text: The Knanayas ("Kna" people) are the descendants of 72 Syro-Aramaic Jewish families who migrated from Edessa (Now Şanlıurfa), Turkey) the first city state that embraced Christianity in the Roman Empire, previously from Jerusalem, Israel, Syria, to Malabar coast in AD 345, under the leadership of a prominent merchant Knai Thomman (Ar:قناي تامن Eng:Thomas the Zealot).