Tamil Muslims are Tamils who practise Islam. The community is 6 million in India, primarily in the state of Tamil Nadu where 90% of the Muslim community identified themselves as Tamils. In Tamil Nadu, the majority of Tamil-speaking Muslims belong to the Rowthers Community while other Muslims live in coastal Tamil Nadu. There is a substantial diaspora, particularly in Southeast Asia, which has seen their presence as early as the 13th century. In the late 20th century, the diaspora expanded to Western Europe, Persian Gulf and North America. These Tamil speaking Muslim communities in Sri Lanka were known as the Sonakar, which is derived from the term Yona, originally meaning a Moors.
Tamil Muslims of Madras Presidency in 1830
A typical minaret of a mosque in Tamil Nadu as seen here of Erwadi in Ramanathapuram District
Tamil Bell with its inscription and translation
Henna on a saree-clad bride's hands, Tamil Nadu, India.
The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar, Tamilians, or simply Tamils, are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, to the union territory of Puducherry, and to Sri Lanka. The Tamil language is one of the world's longest-surviving classical languages, with over 2000 years of Tamil literature, including the Sangam poems, which were composed between 300 BCE and 300 CE. People who speak Tamil as their mother tongue and are born in Tamil clans are considered Tamils.
Tamil bride and groom performing the ritual of metti anidal
Grey pottery with engravings, Arikamedu, 1st century CE
Megalithic sarcophagus burial from Tamil Nadu
Virampatnam jewelry from funerary burial, 2nd century BCE, Tamil Nadu