Sri Lanka attained Independence on 4th February 1948 from the British. 

Prior to that Sri Lanka, then Ceylon was ruled by several Kings. The first one was King Vijaya. Thereafter about 196 Kings ruled Ceylon. Among the various Kings were :

King Vijaya, Pandukhabhaya, Devanampiyatissa, Dutugemunu, Elara, Saddhatissa, Walagamba, Chandramuka Shiva, Gajaba, Sri Sangabo, Mahasena, Kashyapa, Mugalan, Vijayabahu, Wickremabahu, Queen Leelawathie, Queen Kalyanawathie, Buvenekabahu, Mayadunna, Rajasinghe, Sri Wimaladharmasooriya, Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe, Rajadi Rajasinghe and Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe. 

During the rule of the above Kings, there were certain invasions by the Portugese, the Dutch and the British. The Portugese arrived in Ceylon in 1505 and ruled until 1658 for 153 years. The Dutch ruled Ceylon from 1658 until 1796 for 138 years. And after the signing of the Kandyan Convention the British came to Ceylon in 1815 and ruled until 1948 for 133 years. 

The name  Hulftsdorp came since the Dutch Ruler General Hulft was accommodated at the present Hulftsdorp Courts building. The name Hulftsdorp  denotes " House of Hulfts". It was the Official Residence of General Hulfts. So the name Hulftsdorp                                                                                                                                            

During the Portugese, Dutch and British, the struggle for Independence was carried out by several persons who are considered National Heroes. They were : 

King Seethawaka Rajasinghe, Ehelepola Adikaram, Keppetipola, Madugalla Disawa, Weerapuran Appu, Weera Madduma Bandara, Sumangala Himi, S. Mahinda Thero, Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero, Sri Arumuga Navalar, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanadan, Sir Ponnambalan Arunachalam, Henry Steel Olcott, Anagarika Dharmapala, Sir Baron Jayatillake, F. R. Senanayake, Sir James Pieris, E. W. Perera, D. S. Senanayake, C.W.W. Kannangara, Dr. T. B. Jayah, A. E. Goonesinghe, S.W.R.D. Bandaranayake, Dr. S. A. Wickremasinghe, Philip Gunawardene, Dudley Senanayake and Proctor M.C. Siddi Lebbe. 

Finally Ceylon attained Independence from the British which handed over the Administration to Hon D.S. Senanayake who became the First Prime Minister of Independent Ceylon.

Before handing over the administration, the British sought the opinion of the minorities, the Tamils and the Muslims. Tamils requested 50-50 share of the Power.  However Dr. T. B. Jayah said that Muslims trusted the Sinhala leaders and therefore the administration be handed over to the Sinhalese. The issues concerning the Muslims could be discussed with the Sinhala leaders. It was only then the Administration was handed over to Hon. D.S. Senanayake by the British.

Although Independence was granted the Head of State was the King of England. During that time it was Queen Elizabeth who was the Head of State. She appointed several Governors from time to time. They were : Henry Monk Mason Moore, Lord Soulbury, Sir Oliver Goonetilake and Sir William Gopallawa. The final Court was the Privy Council in England. 

It was in 22nd May 1972 Sri Lanka gained full Independence. Sri Lanka became a Republic on 22nd May 1972. That was when Hon. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was the Prime Minister. The Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth ceased to be the Head of State and therefore the then Governor, Sir William Gopallawa became First President of Sri Lanka. The Supreme Court became the final Court of Justice.

The National Flag:

When the question of deciding a National Flag arose, the then Member of Parliament for Batticoloa Mr. Sinna Lebbe proposed that the flag used by the Last King of Ceylon be adopted. Then Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake appointed a Committee to look into this matter and report. The Committee to decide on a flag comprised Hon. S.W. R. D. Bandaranayke as the Chairman and J. R. Jayawardene, Sir John Kotelawala, Dr. T. B. Jayah and G. G. Ponnambalam. The committee recommended the present National Flag which was adopted as the Official National of Sri Lanka. 

