An overview of a rich history (Part 2 of 3) Maldivean royal searches for Yemeni roots [Archives:2003/04/Reportage]

BY IRENA KNEHTL*
FOR THE YEMEN TIMES
The earliest Maldivian history has it that an Aryan price found his way through the magnificent, yet perilous sharp coral heads, finding an aboriginal race who marveled at this superb navigator and welcomed him King of Maldives. Whether Prince Koimala is legendary or not, it seems certain that the islands were first settled by Aryan immigrants who are believed to have colonized Sri Lanka at the time around 500 B.C. Further migration from South India, as well as Sri Lanka occurred. Historians record the presence of people of Dravidri stock, the Dhivis, Maldivians.
Around 947 A.D. the first recorded contact with the outside world began when an early Arab traveler depicts the potential for trade in pearls, spices, coconuts, dried fish and cowrie shells.
Ruling dynasties gave shape to what has become the Republic of Maldives just as volcanic movement shaped the 1.190 islands and coral reefs which rose above the ocean surface some hundred thousand years ago. Recorded in Maldivian history are the names of eighty four Sultans and Sultanas who belonged to six dynasties. The Maley or Theemuge Dynasty lasted 235 years under the rule of twenty six different sultans. The Hilali Dynasty ruled next for over a period of 170 years with twenty nine rulers. During the Hilali period Sultan Kalhu Mohammed invited the first foreign power to Maldives thus opening diplomatic relations with the world. Balmy trade winds brought prosperity to this independent country until the sixteenth century when the Portuguese took more than a passing interest. It is during this time of Portuguese threat that one of the greatest Maldivian heroes, Mohammed Thakurufan, was born on the island of Utheem in the northern atoll of Thiladhummathi. Even today one can hear songs and stories which tell of Mohammed Thakurufaan wiping out the entire Portuguese garrison. Mohammeds twelve years of peaceful reign was one of prosperity and reform. He died 1585 A.D. but his Utheem Dynasty ruled for 127 years, producing twelve rulers. The winds of war are never calm not even in idyllic islands such as Maldives. The Maldives faced a new treat from the Malabar Coast of South India. Maldivian forces repelled the Malabar forces, drove them back and under the leadership of Ghazi Hassan Izzadden, the Huraage Dynasty was founded. The Huraage Dynasty prevailed until 1968 when the Maldives became a republic.
The Arabs from Hadramaut in the Indian Ocean politics and history
The Arabs from Hadramaut have been migratory from time immemorial. For over a thousand years they maintained a very special relationship with the Southeast Asia region, the Indian Ocean and its people. Historically, this relationship has been deep and permanent, extensive and continuous, culturally, it has been rich, manifesting itself in a range of ways and in every other sphere it has been pervasive and significant. They have participated in regions politics, histories and economy.
The world without boundaries
The Hadarim, or Arabs from Hadramaut cherish a very strong sense of Arab identity which seems to overlap considerably with Islamic identity, to represent the ideal Moslem. The harsh political and economic realities in Hadramaut and the Islamic perception of geography, which considered the world to be a universal unit without territorial frontiers was an important drive behind the migration of the Hadrami Arabs.
The Hadrami Arabs are proud of their origins although they may have been geographically removed from Hadramaut for generations. The movement of Arabs into the Indian Ocean region was gradual, sporadic and small in scale though always significant. In the traditional international order, which did not interfere with either freedom of movement or cultural and religious autonomy, Arab community thrived. The Arabs engaged in trade, commerce, shipping, shipbuilding, scholarship, missionary activities, diplomacy and even local politics.
The most important method the Arabs adopted to achieve this was marriage. It is therefore not at all surprising that many of the national heroes of the region as well as local ruling houses were actually Arab in origin.
Maldivian Royal House
What follows here are excerpts from my personal correspondence with Majid AbdulWahab of the Maldive Royal House of Huraage, a modern economy and IT professor in search for his Yemeni roots.
Majid
The story of my family and that of my wife Aminath Didi also known as Antu, is that our families can be traced in uninterrupted written records in the Maldives as far back as the late thirteenth century. Most of our known progenitors lived on the island of Fura-Male. Other known roots in the Maldive archipelago are many. Roots beyond these territories can be traced to various regions in Arabia and elsewhere.
In the 16th and 17th centuries King Siri Dhirikusa Loka – Sultan Hassan IX later known as King Manoel or Dom Manoel and his descendants lived as Christians in the Portuguese territory of Goa where they inter married with Portuguese subjects.
At the apex of this aristocratic structure was of course the Royal House of Huraa and were descended from Muslim Abbas of Hilaal through the Christian King Dom Manoel. The Huraagey Dynasty, therefore, was branch of the earlier Hilaaly Dynasty that reigned for two hundred years until the Sixteenth Century. There is evidence to suggest that the Hilaaly King Siri Bavana or Sulran Hassan I and his twin brother King Siri Loka Veeru – Hussein were descended through their mother side from previous Lunar Dynasty, going back to the Eleventh Century AD and beyond into antiquity. The term Lunar Dynasty indicates that this was one of those ancient dynasties of sovereigns that traced their lineage to the heavens. Indeed until the Twentieth Century, Maldive Sultans included the phrase kula Suda Ira, meaning descended from the Moon and the Sun in their royal titles. Only those Seedis and Sittis related by descent to the Hilaalya and the Diyamigilys or were raised to the title of Klege were countered among aristocracy.
Seedis and Sittis in Maldives were warrant carrying descendants of Mohamed, the prophet, P.B.U.H. People of Arab descend who claimed ancestry from The Propher traveled and settled in many countries during mediaeval times carried warrants from the Islamic authorities of the countries they departed in order to establish their credentials.
* Irena Knehtl is an economist and writer. She has been involved in the Indian Ocean dialogue for economic cooperation and exploring economic cooperation among Red Sea countries.
This is part of a larger undertaking tracing Yemeni contacts throughout the Indian Ocean and South East Asia.
For further suggestions and comments contact The Yemen Times



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