Marakkar

Maraicayar, Maraicar (மரைக்காயர்) refer to a distinctive Tamil and Malayalam-speaking Muslim people of the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in India and Sri Lanka. The word Maraicayar originates from the combinations of tamil words, maraikalam(wooden boat)+rayar(king). Moor is According to many other historians, Moppila or Moplah is Maha Pillai (great son) and Marakkar means (Marakkalam is a wooden boat) ‘boatmen’. Thurston in his Tribes of S India, states the following - The word Marakkar is usually derived from the Arabic ‘Markab’, a boat. The story goes that, when the first immigrants of this class (they were apparently driven from their own country by persecutions) landed on the Indian shores, they were naturally asked who they were, and where they came from. In answer they pointed to their boats, and pronounced the word Markab, and they became in consequence Marakkars, or the people of Markab. KVK Iyer says in his history of Kerala that Marakkar was a prized title given by the Zamorin of Calicut. Derived from Marakka Rayar it signifies the captain of a ship Rayar (Captain) of Marakkalam (ship)