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Architecture of the Sultanate of Ma'bar in Madura, and other Muslim Monuments in South India1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Mehrdad Shokoohy
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Extract

During the fourteenth century on the Travancore coast of South India an independent Muslim sultanate was established which lasted for less than half a century, and was eventually terminated by the newly established neighbouring kingdom of Vijayanagar. The short, brutal and enigmatic period of this sultanate has attracted the attention of a number of modern scholars who have tried to put together its history through study of the coins, a few inscriptions, and the brief, often dismissive remarks found in the North Indian histories, as well as, most informative of all, the travel account of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, who visited the region when the power of the sultanate was at its peak. However, none of these studies agrees even in the number and chronology of the sultans, let alone the details of the events: a confusion which is a direct result of the lack of adequate information at the present time. Under the circumstances it may appear presumptuous to embark on a description of the architectural monuments of this sultanate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , April 1991 , pp. 31 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1991

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Footnotes

1

This article is a revised and extended version of a paper read to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland on 12 October 1989. The study was initiated in 1988 and the field work was carried out by the author and Natalie H. Shokoohy in India in the summers of 1988 and 1990. At the time of the survey measured drawings of the monuments of Madura, and sketch drawings of the buildings of Calicut were made. Bahrain Leissi helped in the preparation of the final drawings in London. The research has been supported by the Leverhulme Trust and the Society for South Asian Studies.

References

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80 The title al-Kanafī, “of the coasts”, must refer to the reputation of the family in maritme trade.

81 The inscription has so far remained unreported and needs further study. Our reading of the name was made on site.

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86 The inscription is unpublished but was reported in ARIE, 1965–1966, p. 136 no. D. 57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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90 ARIE, 1965–1966, p. 137, no. D. 59CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Our information is based on our reading on site, and a photograph, not reproduced here.