Jewish presence in the Malabar Coast of southwestern India is attested since the ninth century in various sources and diverse languages. Malabar Jewry emerged out of the Indian Ocean maritime trade networks that connected people and communities in West and South Asia forging kinship alliances and cross-cultural exchange. This book traces the evolution of Malabar Jewry in the history of contact and exchange that gave rise to Indo-Arab coastal communities in the period between 849 and 1489.

Contributor: Ophira Gamliel Ophira Gamliel is a Lecturer in South Asian Religions at the University of Glasgow. She specializes in the language, culture, and history of Kerala's Jews and more broadly in the Malayalam language and Kerala's culture.