History
During the rule of Shanprat in AD 200 many Jain Temples were built around Rander. There was some historic belief that Rander was an important port of Western Hind. Business was also conducted with Arab, Miser, Sudan and other western countries through the Rander Port.
The earliest recorded mention of Rander was in the year 1050 in the book "Kitab al Hind" by Al Biruni. By the late medieval period it had became an important port in western India, though smaller than ports such as Broach in Gujarat. Ships laden with spices, silk, benzoin and porcelain from as far as Sumatra and China docked in Rander. Nawayat Arabs, who settled in the area by 1225, were the main traders.
In 1514, the Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa wrote:
Ranel (Rander) is a good town of the Moors, built of very pretty houses and squares. It is a rich and agreeable place ...... the Moors of the town trade with Malacca, Bengal, Tawasery (Tannasserim), Pegu, Martaban, and Sumatra in all sort of spices, drugs, silks, musk, benzoin and porcelain. They possess very large and fine ships and those who wish Chinese articles will find them there very completely. The Moors of this place are white and well dressed and very rich they have pretty wives, and in the furniture of these houses have china vases of many kinds, kept in glass cupboards well arranged. Their women are not secluded like other Moors, but go about the city in the day time, attending to their business with their faces uncovered as in other parts.
Thus according to Barbosa, the Moors of Rander did not observe the Islamic purdah, and were far ahead of their times. However the piety of Navayat Arabs is evident by the many mosques and durghas they built. By 1225, Arabs merchants and sailors settled in the area after displacing the local Jain rulers. In 1874, the Hope bridge was built across the river. Rander to villages on the other side of the river.
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