Moplah

Moplah (Mapillah), low-caste communities, at Calicut and other districts, especially on the Malabar Coast, India, are generally of a ruddy black colour, with black, wavy hair and of Malayalim (Dravidian) speech; they appear to be halfbreeds sprung from Arab immigrants, who intermarried with the Tiyars. The same term (Moplay) is applied to the natives of the Laccadive Islands, apparently of mixed Nair and Arab descent - Nairs by tradition, Mohammedans by religion, and of Malayalim speech.