History

These priceless photographs show Honourable Abdul Majeed, Turkish Consul General and his wife and two daughters Fathima (Mrs. Mohommed) and Zubaida Sofie (Mrs. M L. Abdul Azeez) Hon. Abdul Majeed’s father, Hassan Lebbe Avdu Candu Lebbe Marikkar was the first Ceylonese Consul for the Imperial Ottoman Empire as may be seen in the plaque in his memory in the third …

  The archival illustration from a German publication dated 1909 shows Sri Lankan fishermen processing pearl mollusks. (AN Photo) First Arabs arrived in Sri Lanka in the 3rd century B.C. and dominated its trade Pearl fishing in Sri Lanka began to struggle in the 19th century, under British rule  When Ibn Battuta arrived in northern Sri Lanka, the ruler of …

  Ali Haydar was part of the Zawi Zayd clan within the Sharif dynasty that ruled over Mecca for centuries (Kronik Kitap) Arab aristocrat’s career saw him serve as an Ottoman lawmaker and the empire’s go-to man in the Hejaz region Ottoman sovereignty over the Muslim holy city of Mecca began in 1517 after the conquest of the Mamluk Empire under Sultan Selim …

There is said to have existed in certain areas like Matale, a little community of South Indian Muslims known as Rawuttar. These folk evidently formed a sizeable community in Matale until about the 1960s before gradually declining in numbers probably due to migration as well as intermarriage and assimilation into the Moorish fold. They are said to have been relatively …