630 



MEDIEVAL IIISTOEY. 



[Part V- 



of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, bestowed 

 it indiscriminately upon the Arabs and their descen- 

 dants, whom, in the sixteenth century, they found 

 estabhshed as traders in every port on the Asian and 

 African coast, and whom they had good reason to 

 regard as their most formidable competitors for the 

 commerce of the East. 



Particular events have been assumed as marking the 

 probable date of their first appearance in Ceylon. Sir 

 Alexander Johnston, on the authority of a tradition 

 current amongst their descendants, says, that " the first 

 Mahometans who settled there were driven from Arabia 

 in the early part of the eighth century, and estab- 

 hshed themselves at Jaffna, Manaar, Koodramah, 

 Putlam, Colombo, Barberyn, Point de Galle, and Trin- 

 comalie." ^ The Dutch authorities, on the other hand, 

 hold that the Moors were Moslemin only by profession, 

 that by birth they were descendants of a mean and 

 detestable Malabar caste, who in remote times had 

 been converted to Islam through intercourse with the 

 Arabs of Bassora and the Eed Sea ; that they had 

 frequented the coasts of India as seamen, and then in- 

 fested them as pirates ; and that their first appearance 

 in Ceylon was not earher than the century preceding 

 the landing of the Portuguese.^ 



The truth, however, is, that there were Arabs in 

 Ceylon ages before the earliest date named in these 



^ Trans. Roy. Asiat. Society, 1827, 

 A.B. vol. i. 538. The Moors, who 

 were the informants of Sii' Alexander 

 Johnston, probably spoke on the equi- 

 vocal authority of the Toltfut-ul- 

 mtfjahidcen, which is generally, but 

 erroneously, descriljed as a narrative 

 of the settlement of the Mahometans 

 in Malabar. Its second chapter gives 

 an account of "the manner in which 

 the Mahometan religion was first 

 propagated " there ; and states that 

 iLs eai'liest apostles were a Sheikh 



and his companions, who touched at 

 Cranganore about 822 a.d., when 

 on their journey as pilgiims to the 

 sacred foot-print on Adam's Peak. 

 (RowLANDSON, Orient. Transl. Fund, 

 pp. 47. 55.) But the introduction of 

 the new faith into this part of India 

 was subsequent to the arrival of the 

 Arabs themselves, who had long be- 

 fore formed establishments at nume- 

 rous places on the coast. 



^ VALENXrN, ch. XV. p. 214, 



