Translation Challenges: Problematizing Arabi-Malayalam

E-ISSN:2582-550X 213 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 Translation Challenges: Problematizing Arabi-Malayalam Dr. Abubakkar K.K Dr. Shijila K Arabi-Malayalam is a unique language that was formed in Kerala centuries before the era of colonisation when the Arabs traded with Malabar. Basically Malayalam written in the Arabic script, it is a hybrid language born out of the amalgamation of the transliteration of these two languages and the translation of two cultures, namely Malabarian and Arabian. Once extensively in vogue in literary as well as non-literary circles, this ancient language saw a gradual decline in the post-independence years. The paper tries to study how the growth and development of this language with its inherent hybrid nature became the mother tongue of an entire group of people, intersecting the borders of religion and caste. It also traces out the literary tradition that simultaneously grew along with the spoken variety of the language. The paper analyses the challenges involved in bringing out new translations of old Arabi-Malayalam texts, along with identifying some of the sociological and linguistic factors that led to the almost invisible existence of this language in the present day. It concludes with a brief outline of the recent attempts at digitising ancient works and manuscripts in the language in order to revive Arabi-Malayalam that once lent a bilingual identity to the people of Malabar. Keywords: Arabi-Malayalam, bilingualism, multilingualism, translation and transliteration. Ishal PaithrkamIshal Paithrkam Ishal PaithrkamIshal Paithrkam Ishal Paithrkam journal home page: https://ojs.ishalpaithrkam.info Issue-44, December 2025 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 214 E-ISSN:2582-550X Arabi-Malayalam is a unique language that interweaves mainly the languages of Arabic and Malayalam in its hybrid compass. Since its inception at a time when the Arabs traded with Malabar (the Northern regions of Kerala), centuries before the era of colonisation or even the advent of Islam, it had evolved and adapted itself to represent the pluralistic cultural identity of the Malabarians. In its growth from being simply a mixed tongue to being the sole mouthpiece of a people enabling cultural exchange by means of a vast range of literary and non-literary texts, Arabi-Malayalam has essentially thrived on the dynamic process of to-and-fro translations. The paper studies this inherent comparative nature of the Arabi-Malayalam language and its literature, and probes into how and why present-day translations tend to leave out this grand old language from the vibrant multilingual canvas of India. While transliteration as a process of linguistic transfer involves only the script-based, phonetic representation of a text in another language, translation involves semantic transfer, with the meaning getting conveyed in the target language, mindful of cultural nuances, idioms and context. Being a hybrid language with a super-imposed script of Malayalam written in Arabic, Arabi-Malayalam has integrated the processes of transliteration and translation into its linguistic dynamics. The rich canon of literature is a testament to the amount of to-and-fro translations that were once carried out in the language. After briefly detailing the origin, evolution and literary significance of Arabi-Malayalam, the paper delves into the complexities and challenges involved in translating works from Arabi-Malayalam into other languages in the present. History of Arabi-Malayalam: The Philological Basis Arabi-Malayalam is the linguistic product of the centurieslong trade relations between Arabs and Keralites that existed even before the Christian era. Mappilas consisted of both the offspring of Arab traders and local women, as well as lower-caste converts to Islam (Cheerangote, 2016). Arabi-Malayalam came into existence and got consolidated as the mother tongue of the Mappilas, carrying along their unique cultural baggage. E-ISSN:2582-550X 215 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 Along with its development as the oral or colloquial vernacular of the socio-cultural group, it is worth noting that Arabi-Malayalam also grew up as a distinct written form of communication. At the time of the origin of the Arabi-Malayalam script and language, a uniform Malayalam script was not in existence. Vattezhuthu and Kolezhuthu were the prevailing modes of writing but were not developed homogeneously to be used by all the people of Kerala. Malayalam was not standardized in its present form. Prodded on by such a historical necessity, it is logical to state that the oral tongue of Malayalam came to be written in the Arabic script (either by Arab traders or native Mappilas) for the propagation of Islam. Since the natives of those times were not familiar with the prevailing modes of scripts, the Arabs chose to modify the Arabic script (in which the natives were literate enough by learning to recite the Quran) by including the extra Malayalam phonemes so that the converts/natives could read and understand the Islamic principles