MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



[PART V. 



scribes to write down from their dictation the doctrines 

 of Buddhism, the legends of its prophets, and the 

 precepts of its law. This statement has an obvious 

 reference to the important events recorded in the 

 Mahawanso 1 ; the reduction of the tenets, orally de- 

 livered by Buddha, to their written form, as they appear 

 in the Pittakatayan ; the translation of the Atthakatha, 

 from Singhalese into Pali, in the reign of Mahanamo, 

 A. D. 410-432 ; as also to the singular care displayed, at 

 all times, by the kings and the priesthood, in preserving 

 authentic records of every event connected with the 

 national religion and its history. 



ABOU-ZEYD adverts to the richness of the temples of 

 the Singhalese, and to the colossal dimensions of their 

 statues, and dwells with particularity on the toleration 

 of all religious sects in the island as attested by the 

 existence there, in the ninth century, of a sect of Mani- 

 cha3ans, and a community of Jews. 2 



1 Mahaivanso, cli. xxxiii. p. 207; 

 ch. xxxvii. p. 252. 



2 It was to Ceylon that the terri- 

 fied worshippers of Siva betook them- 

 selves in their flight, when Mahmoud 

 of Ghuznee smote the idol and over- 

 threw the temple of Somnaut, A. D. 

 1025. (FERISHTA, transl. by Briggs, 

 vol. i. p. 71 ; REINAUD, Introd. to 

 AHOIJLFEDA, vol. i. p. cccxlix. Me- 

 moires sur FInde, p. 270.) Twenty 

 years previously, when tke same 

 orthodox invader routed the schis- 

 matic Carmathians at Moultan, the 

 fugitive chief of the Sheahs found an 

 asylum in Ceylon. (REINAUD, Journ. 

 Asiat., vol. xlv. p. 283 ; vol. xlvi. p. 

 ] 29.) The latter circumstance serves 

 to show that the Mahometans in 

 Ceylon have not been uniformly 

 Sonnees, and it may probably throw 

 light on a fact of much local interest 

 connected with Colombo. There for- 

 merly stood there, in the Mahometan 

 Cemetery, a stone with an ancient 

 inscription in Cufic characters, which 

 no one could decipher, but which was 

 said to record the virtues of a man of 

 singular virtue, who had arrived in 

 the island in the tenth centmy. 



About the year 1787 A. D., one of the 

 Dutch officials removed the stone to 

 the spot where he was building, " and 

 placed it where it now stands, at one 

 of the steps to his door." This is the 

 account given by Sir Alexander 

 Johnston, who, in 1827, sent a copy 

 of the inscription to the Royal 

 Asiatic Society of London. GILDE- 

 MEISTER pronounces it to be written 

 in Carmathic characters, and to com- 

 memorate an Arab who died A. D. 

 848. "Karmathacis quae dicuntur 

 literis exarata viro cuidam Arabo 

 Mortuo, 948 A. D. posita," Script. 

 Arabi de Rebus Indicts, p. 59. A 

 translation of the inscription by Lee 

 was published in Trans. Roy. Asiat. 

 Soc.j vol. i. p. 545, from which it 

 appears that the deceased, Khalid 

 Ibn Abu Bakaya, distinguished him- 

 self by obtaining " security for re- 

 ligion, with other advantages, in the 

 year 317 of the Hejira." LEE was 

 disposed to think that this might be 

 the tomb of the Imaum Abu Abd 

 Allah, who first taught the Maho- 

 metans the route by which pilgrims 

 might proceed from India to the 

 sacred footstep on Adam's Peak. 



