16 



JOURNAL R. A, S. CEYLON. 



[EXTRA NO. 



grand mosque : " Sultan Ahmed Chenourdzah has received the true 

 faith at the hands of Abou'lberecdt the Berber, the MaghrabinP- 

 This Sultan assigned a third of the taxes of the islands as 

 alms to travelling foreigners in recognition of his reception of 

 Islam through their agency. This share of the taxes still bears 

 a name which recalls this event. 



Owing to the demon in question many of the Maldive islands 

 were depopulated before their conversion to Islam. When I 

 reached the country I was not aware of this matter. One night, 

 when I was at one of my occupations, I heard of a sudden people 

 crying with loud voice the formulae, "There is no God but God" 

 and " God is very great." I saw children carrying Kurans on their 

 heads, and women rapping the insides of basins and vessels of 

 copper. I was astonished at their conduct and said " What is 

 happening" ? and they replied " Do you not see the sea" ? Upon 

 which I looked and saw a kind of large ship, seemingly full of 

 lamps and chafing-dishes. They said to me " that is the demon; 

 he is wont to show himself once a month : but when once we have 

 done as you have seen, he turns back and does us no harm. * 



Of the Queen of these Islands. 

 One of the marvels of the Maldives is that they have for 

 their Sovereign a woman, by name Khadidjah, daughter of the 

 Sultan Djeldl eddin 'Omar, son of the Sultan Saldh eddin 

 Sdlih Albendjaly. The kingdom had at one time been pos- 

 sessed by her grandfather, then by her father, and when the 

 latter died, her brother, Chihdb eddin, became King. He was a 

 minor, and the Vizier 'Abd Allah, son of Mohammed Alhadhramy 



* Vestiges of this romantic legend of their conversion to Muhammadanism 

 live in the traditions of the Islanders to this day. But with more probability, 

 they assign to a Shaikh Yusup Shams-ud-din of Tabrij the honour, which Ibn 

 Batuta not unnaturally would claim for a Maghrabin, and the votaries of 

 Hazrat MM Sahib for the Nagur saint (C.A. S. Journ., No. 24, pp. 125-36 1881). 

 Their first royal convert to Islam the Maldivians commonly know as 

 *' Darumavanta (= S. Dharmmavanta, i. e., 'the Just') EasgefdanP The 

 mosque he built still stands, and continues to bear his name,— B } 



