Sri Lankan Muslim
THE
“MOORS” OF CEYLON
The
factual evidence of the origin of one of Ceylon’s minority communities, The
Ceylon Moors, is very little known. It has been suggested that the expression came
into being in much the same manner that the early European historians and
writers applied the name, Gentoo, meaning Gentile, to all the
inhabitants of Southern India without distinction.
In
its present form, the word “Moor” is traced through the Spanish Moro and the
Portuguese Mouro, either to the Mauri, the ancient inhabitants of Mauretari,
now known as Morocco, or as Tennent, the famous historian of Ceylon suggests,
to Maghrib (Morocco).
The
Ceylon Moors do not lay any claim to, possible, African origin, just as much as
they, rightfully, resent the suggestion that they are of Dravidian (Tamil)
extract. It is not that they feel any discredit or insult attached to being
classified as Tamils, but being of Arab descent, they take a natural pride in
tracing their ancestry to a race of people who were, in their day, the pioneers
of civilization in the East. More than this, it must be remembered that the
Moors of Ceylon are Muslims without exception and being attached to the race to
whom Islam was first revealed is certainly a status of great pride and
distinction.
The
beginnings of Arab settlement in Ceylon appear to be shrouded in oblivion. With
the exception of the fragmentary relics of the distant past scattered over a
period of many centuries, the story of the present day Moors, who are the
descendants off these settlers, has remained unrecorded.
However
meager the material available, there is sufficient evidence to show, to the
unprejudiced mind, that the Ceylon Moors had their origin from among the Arab
traders and settlers of old who traveled across the seas in search of trade and
barter during the earliest times of the history of Ceylon.
It
has been recorded that the early Arab traders, who visited Ceylon, settled in
the coastal belt of Ceylon concentrating mainly in the South Western towns of
Puttalam, Beruwela and the Southern ports of Galle, Matara, and even
Hambantota.
Although
Nevill gives the date of the domination of Kalah (the Southern port of Galle)
by the Maharajahs of Zabedj as 100 B.C. O 700 A.D. he adds:
“The
truth, however, is that there were Arabs in Ceylon ages before the earliest
date in these conjectures.”
The
“conjectures” occur in a foot note on page 607 of Tennent’s History of Ceylon
and read as follows”
“Mounstuart
Elphinstone, on the authority of Agatha cides (as quoted by Diodorus and
Photius) says, that from all that appears in that author, we should conclude
that two centuries before the Christian Era the trade between India and the
ports of Sabaea was entirely in the hands of Arabs.”
Nevill
goes on to say:
“The
whole north-west coast and Jaffna has from the most ancient times been peopled
by the Tamils and the Moors, thus accounting for the districts being under the
Maharajahs of Zabedj, who extended their empire and ruled the Malay Islands,
Kalah and Travancore.”
This
establishes beyond doubt the connections of Arabia with Ceylon over two
thousand years ago.
Sulaiman,
an Arab trader and explorer, recounts his visit to Ceylon in 850 A.D. and mentions
a pilgrimage to Adam’s Peak. One cannot think of an Arabian, ignorant of the
language of the indigenous inhabitants of a country, unlike its people in every
respect in regard to habits, customs, diet and observances, undertaking a long
and perilous journey into the heart of an unknown country. This surely suggests
that the Arabs had been in the country some time already, that they were known
to the original inhabitants of Ceylon and wielded influence and were therefore
permitted to travel far into the interior in safety and comfort.
Fifty
years later, in the year 900 A.D. we hear of another Arab, named Abou Zaid, who
supports the stories of Cosmas and Sulaiman and describes the still flourishing
port of Kalah (Galle). Zaid’s narrations are based on the experiences of other
travelers, one of whom was Ibn Wahab who included “Serendib” in his travels.
Wahab like his predecessors made careful observations and collected much
information regarding ancient Lanka for he is able to tell us that the Maya Rata
or “Pepper Country”, one of the three oldest divisions of Ceylon, was situated
between Kalah (Galle) on the coast and the Ruhuna Rata in the South East.
With no devastating
wars, no politics and no intrigues, the Moors were able to concentrate their
attentions on the accumulation of wealth alone. Meanwhile, the Tamils of the
North made an occasional invasion into the territory of the Sinhalese Kings,
only to be massacred and driven back later. This state of affairs continued,
till in the Thirteenth Century, the Moors were in the zenith of their power.
Trade had expanded on every hand and business flourished. Their influence
increased proportionately and their Buddhist neighbours were beginning to
receive them with cordiality and recognise the avowal and free performance of
their religious rites.
