Nagore (also Nagur; modern Nagapattinam) is a town on the Coromandel coast of Southern India, celebrated in the Mohammedan world as the burial-place of the saint Shahul Hamid Qadir Wali (called in Acheh Tuan Meurasab or Meurasab). In The Achehnese Vol. I, Nagore appears as the destination of vows and offerings from Acheh, and as a node in the religious commerce that linked the Achehnese to the Mohammedans of the Deccan.
The Saint of Nagore and His Achehnese Cult
The 9th, 10th, and 11th days of the month Sha’bān are consecrated in Acheh to a saint whose tomb is to be found at Nagore on the Coromandel coast. “He has also many worshippers in Acheh, seemingly through the influence of those inhabitants of Southern India who introduced here the creed of Islam.” The saint is called in his own country Kadir Wall Sahib; the Achehnese name for him is Meuralisab or Meurasab. The 10th day of the sixth month is accepted as the anniversary of his death, and the kanduri held thereon is called kanduri to’ thon Tuan Meurasab, “the religious feast for the expiration of the year of Tuan Meurasab.”
Transmission of Votive Offerings
When a gift has been vowed to the Prophet, to the saint Mirah Sab or Meurasab (who lies buried at Nagore in British India), or even to Teungku Anjong (whose tomb is in Gampong Jawa), the vow may be fulfilled by handing over the thing promised to a teungku for distribution. Alternatively, “hands or pieces of gold thread (woven as thin as possible) are given to Kling traders journeying to Madras, who undertake their transmission to Nagore.” A footnote adds: “Penang Mohammedans have a superstition that articles of value vowed to this saint, if thrown into the sea at Penang, will be washed up in a few months’ time close to the shrine at Nagore” — a piece of folk geography that testifies to the saint’s reach across the Bay of Bengal.
Nagore and the Deccanese Channel of Islam
The cult of Tuan Meurasab is one of Snouck Hurgronje’s clearest pieces of evidence for the “Deccan form of Mohammedanism” that, in his view, exercised on the Islam of the Eastern Archipelago “an influence superior in force to that of any other agency.” The saint’s festival, the choice of days, and the manner of its observance in Acheh all point to Southern India rather than to Arabia as the immediate source. In this respect the cult of Nagore takes its place alongside the Achehnese names for the months of the Islamic year (such as Asan-Usen for Sha’bān) and the Achehnese form of the Hasan-Husain festival, as indexes of an Indian channel of transmission.
See Also
- Coromandel coast
- British India
- Madras
- Penang
- Teungku Anjong
- Gampong Jawa
- Kanduri to’ thon Tuan Meurasab
- Hasan-Husain festival
- Deccan
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.