for themselves. At first limited to the religious domain, Arabi-Malayalam rose up gradually as a medium for creative expression. When prose and poetry arose, the process of hybridisation was intensified with more words borrowed from other South Indian languages and from Hindi, Urdu and Persian. Transliteration and Beyond As Lachman M. Khubchandani says in his essay “Sources and Targets: Translation as a Cultural Filter,” there are societies centred mainly around an oral milieu like India’s and societies organised around the written tradition as in the West (Khubchandani, 2002). Viewing Arabi-Malayalam from this vantage point, it can be seen that the Arabic script was made flexible in order to render a form of writing for the then script less Malayalam in the largely oral Keralite community of Malabar. The Arabic alphabet consisting of only 28 letters was extended to accomodate several sounds in Malayalam by adding diacritical marks. In the same way, a few Arabic phonemes with no parallel in Malayalam were included in the Arabi-Malayalam alphabet. Thus, the incorporation of mutually exclusive letters found in the alphabetical patterns of the two source languages Malayalam and Arabic into the derivative Arabi-Malayalam alphabet made the latter rich with a variety of sounds and phonemes, i.e., a total of 56 letters. Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 216 E-ISSN:2582-550X The Arabi-Malayalam script is also called Ponnani script or Khatafunnani script which is an Abjad script. All the vowel and consonant sounds in Malayalam that did not feature in the Arabic alphabet were not at once given a representation/notation in the ArabiMalayalam script. Rather, this was a process that evolved down the centuries, with various scholars as well as contexts contributing to the growth of the Arabi-Malayalam letters in terms of their notation, pronunciation and usage. Given below is the list of Arabi-Malayalam letters, along with the IPA notations. E-ISSN:2582-550X 217 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 What is significant about Arabi-Malayalam is that the language attained a full growth in Malabar even before the Malayalam language reached its independent stature by freeing from the clutches of Tamil and Sanskrit (Kolangadan, 1988). In other words, Arabi-Malayalam could boast of its own script prior to the consolidation of the standard Malayalam script. Because of the richness of its linguistic diversity as well as the incorporation of a wide variety of texts, Arabi-Malayalam cannot be distilled down as merely the transliteration of Malayalam in the Arabic language. As a Bilingual Mixed Tongue Arabi-Malayalam can be described as a bilingual mixed language with Dravidian roots. As Donald Winford explains, “Bilingual mixed or intertwined languages arose in settings involving long-term contact between two ethnic groups leading to bilingualism and increasing mixture of the languages. In these cases, that mixture is conventionalized as a community norm, resulting in the creation of hybrid languages” (qtd. in Cheerangote, 2016). A probe into the historical roots of the formation of Arabi-Malayalam shows that longterm contact between the ethnic groups of Arabs and Malayalees of Malabar gave birth to this bilingual mixed tongue which got conventionalized amongst the Mappila community circles and thereby cemented its distinct linguistic identity. Arabi-Malayalam is neither a dialect, nor a pidgin. It is also not simply the superimposition of the script of one language over the phonological system of another. A fully grown language, it is an ethnographic amalgamation between Arabic and Malayalam. It became the self-realization of a religious minority in Kerala – the Mappilas. The evolution of Arabi-Malayalam from its parent languages was not a linguistic phenomenon that can be termed co-incidental. Several instances of such combined languages can be discerned worldwide. “Fusion of Arabic with local languages at least in terms of the development of script is found in most of the parts of the world” (Cheerangote, 2016). As seen in the light of this statement, similar occurrences of linguistic fusion can be identified in the existence of Arwi in South India and Urdu in North India. While Lisan ul-Arwi Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 218 E-ISSN:2582-550X (Arabi-Tamil) was a rigorous practice among the Muslims of Tamil Nadu, Urdu had been formed through the cultural contact of Arabic with Hindi, Punjabi and Sindhi scripts. The existence of languages like Arabu-Telugu and Arabu-Bengali also point towards similar processes of linguistic hybridisation. Likewise, the Kurosoni tongue (Suriyani Malayalam or Hebrew-Malayalam) had been in vogue among the Jews of Kerala centuries ago. Having attained their respective peak periods of intellectual and literary activities, these mixed languages have ebbed over time, the cultural residues of which can be detected throughout various parts of India. Arabi-Malayalam has contributed to the growth of the Malayalam language – many words from Arabic have entered Malayalam through Arabi-Malayalam. As a Canon of Literature Though it