The thriftless Sinhalese petty-trader and the improvident
garden cultivator were disposed to overlook the Moorman’s sharp, bargain-making
proclivities so long as the former realized that there was something to be gained
by such forbearance on their part. For one thing, there was always the
possibility of obtaining ready money from the Mussalman in an awkward and
trying moment; the one against his crop of arecanuts or cinnamon the other in
the form of a loan-of course at remunerative interest-when his rice-crop
failed. As for the wealthier classes of
Sinhalese feudal chiefs of the interior, they were satisfied to receive their
supplies of salt from the coast and such luxuries articles of daily use which
the Moors imported from abroad.
It was beneficial for both parties to live in peace, and
this form of relationship was permitted to continue inndefinitely, since there
was no clash of interests, the Sinhalese never having been a sea-faring race.
The activities of the latter were confined to the mountain fastnesses, where
they hatched their plots and schemed their intrigues. It was the northerners
whom the Sinhalese had to prepare against, in the event of an inroad into their
preserves in the North-Central Province, whilst the Moor made his profits and
battened on the produce of the land.
The Moors of the Fourteenth Century, like their
descendants of the present day, never missed the opportunity of driving a
shrewd bargain. Where a Sinhalese country yokel still turned over a proposition
in his mind, the Moorman saw at a glance, with the traditional instinct of his
race, the business possibilities of an offer of any kind. The following
historical incident which is related by Johnstone, besides illustrating this
trait in their national character, throws some light on an obscure point in
regard to the history of that community of the Sinhalese people who belong to
the Salagama caste.
Up to the Fourteenth Century, the Sinhalese were not
familiar with the art of spinning and the weaving of cloth. Of course, there
were the primitive hand-loom and distaff, but the best articles produced
locally were inferior in quality and coarse in texture, as insufficient to meet
the wants of the whole population. Accordingly, they had to depend on India for
their clothing.
Whilst things were in this state, a certain Sinhalese
King issued proclamations offering handsome rewards to any person who would go
over to India and bring some skilled artisans for the purpose of introducing
the art of the manufacture of cloth in to Ceylon. About this time, a Moorman of
Beruwella, in the Kalutara District-to the strong hold of the Moors and the
Salagama people, respectively,-induced by the tempting offers made the voyage
across Palk’s Strait and brought with him a bath of eight weavers of the
Salagama caste, from a place call Saliapatanam.
There is a tradition that the eight persons referred to
were drugged and bound and taken on board and that they only realised that were
being transported to a foreign country when they had been many miles out at
sea. It is stated that two of the victims rather than being the subjects of
such deception, jumped overboard and were never heard of again.
According to others, these founders of the cloth-making
industry in Ceylon were inveigled to the ship on the pretext that there was to
have been an excellent opportunity of making a fortune by taking part in a
particular game of chance which had been arranged, and that the vessel
noiselessly slipped its moorings and sailed away whilst play was in progress.
However the case many have been, the weavers were
accorded a cordial welcome upon their arrival in Ceylon. In due course they
were presented to the King who treated them with every kindness in order to
induce them to commence practising their craft locally. They were at the
instance of the Court, married to women of distinction and given houses and
lands. A manufactory was established for them in the vicinity of the Royal
Palace and the highest honours were conferred on their chief. Amongst other
things they were allowed the privilege of travelling in palanquins and were
permitted to wear a gold chain on certain occasion.
By such methods as this, the Moors ingratiated themselves
into Royal favour. This obtained for them a larger measure of indulgence which
they in turn utilized in exercising their power to the fullest within their
territory along the sea coast.
Prominent among the Moors of that period was Ibrahim,
“the ship captain,” who entertained Batuta and his party at his mansion at
Galle. The same historian in his referrence to Colombo, which he describes as
“one of the largest and finest cities of Serendib” mentions “the Vizier, prince
of the sea, named Djalesty” who had about five hundred Abyssinians.”
According to local legend, Djalesty was a petty sultan
and had a band of powerful Moors and Africans who were alike valiant tighters
on land with the scimitar, as they were pirates and plunderers, familiar with
every creek and jungle fastness along the coast of Colombo. It is said that he
lived in state, with all the pomp of a minor ruling potentate on an elevated
headland overlooking the sea. A place called Rasamunakanda, in Mattkkuliya, in
the north of Colombo is pointed out as the spot where he had his little
fortress concealed behind the huge
trees of the neighbouring hills. From this coign of vantage, the arch-pirate
could spy an approaching merchant ship and his band of brigands always would be
ready to swoop down in their small craft under cover of darkness and plunder
the unsuspecting stranger.
