Kerala merchant corporations

Who he is

Title

guild heads and community leaders

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

Manigramam (the guild named in the Quilon Syrian plates), Anjuvannam (the guild of Joseph Rabban, the Jews of Kodungallur), Muslim shipowners (Mappila), Arab, Persian and Chinese traders

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia (Kollam): the Manigramam and Anjuvannam guilds are mentioned in the Quilon Syrian copper plates and were active in the eighth to eleventh centuries; Sulaiman al-Tajir (ninth century) found Kollam the only Indian port Chinese junks reached; the rulers of Desinganadu exchanged embassies with China and a Chinese settlement flourished there. The campaign board adds that the plates of 849 were signed by Arabs, Persians and Jews.

Overlord

the Venad king, who grants and takes a share

What it holds

• weights and measures and the oversight of foreign trade at Kollam (Syrian Christian merchants)
• Anjuvannam at Kodungallur (Jewish quarter with seventy-two free houses in the Rabban tradition)
• resident Arab and Persian communities with mosques at Kollam, Kodungallur, Madayi and Kannur

How it was acquired

By royal grants of the ninth to eleventh centuries.

Allies and rivals

The chiefs; the Gulf, Aden and Chinese markets.

How things stand that morning

In full work; the loading season is open.

Wealth

Pepper by weight, ginger, cardamom and cinnamon by value.

Military

Merchant guards and ship crews.

Threats

• A chiefs' war on a landing
• The closure of the sea from June to September

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry says the plates of 849 are dated; Wikipedia's Kollam page does not give 849 and gives only 'about 849' elsewhere; we use 'ninth century'.
• Later sources on the trade: Zhao Rugua's Zhufan zhi (about 1225), Marco Polo and Yuan envoys (1275, 1280).

Evidence: The plates and the guild names are firm; their form in 1200 is inferred.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

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