Rander
Coordinates: 21°20′N 74°30′E / 21.333°N 74.500°E
Rander is a town in Surat district in the state of Gujarat, India, located on the bank of the Tapti River, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the city of Surat. It is also known as City of Mosques.
During the rule of Shanprat in AD 200 many Jain Temples were built around Rander. There was some historic belief that Rander was an important port of Western Hind. Business was also conducted with the Arabian heartlands, Egypt, Sudan and other western countries through the Rander Port.
The earliest recorded mention of Rander was in the year 1050 in the book "Kitab al Hind" by Al Biruni. By the late medieval period it had become an important port in western India, though smaller than ports such as Broach in Gujarat. Ships laden with spices, silk, benzoin and porcelain from as far as Sumatra and China docked in Rander. Nawayat Arabs, who settled in the area by 1225, were the main traders.
Shaikh Randeri (a.k.a. Shaikh Raneri) was famous for spreading the Islamic faith to Indonesia.
In 1514, the Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa wrote:
Ranel (Rander) is a good town of the Moors, built of very pretty houses and squares. It is a rich and agreeable place ...... the Moors of the town trade with Malacca, Bengal, Tawasery (Tannasserim), Pegu, Martaban, and Sumatra in all sort of spices, drugs, silks, musk, benzoin and porcelain. They possess very large and fine ships and those who wish Chinese articles will find them there very completely. The Moors of this place are white and well dressed and very rich they have pretty wives, and in the furniture of these houses have china vases of many kinds, kept in glass cupboards well arranged. Their women are not secluded like other Moors, but go about the city in the day time, attending to their business with their faces uncovered as in other parts.
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