is not known when exactly Arabi-Malayalam was formed, it is generally surmised that the language was fully in existence by the 9th century AD. While the language grew up as a spoken variety of the Mappilas by imbibing words from a range of languages due to cultural interactions, the form of writing it had developed inevitably led to the birth of written literature. The foundation of Arabi-Malayalam literature was laid out by Khazi Muhammad in the early 17th century. At a time when Thunchath Ezhuthachchan was engaged in freeing the Malayalam language from the clutches of Tamil and Sanskrit, Khazi Muhammad, a great scholar and litterateur who was a contemporary to Ezhuthachchan, penned Muhyidheen Mala in 1607, a hagiographic epic poem that praised the life of the saint Muhyidheen Abdul Khader Jilani who lived during the eleventh century. This iconic eulogy that triggered off Arabi-Malayalam literature aligns itself to the Bhakti tradition of the time. Although the poet had written many scholarly works in Arabic like Fath’hul Mubeen, he chose to write the aforementioned work in Arabi-Malayalam, in order to reach out to the laymen who constituted the majority of the Mappila community. Sprawling a whole genre of maalas or hagiographic poetry in ArabiMalayalam, this momentous work came to be read and recited in every Mappila household for centuries to come. Believed to have the power to alleviate diseases and sorrows, this epic song became widely E-ISSN:2582-550X 219 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 popular among women, many of whom gained literacy and education by means of learning to read this very poem. Another significant work in Arabi-Malayalam that appeared over a century later is Kappappaattu by Kunhaayin Musliyar. This long philosophical poem that allegorizes man to a ship and his/her life to the journey of the ship can be compared to the Old English poems like Widsith, Seafarer and Wanderer. Musliyar also has penned Noolmadh consisting of 666 lines, overflowing with the love for Prophet Muhammad. Coming down to the 19th century, Arabi-Malayalam literature was given such a vital boost by the eternal works of Moyinkutty Vaidyar (1852-1892). He touched upon a variety of topics with his pen – historical Islamic battle-songs as Badr Maala and Uhd Maala, a contemporary political episode of Malabar in Malappuram Padappaattu to a romantic epic as Badrul Muneer Husnul Jamal. Malappuram Padappaattu as a revolutionary poem had a great influence on the fighters of the Khilafat Movement in the early twentieth century and the British government banned the work at the time of the 1921 Malabar Rebellion. A polyglot scholar well-versed in Arabic, Urdu, Sanskrit, Malayalam and Tamil, Vaidyar enriched the Arabi-Malayalam tapestry as a dense multilingual canvas. Difficult to translate, this polyphony of linguistic varieties in Vaidyar’s works is a testimony to the great craftsmanship of the poet. His works also contributed to the Arabi-Malayalam vocabulary, as he was a great linguistic innovator who coined new words in his works like Shakespeare did. The great literary canvas of Arabi-Malayalam has since been renovated and replenished by numerous other writers. Arabi-Malayalam periodicals had an important role in the social reformation and transformation of the Mappilas – preaching the basic tenets of Islam, evaluating religious practices for the commoners of Malabar, warning them against evil practices based on several superstitions (Cheerangote, 2016). There are texts and publications in the language detailing non-European ways of measuring and weighing that throw light on how activities such as boatbuilding and mosque construction were carried out in those days. In its heyday, the vast body of Arabi-Malayalam writing has not left any walk of Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 220 E-ISSN:2582-550X Malabarian life untouched, as it comprised texts ranging from medicine, agriculture, astronomy, astrology, travelogues, history and literature (both prose and verse) to business, architecture, dictionaries, biographies, periodicals etc. As a Voice of the Voiceless: Socio-Linguistic Aspects One of the essential strengths of Arabi-Malayalam is that it was wilfully used as a tool against the caste-based oppression prevalent in Kerala. At a time when people belonging to the so-called low castes were forbidden from using the then ‘pure Malayalam,’ they converted to Islam and embraced the hybrid tongue readily. ArabiMalayalam thus became their lingua franca. It rose up distinctly as a cultural alternative to the elite Sanskritized Brahminical social order of the pre-Renaissance period and later stood up against the cultural imperialism of the West. Arabi-Malayalam literature became popularised in the daily lives of the local folk. The community gained widespread literacy – almost all the members learnt the hybrid alphabet and could read religious books in the Arabi-Malayalam language. Just as Ezhuthachchan’s Adhyathma Ramayanam Kilippattu was read in domestic circles regularly in the evenings, so also Muhiyudheen Mala was recited daily in Mappila households. Thus, Arabi-Malayalam