Joseph Rabban

Who is Joseph Rabban?

Known as the "Syrian" Joseph Rabban was a Jewish merchant, possibly from Yemen, who came to the Malabar Coast in the mid-8th century. According to the traditions of the Cochin Jews, Joseph was granted the rank of prince over the Jews of Cochin by the Chera ruler Bhaskara Ravivarman II.

He was granted the rulership of a pocket principality referred to as Anjuvannam, near Cranganore, and rights to seventy-two "free houses". These rights were engraved on a set of bronze tablets known as the "Sâsanam", which are still held by the Jewish community of India. The date of the charter can be fixed at about 750. It cannot, for paleographical reasons, have been much earlier than this, nor later than 774, since a grant made to the Nestorian Assyrians at that time was copied from it.

Joseph's descendants continued to exercise dominion over the Jews of the Malabar coast until a conflict broke out between one of his descendants, Joseph Azar, and his brother in the 1340s. The ensuing strife led to intervention by neighboring potentates and the eradication of Jewish autonomy in southern India.