The great traveller Ibn Battuta, often referred to as the Arab Marco Polo, visited Kozhikode (then Calicut) at least six times between 1342 and 1347. He was enormously impressed by the wealth of its Muslim merchants: [Any] one of them, he wrote, can purchase the whole freightage of such vessels that put in here. That was nearly seven centuries ago, when Calicut was at the peak of its fame as a mighty seaport. Arabs and Chinese met here in medieval trade, exchanging spices, coir and timber. In 1498, Vasco da Gama too landed here at Kappad Beach, heralding the advent of Portuguese colonisation in India. A small stone monument at Kappad commemorates his landing, but the beach hasn't quite been developed into the major tourist destination one might expect. Though Kozhikode is still the most important city in northern Malabar, don't expect to see the bustle of trade that brought adventurers like Vasco here.
There is, however, much to see and do in this city of friendly folk. As for its name, it derives from the words koyil (palace) and kotta (fort). The city was once surrounded by the fort built by the Zamorin, the ruler of Calicut, who encouraged trade with Arab traders by giving special concessions. Though the locals called it Kozhikode, for the Arabs it was Kalikat; for the Chinese, Kalifo; and for Europeans, Calicut. The British then immortalised the name by calling the locally produced cloth calico.