IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
422 IBN BATUTA'S TRAVELS IN BENGAL AND CHINA.
after some two months' stay, made his escape and got back to Calicut. Here he took it into his head to visit the DHIBAT-ULMAHAL or Maldive Islands, of which he had heard wonderful stories.
One of the marvels of these islands was that they were under a female sovereign,' Kadija, daughter of the late Sultan Jaläluddin Omar, who had been set up as queen on the deposition of her brother for misconduct. Her husband, the preacher Jamaluddin, actually governed, but all orders were issued in the name of the princess, and she was prayed for by name in the Friday Service.
Ibn Batuta was welcomed to the islands, and was appointed Kazi, marrying the daughter of one of the Wazirs and three wives besides. The lax devotion of the people and the primitive costume of the women affected his pious heart ; he tried hard but in vain to reform the latter, and to introduce the system that he had witnessed at Urghanj, of driving folk to mosque on Friday with the constable's staff.
Before long he was deep in discontent quarrels and intrigues, and in August 1344 he left the Maldives for Ceylon.
As he approached the island he speaks of seeing the Mountain of Serendib (compare Marignolli's Mons Seyllani) rising high in air " like a column of smoke." He landed at Batthdlah (PATLAM), where he found a Pagan chief reigning, a piratical potentate called Airi Shakarwati, who treated him civilly and facilitated his making the journey to Adam's Peak, whilst his skipper obligingly promised to wait for him.2
As to the occasional prevalence of female rule in the Maldive Islands see introduction to Marignolli, p. 322.
2 .rya Chakravarti is found in Ceylonese history as the name of a great warrior who commanded an army sent by Kulasaikera, who is called King of the Pandyans or people of the Madura, country, which invaded Ceylon in 1314. The same name re-appears as if belonging to the same individual in or about 1371, when he is stated to have erected forts at Colombo, Negombo and Chilaw, and after reducing the northern division of Ceylon, to have fixed the seat of government at Jaffnapatam. It is probable of course that these were two different persons, and indeed one authority speaks of the first Arya as being captured and put to death in the reign of Prakrcma Bahu III (1314-1319). The second must have
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