The genesis of the Muslim community in Ceylon (Sri Lanka): A historical summary

Abstract

thesis,2 Siddi Lebbe's wrih ings on the subject in his Muslim Necan3 and Cassim's llankaic CO:.. nako.J ' Carittiram, 4 based almost entirely on Siddi Lebbe's works, are all, considering the context and spirit in which they were written (as shown below), open to the charge of historical bias and partisanship.Van Sanden's Sonahars is a comprehensive but an uncritical presentation of all hearsay evidence and is overtly apologetic of the British colonial rule over the Muslims.Goonewardena's "Some Notes On The History of the Muslims In Ceylon Before the British Occupation"6 and de Silva's "Portuguese Policy Towards Muslims" 7 are the only scholarly works available on the period before 1800, but they too have their shortcomings.The former, as the title itself suggests, is only a peripheral treatment limited by the author's inaccessibility to Arabic, Portuguese and Tamil sources; while the latter, constrained by the scope of the article, does not throw any light on the origins of the community.Besides these, several articles have appeared from time to time authored by a variety of writers ranging from Muslim activists to University lecturers.The only common feature in all these articles is that they try to trace the historical origins of the Ceylon Muslims as far back as possible and thereby they forget to 1 P.