The mosque is held by tradition to be the first in India, founded in the lifetime of the Prophet by Malik ibn Dinar (a tradition on Wikipedia, Kodungallur; we give it as a tradition).
The Muslim merchants of the Malabar coast, the Mappilas, own ships and mosques at Kodungallur, Kollam, Madayi and Pantalayini (the Madayi mosque has a record of 1124). They are the shipowners of the pepper trade, protected by the chiefs.
Who holds it
- Title
- The mosque's trustees (qazi and merchant elders)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No head is named in any source we read.
Overlord
the local chief
How things stand that morning
A merchant community protected by the chiefs; its mosques are old.
Places of note
- Cheraman Juma Masjid: traditional first mosque of India; position approximate
- Madayi mosque: Arabic inscription of 1124
Where the sources disagree
- Common accounts give the mosque a founding date of 629; this is a tradition, not a recorded date.
Evidence: Foundation story is a tradition; the Madayi record is the one firm date.
Primary sources for Kerala chiefdoms
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
- Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online
- The Book of Roger (the Pleasure of Him who Longs to Cross the Horizons), Muhammad al-Idrisi (completed 1154 at Palermo). The nearest Arabic geography in time to 1200 for the Indian Ocean. Read online
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
Sources and studies
- Kodungallur, Wikipedia (read for this sheet)
- Kolathunadu, Wikipedia (read for this sheet)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, checked against the other sources)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.