Joseph Rabban
Joseph Rabban was a prominent Jewish merchant-cum-aristocrat in the entrepôt of Kodungallur on the Malabar Coast, India in early 11th century CE.
According to the Jewish copper plates of Cochin, a charter issued by the Chera king at Kodungallur, Rabban was granted the rights of merchant guild anjuman/hanjamana along with several other trade rights and aristocratic privileges. He was exempted from all payments made by other settlers in the city of Muyirikkottu to the king. These rights and privileges were given perpetuity to all his descendants. Anjuman was a south Indian merchant guild organised by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic merchants from West Asian countries.
Rabban's descendants continued to have prominence over other Jews of the Malabar coast for centuries. A conflict broke out between descendants, Joseph Azar, and his brother in the 1340s.
Both "Black Jews" and the "White Jews" of Malabar claimed that they are the true inheritors of the old Jewish culture.
