“Verily, there is some incantation in eloquence and some wisdom in poetry…”((Sahih al-Bukhari 5767))
Poetry has the ability to manipulate and influence people in the most intangible way, as it speaks directly to the soul. A good poem must consist of wisdom that is created upon a world from the poet’s perspective, lost in beauty and astonishment. This article doesn’t lead to a broad study and analysis of poetry, but rather a particular and profound one that is born from the trans-cultural vernaculars of Arabia and Kerala.
In the history of Islam, as it spread through the Indian Ocean along with the monsoon winds, the Arab ships voyaged towards the east and anchored on the Malabar coast in the early CE. The Malabar coast shared features typical of other coastal regions in the Indian Ocean, such as the Swahili Coast, the coast of Sri Lanka, or the Coromandel Coast, in being outward-looking, international, and cosmopolitan. Further adding to the coast’s advantage, its main export commodity, pepper, was a highly desired good in both Europe and China. Thus, the territory, despite the Arab merchants, attracted many European fleets in the early modern period.
Although the Arabs approached various coasts in the Indian Ocean: trade as their eminent driving force, the advent of Islam added its own characteristics to this evolving maritime trade network. Consequently, in the Indian Ocean, the migration of different Muslim families played a major role in establishing the Muslim communities; the missionaries and Sufis traveled to the Malabar coast along with their family members or some even alone: especially migration from South Arabian regions, most prominently from Hadramout, and also from the Tihamah region facing the Red Sea.1 As the networks of trade, mysticism, and migration developed and continued, another web was at work, which Ronit Ricci has termed “literary networks.” Traversing the Indian Ocean, many texts reached the Malabar Coast, where they were studied, and in Malabar itself a new writing style originated, known as Arabi-Malayalam, which means Malayalam written in Arabic alphabets. In Malabar, many Arabic and non-Arabic works were produced. This tradition was influenced and formulated by the works that came through these trade networks. For instance, Keralite Mawlids are not a single cultural entity but a collective one, as they were influenced by already existing Mawlids from North Africa and Arabia.
These literary networks were shaped because of the hyperglossic feature of the Arabic language in this Maritime route. As Ibn Khaldun has noted, Islam has developed its roots in different territories through educating communities, starting from the Holy Quran, which consequently led to the study and understanding of the Arabic language, giving it a liturgical aura in the communities. While the Muslim Sultanates in North India, such as the Delhi Sultanate (since 1206) and the Mughal Empire (since 1526), emerged as powerful geopolitical forces in the region, Muslims in Malabar never seized territory politically. On the contrary, they remained as the subject of Hindu rulers, in particular the Zamorin of Calicut, who were praised as the benevolent patrons of Muslims and the Rajas (kings) of Kochi.
With the advent of Portuguese fleet of Vasco da Gama on the coast of Kappad, Calicut, the trade competition and wars between Arabs and Portuguese started. In parallel, the growth of local centers of learning, which deepened the Shafiization (the spreading of the Shafi school of jurisprudence) of the region, was witnessed.2 In the same dimension, the literary networks were also flourishing and transcended through different coasts. Various Arabic texts came alive from different coasts; these texts weren’t accepted as mere literary pieces, but ultimately became the reflection of the spiritual identity of the communities. In this trans-cultural literary network, ‘mawlid’ is one of the profound and the most celebrated literary genres, which comprises the praise of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). These mawlid texts not only served as a literary pride but also evolved, reflecting the spirituality of the different communities as they celebrated these poetries and attributed them as sacred.
The Arabic lexeme mawlid (commonly known as mawlud in Kerala) denotes either an event, place, or date of birth, but in this context, it denotes the commemorative celebration of the Prophet Muhammed’s birth. It would be a poetry form, in praise of the events and miracles that took place at the birth of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). Among such mawlids, Manqus Mawlid, ascribed to Zaynuddin ibn Ali al-Ma’bari (commonly known as Zainuddin al Kabir), is the most celebrated and common in the Malabar coast; later developing into the whole of Kerala.
Tracing the genealogy and the etymology of Manqus Mawlid, in contrast to the dominant paradigm of doing in Malabar literature, “literarization” – that is, fetishizing the “literariness” of the text by privileging its formal, stylistic, and aesthetic features over its social tone and life, it must be described as inseparable from a domain of practice and as transformative that produce, rather than express, Mappila (commonly to denote Muslims in Malabar region in the Northern Kerala) selfhood and subjectivity. I explore the Manqus Mawlid, against the literarization, myself as a Mappila Muslim who has participated in this Mawlid culture for almost ten years, not merely as expressing a pre-existing surround or locus, but as equally forming myself into this ethnography.
