Rowther or Ravuthar or Rawthar or Rawther is a distinctive Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic community from the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

. Together with the Kayalar, Lebbai and Maraikayar communities, they constitute the multi-ethnic Tamil Muslim

Tamil Muslim

Tamil Muslim refers to those Muslims who have Tamil as their mother tongue. There are around 500,000 in Malaysia which is 2.6% of the total population of Malaysia and 20,000 in Singapore.Tamil Muslims are largely urban traders rather than farmers...

, an Islamic community spread across South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

 and South East Asia. Rowthers follow the Hanafi

Hanafi

The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...

 school of Fiqh

Fiqh

Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....

. Tamil Muslim castes like Rowther, Labbayi, Kannu etc are collectively called as Thulukkar

Thulukkar

Thulukkar are the Muslim population in south and central Kerala who speak Tamil as their mother tongue. They are supposed to have migrated from Tamil Nadu to various parts of Kerala through the Western Ghats. Many members of Thulukkar community have migrated to Pakistan after independence have...

in Central and South Kerala as well as in Tamil Nadu.

After the fall of Chola Dynasty, the newly formed Vijayanagara Empire invited the Seljuk Turks from Ottoman Empire from the Fractions of Hanafi (Known as Rowther in South India) for trade link in 1279 AD, then biggest armada of Turks traders and missionaries settled in Tharangambadi (Nagapattinam), Karaikal, Muthupet, Koothanallur and Podakkudi. Turks (Rowthers) were unable to convert Hindus in Tanjore regions. The Turks settled in this area's with their armada and expanded to a moderate size of Islam community with population of almost 1 million Rowthers. These new settlements were now added to the Rowther community. Hanafi franctions having fair complexions because they were more closely connected with the Turkish than others in South. There are some Turkish Anatolian and Turkish Safavid Inscriptions found in wide area from Tanjore to Thiruvarur and in many villages, inscriptions seized by Madras Museum and available for public viewing. You may contact Archeologic Division [II] at Madras Museum, for viewing and further research