Medieval Nazrani Lifestyle



The above picture helps us to understand about the culture, clothing and life style of Nazranis of 10 - 14th C.

This picture is from a manuscript at the Casanatense Library in Italy. The narration on it which is in old Portuguese reads - "Malabar Christians, developed by the well ventured Saint Thomas". It is known as the ‘Portuguese Codice’ and is from a collection of manuscripts donated by Cardinal Casanata ( 1620 A.D. -1698 A.D.) to an Italian Public library which was to be run by Dominican monks.

This codice contains many images of various people found in different parts of the world. This codice is believed to be of 14th C.

The author of this codice is unknown. The image shows a man and a woman, in all probability a couple, standing in a field of flowers, the lady holding a flower in her hand with a Cross in the foreground.

This picture is a clear evidence to the fact that between 10th and 14th C, Nazranis had a culture and life style exactly same as that of Europeans of that days.