Analyzing its style and content, similarities can be found with the already existing Subhana Mawlid, written by Imam al-Ghazali, and Sharaf al-Anam, which originated in Andalusia (Muslim Spain). For example, both Subhana Mawlid and Sharaf al-Anam have a descriptive form before the poetic form, similar to Manqus Mawlid. Subhana Mawlid mainly focuses on praising the perfect and most gracious born, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). All of these Mawlids include Hadiths of the Prophet that describe his spiritual purity, virtues, and benevolent character. As the lexical controversy over ‘Manqus’ presides, the prominent one suggests that, as the Arabic word ‘manqus’ itself means ‘abridged’, it is itself abridged from the above-mentioned mawlids and the other existing ones. Its content, in accordance with other existing mawlids, comprises events and miracles that took place at the birth of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). The story of a Dhimmi (non-Muslim residing in Islamic territory by paying tax), is recorded as reported by Ali bin Zaid in Manqus Mawlid, which is identical to the story in Sharaf al-Anam, that the Dhimmi teases Muslims for organizing an event including the poor in the community and celebrating the Prophet’s mawlid, and later dreaming of Prophet Muhammed and embracing Islam. Positing this as the final part of the Manqus Mawlid, the author tries to convey the importance of celebrating mawlid and promoting the mawlid culture.
While pursuing its etymological and literary analysis, it still feels incomplete as the context and practice are yet to be described. Its historical context is traced back to when Ponnani (a region in Malabar where Zainuddin al-Kabir resided) suffered from cholera. This was written as a remedy and self-purification, as Zainuddin al-Kabir commanded his people to recite this collectively and give food after the recitation, which is commonly known as cheerni (Malayalam word for food offering). Later, it spread to various regions in Kerala and even transcended to different coasts and became a daily routine, especially for the Mappila Muslims.
The content flows at first, describing the Prophet Muhammed as a primordial light that is created even before Prophet Adam and transferring that light through different ages in different prophets, and lastly placed in Amina Beevi’s womb (mother of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), then she gives birth to a son and many miracles happen at the same time, as the angels descend from skies to earth and assembled over her, all very well described in precise and concise words. In the end, it comprises Dua (prayer) that includes purification from sins and a remedy from diseases like plague.
To see this as productive rather than expressive was clearly evident in the pandemic era (COVID-19). Though people were restricted from gathering, family members gathered in their household and recited this as a remedy from the pandemic, as in the end Dua, adding prevention from COVID-19. Keralite Muslims embraced and recited it, producing the cultural identity of the Muslims in the Indian Ocean, or more precisely, forming their selfhood in Islamic culture rather than expressing.
Manqus Mawlid can be regarded in this idea rather than as a cultural expression. The people will gather in an organized way, commonly after special functions such as housewarmings, death anniversaries, and recite this mawlid. To know how it’s recited, it is important to understand its structure. As for the structure, it can be divided into six parts, though technically it hasn’t been categorized as different parts. I called it different parts, for it comprises six poems, and each poem starts with an introductory prose commonly known as Hadith (for Mappila Muslims), for example, the first part comprises the prose praising the glory of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). This prose is then followed by the poetic lines, which are also divided into two types. The poetic lines at the beginning of each part’s poetry are known as Jawab (answer), and the other lines are known as Bayt (among Mappila Muslims).
The mawlid starts with dedicating a Fatiha to Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), then one will recite the prose. When the prose ends, everyone will recite three Salawat collectively, it is then followed by the poetic lines. Each poetic line is then intercepted by the Jawab that is recited collectively. The mawlid ends with a Dua attached to it, including prevention from diseases and asking forgiveness. The mahfil (gathering) is dispersed with an endowed cheerni.
It is evident that Islam has definitely brought a new cultural formation to different communities in different regions, not by defying their cultural practices, but by adapting to them and creating an Islamic space within them or molding them into something ‘Islamic.’ The literary networks developed alongside the Arabian trade ships. This was not exclusive to the Arabian region, but extended to all regions where Islam arrived. It was not centered on a single region, but on a single identity: “being Islamic.” As for the Manqus Mawlid, it is an example of such a trans-cultural practice. The Malabar Coast was influenced by the literary pieces that already existed in other Islamic regions; thus, they did not merely imitate them, but produced their own works to form a distinct cultural identity. While the trade routes are often highlighted in discussions on the advent of Islam in coastal regions, we must also include these literary networks, alongside the migration of different families and missionaries. These literary networks are still in practice and continue to formulate our own specific culture within Islam. In Kerala, numerous mawlids have been written and are still in practice, many of which are quite different from the Manqus Mawlid. This is just an introduction to such a vast field of poetry that is regarded as both a literary pinnacle and something sacred.
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Works Cited:
Nihal Ibrahim
He is a student of Civilizational Studies and Classical English Literature in Kerala, India. He is also pursuing traditional Islamic learning alongside his academic studies. His interests include Literature, Philosophy, Theology, and exploring the intersection of literature and theology, with a focus on articulating Islam through fiction and poetry even more beautifully.
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