ABSTRACT
Bartholomeus Ziegenbalg was a Protestant European educated at a German university at the end of the seventeenth century, and he was interested in the religions of the world. Ziegenbalg began by explaining to the Europeans at home that all the people of the world are divided into four main religions. There are Jews, Christians, 'Mahometans', and heathens. The 'Mahometans' are a larger people; occupying almost three-quarters of the world, they are found everywhere. Among Europeans, the word 'Moor' had negative connotations, including dark skin, although by Ziegenbalg's time, Europeans knew there also were 'white Moors'. When, in 1709, Ziegenbalg described the Muslims in the colony as 'yellow' in pigmentation, he probably meant the Maraik kayar elite who claimed descent from Arab settlers and regarded the Labbais as 'mere converts'. The Labbais, who lived on the fringes of Tranquebar town's Muslim society, may have appeared to him as indistinguishable from the 'dark brown' Malabarians.
