Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/352

Rh 330 MALDIVE ISLANDS and domestic habits. The population has been guessed in some books at 200,000; almost certainly one-tenth of that number would be an ample estimate. Moresby states the population of 98 islands, and the aggregate, is 11,310. In the same proportion 178 islands would give 20,543; but the aggregate quoted includes the King s Island, which is much above the average in population. The language is undoubtedly a dialect of Singhalese approaching the old Elu, but indicating a separation of ancient date, and it is more or less Mohammedanized. Nothing at present can be said of grammar. But Mr Albert Gray has drawn out in parallel columns the Maldivian words given by Pyrard with the modern Singhalese equi valents (see Jour. Roy. As. Soc., quoted at end). A cursory analysis of the list (which contains 275 words) gives the following result : - 1. Words evidently to be explained by Singhalese 58 percent. 2. ,, less evidently ,, ,, 2 2 3. Persian and Arabic 10 6 4. Malay 1 9 5. Tamil I l 6. Portuguese I l 7. Sanskrit or Pali, not Singhalese 8 8. Undetermined 24 3 Combining 1, 2, and 7, we have 61 per cent, of words of Singhalese or Sanskrit origin. And an analysis by Mr Bell of one of the sultan s letters to the Ceylon Govern ment gives 65 per cent, of such words. The origin of the name Mai-diva or Mdldiva is obscure. Diva is a familiar word in the Indian pralcrits (Sansk., dvlpa ; Pali, dlpo) for an island. By a form of this word the people formerly designated themselves and their country, and this survives in letters of last century from the sultan to the Ceylon Government, in which he designates his kingdom as Divehi Rajje, and his subjects as Diveld mihun, &quot; island people,&quot; There is a very old example of this use in Ammianus Marcellinus, who, in reference to the alleged excitement in the East at the accession of Julian, says that missions were prepared &quot; ab usque Divis ct Serendivis,&quot; from the people of the Divas and of Serendiva or Ceylon. And this is the name Diva or Dila-jdt (Pers. plural form) by which these islands are described by the early Arabian geographers. The first literary use of the whole name is Ibn Batata s Dhibat-al- Mahal (14th century), an Arabized form,. sometimes used (Mahal-dib) by the people now, though the proper form seems to be Male. Male-diva may possibly, as Bishop Caldwell (comp. Grammar, 2ded., Introd. p. 28) and others have suggested, have meant the &quot;islands of Mal4 &quot; or Malabar. On the other hand Maid (Sansk.), &quot;a chaplet &quot; or &quot;row,&quot; is not an impossible etymology considering how naturally the word &quot; chaplet &quot; occurs in the endeavour to describe an atoll. But these are conjectures. Under the sultan (who styles himself on coinage &quot; Lord of Land and Sea &quot;) there used to be six recognized viziers or councillors (but this system is now obsolete), besides a chief of law and religion called fandiari. Over each of the thirteen atolls is a king s agent, called atolu-veri, who collects the revenue. This official is often one of the royal family, or a vizier s son, and often resides at Mal6, employing a deputy. On each island is a headman called rarhu-veri. There is also on each island containing forty inhabitants a Mtibu (Ar., Mtib, &quot;scribe&quot;), who acts as judge and minister, celebrat ing marriages, &c. Pyrard calls him the cure. Some of the oldest accounts of these islands represent them as always governed by a woman, a notion which probably arose among the Mohammedan visitors from finding that female heirs were not precluded from succes sion. Just the same notion was held about Achiu in the 17th century, b3cau.se there chanced to reign there several female sovereigns in succession (see vol. i. p. 97). We do find females nominally reigning on the Maldives on two of the rare occasions when we have glimpses of their state, viz., in the time of Ibn Batuta, and again in the last century. Islam is universally professed by the people, nor is there tradition of any other religion, though there are a variety of Pagan superstitions and some doubtful traces of Buddhism. Thus the Bo-tree (or pippal), so sacred among the Buddhists of Ceylon, is still cherished near mosques. Pyrard de la Val was informed that the conversion to Islam