Ali Shan Sharafu smashes first century in the format in the country.
Dubai
Ali Shan Sharafu has a penchant for records, it seems and he seems to be making it a habit.
The 17-year-old, one of the UAE’s rising stars, smashed a century to set a new record in T10 cricket in the UAE.
Sharafu, who has represented the UAE at the Under-19 level and also the senior National team, conjured a ruthless 146 from just 42 deliveries, during which he hit 14 sixes and 11 boundaries.
The knock came about in the Ajman T10 Talent Hunt League at the Eden Garden Ajman while representing Pacific Goltay against Spartan.
And Sharafu, who played in the Under-19 World Cup held in South Africa this year, became the first centurion in the format in the UAE. He eclipsed big-hitting Australian Chris Lynn’s mark of 91 from just 30 balls, scoring for the Maratha Arabians against Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10 League last season.
Sharafu broke his own record in the Under-19 UAE Academy League last month. The Cricket School Of Excellence pupil had cracked 155 against Maxtalent Cricket Academy to put the 151 he had scored against Young Talents Cricket Academy in 2018, to shade.
“It feels really, really nice to have another record,” Sharafu told the Khaleej Times on Friday.
“I actually never imagined that someone could get to a 100 in T10 because the highest in the format was 91 by Chris Lynn. So, I thought that would be the maximum a batsman could get to,” he added.
Sharafu said that his approach to T10 was similar to other formats but added that the batsman had to be in attacking mode from the first ball.
“It was a challenge at the start. It is such a short format and you have to get going from ball one. I always try to be an aggressive batsman so there is nothing changing in the approach but it is just that you have less time to react in a T10 game than other formats,” felt Sharafu.
The Ajman T10 Talent Hunt League, held under the auspices of the Ajman Cricket Council, will see the top performers being referred to the Players Management Council of the Abu Dhabi T10 League. The League is scheduled to be held from January 28, 2021 to February 6.
And Sharafu is hoping for an opportunity to rub shoulders with international stars to aid his cricketing journey.
“It will be really exciting to get an opportunity and you will get to learn from them, just sharing a dressing room with such big names. This is the stepping stone and this is where I wanted to be at,” said Sharafu.
james@khaleejtimes.com
source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com / Khaleej Times / Home> Sports> Cricket / by James Jose / December 04th, 2020
Kanthapuram says most of Waqf properties in Kerala belonged to Sunnis, and most of them were donated to Waqf with the purpose of conducting prayers for the dead and for ‘dars’ in mosques
Kerala Muslim Jamaat (KMJ) president Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar has demanded that the government initiate a move to salvage the dispossessed Waqf properties in the State.
“As per the Waqf rules, a Waqf property can be used or managed only as per the will of the person who has bequeathed the property for Waqf. Many dispossessions and encroachments have taken place in violation of the Waqf rules,” said Mr. Kanthapuram, who also holds the title of the Grand Mufti of India.
He was inaugurating a State-level campaign by the Jamaat called ‘Vigil is the Strength’ in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
Mr. Kanthapuram said that most of the Waqf properties in the State belonged to Sunnis, and most of them were donated to Waqf with the purpose of conducting prayers for the dead and for ‘dars’ in mosques.
“Many such properties are now being used against their donors’ will. Many mosques and Waqf properties have been appropriated and encroached upon,” he said.
Pressure exerted
Although Sunnis used to bring the matter to the attention of the authorities, those in the Waqf Board were found to have been exerting pressure on the authorities to take biased decisions, he said, adding that “this cannot be allowed any longer.”
The Waqf Board and its ancillary systems should help retrieve the lost Waqf properties in the State, he said. “At the same time, the board should carry out programmes meant for the development of the Muslim community in the State,” he added.
Senior KMJ functionary Sayyid Thwaha Thangal presided over the function. Minister for Road Transport Antony Raju delivered the keynote address. N. Ali Abdullah presented the subject. Congress leader K.S. Sabarinathan, KMJ secretary A. Saifuddin Haji, Rahmatullah Saqafi, P.A. Mohammed Kunhu Saqafi and Devarshola Abdussalam Musliyar spoke.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Staff Reporter / Malappuram – December 15th, 2021
Forgotten amidst waves of bad news, including geopolitical conflicts, environmental disasters and the global pandemic, is the humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war that began in 2014 in the fabled country of Yemen. For several centuries, the southern Arab country was a bridge between Kerala and lands to the west such as West Asia, Africa and Europe.
