Ophira Gamliel, historian, has stressed the need for studies on the historical connection between the global Muslim community and Kerala of yore.
Delivering the keynote address at a two-day seminar at MAMO College, Manassery, near Mukkom in Kozhikode district on Wednesday, she pointed out that historians had traced an inherent link between the literature in Arabi-Malayalam, a variant form of the Arabic script for writing Malayalam, and the global Muslim community. Ms. Gamliel, a lecturer in South Asian Religions at School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow, Scotland, is the author of Judaism in South India CA 900-1950s: Relocating Malabar Jewry .
Earlier, inaugurating the seminar, historian M.G.S. Narayanan pointed out that the traditions of brotherhood in Malabar’s history required more regional historical studies. Scholars presented papers on ‘reimagining Malabar history’ in other sessions. The seminar is organised by the history department of MAMO College.
