Marakkar or
Maraikayar or
Maraicayar or
Maricar (
MoorThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
) is a common title, surname or name of a distinctive
TamilTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunion as well as emigrant communities around the world...
and Malayalam speaking
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
people of
KeralaKerala , is a state located in southwestern India. The state was created in 1956 on linguistc basis, bringing together those places where Malayalam formed the principal language...
and
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh...
. Some of the places abundant with Maricars are
KayalpatnamKayalpatnam or Korkai is a town in the Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, India. Kayal is referred to in Marco Polo's travel diaries dating to 1250 AD. Korkai or Kayal was an ancient port dating to the 1st centuries of the Christian era and was contemporaneous to the existence of Kollam, another...
(is thought to be the ancestral home town for the early Maricars),
KilakaraiKilakarai is a 3rd category nakarachi in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.- History :...
,
AdirampattinamAdirampattinam also called as Adiramapattinam or shortly as Adirai is a panchayat town in Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.- Demographics :...
,Muthupet, Nagore, Nagapattinam,
KaraikalKaraikal is a city and a municipality in Karaikal district in the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry.Several explanations are offered for the word 'Karaikal'. The imperial Gazetteer gives it the meaning 'fish pass'. According to Julien vinson the town is said to have known as Karaigiri in Sanskrit...
and various other coastal towns.
Traditionally, the Maricars engaged in mercantile commerce.
Marakkar or
Maraikayar or
Maraicayar or
Maricar (
MoorThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
) is a common title, surname or name of a distinctive
TamilTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunion as well as emigrant communities around the world...
and Malayalam speaking
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
people of
KeralaKerala , is a state located in southwestern India. The state was created in 1956 on linguistc basis, bringing together those places where Malayalam formed the principal language...
and
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh...
. Some of the places abundant with Maricars are
KayalpatnamKayalpatnam or Korkai is a town in the Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, India. Kayal is referred to in Marco Polo's travel diaries dating to 1250 AD. Korkai or Kayal was an ancient port dating to the 1st centuries of the Christian era and was contemporaneous to the existence of Kollam, another...
(is thought to be the ancestral home town for the early Maricars),
KilakaraiKilakarai is a 3rd category nakarachi in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.- History :...
,
AdirampattinamAdirampattinam also called as Adiramapattinam or shortly as Adirai is a panchayat town in Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.- Demographics :...
,Muthupet, Nagore, Nagapattinam,
KaraikalKaraikal is a city and a municipality in Karaikal district in the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry.Several explanations are offered for the word 'Karaikal'. The imperial Gazetteer gives it the meaning 'fish pass'. According to Julien vinson the town is said to have known as Karaigiri in Sanskrit...
and various other coastal towns.
Traditionally, the Maricars engaged in mercantile commerce. They generally dealt with gems,precious stones, jewels, timber and the textile trade.
The Maricars played a pivotal role in developing the Malay States, that to this day you can find several streets and places named after Maricars in Malaysia. It is derived from the
TamilTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunion as well as emigrant communities around the world...
term for a boat,
Marakalam. Marakalam means a boat made of wood. Muslim traders were known to ply the seas around Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka in wooden boats. Hence the name. Muslims are also known as
Marakalayo by the Sinhalese speakers of Sri Lanka.
Probably one of the most famous Maricars of all time happen to be Dr.
Abdul KalamAvul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam , born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam^, was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007, he was elected during the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party, led ruling coalition, under prime minister...
Maraikkayar, the former president of India and arguably the greatest scientist of modern times that India has known.
Traditionally Maricars have been known for maritime trade along east Asia, but now due to the prevalence of education, a lot of professionals have also been found in the community. The
KilakaraiKilakarai is a 3rd category nakarachi in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.- History :...
Maricars have played a big role in setting up educational institutes all over Tamil Nadu for the betterment of Tamil Muslims and Muslims in general. A lot of Maricars happen to have connections with the Gulf and Malaysia-Singapore. But of late, this trend has been changing with some of the Maricars moving to UK, France and USA.
It is a very close knit community and they marry among themselves to maintain the lineage. At times, people construe the Maricars to be racist, but off late this has been changing due to proper education. Traditionally they follow Shafi school of thought as most of the Arabs who did trade with these regions followed that madhab. Interestingly a small portion of Maricars incidentally speak Malayalam as well.
The Maricars have a distinct Arab-Tamil composite culture and they are traditionally very conservative. There used to be a time when the language used to have a strong Arabic flavour as most of their vocabulary was derived from pure Arab and classical Tamil.
Some examples of this beautiful mix of Arab and Tamil vocabulary will be illustrated below:
1) Khair, Allah podhumanavan - which means 'Whatever! God is sufficient for me!
2) Inge konjam Raahatha irukkum - which means it will be comfortable here
3) Balaah Museebath Subuhu thozhuthal neengidum - All misfortune and misery will be removed by the dawn prayer.
Maraikayar Pattinam is a small place in Ramanathapuram district. The people living there are called Maraikayars. Even before two generations they were operating Marakalam 'wooden ships' to the entire world especially to Gulf, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and some European countries.
Current generation people are diversified into many areas apart from their traditional trade by sea. Still there are some senior people living in Maraikayar Pattinam, who traveled to many countries by the Marakalam.