Malik, son of Dinar

Malik Dinar was a Muslim scholar and traveller. He was one of the first known Muslims to have come to India in order to teach Islam in the Indian subcontinent after the departure of King Cheraman Perumal. Even though historians have disagreed on the exact place of his death, it is widely accepted that he died at Kasaragod and that his "relics" were buried at the Malik Dinar Mosque in Thalangara, Kasaragod. This has no definite proof and has been debunked multiple times as Islamic Scholars have widely disagreed on this notion. Belonging to the generation of the tabi'i, Malik is called a reliable traditionalist in Sunni sources. He was the son of a slave from Kabul who became a disciple of Hasan al-Basri. He died just before the epidemic of plague which caused considerable ravages in Basra in 748-49 CE, with various traditions placing his death either at 744-45 or 747-48 CE.