Joseph Rabban

Joseph Rabban (old Malayalam:[1] Issuppu Irappan, also Yusuf/Oueseph Rabban) was a prominent Jewish merchant-cum-aristocrat in the entrepôt of Kodungallur (Muyirikkottu) on the Malabar Coast, India in early 11th century CE.[2]

Jewish copper plates (c. 1000 CE)

According to the Jewish copper plates of Cochin (c. 1000 CE), a charter issued by the Chera king at Kodungallur, Rabban was granted the rights of merchant guild anjuman/hanjamana along with several other trade rights and aristocratic privileges. He was exempted from all payments made by other settlers in the city of Muyirikkottu to the king (at the same time extending to him all the rights of the other settlers). These rights and privileges were given perpetuity to all his descendants.[3] Anjuman was a south Indian merchant guild organised by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic merchants from West Asian countries.[4]

Rabban's descendants continued to have prominence over other Jews of the Malabar coast for centuries. A conflict broke out between descendants, Joseph Azar, and his brother in the 1340s.[5][6]

Both "Black Jews" and the "White Jews" (the Spanish Jews) of Malabar claimed that they are the true inheritors of the old Jewish culture.[7]

References
  1. Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy: Political and Social Conditions of Kerala Under the Cēra Perumāḷs of Makōtai (c. AD 800 - AD 1124). Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 451-52.
  2. MGS Narayanan. Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala: The Jewish Copper Plates of Cochin. Kerala Historical Society, Trivandrum. pp 79-82.
  3. Burnell, The Indian Antiquary, iii. 333-334
  4. Noburu Karashmia (ed.), A Concise History of South India: Issues and Interpretations. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. 136, 144.
  5. Nathan Katz (2000), Who Are the Jews of India?, p. 15, "Joseph Azar was the last in the line of Joseph Rabban"
  6. Sidney Mendelssohn (1920), The Jews of Asia, p. 109
  7. G.S., M. “Further Studies in the Jewish Copper Plates of Cochin.” Indian Historical Review, vol. 29, no. 1–2, Jan. 2002, pp. 66–76, doi:10.1177/037698360202900204.
  • Blady, Ken. Jewish Communities in Exotic Places. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc., 2000. pp. 115–130.
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