Mappilappattu or Mappila songs- I

Mappila Paatt (Mappilappattu) or Mappila songs are the traditional songs sung by the Muslim community of north Kerala. 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 mixture.

The rhythm of these songs is a perfect blend of Arabic and Malayalam folk tunes. The metre of this is denoted by the term Isal. The themes for these songs are diverse- devotion, love, satire, heroism etc. are some among them. Traditionally, they were transferred from one generation to another orally.

Khasi Mohammed, Kunjayan Musaliyar and Moyinkutti Vaidyar are regarded to be the pioneers of t his unique musical branch.