Arakkal Museum

The Arrakkal Museum is a museum dedicated to the Arakkal family, the only Muslim royal family in Kerala, south India. The museum is actually a section of the Arakkalkettu (Arakkal Palace). The durbar hall section of the palace has been converted into a museum by the Government of Kerala.
Arakkal kingdom (Kingdom of Cannanore, Sultanate of Lakshadweep and Cannanore) was a former city-state on the Malabar Coast, ruled by dynasty of the same name. The ruling King was called Ali Raja ("the Sea Ruler") and the ruling queen was called Arakkal Beevi.[1] Arakkal kingdom included little more than the Cannanore town and the southern Laccadive Islands (Agatti, Kavaratti, Androth, Kalpeni and Minicoy), originally leased from the Kolattiri. The royal family is said to be originally a branch of the Kolattiri, descended from a princess of that family who converted to Islam. They owed allegiance to the Kolattiri rulers, whose ministers they had been at one time. The rulers followed the a particular law of inheritance general among the Hindus of Malabar under which the succession is always to the offspring of its female members only. As the only Muslim rulers in Malabar, they saw the rise of Hyder Ali as the opportunity to increase their own power at the expense of Chirakkal, and invited him to invade Malabar.Ali Raja Kunhi Amsa II and his successor, Arakkal Bibi Junumabe II, were among Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan's staunchest allies during the Mysore occupation.[citation needed]
The palace complex called Kettu is an interconnected long block around a large open ground used for offering prayers or namaz. There are warehouse facilities and trade related buildings around the palace. The palace is built predominantly of laterite and wood exhibiting traits of local architecture, yet retaining an identity of its own. The independent units in the Arrakkal Palace are situated around courtyards. One of these blocks is considered sacred and houses a cot and a seating chair, within which a lamp is always kept lit. One can also find four mosques around the main palace block.
Structurally, the upper floor of the palace has large halls with wooden floors. Windows of the palace are mostly double shuttered and have colored glass panes of red or blue, providing colorful display of light inside. The roof construction involves wooden rafter, purlin, reaper and tiles system. Rafters comprise wood and bamboo tied to the purlin and reapers. The two-layered roof tile is fish tiles and Mangalore tiles.