MEDIAEVAL HISTOEY. 



[Part V. 



which abound there. ^ He particularises twelve cities, 

 but thek names are scarcely identifiable with any now 

 known.^ The sovereign, who was celebrated for the 

 mildness of his rule, was assisted by a council of sixteen, 

 of whom four were of the national religion, four ChriS'- 

 tians, four Mussulmans, and four Jews ; and one of the 

 chief cares of the government was given to keeping up 

 the historical records of the reigns of their kings, the 

 lives of their prophets, and the sacred books of their 

 law. 



Ships from China and other distant countries resorted 

 to the island, and hither " came the wines of Irak, and 

 Fars, which are purchased by the king, and sold again 

 to his subjects ; for, unlike the princes of India, who 

 encourage debauchery but strictly forbid wine, the 

 King of Serendib recommends wine and prohibits de- 

 bauchery." The exports of the island he describes as 

 silk, precious stones of every hue, rock-crystal, diamonds, 

 and a profusion of perfumes.^ 



The last of this class of writers to whom it is neces- 

 sary to allude is Kazwini, who lived at Bagdad in the 

 thirteenth century, and, from the diversified nature of 

 his writings, has been called the Phny of the East. In 

 his geographical account of India, he includes Ceylon, 

 but it is evident from the details into which he enters 

 of the customs of the court and the people, the burning 

 of the widows of the kings on the same pile with their 

 husbands, that the information he had received had been 

 collected amongst the Brahmanical, not the Budd- 

 hist portion of the people. This is confirmatory of 

 the actual condition of the people of Ceylon at the 

 period as shown by the native chronicles, the king being 



1 Edeisi mentions, that at that 

 period the sugai-cane was cultivated 

 in Ceylon. 



^ Marnaba, (llanaar ?) Aghna 

 Perescoiiri, (Prriaforref) Aide, jNIa- 

 hoiiloun, (Piitlani?) liamri, Telmadi, 

 (Tafmanaar?) Lendouma, Sedi, Iles- 

 li; Beresli and Medouna {Matura f). 



"Aghna" or "Ana/' as Edrisi makes 

 it the residence of the king, must be 

 Auara,japoora. 



3 Edkisi, Geogr. Transl. de Jau- 

 bert, 4to. Paris, 1836, t. i. p. 71, &c. 

 Edrisi, in his " Notice of Ceylon," 

 quotes largely and verbatim from 

 the work of Abou-zeyd, 



