By Asiff Hussein
The origins of the Sri Lankan Moors is a matter that has aroused much controversy in academic circles. While it is generally believed that the Moors are descended from Arabian merchants who espoused local women, there are those historians who continue to argue that the Moors originally hailed from South India, mainly on the basis of their spoken language – Tamil. The present article proposes to show that the nucleus of the Moorish community comprises the descendants of Arabian settlers hailing from Iraq and the Arabian peninsula who arrived in the country during the medieval period. Oral tradition, genealogical records, anthropological details and literary, linguistic and epigraphic evidence will be adduced to support this view.