[33] Zayn al-Dīn, pp. 23–4. [↑]
[37] Ibn Baṭūṭah, tome iv. pp. 82, 88, etc. [↑]
[39] Oboardo Barbosa, p. 310.
Similarly it has been conjectured that but for the arrival of the Portuguese, Ceylon might have become a Muhammadan kingdom. For before the Portuguese armaments appeared in the Indian seas, the Arab merchants were undisputed masters of the trade of this island (where indeed they had formed commercial establishments centuries before the birth of the Prophet), and were to be found in every sea-port and city, while the facilities for commerce attracted large numbers of fresh arrivals from their settlements in Malabar. Here as elsewhere the Muslim traders intermarried with the natives of the country and spread their religion along the coast. But no very active proselytising movement would seem to have been carried on, or else the Singhalese showed themselves unwilling to embrace Islam, as the Muhammadans of Ceylon at the present day appear mostly to be of Arab descent. (Sir James Emerson Tennent: Ceylon, vol. i. pp. 631–3.) (5th ed., London, 1860.) [↑]