It was enterprising merchants from modern-day Yemen who began to make use of the monsoon winds to come to Muziris. The word monsoon comes from the Arabic mawsim, which means season. These businessmen lived a pretty globalised lifestyle by splitting their time between the Malabar Coast and southern Arabia at a time when there were no identity cards, passports, visas or even a concept of a nation-state. Some of these Arabs chose to settle down in the Malabar Coast and marry local women.
In a paper for the Indian History Congress in 1976, noted historian S M Mohamed Koya was able to trace the origins of the Malabar Muslim community.
“Some of these Arabs may have come from Hijaz, Oman and Bahrain. However, they were chiefly businessmen from Yemen and Hadramaut and many .Mappila families, particularly those known as ‘tangal’ families trace their origin to this area,” Mohamed wrote.
Interestingly enough, at the time of their migration to India, these merchants probably spoke Hadramautic, a language that belongs to the Old South Arabian subgroup of Semitic. “A large number of Mappila families find their origin in the interior Hadramaut town of Tarim, a wealthy town dominated by Sayyids which was once the intellectual and religious centre of Hadramaut,” Mohamed, who was a professor at the University of Calicut for decades, added.
In the paper, Mohamed stressed the fact that the traders started coming to India well before the advent of Islam, but their presence and established relations with the people of Malabar helped spread the religion in Kerala. “As pre-Islamic traders, the Arabs provided a friendly situation that facilitated the introduction of Islam and as Muslims, they introduced the faith,” he wrote.
Ponnani’s Makhdum family
Ponnani, a historic town that was once a major trading port, is also linked to Yemen. The town, at the peak of its glory, was home to the revered Makhdum family of Islamic theologians. Under Zain-ud-Din Makhdum and his grandson Zain ud-Din Makhdum II, Ponnani became a major centre of Islamic studies and is believed to have attracted students from Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and Ceylon.
It was also in this coastal town that the Arabi Malayalam or Ponnani script was invented. Since only 28 letters of Arabic orthography were available for 53 phonemes of Malayalam, additional letters established for Persian were used for this script.
Several old Mappila folk songs and works of literature were written in the Ponnani script, which stayed popular among Kerala’s Muslim community until the middle of the 20th century.
It has been on the wane since Indian independence and is taught mainly in a few madrassas in northern Kerala and the Lakshadweep Islands. There is no clear evidence though that this script has a Yemeni connection, but it was the script of choice for the Makdhum theologians.
This brilliant article by Kozhikode-based journalist Nijeesh Narayanan provides insights into the script, which is now in serious peril.
Zain ud-Din Makhdum II’s Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen chronicles the struggles between the people of the Malabar Coast and the colonial Portuguese. The book, originally written in the Ponnani script, describes the fierce resistance put up by the Kunjali Marakkar’s navy along with the Zamorin of Calicut against the Portuguese.
Culinary and cultural impact
There is little doubt that Yemeni elements have given an extra layer of depth to Kerala cuisine. Meen Pathiri and Irachi Pathiri are the results of Malayali and southern Arabic cuisine coming together.
Another dish that found its way from Hadraumat in Yemen to Kerala is Mandi or the famous Malabar Biriyani. Interestingly enough, the Yemeni version of the dish is usually made with chicken or lamb, and not with beef. If the Yemenis did bring Saltah, their delectable stew and the national dish, to Kerala, it did not manage to survive in its original form in the state, although many Malabari families have their own variations with different names.
Professor Mohamed in his paper wrote about how the mingling of the Yemeni immigrants with Malayalis has enriched the society of Kerala. He wrote, “Culturally the Malayalis were as far removed from the Arabs as the high topical scenery of Kerala is removed from the austere landscape of Arabia. But once wedded, the offspring of that union, the Mappilas have remained loyal to both parents.”
Before Yemen slipped into its latest civil war, there was a small and vibrant Malayali community in the country. One can only hope that the geopolitical puppet masters that have brought so much misery to the country allow it to once again live in peace. It is only when peace returns to the country that its millennia-old links to Kerala can be traced and re-established.
(The writer is the author of ‘Globetrotting for Love and Other Stories from Sakhalin Island’ and ‘A Week in the Life of Svitlana’).
source: http://www.onmanorama.com / OnManorama / Home> Lifestyle> Column / by Ajay Kamalakaran / June 28th, 2021
