136 



SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL PROVINCES. [Pakt YIT. 



and the Kalife y-Ekher, " tlie first of God's vicegerents 

 upon earth." ^ The Mahometans beheve that on his 

 expulsion from Paradise, Adam passed many years in 

 expiatory exile upon a mountain in India ^ before his 

 re-imion witli Eve on Mount Arafath, which overhangs 

 Mecca. As the Koran ^, in the passages in which is 

 recorded the fall of Adam, makes no mention of the spot 

 at Avhich he took up his abode on earth, it may be infer- 

 red that in the age of Mahomet, his followers had not 

 adopted Ceylon as the locality of the sacred footstep * ; 

 but when the Arab seamen, returning from India, 

 brought home accounts of the mysterious rehc on the 

 summit of Al-rahouiv'^ as they termed Adam's Peak, it 

 appears to have fixed in the minds of their country- 

 men the precise locality of Adam's penitence. The most 

 ancient Arabian records of travel that have come down 

 to us mention the scene with solemnity^ ; but it was not 

 tiU the tenth century that Ceylon became the estabhshed 

 resort of Mahometan pilgrims, and Ibn Batuta, about the 

 year 1340, relates that at Shiraz he visited the tomb of 

 the Imam Abu-Abd-AUah, who first taught the way to 

 Serendib.^ 



' D'Onssoisr, vol. i. p. G8. 



"^ Fabricitts, Codex Psendqnyra- 

 phm, vol. ii. p. 20. 



^ Sale's Al-koran, cli. ii. p. 5 j cli. 

 vii. p. 117. 



* 1 et Mr. DtJNCAN, in a paper in 

 the Asiatic Researches^ containing 

 " Historical Re^narks on the Coast of 

 Malabar,'''' mentions a native chro- 

 nicle in which it is stated, that a 

 Pandyan who was " vontcmporary with 

 Mahonief" was converted to Ishnn by 

 a party of dervishes on their pilgrim- 

 age to Adam's Peak, vol. v. p. !). 



* Itohuna or IJohana was tlio an- 

 cient division of the island in which 

 Galle is situated, and from wliich 

 Adam's Peak is seen. Hence the 

 name Al liahoun, given by them to 

 the mountain. 



'' S()LEYM\x and AnoTJ-ZEYD. See 

 Keinaud, Voyayes Arahes et Pcrsaiis 

 dans le ix. Siecle, vol. i. p. 5. Ta- 



BAEi, ''the Li\'y of Arabia," who 

 lived in the ninth century, describes 

 the descent of Adam on Serendib. See 

 Sir W. Ouseley's Travels,vo\. i. p. 35. 

 ■^ " C'est lui qui enseigna le chemin 

 de la montagne de Serendib dans I'lle 

 de Ceylan." — Ibn Batuta, torn. ii. 

 p. 79. GiLDEMEiSTER, in the com- 

 mentaiy prefixed to his Seripfores 

 Arahi, says Abu Abdallah ben kluilif, 

 " doctor inter Cutios clarissinuis," 

 died anno lie]. 3,31, 14th Sept., 

 942 A.n. (p. o4). Ibn Batuta tells 

 a marvellous tale of tliis Imam and a 

 party of thirty fahirs, his first com- 

 panions, wlio being in want of provi- 

 sions in the forest at the foot of 

 Adam's Peak, killed and ate a young 

 elepliant, the Imam refusing to partake 

 of tlie imclean food. In the niglit 

 tlie herd surprised and destroyed 

 the fakirs, but the leader, raising 

 the Imam on his back bv means of his 



