The Sri Lankan Moors, Sona Tamil and changing language attitudes (1)

The origin and the early speech of the moors

The Sri Lankans moors (Sonahar) are generally believed to comprise the descendants of Arabian merchants and settlers who arrived in the country at various periods, and especially during the medieval period, to form considerable settlements in various parts of the country, especially in the western coastal areas.

Although originally Arab speaking the community is later believed to have abandoned their Semitic speech for Tamil, the lingua franca of commerce in the region during the late medieval period. The Sri Lankan moors generally today speak a variant form of Tamil, a dialect peculiar to themselves derogatorily reffered to as ‘Sona Tamil’ by conservative Tamil folk. Arabic is today employed by the Muslims of the Country (Moors as well as others) only as their liturgical language.

Abdul Azeez thesis disproved P.Ramanthan’s assertion [A criticism of Mr. Ramanthan’s Ethnology of the ‘Moors’ of Ceylon’ (1907)] that the moors were Tamils by race on the basis of their spoken language. Azeez’s arguments were largely based on Moorish oral tradition, epigraphic evidence and the etymology of the term Sonahar.

According to the Mahãwaṁsa, King Pandukãbhaya (C.4th -3th century B.C) had quarter named Yonasabhãga-vatthu (lit. ground set apart for the Yonas) located on the side of western gate of Anurãdhapura. There has been some dispute as to who these Yona were, it being generally assumed that they were Greeks, especially as the term suggests a close similarity with the greek lonia. We know however that the Prakritic Yona is cognate with, or derived from the Sanskritic Yavana. This based largely on literary evidence , showing that originaly the Yavana of the Sanskrit writers was the name of a country and of its people to the west of Kandahãr (Arabia, Persia, Medea or Assyria) subsequently becoming the appellation for all castelles races to the west of the Indus, including the Arabs and the Asiatic Greeks. Absolutely there is no evidence to indicate that it was at any one time the exclusive name of the Greeks. Besides, Mitra has shown that the term Yona occurring in the Asokan edicts of C.3rd century B.C. would have denoted Syria and the countries to the east of it as far as Afghanistan, but neither Greece no Egypt.

Although in the 4th century B.C. the term Yona was applied to Greek, from the second century A.C., it was used to denote all foreigners who hailed from the west, as well as the Arabs. Here noted that the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien who visited Sri Lanka has alluded to the houses of Sabaean (i.e. Arabian) merchants in Anurãdhpura being beautifully adorned, suggesting that the Yonas of the MV were non other than Arab merchants or settlers.[Wilhelm Geiger, Culture of Ceylon in Medieval times, Ed. Heinz bechert (1960)]

E.B. Denham has noted the existence of a Muslim colony at Hambantota who gave their race as ‘Arabs’. Denham notes that they claimed to be the descendents of two clerics who came to Ceylon from Baghdad “one about 150 years, the other about 60 years ago. [Ceylon at the Census of 1911(1912)]

The appellations given to the moors by themselves as well as by others also indicate their Arab origin. The moors have traditionally referred to themselves as Sonahar in their peculiar patois of Tamil, the pure Tamil from which, Sonagar, refers to a native of Arabia (Sōnagam). [J.P.Rottler’s Tamil English Dictionary.Pt.I(1834)]

However, the Sinhala term for the moors Yon is related to the Sanskriitic Yavana snd Prakritic Yona used by the Indians to denote foreign peoples, especially the Arabs, Greeks and those who belonged to the vast Graeco- Bactrian region between Greece and India following Alexander’s Asian conquests in the fourth century B.C. in Sinhala anyhow, the term Yon appears to have been associated with the Arabs and Moors. Queyroz (1687) has noted that the Sinahlese generally called the Moors lona. That the term is closely ceonnected with the Arabs is suggested by the Sinhala term for the ‘Date Palm’ yon-iňdi .also Cf.the place names Yon-vīdiya ‘Moors Street’ and Yon-gala ‘Moor rock.

