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Until
about 1950 there was a street in Malé called
Andiri Andirin Magu,
named after the Regent of King Siri Dhirikusa Loka
(Manoel). This street is now the one to the West of
Maafannu Theemuge. For nearly 400 years the inhabitants
of Malé
did not find it offensive to have one of their streets
named after a compatriot now vilified as a Portuguese
invader. Interestingly there was no Bodu Thakurufan
Magu until the 1990's.
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Flag
of Portugal 1495 - 1578 |
That
there ever existed Portuguese sovereignty over any part
of the Maldives is a myth fabricated relatively recently.
No such record exists in Portuguese archives and there is
no reference to Portuguese rule in the Tarikh, the
official Maldive chronicle written prior to the 20th Century.
No
doubt the Christian King Manoel Siri Dhirikusa Loka, formerly
Sultan Hassan IX, had the moral and some material support
of the Portuguese who evangelised him. The bulk of the evidence
supports the view that there were Portuguese volunteers
or mercenaries under the command of his captains in the
expeditions sent to the Maldives. His regent in Malé
was Andiri Andirin, a Maldivian by birth and upbringing,
albeit of foreign parentage.
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16th Century Portuguese Caravel
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The
Tarikh uses the terms Nasorah (Christian),
Kaafaru (infidel) and Faranji ("Frank", a
term used interchangeably to mean European and Christian)
to refer to the Christian rulers of the Maldives and their
Christian subjects. The oral tradition as related by Buraara
Koi also refers to the Kaafaru to describe the persuasion
of the non-Moslems in the Maldives at that time and only
occasionally as Faranji.
Buraara
is more specific than the Tarikh regarding the allegiance
of mercenaries in the employ of Andiri Andirin. When the
Thakurufans of Uteem took up arms against the regime in
Malé, according to Buraara, Andiri Andirin despatched
a fleet of Malabars to quell the rebellion. Malabar
was a term used to describe the people of the Western coast
of Southern India
At
the time Malé finally capitulated to Kateeb Mohamed
Thakurufan of Uteem, according to Buraara, the expatriates
there comprised of Goans (undoubtedly Portuguese subjects),
Frenchmen and Malabars and evidently they were all in the
employ of Andiri Andirin. It was unlikely that any Portuguese
authority would have engaged Frenchmen, subjects of a rival
mercantile power.
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Vasco
da Gama- First
Portuguese mariner in Asia
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Up
until his assumption of the regency in Malé, Andiri
Andirin is referred to by Buraara as Goa Kalu Faranji,
which means the "black Frank of Goa" or the "black
Christian of Goa". Why was he black? At that time it
was highly unlikely that there were any dark-skinned people
in Europe. The Kingdom of Grenada, the last Moorish (some
of whom were dark-skinned) State in Europe fell more than
50 years before to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille.
Was Andiri Andirin not Portuguese?
The
Tarikh and Buraara Koi, however, do refer to the
Portuguese quite specifically. For instance there is a reference
in the Tarikh to an abortive invasion in 1624 (over
fifty years after the so-called Portuguese rule ended),
in the reign of King Siri Kula Sundhura Katthiri Bavana
(Sultan Shuja'i Mohamed Imaduddine I), headed by a
captain "Balbagi".
The
authors of the Tarikh were very careful to describe
the invaders specifically as Furhetikeysin (the Maldivian
word for Portugal is Furhetikal and the Portuguese
is Furhetikeysin) and not merely as infidels, Christians
or Franks. [It must be noted that the Tarikh was
written over nearly 300 years by many authors]
During
the regency of Andiri Andirin, undoubtedly there would have
been many Portuguese people based in the Maldives, as traders,
mercenaries and missionaries. Other European mercantile
powers in Asia, the French and the Dutch and later the English
would have viewed this arrangement as Portuguese rule.
Where
transfer of sovereignty had not taken place, Christian mercantile
powers at that time operated by establishing spheres of
influence and by mutual understanding kept away from each
other's sphere of influence. In common usage, European merchants
regarded these spheres of influence as being under the rule
of the respective mercantile powers.
This
was undoubtedly the reason why Bell and other European writers
such as the Frenchman François Pyrard de Laval had
referred to the Portuguese presence as Portuguese rule.
In spite of references to Portuguese rule, Bell concedes
that the "Islands were then governed by a Native Regent,
under the control of the Portuguese Commandant, who ruled
in the name of the exiled King Dom Manoel (Hassan IX)".
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Hassan
IX and his fellow converts were probably not the first
Maldive Christians. Theophilus, sent by Emperor Constantius
(about AD 354) on a mission to Arabia Felix and Abyssinia,
was one of the earliest, if not the first. He had
been sent when very young a hostage a Divoeis,
by the inhabitants of the Maldives, to the Romans
in the reign of Constantine the Great. His travels
are recorded by Philostorgius, an Arian Greek historian,
who relates that Theophilus, after fulfilling his
mission to the Homerites, sailed to his island home.
(see
reference). Theophilus was a well-known physician.
Could it be that he was the first Maldive doctor who
practised in Europe?
It
is said that Theophilus was from a place called Divus.
This is variously understood as the Maldives
Another Roman source, Amianus Marcellinus courtier
to the Roman emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus wrote
in AD 362 about Maldive envoys that came to the emperor's
court. He called the Maldives Divi, which could be
another Latin form of Divus.