The National Anthem.

During the first Independence Day celebration on 4th February 1948 the National Anthem and the National Flag was different. The National Anthem did not have the word " Sri Lanka Matha" it had only Namo Namo Matha. 

The National Anthem was composed by Ananda Samarakoon. It was first sung by Ananda Samarakone and Swarna de Silva. 

Wapche Marikkar

Mr. Wapche Marikkar a well known Philanthropist, and a constructor, constructed the National Museum, General Post Office building, the Customs and Times Building which stands as the Architectural Masterpiece which stands as Monuments to this day. 

The then British Governor, impressed by his contribution, requested to ask what he wanted as an Honour. Wapche Marikkar told the British Governor that he will be greatly honoured if the Museum was closed on Fridays. From that day the National Museum  has been closed on Fridays. Such was the love and respect , the great Muslims of the calibre of Wapche Marikar maintained. 

The nature of Muslims

Muslims are peace loving citizens. They are true patriots. They always co-operated with the Kings and all the rulers upto now. They like in harmony with the Sinhalese and Tamils. They never wanted a separate state nor a divided Sri Lanka. They do not have an iota of idea to convert this land into a Muslim country as has been accused by some elements. 

They made immense sacrifice of their life and property for the Unity of Sri Lanka. During the height of separatist was from 1980 to 2009 Muslims always stood for a united Sri Lanka. They did not join the separatist group nor did they support it. 

Hence they paid the biggest price. In 1990 they were chased out of Jaffna and asked to leave within 2 hours leaving their lands, houses, vehicles, cattle, money and property. They lived in jungles as Refugees for a long period of time. Some still live in refugee camps. Such was the sacrifice made by the Muslims for the Unity and territorial integrity of this country. 

Muslims love their Motherland Sri Lanka more than their Sinhala and Tamil compatriots. They will continue to live like that. They won their rights and privileges by talking peacefully with the Sinhala Administration. It was through peaceful means that they obtained their rights such as Muslim Holidays, Muslim Schools, Ramazan Holidays and various other facilities to satisfy their cultural and religious needs. 

Muslims will continue to love their Motherland and are willing to sacrifice their life and property for the sake of a United and Prosperous Sri Lanka. 

After dedicated and selfless services to the Muslim community Al-Haj Dr. Tuan Burhanudeen Jayah peacefully passed away in the Holy City of Medina after successfully completing his sacred mission Hajj. Dr. Jayah was a reformer and pioneer of Muslim education. Today we remember him with gratitude and affection for his dedication to the welfare and upliftment of the Muslim community. His service was immeasurable.

Dr. Jayah was a great educationist, a legislator, active social worker, brilliant orator and an exemplary Muslim leader who sacrificed a lot for the betterment of the Muslim education. From the time he passed the Cambridge Senior he devoted his entire time to the upliftment of the Muslim community in general and the country in particular. He said, "Youths are the trustees of the future". Once in a few generations a man is called upon to guide the destinies of a community.

In 1921 Dr. Jayah assumed office as the Principal of Zahira College which was then a mere secondary school with 6 teachers, 59 students and ill equipped buildings just sufficient for a primary school. Within a span of 27 years Dr. Jayah made Zahira a fully equipped Muslim institution. To use his own words "The radiating centre of Muslim thought and activity". To achieve his ends, Dr. Jayah retained Zahira in an exalted position as a leading institution in the island and also urged Muslim children to fit themselves for the higher and greater responsibilities of life in accordance with the teachings of Islam. Under Dr. T.B. Jayah's dynamic leadership, Zahira College became the cradle of Muslim education in the Island.

Besides education, he played a significant role in politics to free the country from British domination. From 1924 to 1931 he was a member of the Legislative Council and again from 1936 to 1947 he was a member of the State Council. When Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) gained independence in a most amicable manner in 1948, he was appointed Minister of Labour and Social Services in Ceylon's First Cabinet.

