyar.” 

Additionally, in his fatwa text Al-Fatāwā al-kubrā al-fiqhiyya, Ibn Ḥajar mentions a case that he received from Malabar. This mustafti (“the one who sought the fatwa”) might be his student from Malabar, Makhdūm II. None of the sources, either from local history or mainstream history, discuss any scholar from Malabar to have met Ibn Ḥajar in Mecca, other than Makhdūm II. There was, in fact, a mass journey of Malabari scholars to Mecca during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and these scholars used to stay in Mecca for education rather than the Hajj pilgrimage. Some of them even held professorships in Mecca and taught students from different parts of the world. Those professors from Malabar were known as “Menebar” in Mecca⁹ (Prange 2018). This probably indicates that Makhdūm II was not a very popular student or scholar in sixteenth century Mecca.

After his education and teaching in Hijaz, Makhdūm II returned to Ponnani and started his career as a teacher and qāḍī of Ponnani for almost thirty-six years. He taught in Ponnani Valiya Jumath Palli and produced many scholars alongside writing books and treatises. The most famous students of Makhdūm II are: Abd al-Raḥmān Makhdūm al-Kabīr al-Fannānī, Qāḍī Jamal al-dīn ibn shaykh ʿUthmān al-Ma’bari al-Fannānī, Jamal al-dīn ibn shaykh al-Imām ʿAbd al Al-ʿAzīz al-Makhdūm al-Fannānī, Qāḍī ʿUthmān Labba al-Qāhirī, and Qāḍī Sulaiman al-Qāhirī.¹⁰ This list of students indicates that subsequent qāḍīs and religious leaders in Malabar and Kayalpattanam maintained connections with Makhdūm II. Many Islamic seminaries in Malabar still maintain the Isnād (“chain of transmitters”) of their teachers, and almost all Isnāds connect with Makhdūm II.

Makhdūm II was also associated with the sixteenth-century political authorities in the Muslim world as well as South Asia. He was a special envoy of the Zamorin, the Hindu ruler in Calicut, for writing letters in the Arabic and Persian languages to the Ottoman rulers for augmenting trade relations and seeking military support in the fight against the Portuguese. He also maintained relationships with rulers in the Bijapur Sultanate and Mughal Empire.

Makhdūm II authored around ten works in the fields of Islamic law, history, Sufism, and theology. In the law, he authored the pure legal texts Qurrat al-‘ayn bī muhimmāt al-dīn (The Coolness of the Eye in the Essentials of Religion), Fatḥ al-muʿīn bi sharḥ Qurrat al-‘ayn (A Commentary on Qurrat al-‘Ayn), and Iḥkām aḥkām al-nikāḥ (The Establishing of the Rulings on Marriage) and two fatwa collections: Al-Ajwiba al-‘ajībah ‘an al-as’ilah al-gharībah (The Wondrous Answers to Strange Questions) and Fatāwā al-Hindiyya (The Indian Fatwas). His theology works are interlinked with Sufism, and they are: Irshād al-ʿibād ilā sabīl al-rashād (Guiding the Servants to the Path of Right Guidance), Sharḥ al-sudūr fī aḥwāl al-mawtā wa al-qubūr (A Treatise on Death and the Grave), Al-Jawāhir fī ʿuqūbat ahl al-kabāʾir (The Jewels on the Punishments of the People of Grave Sins), Al-Manhaj al-wādih (The Clear Path), and Al-Istiʻdād lil-mawt wa-su’āl al-qabr (Preparation for Death and the Questioning in the Grave). In history, he wrote Tuḥfat al-mujāhidīn fī baʿḍ akhbār al-Burtughālīyīn (The Gift of the Holy Warriors on Some Accounts of the Portuguese).

Among these texts, Qurrat al-‘ayn bī muhimmāt al-dīn, and Fatḥ al-muʿīn bi sharḥ Qurrat al-‘ayn found widespread reputation. Qurrat al- ‘ayn bī muhimmāt al-dīn is an abridged version of Ibn Ḥajar’s legal work Tuḥfat al-muḥtāj bi-sharḥ al-Minhāj, and Fatḥ al-muʿīn bi sharḥ Qurrat al-‘ayn is the super-text of Qurrat al-‘ayn bī muhimmāt al-dīn. The first text, Qurrat al-‘ayn bī muhimmāt al-dīn has been considered as the base text for many super-texts, and Fatḥ al-muʿīn bi sharḥ Qurrat al- ‘ayn is the only one such text written by the author Makhdūm II himself. Both the texts are taught in many Islamic seminaries globally, especially in the educational centers that follow the Shāfiʿī school of law. It is also prevalent in the Indian Ocean coastal regions, such as India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and many African countries. There are controversies regarding the authenticity of the authorship of the Fatḥ al-muʿīn bi sharḥ Qurrat al- ‘ayn and Tuḥfat al-mujāhidīn fī baʿḍ akhbār al-Burtughālīyīn. Most scholars are of the opinion that Makhdūm II was the author of these texts, however, most of his literature has never been subjected to a detailed study to this day.

