ABSTRACT

The western coasts of India were known to the Persian and Arab geographers as Malabār, Malībār or Mīlībār from at least the early days of Muslim maritime trade, and the name was later adopted by the Europeans. The various spellings of the name may indicate the pronunciation current in different parts of the Islamic world, rather than scribal error, and according to Richard Burton: 1

The word is of Sanskrit origin, derived from malya (a mountain generally, but particularly the ranges called by us the Western Ghauts), and var (a multitude). The Persian word bar, used in compounds, as Zang-bar, the region of blacks, or Zanguebar, is probably a corruption of the said var. Thus the original Sanskrit term malaya-desha, the mountain land, become in Persian and Arabic Malbar or Malibar, and hence our Malabar.