Muhammed Nabeel Kuyitheri
Darul Huda Islamic University, India

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Sīrah Narratives in Mappilappattu: The Poetic Heritage of Islamic Culture in Coastal Kerala Muhammed Nabeel Kuyitheri
HISTORICAL: Journal of History and Social Sciences Vol. 5 No. 3 (2026): History and Cultural Innovation
Publisher : Perkumpulan Dosen Fakultas Agama Islam Indramayu

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.58355/historical.v5i3.234

Abstract

This study examines Sīrah, themed Mappilappattu, the vernacular Islamic poetic corpus of Kerala's Mappila Muslim community, as a form of localized historiography. The research objectives are to analyse the literary structures and thematic features of selected Sīrah texts, to situate them within the socio-historical context of pre, modern and colonial Kerala, and to evaluate their function in preserving prophetic memory and constructing communal identity. Employing a qualitative historical, literary methodology, the study conducts close readings of Badar Padappattu, Miʿrāj Pattu, and Ibrāhīm Nabi Kissa alongside contextual examination of archival and scholarly sources. The findings demonstrate that these compositions synthesize Qurʾānic motifs, Arabic, Persian narrative frameworks, and Malayalam oral, poetic conventions into distinctive vernacular historiographies. The research gap addressed concerns the undertheorized historiographical function of Sīrah Mappilappattu, which existing scholarship largely treats as devotional folklore rather than as sophisticated historical imaginaries. The study concludes that Sīrah Mappilappattu constitutes an indigenous manifestation of Islamic literary culture in South Asia, where devotional performance, ethical pedagogy, and historical imagination converge.