Konkani Muslims of Maharastra

Konkani Muslim

Konkani / Kokani Muslims are a Muslim sub-ethnic group of Maharashtrian Muslims living in the Konkan region of India. They speak the Konkani language. A good number of them live in Mumbai. There is a large Konkani Muslim diaspora community of economic migrants working in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, the UK, the USA, South Africa and East Africa.

Muslims from the Maharashtrian districts of Raigad, Thane, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg as well as from the state of Goa are generally regarded as Konkani Muslims. The Muslims of Southern Raigad and Ratnagiri district speaks Bankoti/Sangameshwari, while those from southern Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Goa speak the Konkani language. Muslim people of south Sindhudurg near Malvan and the former Maratha princely states of Sawantwadi and Oros speak a dialect of Konkani called Málvani language. 

Karwari Konkani Muslims of Bhatkal, Honnavar, Kumta, Siddapursituated at the southern border of Konkan in North Kanara district of Karnataka  are known as Nawayaths

The Nawayath (also spelled as Naiti, Navayath and Nawayat) 

The main food of Konkni Muslims is non-vegetarian, mostly seafood. Its staple food is rice and bread made of rice (preferred at dinners) with fish and lentils or vegetables.

Konkani Muslims follow the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islamic law. This is in contrast to the rest of North India and Deccan regions whose Sunni Muslims adhere to the Hanafi school 

A small number of Konkani Muslims are also settled in the city of Karachi in Pakistan, particularly in the Kokan Cooperative Housing Society in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town.