The Gazetteers Department

MUSLIMS according to the 1951-Census, are returned as numbering 103,351 (m. 43,083; f. 60,268) in the district of Ratnagiri or 6.03 per cent, of the population. In 1872 the percentage was 7.32 and the same according to the Censuses of 1911, 1921 and 1931 was 6.4, 6.3 and 6.98 respectively. Their tract-wise distribution over the district is as follows:—

Rural Tracts : 83,560 (m. 34,031; f. 49,529)-Sawantwadi and Vengurla, 1,530 (m. 725; f. 805); Kankavli and Kudal, 4,160 (m. 1,809; f. 2,351); Deogad and Malvan, 4,310 (m. 1,965; f. 2,345); Rajapur and Lanje, 7,054 (m. 3,124; f. 3,930); Ratnagiri and Sangameshwar, 23,290 (m. 9,243; f. 14,047); Khed and Chiplun, 17,717 (m. 7,161; f. 10,556); Dapoli, Mandangad and Guhagar, 25,499 (m. 10,004; f. 15,495).

Urban Tracts: 19,791 (m. 9,052; f. 10,739) ?Rajapur, Ratnagiri and Sangameshwar, 11,931 (m. 5,602; f. 6,329); Chiplun and Khed, 4,565 (m. 1,935; f. 2,630); Sawantwadi, Vengurla and Malvan, 3,295 (m. 1,515; f. 1,780).

Arabs and Persians.

As in the other coastal districts of Western India, the Ratnagiri Muslim population has a strong strain of foreign blood, both Arab and Persian. The foreign element probably existed before the time of the prophet Muhammad (570-632). [A trace of the early Arab sailors is found in Jazira, or the island, the latter part of the name Melizeigara, apparently applied by Ptolemy (15) and the Periplus (247) to the town and island of Malvan or Melundi.] And in the spread of Muslim power, between the seventh and tenth centuries, as sailors, merchants, and soldiers of fortune, Arabs came to the west coast of India in great numbers. [Many high Ratnagiri families, though at present following different professions, are distinguished by Arabic surnames, Kazi, judge; Fakih, lawyer; Muallam, professor; Khatib, preacher; Mukri, elegy singer; and Hafiz, Qoran reciter.] From the accounts of Suliman, the earliest Arab traveller, it would seem that about the middle of the ninth century, the Balharas who ruled the Konkan were very friendly to the Arabs. The people of the country said that if their kings reigned and lived for a long time it was solely due to the favour shown to the Arabs. Among all the kings there was no one so partial to Arabs as the Balhara, and his subjects followed his example. [Elliot's History, L. 4. The Balharas were the Rajputs of Malkhet near Hyderabad. Compare Mas'udi's Prairies d'Or, 1. 382.] Early numbers in the tenth century, Arabs are mentioned as settled in large numbers in the Konkan towns, married to the women of the country, and living under their own laws and religion. [ Masudi (913), Prairies d'Or, II, 86.] During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, when the lands of Ratnagiri formed part of the possessions of the Bahamani and Bijapur kings, a fresh impulse was given to immigration, both from the increased importance of Dabhol and other places of trade, and from the demand for Arab and Persian soldiers. Even under the Marathas the services of Arab seamen were still in demand. [In 1683, the Company's merchantman President was, off Sangameshwar, attacked by two ships and four grabs. The crew were Arabs who said they were in Sambhaji's pay. Orme's History. Frag. 120.] No record has been traced of any attempt to force Islam on the people of the district, and from the tolerant character of the Bijapur kings, [During the reigns of Yusuf Adilshah (1489-1510) and of Ibrahim Adil-shah II (1590-1626) no man's religion was interfered with. Ferishta, II, 128.] it seems probable that, except a few who yielded t6 the persuasion of missionaries, to the temptation of grants of land, or to the oppression of Aurangzeb, Ratnagiri Muslims are not descended from purely Hindu converts.

Konkanis.

Besides the Arabs and Persians who from time to time came as soldiers, traders, and sailors, the character of many Muslim villagers near Chiplun and along the shores of the Bankot creek, point to some more general Arab settlement. These people, the fair Arab-featured Konkani Muslims of Bombay, generally known among Muslims by the term Kufis, seem, as the name shows, to have come to India from the Euphrates valley, and to belong to the same wave of Arab settlers who in Gujarati are known as Naiatas, and in Kanara as Navaits. The traditions of the people and the accounts of many Muslim historians agree that the bulk of them fled to India from the Euphrates valley about the year 700 (82 A. H.) to escape massacre at the hands of the fierce governor Hajjaj bin Yusuf. [Details of Hajjaj the ' terror and scourge' of his country are given in Mas'udi's Prairies d'Or, V. 193-400. (See also Khulasat-ul-Akhbar, and Tarikh-i-Tabari in Prince's Muhammedan History, 455-460). According to the general story these men were at first natives of Madina, from which, were driven by the persecution of Hajjaj. In addition to the original body of settlers, it seems probable that fresh immigrants arrived in the tenth century (923-926) to escape the ravages of the Karmatian insurgents who destroyed Basra and Kufa and enslaved part of the people (D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale, I. 509; Dabistan, II, 421), and in the thirteenth century (1258), when Halaku Khan the Tartar captured all the cities of the Euphrates valley, put the reigning Khalifah to death, and massacred 160,000 of the inhabitants.]