Physical anthropological evidence may also cited in this connection. The Kovul Sandeśaya (15th century) refers to Yon liya (Arab or Moor women) of golden hue (ranvan) at a village called Mahaväligama (probably väligama in the south which to this day is a thriving Muslim settlements) with its thriving bazzar full of traders, suggesting that these Yon were a relatively fair complexioned folk, much like the true Arabs. According to the physical anthropology (1961), the skin colour of the moors approximates that of the Sinhalese, which would suggest that they have derived from a somewhat fair skinned race.

We can not to say that Dravidian racial element is altogether absent among the moors, for there is reason to believe that at least certain sections of those today catogrised moor have had a considerable infusion of Dravidian blood. Dravidian blood appears to be especially pronounced in the case of the Mukkuvars, Immigrant Sea fishermen from south India who having settled in the costal areas of the island embraced islam, renouncing the hiduism of their ancestors. Tthese folk, though today generally regarded as Moors (at least in an ethnical or categorical sense) have continued to follow typically Dravidian social practices such as matrilinean descent.[see The “Kudi” Maraikayars of batticaloa south.M.Z.Mohhideen.MICHS.1944-56]

As noted by Edgar Thurstan, the Mukkuvans are the sea fishermen of the Malabar cost. A few coast or south Indian Moors known as Cammānkārar (Sinh.hamban-kārayo) who comprise such Dravidian speaking groups as the Mapillais of Kerala and the Lebbais of the Tamil country (mainly Madura and Tanjore) also appears to have been merged into the Moorish community ,facilitated largely by a common religion. These folk, though largely of Dravidian extraction, also appears to have had an admixture of Arab blood (this is borne out by the early tombos or head registers maintained by the Dutch government in Srilanka).[Castes and Tribes of Southern India.Vol.V(1909)]

Likewise, marriage with sihalese women who have embraced the Islamic faith has also been commonplace, especially in the south. Amongst the moors in Colombo and galle at the present day there must be fairly considerable infusion of Sinhalese blood; the number of Sinhalese women married to or living with moors is fairly large (Denham.1912). indeed, relations between Moor and Sinhalese has generally been of a very intimate and cordial nature. The fact that the Arab ancestors of the Akurana Moors and the Gopala family were allowed to marry Sinhalese women would indicate that they were not subject to the rigid Sinhalese caste rules governing intermarriage.

To this day. Many up country Moor family bear typical Kandyan patronymic ge names like Gal-gedera, Muhandiramalā-gedara, Yahakugamhalā-gedara and Vedarālalāgē-gedara which may be the patronymics borne by their Sinhalese ancestresses. in fact, the moors of the Sinhalese areas have tended to bear a striking resemblance tto the Sinhalese amongst whom they live, which may also indicate some admixture of Sinhalese blood since at least the Dam̌ badeniya or Kandy period. Cordiner (1807) a observer of people who spent five years in the country (1799-1804) could hardly distinguish a Moor from a Sinhalese, referring to the country’s Muslims as “the Cingalese who profess the religion of Mahomet”. Anther authority, Davy (1821) says of the Moors; “In dress, appearance, and manners, they differ but little from the Sinhalese”.

However, the discussion will not be completed till we delve a bit into the origin of the Arabs whose descendants as we have shown above, comprise the core of the Sri Lankan Moor or Sonahar community. Although it is generally assumed that all Arabs are descendant from Ishmael (Ar.Ismāil), the Son of Prophet Abrahams (Ar.Ibrāhīm) and lady Hagar (Ar.Hājar) , it is more likely, as born out by Arab genealogical tradition, that it is only a portion of them,viz. the Nothern Arabs, found largely in the Hijāz and Najd who are descended from this personage. The southern Arabs seem to derive from an altogether different lineage.

Arabean geneology has traditionally categorised the Arabs into two distinct groups, viz. the Arabbian Arabs (Aribah) and Arabicised Arabs (Musta’ribah). The former are said to constitute the early or aboriginal Arab stock and held to be Yamnites descended from Qahtān (the biblical Joktan), while the latter who comprise the Hijāzis, Najdis, Nabataeans and Palmyrenes are held to be ‘naturalised’ Arabs descended from Ismael.[ history of the Arabs. Philip Hitti (1953)]