Tuḥfat al-mujāhidīn fī baʿḍ akhbār al-Burtughālīyīn is also very popular among South Asian and Indian Ocean historians, having been translated into many foreign and local languages. In the Introduction, Makhdūm II notes that the book was presented as a gift to the Bijapur Sultan—a sixteenth-century Shiʿite ruler of South India—thus reflecting the Sunni intellectual and diplomatic attitude toward Shiʿite ideology in that period of the Muslim world.

Makhdūm II wrote all these texts in the Arabic language, even though he was a native of Malabar where the local languages belonged to the Dravidian linguistic family. It was also the time of the development of the Arabic-Malayalam hybrid language,¹¹ in which the Malayalam language was written using Arabic script. Nevertheless, he preferred Arabic over both of these local languages. His grandfather, Makhdūm I, also has to his credit many works in Islamic law, Sufism, and theology. He, too, had used the Arabic language as the medium to communicate. Additionally, most trade contracts and letters were written and communicated using Arabic, and this was the case until the beginning of European domination in the oceanic world.

Makhdūm II died in 1583 CE, and his body was buried in Kunjipally in northern Malabar.

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Photo of the Ponnani Masjid by Mubashir Ahmet

Works Cited:

1. Dr. Husain Randathani disputes his birthplace. He said that some scholars opined that Makhdūm II was born in Ponnani, not in Chombal. For more, see Makhdūmuṃ Ponnāniyum (Randathani 2010). [↩]
2. Sagīr means “little” in Arabic language, while kabīr means “big”. In this context, I like to translate sagīr into “junior” and kabīr into “senior”. [↩]
3. Prange, Sebastian R. 2011. ‘A Trade of No Dishonor: Piracy, Commerce, and Community in the Western Indian Ocean, Twelfth to Sixteenth Century’. The American Historical Review 116, no. 5: 1269–93. [↩]
4. Raṇṭattāṇi, Husain. 2010. Makhdūmuṃ Ponnāniyuṃ. Ponnāni: Jumuʿattu Paḷḷi Paripālana Committee. [↩]
5. Prange, Sebastian R. ‘A Trade of No Dishonor: Piracy, Commerce, and Community in the Western Indian Ocean, Twelfth to Sixteenth Century’. The American Historical Review 116, no. 5: 1269–93. [↩]
6. Abraham, Renu Elizabeth. 2020. History Writing and Global Encounters in Sixteenth-Century Kerala. PhD diss., University of Kent and University of Porto. [↩]
7. Most of them used to believe ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz as Makhdūm II’s father and Muhammed Al-Ghazāli as his uncle (Kooria 2016). However, in the introduction part of the al-Ajwiba, Makhdūm II himself has said that ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was his uncle (Al Nasir 2012). [↩]
8. Kooria, Mahmood. 2016. ‘Cosmopolis of Law: Islamic Legal Ideas and Texts across the Indian Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean Worlds’. Leiden: Leiden University. [↩] [↩]
9. Hurgronje, C. Snouck. 2007. Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century: Daily Life, Customs and Learning. The Moslims of the East-Indian Archipelago. Translated by J.H. Monahan. Leiden: Brill. [↩]
10. Al-Makhdūm, Zayn al-Dīn. 2012. Al-Ajwiba al-ʿajība ʿan al-Asʾila al-Gharība. Annotated by ʿAbd al-Naṣīr Aḥmad al-Shāfiʿīʿī al-Malaybārī. Kuwait: Dar al-ḍiyāʾ. [↩]
11. Arabic-Malayalam is a fusion language system used by the Mappila Muslims in Malabar. Its script is Arabic with certain orthographic features for writing the Dravidian local language Malayalam. For more, see, P.K Yaser Arafath. 2020. “Polyglossic Malabar: Arabi-Malayalam and the Muhiyuddinmala in the age of transition (1600-1750s)”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 517-539. [↩]