Jamatis.

Besides the regular classification into the four main tribes, Syeds, Shaikhs, Mughals, and Pathans, [ About 1/16 are Syeds, 12/16 Shaikhs, and 3/16 Moghals and Pathans.] Ratnagiri Muslims are locally divided into two classes, Jamatis or members of the community, and Daldis coast fishers, with whom the Jamatis do not intermarry. [ Perhaps daldi or thrown, in the sense of outcast.] Though Jamatis have much sameness in appearance and manners, there is among them a special class whose headquarters are along the Bankot creek and on the Dapoli coast. The Bankot Muslims are rather a slim but well-made, fair, and good-featured class, the men shaving the head and wearing short, rather scanty, beards. Their home tongue is Marathi, but most of them know Urdu. Except a few well-to-do landholders they live in second class houses. Some of the villagers used to wear some time back a white Brahman-like turban and the Hindu coat and waistcloth. At present they generally wear a Turkish fez, a sherwani and loose trousers and patent leather shoes. The women wear the Hindu dress, and when they travel, a large white sheet-like overrobe. Widows dress in white. Landholders, sailors, and some of the school teachers and Government servants, are on the whole well-to-do. The calling of boatmen in Bombay harbour has, of late, greatly suffered from the competition of steam launches; but many find good employment as engineers and workers in machinery. Of Sunnis of the Shafai school few know the Qoran or are careful to say their prayers. On every Thursday, either in a mosque, or in a house built for the purpose, the Konkanis meet together, and sing hymns to the praise of God and the Prophet. This done, tea is drunk, and sweetmeats distributed. Except that at marriages a dough lamp, filled with clarified butter, is by the women lit, carried to river, pond or well, and left there, and that for five Thursdays after a death, dinners are given to relations and friends, their customs do not differ from those of other Muslims. [Maulvi Syed Ahmad Sahib Gulshanabadi.] They marry only among themselves, marriage with any other caste being considered a disgrace. Of late, some families have given their daughters to Bombay Arabs. A number of them in Bombay and a small number in Ratnagiri and at other places know English, and teach their children Marathi and English.

Daldis.

DALDIS, found chiefly in the Ratnagiri sub-division, have the tradition that their forefathers came in ships from across the East. Their appearance and position among the Muslims of the district would seem to make it probable that they are partly converted Hindus, probably Kolis, and partly the descendants of the immigrant Muslims and slave girls. [According to Major Jervis (Statistics of Western India, 14, 15), they are a race of people descended from the first Arabian colonists who settled on the western coast in the seventh or eighth century and correspond with the Maplas of Malabar.] The men are tall, strong, and stoutly built with pleasant but irregular faces; most of the women are swarthy, but a few are fair and well featured. They speak Marathi in their homes and many understand and speak Hindustani. Their houses are almost all thatched huts of the second class. Except that a few of the men wear tight trousers, they dress, both men and women, in Hindu fashion. Some are sailors and cultivators, and some go to Bombay in search of work; others make and set nets and ropes of all sorts, and most are fishermen differing little from Hindus in their way of fishing. They hold a low position among the Muslims of the district. They are hard working, and though many are in debt, as a class they are fairly well-to-do. Sunnis in religion they marry only among themselves and obey the Qazi. Very few of them send their children to school.

Most of the rest of the Muslims are in appearance somewhat less sturdy and rough-featured than the Daldis, and darker and not so foreign looking as the Bankot men. The home tongue of all is Marathi, but most of the well-to-do know Urdu. The bulk of them are towns people living in second class houses, generally on rice and pulse. Most of them are able to afford dry fish, but few, except on holidays, eat animal food. The men generally wear a skull cap, the Muslim coat, and the waistcloth, only the well-to-do wearing trousers. Their women dress in Hindu fashion, in the large Marathi robe and bodice. Neither hardworking nor thrifty, they are orderly, clean, and hospitable. Living chiefly as grain-dealers, cultivators, and sailors, they are not as a class well-to-do. In religion almost all are Sunnis following the Qazi. Few of them send their children tc school; but many children go to the Maulvi to learn the Qoran. Few have risen to high positions.

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