The mental image of most of us about the Maldives is that it is a beautiful, quiet, and isolated island, which represents a beautiful place to spend quality time moving from one island to another, but some of us may not know that the absolute majority of the inhabitants of these islands are Muslims. And if you know this information, do you know, dear reader, the story of the entry of Islam to the Maldives?
It is an exciting and at the same time beautiful, a story that began with the Moroccan traveler Abu Barakat al-Barbari. In this report, we will take you on a journey through history, specifically around the eleventh century AD.
The entry of Islam into the Maldives
The Egyptian writer and historian Mahmoud Shaker mentions in his book Islamic History that Islam began to enter the Maldives in 85 AH, i.e. in the seventh century AD. It was entered by Muslim merchants who arrived in those areas during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
But Islam did not spread there in this way, as the influence of the merchants was simple, and their influence did not exceed a few people entering Islam at this time or that, but the great influence came through a Muslim traveler, from Morocco – and it is said from Somalia – to that country, and this is another story he tells The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta in his book “Tuhfat al-Nazar fi Gharib al-Asmar”
Ibn Battuta in the Maldives
Ibn Battuta traveled to all the countries of the East, starting from his home city of Tangiers in Morocco to India, which was then under the command of the Muslim Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq Shah. Ibn Battuta worked as a judge for the sultan and lived there for several years, but he was worried because the sultan was always inconsistent and get angry vastly, so he was afraid that he might get worse if he remained in his service.
In 1341, the Sultan chose him to be his envoy to the Mughal Sultan in China, so he set out on his journey to escape his anxiety and fear of the Sultan. During his journey, Ibn Battuta was kidnapped, and everything he owned was robbed, and the kidnappers only left him with his pants!
Later, Ibn Battuta managed to travel to the southern Indian Ocean, reaching the Maldives. He tells us the story of Islam’s entry into these beautiful islands. Ibn Battuta resided there for a year before completing his journey to China.
Abu Barakat al-Barbari… the sheikh who defeated the “goblin”
When Ibn Battuta arrived in the Maldives, it was ruled by a Sultana named Khadija. One day he was there, and he found himself in the middle of a festival. People gathered towards the coast, chanting cheers and uttering the takbeer, children on their heads of the Qur’an, and women beating copper pots.
Ibn Battuta was astonished and asked them about their condition and the reason for it, so they asked him to look at the sea, and when he looked, he found a large boat, and they said to him: This is the demon, and his habit is to appear once a month. If we did what you saw us doing now, he would turn away from us and wouldn’t harm us, and thus they attracted the curiosity of the travelers, so he explored the matter until the “trustworthy ones” told him about it, according to what he tells us in his travels.
Thus, Ibn Battuta went and asked some scholars and judges, and they answered him with the story. In the distant time, a goblin from the sea appeared to the people of these islands at a specific time every month, and when it appeared they took one of the virgin girls and beautified her, and placed her in the house of idols erected on the coast, and left her there for the night, and when the morning comes they find her dead.
Thus, the inhabitants arranged a lottery every month, so whoever received the lottery from the inhabitants had to present his virgin daughter to this demon. After many years, this Muslim traveler, Abu Barakat al-Barbari, reached them.
When Abu Barakat arrived, he found them in that condition, and he was living in the house of an old woman on one of the islands, and one day he found her having gathered her relatives and they started crying so badly, and when he asked them, he knew that the lottery fell on the old woman, and thus she must sacrifice her only daughter, and here Abu Barakat al-Barbari decided to save the girl, so he told the old man that he would go in to replace his daughter.
Thus, Abu Barakat, the Barbarian embarked on that adventure. He entered the house of idols and began reciting the Qur’an. When the goblin appeared to him and heard the Qur’an, he returned directly to the sea. The next morning, when the old woman and her family arrived, they found Abu Barakat alive as he is, untouched by anything.
Thus, Abu Barakat al-Barbari arrived at their king, and his name was Shanuraza, and he heard the story from them, then Abu Barakat offered him, Islam, so he decided to test Abu Barakat, and said to him: Stay with us until the next month, and if you do the same thing, we will accept Islam and become Muslims.
Thus, the month did not pass without the king and his family all converted to Islam, and on the next date of the goblin, Abu Barakat the Barbarian entered the temple, but the goblin did not come, and so the king of the island was sent to the rest of the other islands to embrace with him and the people of his island, and this is how the residents embraced, and they lived according to the Imam’s doctrine Malik was also Abu Barakat al-Barbari. And they built a mosque in his name.
The story may seem legendary, and it seems that Abu Barakat the Barbarian did nothing but confront this legend, and because of his position, the inhabitants of the Maldives have become Muslims until now.
