CHAP. II.] INDIAN, ARABIAN, PERSIAN AUTHORITIES. 591 



sive evidence against its probability ; the historians of 

 the Hindus ignore the expedition of Alexander the Great, 

 and it is possible that those of Ceylon, indifferent to all 

 that did not directly concern the religion of Buddha, may 

 have felt little interest in the fortunes of Gralle, situated as 

 it was at the remote extremity of the island, and in a 

 region that hardly acknowledged even a nominal alle- 

 giance to the Singhalese crown. 



The assertion of Abou-zeyd as to the sovereignty of 

 the Maharaja of Zabedj, at Kalah, is consistent with the 

 statement of Soleyman in the first portion of the work, 

 that " the island was in subjection to two monarchs ; " l 

 and this again agrees with the report of Sopater to 

 Cosmas Indico-pleustes, who adds that the king who 

 possessed the hyacinth was at enmity with the king of 

 the country in which were the harbour and the great 

 emporium. 2 



But there is evidence that the subjection of this por- 

 tion of Ceylon to the chief of the great insular empire 

 was at that period currently believed in the East. In 

 the " Garsharsp-Namah" a Persian poem of the tenth 

 century, by Asedi, a manuscript of which was in the 

 possession of Sir William Ouseley, the story turns on a 

 naval expedition, fitted out by Delak, whose dominions 

 extended from Persia to Palestine, and despatched at 

 the request of the Maharaja against Baku, the King of 

 Ceylon. In the course of the narrative, Garsharsp and his 

 fleet reach their destination at Kalah, and there achieve 

 a victory over the " Shah of Serendib." 3 



It must be observed, that one form of the Arabic 

 letter K is sounded like G, so that Kalah would sound 

 like Gala* and to the present day the Moors of Ceylon 



1 Relation, vol. i. p. 6. 



2 Awo Si /3a<riXf7c ilalv Iv rrj vifffy 

 tvdvTtot dXXjjXwv, 6 tig i\<t> rbv 

 vaKivOov, icai 6 rf ( oo rb /itpof TO a\\o 



Iv <f earl f^nropiov 



COSMAS INDICOPL. 



3 OTJSELEY'S Travels, vol. i. p. 48. 

 Kalah may possibly be identical 



with the Singhalese word gala, which 



Q Q 4 



means an " enclosure," and the deeply 

 baved harbour of Galle would serve 

 to justify the name. Galla signifies 

 a rock, and this derivation would be 

 equally sustained by the dangerous 

 coral reefs which obstruct the en- 

 trance to the port, and by other na- 



tural features of the place. 



