Marakkar - Some Prominent Marakkars & Their Trade

Some Prominent Marakkars & Their Trade

The Marakkars were the leading business group of the region when the Portuguese arrived in Kerala. They had settled at Cochin and were believed to be the descendants of the Arabs who migrated to Kerala. If they were Arabs, are they Yemeni Hadhramites or Egyptians? Mecca – By Francis Peters (P173) & Logan (P308) mention a wealthy Egyptian trader named Khoja Mehmed Marakkar, who was ill treated by Vincent Sodre at Cannanore, thus signifying a possible but lone Egyptian connection (I understood that Sreedhara Menon also makes such a Cairo connection but I could not find it). As we saw they were driven out of Cochin by the heavy handed actions of the Portuguese.

The Marakkars of Cochin as we saw earlier, had ships & factories in the Cochin & Coromandel area according to Portuguese sources as early as 1504 and supplied the Portuguese with spices from Malaysia (Malacca) before the Portuguese themselves established themselves in Malacca (KS Mathew). They also had a monopoly over the Maldives trade.The interaction between the Ceylon, Ramanad and Kayalpatanam Marakkars is often quoted by historians and writers of the times such as Sheikh Zainuddin and Barbosa. It does appear that they also conducted commodities trade, especially rice. Ismail marakkar for example handled rice trade in Calicut, and there were the famous Pachachi marakkar, Pattu (Pate) marakkar etc. Varthema mentions Mamale Marakkar of Cannanore, the richest merchant of Malabar. In later days, i.e. Tipu’s times, the Dewan of Travancore was supported at sea by Pokku Moosa Marakkar.

Pate Marakar of Cochin approached Zamorin after they are troubled at Cochin and received no support from the local Cochin king (Starthern). Until then Mamale marakar (Lord of Maladives) was the one fighting the Portuguese, he was killed by Sodre in 1525.

KS Mathew an Indo Portuguese specialist identified Mamale Marakkar in Cochin during the 1504 period. Between him and Genieve Bouchon, they list the following Marakkars of Cochin in the 16th century. Cheria naina, Naina (note here that the Naina marakkars were later prominent in Burma & Malacca), Mitos, Chilary (Cheria ali), Mohammed, Mamali, Pate, Icimale & Belina. Sheikh Zainuddin mentions the four admirals or Kunji Ali, Ali Ibrahim, Kutti Ibrahim and Mohammed Ali Marakkars. Mathew also confirms that these Marakkar’s of Cochin had their own factories in the Coromandel Coast and traded with the Portuguese until 1511 when the latter conquered Malacca.

Zainuddin confirms that these Marakkars had sailed often to Kayal but that they also fought with the Portuguese when attacked. The King of Kayalpatanam, a Marakkayar who was a subject of the queen of Quilon had his Kayal kingdom with many other Malabar settlers. These people according to JBP More eventually became the Marakayars (note now the change of spelling) of Tamil Nadu. Pius Malekandathil states that it was the Marakkar traders, especially Mitos Marakkar who were the chief suppliers of Cinnamon to the Portuguese in Cochin. One interesting fact also comes up that the boat of Cherianaina or Mamaly Marakkar was attacked by Cabral at the behest of the Zamorin (Sanjay Subramaniam Pg 180) due to a complaint that his war elephants were on board that ship.

makan marakar is a famous srilankan business family. arasi wapchie maricar aka wapchie marikar bass was the builder of national museum of colombo,colombo old town hall,pettah,galle face hotel,colombo,colombo customs house,clock tower,colombo general post office,colombo victoria arcade,and many more buildings.

tamil bell found in New Zealand and kept in te papa museum auckland,New Zealand said to be belonged to a maricar named muhaiyuddeen waqus dated 600 years ago.

Note: It may now be news to some that our beloved ex-president Dr Abdul Kalam is a Marakkar himself.