took place two centuries at most before his time, i,e. } about 1400. But, unless there was a decay and revival, we know this to be wrong, as the islanders were Mohammedan in the time of Ibn Batuta (1343). And this traveller tells that the father of one of his wives in the islands had for his grandfather (though the word used may mean &quot; ancestor &quot; only) the Sultan Baud, who was grandson of Ahmed Shanu-raza, the first king who adopted Islam. Accepting the meaning of &quot; grandfather,&quot; this would carry the con version back to about 1200, a probable epoch, for about that time there was a considerable outburst of missionary zeal in Islam, which led to the conversion of the coast states of Sumatra, &c. Ibn Batuta records an inscription on the Jami Mosque of the King s Island which ran : &quot; Sultan Ahmed Shanu-razah embraced Islam at the hands of Abu l Barakat the Berber from the West&quot;; but no date is given. We have mentioned the occurrence of the name Dm in Ammianus. At an earlier date Ptolemy notices the numerous islands lying in front of Taprobane, alleged to number 3378. It is possible also that the Maniolse of the same geographer may constitute a duplicate indication of the Maldives. For in the gossip of Palladius about India (see C. Miiller s Pscudo-Callisthcnes, p. 102) this name ManiolaR is applied to a group of islands, 1000 in number, that lay near Taprobane, and respecting which the old fable of the magnetic rock M T as current, which Ptolemy also connects with the Maniolse. Cosmas (c. 545) shows distinct knowledge of the Maldives (with out naming them) as numerous close-set small islands round Sielediba or Taprobane, in all of which were found cocoa-nuts and fresh water. Passing next to the Arabian notices translated by Renaudot and Reinaud,. which date from 851, and to the work of Mas udi in the next century, we find tolerably correct accounts of the Dtbas, said to be 1900 in number. Al Biruni s account (c. 1030) of the islands is marked by his usual perspicacity and accuracy. The Divas are islets which form themselves in the sea, appearing like a ridge of sand, extending and uniting till they present a solid aspect. But also with time some decompose and melt away in the sea, whilst the inhabitants transfer their cocoa-trees and possessions to an island which is waxing instead of wailing, circumstances corroborated by modern observation. All the eld authors speak of coir (the fibre of the cocoa-nut husk) as one of the staple products of these islands, and the importance of this article for marine equipment led the Portuguese about 1518 to establish a factory on the Maldives. Joao Gomez, the head of the settlement, was at first well received, but his arrogant and violent conduct gave great offence to the Mohammedan traders from Cambay, who brought an armed flotilla against the Portuguese and put them all to death. The Portuguese several times renewed the attempt to establish themselves on the islands, and maintained a garrison for some time, but these endeavours had no permanent result. The islanders were also frequently subject to raids at the hands of the Mopla pirates of Malabar, and sometimes also, it would seem, to maltreatment from the crews of European vessels. The MS. diary of Mr (afterwards Sir William) Hedges, who passed through the Maldives in 1 685, says : We putt out a piece of a Red Ancient to appear like a Moor s Ves-ell : not judging it safe to be known to be English ; Our Nation having lately gott an ill Name by abusing ye Inhabitants.&quot; Such circumstances probably led the islanders to place themselves in relation with the rulers of Ceylon ; and in 1645 occurs the first record of the embassy from the sultan of the Maldives to the Dutch governor at Colombo, which has continued to the present day, under Dutch and English, to arrive annually, bringing some poor offering, as a vague token of homage and claim of protection. The last political trouble of which we have notice occurred in the middle of last century. In 1753 the chief minister conspired to hand over the islands to the Ali raja of Cannanore. A Mopla force occupied Male, and carried off _the sultan. The traitor himself was rewarded by being thrown into the sea. The oppression of these foreigners made the islanders rise and expel them. The sultan never returned, and a minister who