Arabi-Malayalam: Linguistic Cultural Traditions of Mappila Muslims of Kerala

This work is a sociolinguistic study of a locally devised language called ArabiMalayalam of Mappila Muslims of Kerala, which is on the verge of extinction. Besides covering many interesting linguistic issues, this work documents a vast array of oral and written traditions in this language. There are a number of rituals, lifecycle events and performative occasions in which the oral literary tradition in ArabiMalayalam finds its expression. One of the major concerns of this work is to analyze the pragmatic working of language and literary genre adjusted structurally to such occasions. The development of literature in ArabiMalayalam reflects a trade and faithinduced cosmopolitanism with its effects spread across farflung regions like Southern Yemen, East Africa and South East Asia. This work is, therefore, an attempt to reposition the history of ArabiMalayalam with a thoughtful consideration of movements of peoples, cultures and goods across boundaries of space and culture. Within the realm of 'secularnational' literature there was a pronounced skepticism towards ArabiMalayalam literary works which have often been seen associated with the less prestigious genre of 'religious literature' or 'vernacular community literature'. This work also makes an enquiry into why Arab Malayalam literature was gingerly accepted or held out at an arm's length by the literary theorists.