Southern Indian state of Kerala deserves a special significance in the cultural history of Indian Peninsula as it functioned as the first hub for almost all world religions. With the support of the royal command forwarded by Cheraman Perumal, the first Indian to embrace Islam, the religion successfully established good base in the region and this heritage is being preserved up to this period. The Muslims in Kerala are set apart from other parts of India for their religious literacy and special commitment for the religious cause. Even though the large chunk of Indian Muslims are following the Ḥanafī School of Islamic law, Kerala Muslims adopted Shāfi‘ī and the arrival of Islam straight from Arabia in contrast to distances it covered to reach Northern India is believed as historical reason behind such development.
Makhdūm family reanimated the academic and intellectual heritage of the Kerala, which suffered stagnation in the period followed by immediate demise of Malik Dīnar and the return of his aides to their home land. The family lineage of Makhdūm family goes to Yemen as per the authentic view and their forefathers landed Ma’bar province of Tamil Nadu and reached Kerala by fifteenth century. The Makhdūm period, which dates back to 1500AC, became golden time for the Shāfi‘ī heritage in Kerala as Ponnani Mosque, established by senior members from the family, was hailed to the religious centre of Shāfi‘ī School of Islamic law in Southern Asia. The period witnessed the evolution of the mosque to the international university, where students from the distant corner were enrolled for the higher studies. Many priceless oeuvres were done in this field during the period and Fatḥ al-Mu‘īn is deemed as unique contribution of this period.
The religious spark, once ignited by Makhdūm family, functioned as the watershed in the Fiqh heritage of the region as well as morale booster for the successors. The post-Makhdūm period gave birth for innumerable prodigies in the very field and also witnessed the current of valuable texts. Only few of them were introduced before the academic world and large of them yet to get the deserved fame. By this conference, the organizers prime priority is to find out detailed description about each scholars. Large chunk of these texts are un-published and this conference targets to produce academic review on them.
The establishment of institutions gave momentum for the heritage especially after the gradual decline of Palli Darse (mosque based religious institution) in the wake of post-independence social context. Even though the birth of religious organizations was confined for some specific goals, this element later developed into an integral part of the Fiqh history as each of these organizations maintained a special wing for the Fiqh issues.
Objective of the conference
The conference targets to make intellectual journey tracing this religious saga by accumulating academic works on theme of “Fiqh Heritage in Kerala”.
The focused area
International Conference on the Fiqh Heritage of Kerala affords a good platform to deliver intellectual discourses related to the Fiqh heritage of the region. The organizers call abstract as well as panels which closely related to the main theme and the following area (but not restricted) are encouraged more:
 Major Islamic legal handbooks written by Kerala scholars
 Manuscripts (Published and un-published)
 The review of famous Fiqh debates in the region
 Collection of Fatwa
 Biographies of prominent scholars
 History (pre and post-Makhdūm period)
 Impact of Kerala environment in classical text
 The role of religious sects in the Fiqh heritage
 Major institutions and religious center in the region
 The origin and growth of School of Islamic law in the region
 The historical reasons of entrenchment of Shāfi‘ī school in Kerala
 The Heritage of Qāḍi families and their roles in the development of Fiqh
 Fatḥ al-Mu’īn; Its development, role and impact
Language
 English
 Arabic

Submission
To present the papers, the aspirants are requested to send an abstract (200-500 words) along with a short CV (1 page) to fiqhheritagekl@gmail.com, by 1 February, 2015. After peer review by organizing panel, the notification of the accepted abstracts would be forwarded by February 5 and the full paper must reach organizers March, 15. Full paper must be within the following rules.

Guidelines of Full paper
 The work should be unpublished one.
 The format of the work should be with Times Roman Font (12) and double space.
 The transliteration should be done in Arabic words.
 The bibliography must be set in APA format.
 The work must be confined to 15-20 pages.
 The work done in Arabic should be in Traditional Arabic Font (18) and double space.

Publication and Award
The best paper done by student or research scholar would be selected for the special Makhdūm Memorial award and cash prize. The travel expense of the award winner would be met by organizers and the selected paper would be published in academic journal publishing by Department of Fiqh and Uṣūl al-Fiqh of Darul Huda Islamic University.

Travel and Accommodation
The selected persons are requested to meet their travel expense (from and to the Kerala) by themselves. The organizers are ready to afford accommodation and food during period of the conference.
Important dates
Abstract February 1, 2015
Notification of Acceptance February 5, 2015
Full Paper March 15, 2015
Conference April 12*, 2015 (Tentative)

Registration Fee
For Students (both undergraduate and postgraduate): INR- 200
For others: INR-300
Patron
Jafar al-Hudawi
Head of Department
(Fiqh and Uṣūl al-Fiqh)
Email: jafarkolathur@gmail.com

Email: fiqhheritagekl@gmail.com
Mobile: +91-808