For Ages Coilum, Kaulam, Or, As We Now Write It, Quilon, And
Properly Kollam, Was One Of The Greatest Ports
Of trade with Western
Asia.[1] The earliest mention of it that I can indicate is in a letter
written
By the Nestorian Patriarch, Jesujabus of Adiabene, who died A.D.
660, to Simon Metropolitan of Fars, blaming his neglect of duty, through
which he says, not only is India, "which extends from the coast of the
Kingdom of Fars to COLON, a distance of 1200 parasangs, deprived of a
regular ministry, but Fars itself is lying in darkness." (Assem. III. pt.
ii. 437.) The same place appears in the earlier part of the Arab
Relations (A.D. 851) as Kaulam-Male, the port of India made by vessels
from Maskat, and already frequented by great Chinese Junks.
Abulfeda defines the position of Kaulam as at the extreme end of
Balad-ul-Falfal, i.e. the Pepper country or Malabar, as you go eastward,
standing on an inlet of the sea, in a sandy plain, adorned with many
gardens. The brazil-tree grew there, and the Mahomedans had a fine mosque
and square. Ibn Batuta also notices the fine mosque, and says the city was
one of the finest in Malabar, with splendid markets and rich merchants, and
was the chief resort of the Chinese traders in India. Odoric describes it
as "at the extremity of the Pepper Forest towards the south," and
astonishing in the abundance of its merchandise.
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