It would appear that Djalesty is the
individual referred to by John de Marignolli who was driven to Ceylon by
adverse winds in the May of 1350 A.D. Marignolli, however, gives him another
name. He states that he met a certain tyrant name Koya Jaan, “a enuch who had
the mastery in opposition of the greater part of the kingdom. Marignolli must
have been a Roman Catholic. His bitterness against the “accused Saracen” is
easily explained, for he makes no secret of it that this sultan “in the
politest manner” robbed him of the valuable gifts which he was taking to
Europe, to the Pope.
When the early merchant
sailors returned home to Arabia with ship-loads of rich merchandise, they
undoubtedly spread the news of the productiveness of Ceylon and its natural
beauties. The accounts of its wealth and the prospect of amassing fortunes
attracted other adventurous spirits and yet other merchants followed in the
trail of their sea-faring predecessors. In this manner many of their countrymen
came to Ceylon, until in the course of time there was a small colony of Arabs
in this country. Amongst those who made Ceylon their home was Hashim and his
family who are mentioned by Denham in his census of Ceylon. Hashim arrived some
time in the seventh or the ninth century according to this authority. It is
said that Hashim was accompanied by his family and although the case is an
isolated one, it is proof of the fact that there have been Arab women too in
Ceylon at one period.
Denham’s story of this foundation of an Arab colony in
Ceylon is supported by Johnstone who states that the Moors first permanently
settled in the island in the Eighth Century, that they were of the house of
Hashim and that they were driven from Arabia by the tyranny of the Caliph,
Abdul Melak Ben Merwen.
The inauguration
of a colony in this manner is not without parallel in history. There is
a striking similarity between this incident and that of the arrival of the
Pilgrim Fathers inn America by the “Mayflower” in December. 1620. Like Hashim
the heroes of the “Mayflower” left their home country for reasons of freedom
and liberty; the one owing to religious persecution and the other owing to
political intolerence, for we are left to infer that Hashim’s political creed
was a danger to the tranquility of his country.
Had circumstances permitted the early Moors to continue
indefinitely in the position which they held in Ceylon, it is possible that the
subsequent history of this country would have been totally different. However,
the appearance of Vasco da Gama in the East changed the trend of events
completely. In 1498, the Portuguese navigator struck land at Calicut in South
India, and this brings us to modern history. European dreams of colonial
expansion had begun to materialise and when it had come to the day of
navigators of the type of Columbus, Arab sea-power crumbled and disappeared.
The first Western nation to whom the Arabs had to yield
pride of place as sailors was the Portuguese. With Arabia’s decline in naval
importance, her foreign trade collapsed, and as a natural sequence the business
of the local Moorish merchants suffered. Arab vessels ceased to call as
frequently as before. Occasionally a fugitive pirate would show its sails on
the dim horizon and disappear again in the distance. Those Arabs who had made
Ceylon their home, with their children and grand children found themselves cut
off from communication with Arabia, but their descendants have retained the
religion and observances of their ancestors to the present day with that inward
conservation which is a racial habit.
Under the altered circumstances, the less affluent Moors
were driven to the land for a living. Many of them, nevertheless, continued to
carry on a trade with South Indian ports in cinnamon and arecanuts. For this
purpose they had to rely on the small coasting vessels or Champans (boats) and
when opportunity offered, musk, cloth and brass were imported by them from the
neighbouring continent. In the course of time, the Moors succeeded in
establishing a fair trade with the Portuguese and later with the Dutch in
regard to whom the Moor was the middleman. Those of them who had not the
necessary capital to engage in export trade with India became pedlars and hawkers
whilst a few made large profits through the exploitation of the salt pans on
the Western and Southern sea-board. For many years afterwards, almost the
entire inland trade in salt had been in the hands of the Moors. Just as their
ancestors transported their merchandise overland by camel caravan, the local
Moor in those days of difficult communication conveyed their salt from the
coast to the Sinhalese Capital and other interior towns by means of the
Tavalama or pack-bulls.
