The Conversion To Islam
According to the well-known Moroccan traveler Ibn Batuta, the person responsible for converting the Maldivians to Islam was a Sunni Muslim visitor named Abu al Barakat ul Barbari. He subdued Ranna Maari, a demon coming from the sea and convinced the King to become a Muslim.
However, the more reliable local historical chronicles, Raadavalhi and Taarikh, mention that this saint was actually a Persian from the city of Tabriz, called Yusuf Shamsud-din. He is also locally known as Tabrīzugefānu. The much venerated tomb of this saint now stands on the grounds of Hukuru Miski, in the centre of Malé, the capital.
Read more about this topic: Maldivian Folklore
Famous quotes containing the words conversion and/or islam:
“The conversion of a savage to Christianity is the conversion of Christianity to savagery.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)