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Introductory Note

Although the Muslims of Sri Lanka constitute about 8 percent of the total population of Sri Lanka, numbering around 1.7 million persons, their importance in the national life of the country cannot be estimated by their numbers alone as they play a very important role in the social, cultural and political life of the country. The Muslims of Sri Lanka, though one in faith, comprise largely of three distinct ethnic groups, namely, the Moors, Malays and Memons though there have also existed smaller groups such as the Sammankarar and Mukkuvar who appear to have been amalgamated into the larger Moor community on the basis of a common faith though this process has yet to be completed.

The paucity of detailed literary material pertaining to Sri Lankan Muslim society is regrettable, but has been addressed wherever necessary by the author’s own field inquiries and observations. The field inquiries, personal observations and other findings of the author incorporated in this work span a period of about ten years from 1996 to 2005. Some of the information contained in this work was obtained by the author in the course of various assignments for the Sunday Observer. It contains material published in the Sunday Observer to which reference has been made, as well as unpublished material collected by the author during these visits and which he has thought necessary to include in the present work. In those parts of the work dealing with the subject matter from a contemporary standpoint incorporating as they do, the author’s own inquiries and observations, attention will be drawn whenever possible, to already published material so as to provide some references which could prove useful to the reader and provide a link to the present.

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