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Buraara
describes in minute detail the odi (sailing vessel) of the
Viyazor, the collector of revenue or Atoluverin of the four
atolls to the north of Malé
. Although the designation
of Viyazor was derived from the Portuguese word vedor,
interestingly, his vessel flew a plain red flag, and not
the Portuguese ensign. From time immemorial until 1903,
the flag of the Maldive sovereigns was the plain red flag
shown at the top of this page.
The
Viyazor of Baararh himself sounds very much a Maldivian
by disposition, even though Andiri Andirin was supposed
to have recruited him in Goa to act as a pilot in his expeditions
to capture Malé. If the Viyazor was not a Maldivian,
he must have been someone who was very familiar with the
Maldives and Maldivian customs, before his arrival with
Andiri Andirin.
| Knight
or Witchdoctor?
Buraara
Koi a narrator of ancient history was politically
quite incorrect regarding the personality and character
of Mohamed Thakurufan, Kateeb of Utheem who is now
given credit for "liberating" the Maldives
from "Portuguese rule". Buraara certainly
gives Mohamed Thakurufan all the credit worthy of
a conquering hero of Islam, but he is also described
as an adulterer, a necromancer , a cheat and someone
who enjoyed trapping birds into his extended adolescence.
Nothing
wrong with bird trapping, but duplicity, adultery
and necromancy were unbecoming of a knight of Islam,
according to conservative commentators who wielded
immense power.
Salahuddine |
One
such commentator was Hussain Salahuddine, a twentieth
century chief justice and one time royal commissioner
of history. Buraara’s account was totally unacceptable
for Salahuddine, so he revised it and wrote an alternative
version.
His
only evidence and justification for the change was
that the traditional version of Mohamed Thakurufan’s
character was incompatible with someone who waged
Jihad (holy war) for the cause of Islam- very
subjective and emotive indeed.
Accordingly
he systematically and quite openly purged the traditional
versions of "objectionable" events and accounts
and inserted politically correct material in their
place- some of it fabricated by his own admission.
Salahuddine
bowdlerised Buraara's account, inserting "Portuguese"
where Buraara and the Tarikh had used terms
such as Kaafaru and Nasorah.
Salahuddine
was Mohamed Amin Dorhimeyna Kilegefan's father-in-law.
Salahuddine’s
work on the subject is worthy of literary merit. However
as a source of historical or traditional reference,
its unreliability cannot be emphasised strongly enough.
Salahuddine’s account remains the favoured version
with the Maldives authorities.
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According
to Buraara, he had a wife in Goa when he married the widow
of the slain Sultan in Malé. No Catholic would have
been allowed to divorce his wife, let alone take more than
one wife. King Henry VIII had to secede England from
the Church of Rome in 1534 because Pope Clement VII would
not allow him to divorce Catherine of Aragon. It was highly
unlikely that in 1558 Pope Paul IV would have consented
the Viyazor of Baararh to take a second wife.
Oral
tradition describes the Viyazor as a likeable fellow, who
occasionally shared a meal with the Thakurufans of Uteem
in a communal plate. Moslems would willingly share a meal
with Christians, but it was unlikely that they would eat
with a Christian from a communal plate. According to Buraara,
the Viyazor was steeped in astrology, numerology and dabbled
in necromancy. If he were a Portuguese Christian, the Holy
Inquisition would have had him burnt at the stake for such
heretical activities.
The
terminology used in the Tarikh to describe the end
of the rule of the Christian King and the end of Holin rule
in 1752 is also significant. While the end of Christian
rule is described as a conversion to Islam, the end of Holin
rule is described as a "transfer of ownership of the Kingdom
toits people". This means that while the end of Holin rule
was clearly recognised as liberation from a foreign power,
the author of the Tarikh saw the end of Christian
rule merely as a coup d'état.
Bell
had used translations of the Tarikh in his Monograph.
Where the Tarikh clearly uses the terms described
above, Bell uses the term "Portuguese", in translation.
Whoever was Bell's translator must have been keen to draw
a comparison between the colonial history of Ceylon where
Bell was born and that of the Maldives.
When
British rule ended in the countries of Southern Asia in
1947 and 1948, these countries started celebrating independence
days or national days. This and the wave of Nationalism
sweeping Asia and much of the world at that time dictated
that, like other countries, the Maldives also celebrated
a so-called "National Day".
Amin
Kilegefan |
At
a loss for a day, Mohamed Amin Dorhimeyna Kilegefan came
up with the idea of appointing the first day of the Islamic
lunar month of Rabee-al-Awwal as the National Day of the
Maldives. Three and three quarter centuries before on this
day, according to the Tarikh, Mohamed Thakurufan
kateeb of Uteem assassinated Andiri Andirin and seized control
of Malé. Many traditional versions, including Buraara
place the date of the event in the month of Rajab. Raabee-al-Awwal
is, of course, holier in the Islamic calendar.
The
National Day had to be romanticised with the defeat of a
colonial European power. The myth of Portuguese rule over
the Maldives was thus fabricated, institutionalised and
committed to official history.
The
myth of Portuguese rule is perpetuated annually since the
late 1940's. All manner of festivities, including school
children made to perform quaint dances dubbed "cultural",
take place every year. These celebrations were canned in
1965 by Prime Minister Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri Kilegefan,
until restituted by the regime that succeeded his presidency.
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