literature did not remain solely within the circle of the elite educated classes but transcended its linguistic boundaries to become infused with the cultural climate of Malabar (Muhammadkunhi, 1988). Here, Arabi-Malayalam can be seen to have assumed the same role performed by the burgeoning Malayalam language and literature in its formative years, that of imparting a new identity to the masses from their erstwhile marginalised positions imposed by the hierarchical caste system. Furthermore, this hybrid tongue also brought the light of letters down to women of those times, most of whom were secluded in their conservative families. Thus, Arabi-Malayalam, hand in hand with the nascent form of what was to become the mainstream Malayalam language, has been instrumental in leading people forward to a path of cultural modernity. E-ISSN:2582-550X 221 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 Yet another quintessential quality of Arabi-Malayalam in the Malabarian milieu of acculturation and synthesis is the complete absence of any imperialistic aims in the linguistic give-and-take process. The Arabs who came to Malabar never had the motive of colonisation or occupation unlike the Europeans who came afterwards (Muhammadkunhi, 1988). This socio-historical fact must be one reason behind the absolute fusion of Arabic and Malayalam in the texture of Arabi-Malayalam with no trace of linguistic hegemony or hierarchy. Here, Arabic and Malayalam can be thought of as ‘adstrate languages’ – both the languages have maintained equilibrium in their social and political status (Cheerangote, 2016). Arabic was assimilated into Malayalam and other Indian languages in a more intimate way than the colonial imprint of English. That Malayalam was not yet standardised at the time could be one reason behind this kind of an organic synthesis with the foreign Arabic tongue (Kolangadan, 1988). The widespread use of standard Malayalam later led to the erasure of this language which was once so vibrant in the literary as well as quotidian aspects of Malabarian life. Growth of Arabi-Malayalam by Means of Translation Though India was multilingual even in the precolonial and colonial times and languages mixed and inter-mixed resulting in the birth and shaping of relatively new tongues from existing old ones, there was little of actual translation among the Indian languages (Khubchandani, 2002). However, Arabi-Malayalam which was quick to revert to the written word made ample use of the translation process. There had been many translations of Sanskrit and other Indian language texts into Arabi-Malayalam which is why many ancient books and treatises related to medicine, astronomy, agriculture etc. are to be found in this bilingual tongue. This points to how Arabi-Malayalam as a language flourished as a direct result of the translation process; it grew up on these foundations of knowledge transfer and cultural exchange. As a result of the widespread translation of several Indian and foreign texts into Arabi-Malayalam – a humongous task undertaken enthusiastically by writers down the centuries continuing Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 228 E-ISSN:2582-550X avar or a suffix entailing plural nouns) and ‘-ayathum’ respectively. Words like surooraal (happily) is a multilingual mixture of Arabic, Urdu and Malayalam. This seemingly organic synthesis of words from multiple languages adds to its unique charm. Dr. P. Sakir Hussain’s rendition of this work in Malayalam consists of a transliterated version accompanied by a translated note in prose. This shows the linguistic loss as well as genre transformation that inevitably characterises translations of Arabi-Malayalam works. The alphabetic structure of Arabi-Malayalam has also undergone many changes down the centuries. Tracking this representation of its phonemes, it can be seen that all of those sounds unique to Malayalam had got one-to-one correspondence in ArabiMalayalam only from the beginning of the twentieth century. This means that the plethora of works penned in Arabi-Malayalam prior to this period including those of the great poet Vaidyar had made use of the erstwhile alphabet system. To cite an instance, the ‘p’ sound in Malayalam words were written down in Arabi-Malayalam using the Arabic ‘f’ in works such as Vaidyar’s Badarpadappaattu. Taken together, these features that add up to the multilingual complexity of works penned in Arabi-Malayalam make their translation fall short of the original. Many of the modern translations of Arabi-Malayalam works, owing to the above mentioned phonetic and linguistic challenges, fail to highlight their rich literary heritage. When it comes to the actual process of translation in the present day, Arabi-Malayalam is often relegated to being an ‘inferior’ language. There is a tendency to replace the original word with its modern Malayalam counterpart in many of the present-day editions of classical Arabi-Malayalam works, an instance of which being the usage of swalpam instead of thoppam in recent editions of Muhyidheen Mala (Dr. P. A. Abubakkar, 36). Such intrusions tend to distort the original work. In the