Sreelatha Menon/Kannur
Cheraman Perumal Juma Masjid, the oldest mosque built in India, stands as an unassuming monument. Built in the typical Kerala architecture by the Arabian Sea in the ancient port town of Muziris now called Kodungallore, the mosque dating back to 630 AD is currently under renovation. It is the same mosque whose replica in gold was gifted recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Saudi King Mohammad bin Salman (MBS).
The mosque is now visible in its original form as all the extensions added in the past centuries have been removed as part of the ongoing renovation of the mosque named after its founder one of the last rulers of the Chera kings of Kerala. However, the renovation work that started during the COVID-19 epidemic has come to a grinding halt due to a fund crunch.
The Hindu king Cheraman Perumal is said to have commissioned its construction in 630 AD in the lifetime of the Prophet. However, the king did not live to see the mosque.
PM Narendra Modi with Saudi Arabia leaders; gold plated replica of Cherman mosque that he gifted to MBS (Right)
He was a Hindu king and so were his successors mainly because there were no Muslims yet in Kerala or India, for that matter.
Muziris was always a hub of travellers from different parts of the world who came for spices. So, some Arabs arrived to meet Perumal, and when the King spoke to them about his dream, they said that the king’s vision was connected to a miracle performed by the Prophet in Arabia around the same time.
The Arabs told him that someone had challenged the Prophet to split and rejoin the moon to prove that he was an emissary of God. It is said that the moon split in two at that moment and rejoined again.
Model of the proposed canopy for the Mosque
Travellers told Peruman that he had seen the same phenomenon in his dream. The king wanted to meet the Prophet and sailed to Arabia.
It is said that he met the Prophet and later accepted Islam and stayed there for some time. On his way back, he fell ill and died in Salala. He left letters for his relatives asking them to receive the men carrying his letters and to build a mosque in his kingdom.
The Cheraman mosque is said to have been built by the king’s descendants and the Arab friends of Cheraman.
Islamic Museum Cheraman Mosque
The mosque stands to this day, just two kilometers from one of the most powerful Kali shrines in the country called the Kodungallore Bhagawati temple, and was set up by the same Cheraman Perumal who commissioned the mosque!
Five kilometers from the mosque complex stands the church built to commemorate the visit of St Thomas to India in 50 AD. It is probably the first church built in India.
The mosque in Muziris or Kodungallore today stands in the exact shape of the original mosque. Earlier many extensions had been added to the mosque. However, in the ongoing renovation, all the external changes added in previous renovations have been removed and the original structure is now visible.
According to the former secretary of the Cheraman mosque committee C.Y. Salim, the renovation has come to a standstill as funds have dried up. The mosque built originally could not contain many worshippers. In earlier renovations, extensions had come up over and around the Juma masjid concealing the original structure. These increased the capacity of the mosque to 3500.
"We need an infusion of about Rs 1.5 crore to do this’’, says Salim.
The renovation of the historic structure has cost about 9 crores so far and the funds have mostly come through donations. Over half the funds have come from billionaire businessman and Middle East retail king Yusuff Ali who hails from Kerala and presides over the Lulu mall chain in the Gulf and outside, says Salim.
Yusuf Ali, CEO of Lullu Mall
Underlining the secular past of the mosque, Salim recalls the visit of former President the late Abdul Kalam came to the mosque in 2007. He was received by the local community and the then successor of the erstwhile royal family of Kodungallore.
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Earlier under the heritage project for Muziris the Kerala Government had planned a heritage museum along the mosque. Now it is coming up at another location in the historic town, he said.
