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Early conversions to Islam in Maldives

by DO International Editor Michael O'Shea

13 October 2004

The acceptance of Islam as the kingdom's religion is usually dated to 1153 AD. However, the 'Gan Faiykolu' translated in H. C. P. Bell's 'The Maldive Islands' gives a date ten years earlier:

"In the 539th year (1144/45 AD) since the Prophet's migration (Hijra) from pre-eminent Mekka to godly Medina, as the people of the Maldives kingdom were pagans, Shaikh Jalal Yusuf of Tabriz exhibiting his powers, and calling upon God as witness to his conversion of the islanders to Islam seeing that the Sultan Darumansha called The Righteous King (Darumavanta Rasge) had not embraced Islam previously - converted him to Islam.

"(Thereafter) lands belonging to those persons who became Muslims willingly were separated and allotted to them; (and) lands belonging to non-converts, with all other lands, made over to the government, in order to ensure the provision of state revenue for the maintenance of the Muslim faith.

"After matters had been thus stabilized (in the Maldive realm), the learned chiefmen of earlier days submitted at the feet of former rulers that, failing any other means for the continuance of the Muslim faith and (Maldive) sovereignty, the Muhammadan religion and the government should be maintained from the tax recovered from these lands."

The 'Gan Faiykolu', written on a thick plank in Dives Akuru script and dated 1652/53 in the reign of King Iskandar Ibrahim I, agrees with the date of Male's conversion to Islam given in 'The Book of Ancient Meedhoo History' written by Al-Allamah Ahmed Shihabuddheen (Bodu Ahmed Naib Thakurufaan), and transcribed in 1910 by Ahmed the son of Mohamed the son of the Chief Justice Ibrahim Majudhudheen.

According to this chronicle, a headman of Meedhoo, Elhai Haaru Dhoraaboo was secretly converted to Islam during his overseas travels by Al-Hafiz Amir, the son of Yasir Al-Namrizi of Nimrooz of Persia (Iran). The Meedhoo man learnt Arabic and Farsi, and when Al-Fageehu Al-Hafiz Yoosuf Gadir Al-Sanaani Al-Yemeni and his wife Nuseibah arrived in Meedhoo island (Addu atoll) from Yemen with their family in October 1125, they stayed at Dhoraaboo's house and the house of his uncle Kalhai Haaru who was the priest at the island's Buddhist temple. Kalhai Haaru may have inherited his position through his priestess mother Kaman Haaru. She had married Kadu Kumar, a man from Pataliputra (Patna, Bihar) in India.

From discussions with Dhoraaboo, Yoosuf heard that in the capital Male', a virgin was being sacrificed to the ocean goddess Rannamakaaru Devi on the fifteenth night of each lunar month.

'Gracious Allah!' Yoosuf exclaimed, 'What a crime! But before we go there, we must begin our work here. When the people of this island have been enlightened, then we will go to the other places.'

Ahmed Shihabuddheen writes that when Yoosuf Gadir and his family and relations arrived from Yemen in Meedhoo, it was a Buddhist island. Yoosuf Gadir converted Kalhai Haaru's son Chandu, and in August 1127 the young man led a group that smashed the statues in the temple. He was protected from other angry Meedhoo islanders by his father Kalhai, and then Kalhai himself converted to Islam two days later. Dhoraaboo took the Islamic name of his mentor Yoosuf and the further name 'el-Namrizi' in remembrance of the home town of the person who originally converted him to Islam. In 1143/44, Yoosuf Gadir's wife Nuseibah died and during 1144/45 he and Dhoraaboo, now known as Yoosuf el-Namrizi, set out for Male' and other places in Maldives. (The 'Gan Faiykolhu' gives this same date for the conversion of Male').

While they were away from Meedhoo, Yoosuf el-Namrizi (Dhoraaboo) died after becoming a member of the Male' court with the title of 'Abu-el-Lisan'. The name possibly recognising his role as the interpreter of the conversion arguments of his Yemeni friend Yoosuf Gadir. It was during Ramadan in July 1166 that Gadir himself returned to Meedhoo after an absence of over 20 years. He passed away at night a few months later, in October the same year.

If Ahmed Shihabuddheen's record is accurate, then the Male' tomb revered and worshipped for centuries as the grave of Shaikh Jalal Yusuf of Tabriz is likely to contain the body of the Meedhoo interpreter Dhoraaboo, then named Yoosuf el-Namrizi, and the initial fame of the tomb was due to his close relationship to the Yemeni holyman Yoosuf Gadir Al-Sanaani Al-Yemeni who helped him convert the Male' king.

