The origin and the identity of the Moors in Srilanka (I)

The srilankan moors (Sonahar) are generally believed to comprise the decendents of Arabian merchants and settlers who arrived in the country at various period, and especially during the medieval period, to form considerable settlements in various parts of the country, especially in the western costal areas. Howbeit, A.W. Muhsin has cited on his [ilankai Muslim’kalin Poorviiham, Suvanaril irunthu Sonaham varai (2008)] book, that the srilankan Muslims are the ab initio folk of (Sonaha thesam) the country and to prove out it by multi facial and lingual attitudes of the Sonaha society from Adam and Nova (ab ovo usque ad mala) in this land. Although he impliedly agrees, the certain groups of Arabs had been arrived here during the medieval period to form considerable settlements in various parts of the country.

The Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien who visited Srilanka has mentioned the houses of Sabaean (i.e.Arabian) merchants in Anuradhapura being beautifully adorned. [Culture of Ceylon in Medieval times. Ed.Heinz Bechert(1960)]

Buzurg Ibn Shahryar' references to the country having connections with the Arabian Peninsula as early as the reign of the second Caliph Umar (634-644 A.C.). indeed, it is said that Arab invasion of Sind in 715 A.C. was prompted by the capture of some Arab women- daughters of merchants who had died in the island – near the sea port of Dayebal (near Karachi, Pakistan) whom the srilankan sovereign was sending to Iraq. [History of the Sultan of Multan from its firs conquest by the Muslims under Muhammad Qasim during the governorship of Arab]

E.B. Denham, in his “Ceylon at the census of 1911(1912)”, 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.

Alexander Johnston [Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland(1827)] has recorded that the first Muslim who settled in the country, were, according to the tradition which prevails among their descendants, a portion of those Arabs of Qasim who were driven from Arabia in the early part of the eight century by the Umayyad caliph Abd-al Malik bin Marwan, and who proceeding from the Euphrates southward, made settlement in concan, the southern parts of the Indian peninsula, Srilanka and Malacca. He further adds that the division of the that came to Srilanka formed eight considerable settlements along the north-eastern, and western coasts of the island, viz. at Trincomalee, Jaffna, Mantota-Mannar, Kudiraimalai, Puttalam, Colombo, Beruwala and Galle.

Genealogical records maintained by certain Moor families also bear testimony to their Arab ancestry. J.C. Van Sanden [Sonahar; A brief history of the Moors of Ceylon (1926)] cites literary evidence (viz. an old Arabic document in the possession of one of the oldest Moor families residing in Beruwala) in support of the claims of some Moorish folk of Beruwala who trace their ancestry to a scion of Arabian royalty who departed from Yemen in the 22nd Hijiri year (C.644 A.C.) in the time of the second Caliph Umar.

M.S. Ismail Effendi [Personages of the Past, Moors, Malays, and other Muslims of the past of Srilanka (1982)] has cited substantial genealogical evidence showing the Arab origins of prominent Moor families. An Aluthgama family for example traced its lineage to the first Caliph of the Islamic commonwealth Abu Bakr (C.573-634 A.C.), while another traced it’s descend to one Badrudeen who evidently hailed from Iraq. Yet another family traced it descent to one Prince Jamaldeen, an Arab from Konia, arrived in the Country in 1016. Such patronymics as Baghdadi (the one of Bagdad) and Yemeni (the Yemenite) which figure among prominent Moor families indicate the diverse origins of the Moorish folk settled in Srilanka.

The tombstone inscription at Trincomalee refers to the deceased as the grand-daughter of Hussain Ibn Ali Al-Halabi, showing that her family hailed from Halab (Aleppo) in Syria. The Moors of Akkurana claims descent from three Arabian mercenary who espoused Kandyan women during the reign of King Rajasiri’ha II (1635-1687).The Gopala (Betge Nilame) family of Moors domiciled in Gataberiya in the Kegalle district trace their descent to Arab physicians (Hakims) who arrived in the country from sind during the reign if king Parakramabahu II (1236-1270) of Dambadeniya and espoused Kandyan women. [Lorna Dewaraja, The Muslim of Srilanka. one thousand years of ethnic harmony. (1994)]

Cont…