Arakkal Kingdom
| Sultanate of Laccadive and Cannanore | ||||||||||
| Arakkal Kingdom | ||||||||||
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| Capital | Kannur(Cannanore) | |||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | |||||||||
| History | ||||||||||
| • | Established | 1545 | ||||||||
| • | Annexed to British India | 1819 | ||||||||
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Arakkal kingdom (Kingdom of Cannanore, Sultanate of Laccadive and Cannanore) was a former city-state on the Malabar Coast, ruled by a dynasty of the same name. The ruling King was called Ali Raja ("the Sea Ruler") and the ruling queen was called Arakkal Beevi. Arakkal kingdom included little more than the Cannanore town and the southern Laccadive Islands (Agatti, Kavaratti, Androth and Kalpeni, as well as Minicoy), originally leased from the Kolattiri. The royal family is said to be originally a branch of the Kolattiri, descended from a princess of that family who converted to Islam. They owed allegiance to the Kolattiri rulers, whose ministers they had been at one time. The rulers followed the a particular law of inheritance general among the Hindus of Malabar under which the succession is always to the offspring of its female members only. As the only Muslim rulers in Malabar, they saw the rise of Hyder Ali as the opportunity to increase their own power at the expense of Chirakkal, and invited him to invade Malabar. Ali Raja Kunhi Amsa II and his successor, Arakkal Bibi Junumabe II, were among Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan's staunchest allies during the Mysore occupation.
The Bibi received no special treatment after the treaties of Srirangapatam, and settlement negotiations were long and difficult but she finally signed an agreement in 1796 that guaranteed continued possession of the city of Cannanore and the Laccadive Islands, but deprived her of any claim to sovereignty. Yet, as late as 1864, the Bibi of Cannanore was included in an official list of "native sovereigns and chiefs" as being entitled to a seven-gun salute, the only Malabar prince so listed. Because of the outbreak of the war with France shortly after the 1796 agreement, as well as other considerations, the Laccadive Islands remained unnoticed and the Bibi continued to rule them with no restrictions. The islands were misgoverned throughout the 19th century, and the British Government had to assume their administration at least twice, in 1854-1861, and again (permanently as it turned out) in 1875. In 1905, in exchange for the remission of overdue tribute, the payment of an annual pension to the head of the family, and the title of Sultan, the Ali Raja at last agreed to cede all rights, whether as sovereign or tenant, to the Laccadive Islands, including Minicoy, which the family claimed as their private property.
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