A journey to Chaliyam, Beypore and Kozhikode

Impressions of the historical interplay of religious infrastructures, local geographies and trade networks in Chaliyam, Beypore and Kozhikode on the Malabar coast in India. The footage was filmed in March 2022 by Prof. Dr. Susanne Rau from Erfurt University as she travelled the Malabar coast for archival research and a series of co-operation events with Farook College, Kozhikode. The research trip was undertaken in the context of the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies “Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations” and funded by the German Research Foundation (FOR 2779). The film was edited by Lukas Severin Damm. More on the “Religion and Urbanity” group: www.uni-erfurt.de/go/urbrel Further information on the Max Weber Centre at the University of Erfurt: https://www.uni-erfurt.de/en/max-weber-kolleg Research results from the group are published on the open access platform Religion and Urbanity Online (ISSN: 2750-8080, de Gryuter): https://doi.org/10.1515/urbrel For updates and upcoming events: https://urbrel.hypotheses.org/ Spoken Text We are here in the south of India, in Kerala on the Malabar coast. In Chaliyam, not far from the Arabian Sea, we find this very old mosque. „Malik-Ibn-Dinar Masjid“ is written on the plate at the entrance gate, „one among the ten masjids constructed by Hasrath Malik-Ibn-Dinar and his twelve disciples along the Arabian Sea Coast in Hijra 22” – that is in the 7th century of our era. Malik Ibn Dinar was a Tabi’in [Tabein] and one of the first known Muslims to come to India in order to propagate Islam in the Indian subcontinent. Like most mosques, this one too has a well, perhaps 5 metres deep, where one finds groundwater. A few steps further on, you can see Vadakkumpadu River, which then flows into the main stream of the Chaliyar River. After crossing the Chaliyar we come to Beypore. The Chaliyar river is almost 170 km long. It originates in the Western Ghats and meets the Lakshadweep Sea at an azhi (or estuary) at Chaliyam and Beypore. Like the other major rivers in the Malabar ...