Editing Calicut (section)

===Early Calicut in foreign accounts===
Accounts of the city and the conditions prevailing then can be gleaned from the chronicles of travellers who visited the port city.
[[File:Uru.jpg|left|thumbnail|''[[Uru (boat)|Uru]]'', a type of ship that was historically used for maritime trade, built at [[Beypore]], Kozhikode]]
[[Ibn Battuta]] (1342–1347), who visited six times, gives the earliest glimpses of life in the city. He describes Calicut as "one of the great ports of the district of Malabar" where "merchants of all parts of the world are found here". The king of this place, he says, "is an infidel, who shaves his chin just as the Haidari Fakeers of [[Sultanate of Rum|Room]] do... The greater part of the Muslim merchants of this place are so wealthy that one of them can purchase the whole freightage of such vessels put here and fit out others like them".<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Ibn Battuta]], H. A. R. Gibb |date=1994 |volume=IV |title=The Travels of Ibn Battuta A.D 1325-1354 |location=London }}</ref>

[[Ma Huan]] (1403), a Chinese sailor who was part of the Imperial Chinese fleet under Cheng Ho ([[Zheng He]])<ref>[[Ma Huan]]: Ying Yai Sheng Lan, ''The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores'', translated by J.V.G. Mills, 1970 [[Hakluyt Society]], reprint 1997 White Lotus Press. {{ISBN|974-8496-78-3}}</ref> lauds the city as a great emporium of trade frequented by merchants from around the world. He makes note of the 20 or 30 mosques built to cater to the religious needs of the Muslims, the unique system of calculation by the merchants using their fingers and toes (followed to this day) and the matrilineal system of succession.

[[Abdur Razzaq (traveller)|Abdur Razzak]] (1442–1443), the ambassador of Persian Emperor [[Shah Rukh]] found the city's harbour perfectly secured and notices precious articles from several maritime countries, especially from [[Ethiopian Empire|Abyssinia]], Zirbad and [[Zanzibar]].

The Italian [[Niccolò de' Conti]] (1445), one of the earliest known Christian travellers to document Calicut, describes the city as abounding in pepper, lac, ginger, a larger kind of cinnamon, myrobalans and zedoary. He calls it a noble emporium for all India, with a [[circumference]] of {{convert|13|km|mi|0|abbr=off}}.

The Russian traveller Athanasius Nikitin or [[Afanasy Nikitin]] (1468–1474) calls 'Calecut' a port for the whole Indian sea and describes it as having a "big bazaar."

Other travellers who visited Calicut include the Italian [[Ludovico di Varthema]]<ref>Varthema, Ludovico di, ''The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema, A.D.1503–08'', translated from the original 1510 Italian ed. by John Winter Jones, Hakluyt Society, London</ref> (1503–1508) and [[Duarte Barbosa]].<ref>Gangadharan. M., ''The Land of Malabar: The Book of Barbosa'' (2000), Vol II, M.G University, Kottayam.</ref>