Due to jealousy and arrogance, some Male' historians have treated these Meedhoo claims with scepticism and derision, but 'The Book of Ancient Meedhoo History' is genealogically supported and contains details of gender relationships and incidents that seem authentic and difficult to fabricate in the seventeenth century when Ahmed Shihabuddheen claims to be writing his history based on earlier records.

'The Book of Ancient Meedhoo History' mentions the death of a Yooshau Gadir, great-grandson of Dhoraaboo and Nuseibah's younger brother Suleimi, in a battle in Hithadhoo island on northwest Addu atoll. It is not possible to date this battle nor is there any mention of the reasons for the war, but during this period the 'Isdhoo Loamfaanu' gives 1192 as the date of a battle on Isdhoo island in Laamu atoll, when the ruler of Male' attacked the island's Buddhist temple.

According to Ahmed Shihabuddheen, Gan island on Addu was the last island in Addu atoll to be converted. The transition was accomplished by Yoosuf Naib, the great grandson of a marriage between the son of Nuseibah's brother and Dhoraaboo's daughter. Yoosuf Naib had been educated in Arabia and his son Al-Sheikh Al-Hafiz Al-Muhaddhis Al-Khatheeb Hassan, born in 1281-82, also studied in Mecca, Medina, Sanaa in Yemen, and in Syria. The book claims the judges of Maldives are descended from this family. Yoosuf Naib was born in 1243/44 and died when he was nearly seventy in 1311/12, so the conversion of Gan, only fourteen kilometres from Meedhoo, occurred between 1250 and 1312, at least a hundred years after Male' and more than one hundred and twenty-five years after Meedhoo.

Ahmed Shihabuddheen's book says that in the sixteenth century, Al-Sheikh Al-Gazi Mohamed Al Muballiu from Meedhoo learned astronomy, the science of primogeniture, and Arabic from his learned mother and learned men from her family, and later studied Shafi doctrine from 'the learned man' who lived in Vaadhoo island (across the Equatorial channel in Huvadhu atoll) where Mohamed Al Muballiu also taught Arabic to the learned man's other pupils.
Mohamed Al Muballiu compiled a separate book on each aspect of Islam, and his sons Hussein and Mohamed also wrote books.

Ahmed wrote twenty books on medicine, navigation, astrology, the science of primogeniture, and history.

Dhoondeyri Don Maniku, the Dhivehi translator of 'The Book of Ancient Meedhoo History' from its original Arabic, wrote the following observations on the future of genealogy and the value of books:
"My father said that according to my grandfather, a person who does not keep his genealogy commits crimes without hesitation. The time when genealogy will be considered as nothing is getting nearer. It is among the signs of the end of the world that people dismiss their ancestry and womb relations, and turn away from mothers' faces. Also they will look at their neighbours with scowling expressions.

"The science of primogeniture will disappear completely and the rich will receive charity. The rights of the poor will be violated, and wife and sons will receive equal shares of the husband's wealth. These are warnings that have come from grandfathers to our fathers. Some of these things we can see now with our own eyes!

"My father used to say the grandfather of the writer said that when the end of time arrives, genealogical connections would have collapsed. Sons won't know who their mothers are, and will even marry them. Every couple will have an odi, and every house will have a shop. The sun will rise in the west, but people will be pre-occupied with trading. No one will have any idea about the attributes of the Almighty. Promiscuity will spill out onto the roads and people will commit adultery in the streets. Islam will be practised only in name, and the Word of Allah will be locked in the mosque's big box. When human beings are in this condition, Almighty God will reveal the Enlightened One.

"The Dajjal will also appear during this period. Humanity will be rescued from this evil by Jesus, the son of Mary. All can be found clearly written in the Hadith, which are the sayings, acts and signs of the holy master. After reading the Word of Allah, the Traditions of the Prophet should also be studied.

"Even though we write and publish books, very few people read or think about them. This is the reason the thirteen books written by my great-grandfather and the three books written by my grandfather were used as firewood for stir-cooked jaggery. It is the reason why the books and documents of Ismail Beybe were not there for Beybe later on. But give thanks that even now, there are people who like books and protect them on this island.

"The writer's father Ali Didi is a learned person who has memorised the Koran even though he doesn't write books. He preserves and transcribes them. He transcribed Elhegey Thuttu Didi's eye medicine book and sent it recently. If there's still time left in me, I intend to write a book about Judgement Day."

Note:

A complete translation of the available text of 'The Book of Ancient Meedhoo History' written by Al-Allamah Ahmed Shihabuddheen is available here at Majid's Maldives Royal Family webite: History of Addu Meedhoo