It wasn’t just this mix of Tamil and Arabic that was compelling to traders. In the neighbouring state of Kerala, whose native language is Malayalam, Arabic Malayalam (called Arabu Malayalam or Mapilla Malayalam) flourished, too.
Other regional Indian languages such as Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi and Sindhi were written out in Arabic script as well, Zubair said. Each language was unique – born out of a fusion of Arabic and the local tongue. But Arwi continued to flourish even when Arab traders moved on from the Tamil Nadu region because of a significant Tamil-speaking population overseas, said Zubair. “As per historical records, Arwi travelled [with Arabic traders] to Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Malaysia, Singapore, East and South Africa as well.”
Arabic Tamil and Arabic Malayalam were so popular because they had a rich literary and oral tradition, added Kooria. Across India and Sri Lanka, 2,000 books written in Arabic Tamil have been identified. In Kerala, researchers are trying to…
