Kozhikode

Kozhikode, also known in English as Calicut, is an Indian city and the second-largest metropolitan city in the State of Kerala. It is also the 19th largest in the country with a population of two million according to the 2011 census.

Quotes

• I remained at Calicut... The proper name of the place is Colicodu... Tippoo destroyed the town, and removed its inhabitants to Nelluru, the name of which he changed to Furruck-abad ; for, like all the Mussulmans of India, he was a mighty changer of old Pagan names.
  • Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, "A Journey From Madras Through The Countries Of Mysore, Canara, And Malabar Vol. 2" [1]

• [Kozhikode is] "one of the great ports of the district of Malabar" where "merchants of all parts of the world are found". [The king of this place,] "shaves his chin just as the Haidari Fakeers of Rome do... The greater part of the Muslim merchants of this place are so wealthy that one of them can purchase the whole freightage of such vessels put here and fit out others like them".
  • Ibn Battuta (1342–1347), Ibn Battuta, H. A. R. Gibb (1994). The Travels of Ibn Battuta A.D 1325-1354. IV. London.

• The devastation in Kozhikode was so comprehensive that it changed the character of the place forever.
  • S. Balakrishna, Seventy years of secularism. 2018.

• To show his ardent devotion and steadfast faith in Muhammaddan religion, Tipu Sultan found Kozhikode to be the most suitable place. It was because the Hindus of Malabar refused to reject the matriarchal system, polyandry and half-nakedness of women that the 'great reformer' Tipu Sultan tried to honour the entire population with Islam.
  • Lewis B. Boury quoted in LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.) in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)

• Accompanied by an army of 60,000, Tipu Sultan came to Kozhikode in 1788 and razed it to the ground. It is not possible even to describe the brutalities committed by that Islamic barbarian from Mysore.
  • The German missionary Guntest, quoted in: LATE P.C.N. RAJA, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE OF TIPU SULTAN (This is the English translation of the Malayalam article by P.C.N. Raja first published in Kesari Annual of 1964. The late Raja was a senior member of the Zamorin Royal Family.) in : Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993) (C.A. Parkhurst also noted that 'Almost the entire Kozhikode was razed to the ground.")

• Kozhikode was then a centre of Brahmins. There were around 7000 Namboodiri houses of which more than 2000 houses were destroyed by Tipu Sultan in Kozhikode alone. Sultan did not spare even children and women. Menfolk escaped to forests and neighbouring principalities. Mappilas increased many fold (due to forcible conversion).... "During the military regime of Tipu Sultan, Hindus were forcibly circumcised and converted to Muhammadan faith. As a result the number of Nairs and Brahmins declined substantially.
  • Elankulam Kunjan Pillai quoted in V.M. KORATH: THE SWORD OF TIPU SULTAN in Goel S.R. (Ed.) Tipu Sultan: Villain or hero? : an anthology. (1993).