same way, many of the commonly used words in Arabi-Malayalam acclimatised to the Malabarian culture are seen as ‘corruptions’ of the original words in the present-day Malayalam and hence they are replaced by their modern counterparts in recent translations. These serve to eclipse the vibrancy of the oral subculture of Malabar from which the word takes its origin. E-ISSN:2582-550X 229 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 As Arabi-Malayalam literature comes to be absorbed into the mainstream Malayalam literary landscape and becomes a part and parcel of it through half-baked translations and improvisations, the original Arabi-Malayalam literature as such takes a backseat. The altered cultural milieu in the modern digital age has broken away from the cultural ethos of the erstwhile centuries that once became the fertile soil for the growth of Arabi-Malayalam literature. The question remains unanswered whether it is possible to replenish the fading glory of this language. Its historical duty served to the full, Arabi-Malayalam now has shrunk to the academic and aesthetic circles of Mappila literature. Arabi-Malayalam continues to be used in textbooks in the madrasas or Islamic education centres in Kerala. However, the hybrid language is merely used as a transliteration tool; the language appears devoid of all its subtle nuances. Many of the Arabi-Malayalam poems are still sung as part of oppanas and other performances, but they are seldom identified as belonging to a great tradition, let alone understood and studied. The real worth of such works fails to be appreciated. The Task of Reviving Arabi-Malayalam The need to preserve surviving Arabi-Malayalam literature through scientific documentation has become more pronounced than ever. One of the recent efforts to revitalise this antique tongue has kicked off as a project for the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) titled ‘Mathematical Practices of the Indian Ocean World in Coastal Islamic Communities of the Coromandel and Malabar, South India.’ Executed by the Centre for Islamic Tamil Cultural Research, Tiruchi, in collaboration with Kerala’s Mahatma Gandhi University, this year-long project has surveyed and digitised notes, theological texts, printed manuals, publications and textbooks from the 18th century. Ranging in source from personal collections to libraries of Arabic colleges and religious institutions, the documents have proved to be a treasure-house of ethnic, non-European knowledges including indigenous mathematical practices and Ayurvedic home cures. A significant step in archival record keeping, the project has unearthed Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 230 E-ISSN:2582-550X rare collections in Arabi-Malayalam and Arabi-Tamil and has made their digitised versions available on the British Library’s website. Other initiatives to bring the outmoded mixed tongue into the modern period includes the introduction of a Unicode for ArabiMalayalam by the University of Calicut’s C. H. Mohammed Koya Chair for Studies on Developing Societies. This is a step towards recovering more documents through computerisation. Unicode provides a range of code points for Arabic letters, which can be used to represent the Arabi-Malayalam script. Some examples of Unicode code points for Arabi-Malayalam letters are: Arabi-Malayalam also uses additional letters and digraphs to represent sounds that are not found in Arabic. These letters and digraphs can be represented using Unicode code points, such as: One of the challenges in encoding Arabi-Malayalam using Unicode is the representation of vowel sounds and diacritical marks. Since Arabi-Malayalam uses a combination of vowel signs and diacritical marks to indicate vowel sounds, the representation using Unicode becomes complex. However, it can be solved by using a combination of Unicode points and careful font selection, thereby representing the Arabi-Malayalam script as accurately as possible. The accuracy of the digitised content needs to be ensured by keeping out misinterpretations, emissions or distortions, thus maintaining the integrity and authenticity of original works. Fostering collaboration among institutions, governments and tech companies to develop and implement effective security policies is an important way to preserve Arabi-Malayalam digital content. Furthermore, modern encryption techniques and digital protection tools can be utilised to safeguard such digital content from cyber threats. E-ISSN:2582-550X 231 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 In addition to creating digital repositories and archives, ArabiMalayalam works can be preserved for posterity through fresh translations. Recent translators like Thoppil Muhammad Meeran, Sarah Abubakkar and K. M. Ajirkutty have successfully put across classical works to Tamil, Kannada and English respectively. Adaptations of ancient Arabi-Malayalam medicinal texts and other publications into modern languages could also open up new discourses to engage with. To rejuvenate translation processes from ArabiMalayalam, bilingual or multilingual dictionaries and annotated editions that help