Marakkar

Maraicar or Maraicayar, Marakayar, Maraicar (மரைக்காயர்) maraikalam(wooden boat)+rayar(king) or Moor is a distinctive Tamil and Malayalam-speaking Muslim people of the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in India and sri lanka. Let us first look at the name Marakkar. Note that this is different from Marakkayar though we will observe the connections after a while (Marikkar & Maricar are other spellings used in history books). 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.