MALAPPURAM: To much of the amazement of the historians, a recently unearthed fortnightly in the extinct Arabic-Malayalam language reveals that the Muslim community in Malabar was very much concerned about the developments in different sectors of the Ottoman Empire and countries such as Syria during the 1890s.Named ‘Salahul Ikhwan’, the four-page periodical edited by C Seythalikutty was published during the 1890s and 1900s from Tirur in the Muslim-dominated areas of the erstwhile Malabar province. It was also published in some parts of Tamil Nadu, Ceylon and Singapore as per the subscription tariffs.“This periodical had a very detailed and vibrant foreign news section which informed the readers mainly about the developments in the Ottoman Empire,” says Dr K K Abdul Sathar, head of the history department at PSMO College, Tirurangadi, who has analysed the contents of this rare catch among the Arabic-Malayalam literature in his collection.Interestingly, a report in the foreign news section goes like this: “It is learnt that the Ottoman Empire has paid back 1,93,000 sovereigns which was the pending war penalty to be given to Russia.”Another news item gives an account of the severe plague outbreak in the Empire. As per the report, three doctors were sent to Bombay to understand how a similar outbreak was contained there. In another issue, there is a box news item telling that the Empire has made an additional revenue of about `2 lakh from its forest assets. A report in the same section of another issue tells the readers that Syria suffered heavily from an 18-hour continuous rain.According to Dr Abdul Sathar, these show the strong pan Islamic concerns of the Muslim community in Malabar during the period. “The fact that a community which is often considered ignorant and less-educated had once closely followed the incidents in foreign countries indicates the global outlook of the society existed here during the time,” he said.The periodical, slightly bigger than a tabloid, had advertisements on the front page, mainly of its sister publications. As per the tariffs published in it, a one liner ad costed one anna and three paise, while a column ad costed three annas for a day and `30 for a month.A separate column devoted for local news comprised reports from different parts of Malabar. Question and answer series, a detailed article which resembled an editorial and travelogues constituted the oldest Arabic-Malayalam periodical unearthed till date.
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