Arab Traders & Serendib

Serendib is an old name for the island of Sri Lanka. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it as Arabic in origin and recorded in use at least as early as 361 CE. It is an altered form of the Sanskrit name Simhaladvipa, and the Arabs are thought to have borrowed it from the Indians with whom they traded. For a time the name gained wide currency in the West.

English speakers know it mainly through one word. In the 18th century the English man of letters Horace Walpole invented the word serendipity, taking it from a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip, whose heroes often made discoveries by chance.

The island's harbours were known to seafarers long before Europeans arrived. The ICOMOS evaluation of Galle for UNESCO notes that the bay was mentioned as early as 545 in the cosmography of Cosmas Indicopleustes, and that when the traveller Ibn Battuta landed there in 1344 it was the principal port of the island.

Britannica records that the Arabs had been attracted by the luxury products of Sri Lanka since about the 10th century and were the major international traders. A Library of Congress country study adds that after the Chola declined as a maritime power in the 12th century, Muslim trading communities claimed a major share of commerce in the Indian Ocean, and that by the 15th century Arab traders dominated its routes. Colombo and Galle became prominent ports of this external trade.

Cinnamon is indigenous to the forests of the island's south-west. Britannica states that it became an export commodity in the 14th century, that the Arabs were interested in cinnamon and spices, and that the trade was monopolised by royalty: kings entered into contracts with foreign merchants and fixed prices. In 1283 King Bhuvanaika Bahu I sent an embassy to the Mamluk sultan of Egypt to seek a commercial agreement.

Sri Lanka's Export Development Board records how the spice reached Europe. Arabian traders introduced it there and kept a monopoly, and according to Roman and Greek records they spread tall tales about its origin to ward off competition. The Board notes that Sri Lanka was hardly mentioned as the source until the late 13th century, and that the merchants who carried the spice on to Europe were mostly unaware of where the island was.

Some traders stayed. The Library of Congress study relates that the Sri Lankan Moors trace their ancestry to Arab traders who moved to southern India and Sri Lanka some time between the eighth and fifteenth centuries. They adopted Tamil, the common language of Indian Ocean trade, and lived mainly in coastal trading and agricultural communities while preserving their Islamic heritage.

Their position changed after 1505, when a Portuguese fleet reached the island. The study describes the Muslim shipping trade as a target for the Portuguese, who were openly hostile to the island's Muslim traders. The Export Development Board states that the Portuguese took control of the cinnamon trade and ended the monopoly that the Moor merchants had run for centuries. During the Portuguese period many Moors moved to the Central Highlands, and the study records that their descendants remained there.

Cinnamon is still one of Sri Lanka's export crops. The Department of Export Agriculture states that it is grown commercially in the coastal belts and further inland, and that it is also found growing naturally in the Sinharaja and Knuckles forest reserves.

The department describes the bark as largely sold in the form of quills, and says that the making of quills is unique to Sri Lanka. Peelers scrape the outer skin, rub the bark with a brass rod to loosen it, peel it with a special knife and join the pieces into a pipe-like structure. The standard length is 42 inches. A first harvest can be taken three years after planting, with two harvests a year. The bark is also sold as chips, quillings and featherings, and oils are produced from both the bark and the leaves.