Of the Arabian authors of the middle ages the one who dwells most largely on Ceylon is EDRISI, born of a family who ruled over Malaga after the fall of the Khalifs of Cordova.  He was a protege of the Sicilian king, Roger the Norman, at whose desire he compiled his Geography, A.D. 1154.  But with regard to Ceylon, his pages contain only the oft-repeated details of the height of the holy mountain, the gems found in its ravines, the musk, the perfumes, and odoriferous woods which abound there.[1] He particularises twelve cities, but their names are scarcely identifiable with any now known.[2] The sovereign, who was celebrated for the mildness of his rule, was assisted by a council of sixteen, of whom four were of the national religion, four Christians, four Mussulmans, and four Jews; and one of the chief cares of the government was given to keeping up the historical records of the reigns of their kings, the lives of their prophets, and the sacred books of their law.

[Footnote 1:  EDRISI mentions, that at that period the sugar-cane was cultivated in Ceylon.]

[Footnote 2:  Marnaba, (Manaar?) Aghna Perescouri, (Periatorre?) Aide, Mahouloun, (Putlam?) Hamri, Telmadi, (Talmanaar?) Lendouma, Sedi; Hesli, Beresli and Medouna (Matura?).  “Aghna” or “Ana,” as Edrisi makes it the residence of the king, must be Anarajapoora.]

Ships from China and other distant countries resorted to the island, and hither “came the wines of Irak, and Fars, which are purchased by the king, and sold again to his subjects; for, unlike the princes of India, who encourage debauchery but strictly forbid wine, the King of Serendib recommends wine and prohibits debauchery.”  The exports of the island he describes as silk, precious stones of every hue, rock-crystal, diamonds, and a profusion of perfumes.[1]

[Footnote 1:  EDRISI, Geogr. Transl. de Jaubert, 4to.  Paris, 1836, t. i. p. 71, &c.  Edrisi, in his “Notice of Ceylon,” quotes largely and verbatim from the work of Abou-zeyd.]

The last of this class of writers to whom it is necessary to allude is KAZWINI, who lived at Bagdad in the thirteenth century, and, from the diversified nature of his writings, has been called the Pliny of the East.  In his geographical account of India, he includes Ceylon, but it is evident from the details into which he enters of the customs of the court and the people, the burning of the widows of the kings on the same pile with their husbands, that the information he had received had been collected amongst the Brahmanical, not the Buddhist portion of the people.  This is confirmatory of the actual condition of the people of Ceylon at the period as shown by the native chronicles, the king being the Malabar Magha, who invaded the island from Caligna 1219 A.D., overthrew the Buddhist religion, desecrated its monuments and temples, and destroyed the edifices and literary records of the capital.[1]