16th century classic lost in translation: Expert

TRIVANDRUM: A Uae-based researcher credited with a series of works on the Malabari diaspora to him says the English version of Tuhfat Al Mujāhidīn available in international academic circles is a shadow of the original and it borders to misrepresentation.

“The translation has been misleading the international academic community for the last two decades,” says Dr Abbas Panakkal, a senior researcher at the Abu Dhabi-headquartered World Muslim Communities Council.

“Hundreds of research theses and books on the maritime history of the Indian Ocean region have quoted from the wrong version of the book. It has even found a place in publications of Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard universities misleading many academics.”

Originally writen in Arabic, the 16th century Tuhfat Al Mujahidin fi Ba‘d Akhbar Al Burtughaliyin describes the valiant fight of Kunjali Marakkar’s navy to safeguard the Malabar coasts against the Portuguese colonial forces.

The Mappila Muslim navy fought for the Hindu kings of Zamorin who enjoyed warm relations with the Arab traders who frequented Calicut (now Kozhikode) to buy Malabar’s precious pepper and other exotic spices.

Authored by Islamic scholar and chronicler Zainuddin Makhdoom II, it was the first historical work from Kerala by a native author.

The book describes the resistance put up by Marakkar’s navy from 1498 to 1583 against Portuguese atempts to conquer the region.

It also analyses the chronology of events and the lifestyle, customs and family structure of the local people who enjoyed close relations with the Arab traders.

“This is a story of disseminating academic misinformation from a volume promoted at the 67th Indian History Congress held in Kozhikode in 2007,” Dr Abbas told Gulf Today.

The translation, he says, was published by two outlets, one based in India (Other Books) and the other in Malaysia (Islamic Book Trust) claimig to be a reprint of the original work of Muhammad Husayn Nainar published by the University of Madras in 1942.

A Griffith University fellow, Dr Panakkal works on Islam in Malabar, law, interreligious integration and intercultural cooperation. His book, Islam in Malabar - A Sociocultural Study was published by International Islamic University Press, Malaysia.

“It’s a phoney version adapted from a Malayalam translation published in 1995. It is awful how the whole academic world of medieval historians and experts has been influenced by the imprudent editions all these years,” he said.