Muziris-Kondugallur, Kerala - History of Islamic Architecture (sitios de interés)
Descripción del sitio
Kondugallur has a history (see Wikipedia for a poorly written article) It was known as Muziris to Pliny the Elder (23 -79 AD) who describes it as primum emporium Indiae.The Greek explorer, Hippalus (1st cent BC), the discoverer of the monsoon trade winds, described this port. Roman coins have been found here in 2000.
Apparently in the 1st cent BC a small community of Jewish traders existed in Kondugallur, and there are conjectures of a much earlier presence of Jewish traders on the Malabar Coast.
So, the "legend" that Malik Ibn Dinar landed here 625 with 20 Muselmans and built the second earliest mosque after Medina, is not entirely improbable: a small mosque resembling the "palm hut of the Prophet" but of no other architectural interest. This legend assumes near certainty when one discovers that the oldest Christian settlement (52 AD) in India is in the same place. There exist a church in which St. Thomas, the Syrian founder of the Christian community is buried.