bridge the inadequacy of linguistic competence of both translators and the reading public, can be brought forth. Similarly, translation training programmes can be organised as part of internships in universities and other study centres. As part of continuing this cultural legacy, there is a need to teach the Arabi-Malayalam script to the new generation in terms of not only reading and writing, but also creating poetry, prose and other imaginative renderings in the language. The inheritors of this iconic vestige should be encouraged with scholarships, funded projects and other incentives, and may be appointed at cultural centres such as the Kerala Sahitya Academy, Thrissur, Vaidyar Academy, Kondotty and Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University, Tirur. There are ongoing efforts to promote Arabi-Malayalam, including the establishment of a study centre at the Malayalam University. In these ways, Arabi-Malayalam needs to be studied, reinvigorated and brought to the fore as a linguistic variety that mouthed the aspirations of a people for centuries altogether. Conclusion Despite the longstanding impact in the socio-linguistic circles of Malabar, Arabi-Malayalam tends to fall into oblivion today. It needs to be revived by preserving the existing texts in the hybrid tongue in the form of digital repositories and archives as well as by optimising translations of foundational Arabi-Malayalam texts into Malayalam, English and other languages. There are, however, difficulties associated with this translation process as Arabi-Malayalam works present a dense multilingual canvas suffused with Arabic, Malayalam, Tamil, Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 232 E-ISSN:2582-550X Urdu and Persian languages. Translated versions thus suffer basic linguistic losses such as oversimplification, genre change and cultural gaps, thereby failing to capture the spirit of the original texts. These pitfalls in translation should be rectified through Unicode representations, linguistic innovations and annotated editions of the texts as well as conscious and rigorous attempts at resurrecting the bygone glory of Arabi-Malayalam in the academia. Glossary Abjad script – A writing system that gives prominence to consonants, leaving out vowels to the conjecture of readers. alif – the first letter in the Arabic alphabet. ashaku – beauty; Arabi-Malayalam word for azhaku bannam – bodyweight or fatness Dravidian – relating to a family of languages spoken in South India and Sri Lanka. The Dravidian roots of Arabi-Malayalam means its Malayalam and Tamil lineage. firake – behind; Arabi-Malayalam for pirake suroor – happiness tevi – goddess; Malabar variant of devi thoppam – a local variant of swalpam meaning a little. Vattezhuthu and Kolezhuthu – ancient writing systems used for Malayalam. Vattezhuthu evolved from the Brahmi script and kolezhuthu developed as a variant of the former. The former had distinctive round letters while the latter takes its name from the stylus used to write on palm leaves. Bibliography Abubakkar, P. A. (2018). Arabi Malayalam: Malayalathinte classical bhaavangal. Mahakavi Moinkutty Vaidyar Mappila Kala Academy. Ahmad, K. A. (Ed.). (2006). Mahakavi Moyinkutty Vaidyar padanangal. Mahakavi Moinkutty Vaidyar Smaraka Committee. Ajirkutty, K. M. (2006). Husn al Jamal: A Persian tale of love and adventure. Merit Books. Cheerangote, Saidalavi. (2016). Arabi Malayalam: A contact linguistic analysis. Lipi Publications. Hussain, Dr. P. Sakir. (2017). Ibraheem ibnu Adham Qissappaattu: athmanubhoothiyude ishal mozhikal. Islamic Publishing Bureau. Kolangadan, Joseph. (1988). Malayalam, mappilamayam. Arabi-Malayalam. Institute of Mappila Studies, 37-46. Muhammadkunhi, P. K. (1988). Arabi-Malayalam – utbhavavum valarchayum. ArabiMalayalam. Institute of Mappila Studies, 49-62. Nainar, Nahla. (2025, March 30). When South India spoke Arabic. The Hindu, magazine 04, 05. Nair, Rukmini Bhaya. (Ed.). (2002). Translation, text and theory: The paradigm of India. Sage Pulications. Randathani, Hussain. (2007). Mappila Muslims: A study on society and anti colonial struggles. Other Books. E-ISSN:2582-550X 233 Ishal Paithrkam, Peer-Reviewed, Issue-44, December 2025 Salahuddhin, C. T. (2024). Arabic-Malayalam medical works testify to the knowledge of the renaissance. Kerala Muslim Heritage Foundation. https:// muslimheritage-in.translate.goog/innermore/92. Shamsudheen, K. O. (2014). Mappila Malayalam. Lipi Publications. Shanavas, S. A. & Ubaid, V. P. C. (Ed.). (2014). Linguistic magnitude of mappila Malayalam. Dept. of linguistics, University of Kerala. S. R., Abhirami. (2023). Colonial grammatical initiatives in Kerala: Exploring linguistic imperialism and British cultural hegemony. Malayalam Literary Survey. 43(4). Dr. Abubakkar K.K Associate Professor PG and Research Department of English Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad India Pin: 678001 Ph: +91 9747215482 Email: [email protected] ORCiD: 0000-0002-3091-5223 & Dr. Shijila K Independent Researcher “Raji” Attasseri, Munnurcode P.O Palakkad India Pin: 679502 Ph: +91 9061780204 Email: [email protected] ORCiD: 0009-0005-0804-6294