The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of
the Royal Aisatic Society, Vol:II, Part II, 1853, describes the Moors of the
Chilaw and Puttalam districts as follows:
“They carry on a very extensive trade in rice,
salt, indigo, chanks, cheya, etc. and by making advances to the natives for the
purpose of repairing their tanks, were the means of keeping the northern part
of the island inn a very prosperous condition. They are the most industrious
class; they are traders, boutique-keepers, master-fishers, etc. They also deal
largely in cattle and are frequent purchasers of Government taxes…They are for
the most part confined to the immediate
neighborhood of the sea; there are however Moor villages scattered about the
interior……”
In reference to the
civil rights of the Moors; it would appear that as early as 1804 they had so
succeeded in enlisting the sympathy of the Britisher that a resolution was
passed on the 5th August, publishing a code of Mohamedan Laws which
were observed by the Moors residing in the area known as the Province of
Colombo. It will be noticed that whilst the Portuguese and Dutch did everything
that was possible to disregard the rights of the subjects of this history and
wantonly wound their susceptibilities, the diplomatic Englishman took them
under his sheltering protection, with that characteristic solicitude for
subject races which distinguishes British rule in the most distant out-posts of
Empire. Government’s attitude towards the Moors who were only a minority
community even in those days could not have failed to impress the Sinhalese
themselves who in thee territory of their own kings were not infrequently made
the instruments of arrogant chiefs and intriguing ministers of the Royal Court.
The next outstanding event relative
to the Moors of those pioneering days of British colonisation in Ceylon was the
incident of 1814. In the November of that year, ten Moorish cloth merchants
from the Coast who had gone into the interior for purposes of trade and barter
were seized and punished on the orders of the Sinhalese King. They were so
horribly mutilated and dismembered, that seven of them died on the spot. The
three survivors managed to escape to Colombo, where their blood-curdling tales
of the torture inflicted on them provoked the anger of the authorities. The
Governor at the time, General Brownigg, considered the treatment meted to the
Moors who were British subjects as an acts of aggression, and Major Hook immediately
took the field and advanced as far as Hanwella. It is supposed that it was the
commencement of hostilities on this occasion really that terminated in the
overthrow of the Sinhalese kingdom and the annexation of the Kandyan Country.
However, although the brutal massacre of the Moorish merchants is regarded by
some as one of the immediate causes of the
last Kandyan War, it is well known that there were numerous other
contributory factors, the chief of which may be regarded as the long desire of
the Britishers to be absolute masters of the whole of Ceylon. The Moors, of
course, regarded the injury done to their kinsmen as the primary casus belli,
and it is a noteworthy fact that whilst there have been a few petty
insurrections on the part of the Sinhalese, since British conquest, the Moors,
to the present day have remained loyal to the Union Jack.
It is about this time that Ceylon
Moors were for the first time appointed to native ranks. One of the earliest of
these was Hadjee off “Velassy” the distinguished, though little known Moor. A
more popular individual was Uduman Lebbe Marikar Sheik Abdul Cader, the
grandfather of the late I.L.M.Abdul Azeez, who in his day was a prominent
member of the Moorish Community. “Sekady Marikar” by which name he was better
known was appointed Head Moorman of Colombo by Sir Robert Brownigg, on June 10th,
1818. Several other appointments followed soon afterwards and the Moors were
not only made chiefss in different parts of the maritime Provinces, but they
were also admitted into the Public Service. The names of some of these with the
offices which they held are to be found in the “Ceylon Calendar” of 1824 which
was an official publication, published
in book form those days. These names are mentioned here as indicating
the status of the Moors a hundred years ago.
Head Moorman of Colombo, Uduman
Lebbe Marikar Sheik Abdul Cader, Interpreter to the agent at Tamankaduwa, Mr.
John Downing; Cader Shahib Marikar, Kariaper, or Head Moorman over the Temple
at Welasse, Neina Marikar, Head Marikar of the Moormen in the jurisdiction of
Tricomalie; Cader Sahib Marikar, Head Moorman under the collector of Galle;
Pakir Mohadien Bawa Saya Lebbe Marikar and Samsi Lebbe Ali Assen, Head Moomen
of Gindura; Slema Lebbe Samsy Lebbe, Head Moomman of Matara; Sekadi Marikar
Sekadi Lebbe Marikar, Head Moorman of Weligama; Kasi Lebbe Sinne Lebbe Marikar,
Head Moorman under the Collectors of Chilaw; Omer Marikar Sego Lebbe Marikar,
Head Moorman of Puttalam; Neina Lebbe Bawa Marikar, Head Moorman of Kalpentyn;
Sinna Tamby, Clerk and Storekeeper to the Deputy Assitant Commissary pf
Hambantota; S.A.L.Munsoor Sahiboo, Storekeeper to the Assistant Commissary at
Badulla.
