Literally the word Mappila refers to the Muslim community of north Kerala and Pattu means songs. The Mappilappattu is hence a song sung by this community during their religious celebrations as well as on other occasions.

Passed down generations through an oral tradition, the earliest Mappilappattu can be traced back to 700 years ago. The effort to record them however, is a recent one. Thanks to the works of T . Ubaid (1908 - 1972), a famous poet and social reformer, who successfully recorded many Mappilappattu.

Many of the Mappilappattu capture in them the beauty of fantasy apart from a reflection of ardent religious faith. Events from history are another common theme.

The songs use words and phrases borrowed from other languages like Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit and Kannada, though they are basically sung in an Arabic-Malayalam language. Sometimes a single sentence is composed of words taken from more than three or four languages.

For centuries these songs were the sole property of the Muslims as the Arabic language was not familiar to non-Muslims. Now-a-days, however, the Mappilappattu is an inevitable part of most music concerts and cultural extravaganzas held in the State.

Music consultant:
Dr. K. Omanakutty, Department of Music, University of Kerala.