Back from Shingly

Revisiting the premodern history of Jews in Kerala

Bibliographic Data

ID8961419
AuthorsOphira Gamliel (0000-0002-1942-8870, University of Glasgow, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume55
Issue1
Pages53-76
Publication date2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Indian Economic & Social History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-4646 • E-ISSN: 0973-0893
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0019464617745926
OpenAlexW2793060609
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited25

Jewish history in Kerala is based on sources mainly from the colonial period onward and mostly in European languages, failing to account for the premodern history of Jews in Kerala. These early modern sources are based on oral traditions of Paradeśi Jews in Cochin, who view the majority of Kerala Jews as inferior. Consequently, the premodern history of Kerala Jews remains untold, despite the existence of premodern sources that undermine unsupported notions about the premodern history of Kerala Jews—a Jewish ‘ur-settlement’ called Shingly in Kodungallur and a centuries-old isolation from world Jewry. This article reconstructs Jewish history in premodern Kerala solely based on premodern travelogues and literature on the one hand and on historical documents in Old Malayalam, Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic on the other hand. Sources of the early modern period are then examined for tracing the origins of the Shingly myth, arguing that the incorporation of the Shingly legend into the historiography of Kerala Jews was affected by contacts with European Jews in the Age of Discoveries rather than being a reflection of historical events

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Colonialism · Genealogy · Hebrew · Historiography · Jewish history · Jewish studies · Judaism · Legend · Mythology · Period (music · African history and culture analysis · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Classics · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History

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