In March, 1825, Sir Edward Barnes,
Governor of Ceylon, appointed the first Moorish Notary Public, “Sekady
Marikar,” “for the purpose of drawing and attesting deeds to be executed by
females of the Mussalman religion.” The fact that there was not a single
Moorish lawyer in the island in 1825 and that the community is today represented
in all the learned professions and has two elected representatives in the
Legislative Council, indicates the advancement of this section of the
population during the intervening period of a hundred years. Again, it is
worthy of note, that the Moors who had not one among their number in 1825 who
was capable of holding a brief before even the Minor Courts of Justice, in the
year 1904 weilded such influence as to be able to insist on the rights of their
lawyers to appear in their Fez-caps before “My Lords.”
The regime of Sir Wlimot Horton,
1831-1837 which is notable for the establishment of the Legislative Council,
the running of the “First Mail Coach in Asia,” the abolition of compulsory
labour and the publication of the first news paper in Ceylon, also saw the
repeal on June 1st, 1832 of the Dutch Resolution in Council of
February 3rd, 1747, by which Moors and Tamils were prohibited from
owning property or residing within the Fort and Pettah or Colombo.
Up to this time, according to the
old order of things, various section of the public had separate residential
areas allotted to them. For example, the Moors were, confined to Moor Street
which is designated Moors Quarters in old maps of Colombo, the Colombo Chetties
lived in Chetty Streett or Chekku Street, as it was also known, the
brassfounders in Brassfounder Street, the barbers in Barber Street and
silversmiths in Silversmith Street, whilst the “dhobies” lived in an area
called Wahermen’s Quarters.”
The removal of these restrictions
led to an influx of Moors into the business quarters of the City. Gradually
they began to acquire property in the Pettah of Colombo and in the process of
time nearly all the immovable property here, which originally belonged to the
descendants of the Dutch passed into the hands of the Moors. It is significant
that a large proportion of the shops and other buildings in Petttah today
belong to this community, whilst all that remains to the descendants of the
Hollanders who excluded the Moors from this area, is their ancient Kerkhof
behind “Consistery Buildings.”
Having established themselves in
business here, the Moors were now able to carry on a flourishing trade without
any hindrance whatever, and strangely enough they count amongst their chief
patrons, the Burghers who are the descendants of the Dutch. Although all
professions and occupations were thrown open to this hitherto oppressed class
of people, true to the instincts inherited from their Arab forefathers the Moors
largely engaged in trade and amassed fortunes, whilst education suffered. It
was in comparatively recent times that the efforts in this direction of the
late Mr. A.M.Wapche Marikar, a building contractor; the Muslim Educational
Society and the United Assembly were crowned with success. After more than a
generation of patient endeavour, the Moors slowly began to realise the extent
of the disadvantage encountered on every hand owning to a lack of modern
education. The introduction of up-to-date business methods, strongly contrasted
with the primitive systems of exchange and barter and it became necessary to be
properly equipped in order to meet the competition from other quarters. Other
communities were forgoing ahead in the march of progress and the Moors as a
community were badly left behind. These considerations led to a wider interest
in education, and the more progressive Moors sent their sons to the best
schools at the time. Of these the most popular institution seems to have been
Wesley College, due perhaps to the proximity of this institution in those days
to Moor Street still the stronghold of the Moors. There had been no Muslim
Schools at the time, with the exception of the small classroom attached to most
mosques where the Muslim youth is instructed in the Koran and receives an
elementary knowledge of the reading and writing of the Muslim Zahira College,
at Maradana, although it was proclaimed with much gusto, did not for very many
years rise above the level of an elementary school. It is only during the last
decade that it has mushroom-like sprung into prominence under the energetic
direction and untiring zeal in the cause of enlightenment by its present
principal, the Hon. Mr. Jaya B.A.,London.
Of those Moors who engaged in trade,
a large majority became shopkeepers. Their chief articles of merchandise were
cloth, hardware, crockery, household goods and groceries. A few exported areca
nut to South India and still continue to do so, and a fewer still became
planters and made large profits in the days of “King Coffer” which preceded the tea-growing industry.
Several continued to be dealers in precious stones, having gained distinction
in this line since Dutch times when they were credited with an export knowledge
of pearls and gems. To the present day the leading firms, which deal in
jewellery and precious stones are conducted exclusively by the Moors. One of
these had even found it necessary in order to provide a nearer depot for its
numerous European patrons.