When we analyze the historical records, we find that in the pre-Islamic period, the ancient Arabian poet Umrul Qais (before the advent of Islam), has mentioned the relationship between Pepper, Kerala and Arabia in his poem. He has compared the bird droppings found on the courtyard of his lover to the pepper in Kerala.
The Greek and Roman medical record of those days has described pepper as the Indian Medicine. Arabs referred Kerala as the land of pepper. The word Malabar, used by Arabs, is partially a Persian word. The coins found at archaeological sites of Southern Kerala indicate that trade relations existed between Kerala and Rome, Egypt and China before Christ.
Swami Dayananda is if the opinion that Arabic scholars were present even during the era of Mahabharata. ‘In Mahabharata, when Kauravs plotted to kill Pandavs by burning them, Vidhuran informed Yudhishtar in Arabic language. Yudhishtar responded in the same language.’ At the time of King Solomon, gold used to be exported from a port called Ophir. A large section of historians say that Ophir was the same as Bepur at Calicut. Others say that Ophir was Poothar at Trivandrum. It was with the help of Ahmed bin Majid, a naval expert of Ras Al Khaimah, that Vasco Da Gama reached India. ( This has been proved wrong by Dr. Sheikh Sultan : Who guided Vasco Da Gama to India ? Not an An Arab !) The remains of Failaka Island at Kuwait reveal interesting facts about the Indo Arab relations. The artifacts discovered in 1958 by the Qanih archaeological team of the utensils, furniture etc were similar to those found at Calicut. This shows that there was a cordial trade and cultural relations between India and Arabia for more than 2000 years.