Dr. Jayah had the distinction of being Ceylon's first High Commis-sioner to Pakistan from where he consolidated the mutual friendship and co-operation between the two countries. In 1960 as a devoted Muslim Dr. Jayah left for Mecca to perform Hajj as it is incumbent on every Muslim who is physically fit and financially capable to do so. He set off with the idea of erecting a "Ceylon House" to enable local pilgrims to stay during the Hajj season. While at Medina, he fell ill and was treated by a specialist flown from Jeddah by King Ibnu Sa'ud.

I remember my late father Al-Haj M.L.M. Farook who served under late Dr. T. B. Jayah at Zahira College, Colombo once recalled that before Dr. Jayah embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1960 he said, "I wish I could die in Medina, the city of Holy Prophet Mohamed". Likewise Almighty Allah accepted his Dua (supplication) and on the morning of May 31, 1960, Al-Haj Dr. T. B. Jayah passed away. Such was his true love and immense devotion towards the deen of Allah. Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ihalhi Rajioon. To Allah we belong and unto him we return.

Epigraphic evidence may also be cited in this connection. Noteworthy is the Arabic tombstone inscription in Kufic characters which is the script developed in Kufah, Iraq. Concerning an Islamic cleric named Khalid Ibn Abu [B]akkaya dated Hijiri year 337 A.H. (10th Century) found at the Moorish burial ground in Colombo. Besides this, seven other stones, including five grave stones inscribed in Arabic dated from the 8th- 16th century A.C. have been discovered. The earliest tombstone discovered in May 1976 at Madulbowa bears the Hijiri date 133 A.H.(8th century). The fact that the Arabic language had been in the inscriptions suggested that the country’s Muslim’s or at least a significant proportion of them were literate and conversant in Arabic.

The appellations given to the moors by themselves as well as by others also indicate their Arab origin. The Ceylon moors have manifested Arabic influence in their lives up to the present day. Dr.Andreas Nell, the well known historian said;

“In the 18th century Buddhist shrine at Galmaduwa the windows had three cusps and the main door had five cusps….it is apparent from the architecture and masonry distinctly that the work was done by moors because at the time they were very popular in the kandyan kingdom.”

The Arabic influence is also seen in the dishes prepared by the Ceylon moors – the kunafa (of vermicelli, sweetened with honey, sugar, nuts, raisins etc. or with minced meat and onions), Kabab (small morsels of meat roasted on skewers), wheat dishes like halisha (mashed wheat and chicken) thak-kadi (wheat flour and meat) and other pastries, sweetmeats like halwa, fruit preserved and vattilappam(type of pudding) though not known by their original Arabic names, but distinctly Ceylon moor and the art of preparation handed down from generation to generation.

The Ceylon moors have earned praise for their moral characters, observance of ethics, intellect and honesty and trustworthiness not only from the ancient Sinhala kings but from the Dutch. The British and the Ceylonese leaders of independent Srilanka.

Wolf, the Dutch historian, said; “the moor have the art of keeping up their credit with the company (Dutch)… a moor is hardly ever known to be brought to a court of justice.”

The British Chief Justice Sir Alexander Johnston wrote in 1827; “the conduct with which they (moor) as a body invariably observed with the respect the different measures which I adopted while I was chief Justice and President of His Majesty’s council in Ceylon, gave me a very favourable opinion of their intellectual and moral characters.”

The Rt. Hon. D.S. Senanayake, first Prime minister of independent Srilanka said; “I regard the Ceylon moor community as one of the most hard-working communities in the country….of all the communities in the country, you are the most fitted to lead the way in the ceylonisation of trade.”

The Ceylon moors are not only proud of their Arabian connection and their loyalty to Srilanka but also of the various links established through other Muslim countries- mainly by the visits of saints, theologians, missionaries, travellers and others from these countries. While maintaining cordial links with all Islamic countries the Ceylon moors can claim direct connections with following such as; Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Yemen, India.

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)]

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