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The early history of Maliku can be summed up as listen to the sea, the stars - and -history. And taste some of the flavors of the old kingdoms on the Arabian Sea, of Sinbad the Sailor and merchants from antiquity sailing in search of wealth. * Riding the monsoon of the Arab sea were also the Arabs from Southern Arabia (present day Yemen and Oman). Crescent shaped Minicoy rose from the Sea of Larwi or the Arab Sea. Full moon or crescent used to have for Arab naval expedition particular significance. The moon presided over the stars and foretold the destiny of nations. The island was unusual beautiful - and green. A royal island! They named it "Malik-u", the king among islands, and as such entered the Arab chronicles. It is said that Minicoy has the oldest recorded history. It records that Minicoyans are children of the sea and their ships went as far into Arabia, the Maldives, Andaman, Bengal and Burma. Maliku was the most northern Maldivian island, of cowry producing islands, an island in between the cowry producers and coconut rope producers. The Maliku used to serve as some sort of collecting point, a distribution center. The early Arab navigators had regarded the Laccadivs as forming part of a vast archipelago, the Dibajat Islands. Among coconut rope producing islands, the Agatti community made a name for itself. It was likely that, then and now, the women of Minicoy were in a majority, because the man of Minicoy were seamen who were often away from home. The Laccadive Islands, which formed part of the Dibajat, did actually belong to a female ruler. They were fief to the kingdom of Cannanore,on the mainland of India, to which they had to send an annual tribute of coconut rope. The ruling dynasty of Cannanore recognized the female right of accession to the throne, and the ruler of Cannanore was often a women, essentially a queen, known as the Arrakal Bibi. To these islands, wrote the Arab geographer Idrisi in the twelfth century, come the ships from Southern Arabia to gather coconut, and cut wood to build their vessels. They stay on the islands building their ships, and then sail home in them. Though the Laccadives were merely fly specks in the vastness of the Arabian Sea, it was easy to see why the Arab navigators had come across them, for they lie directly in the track of ships sailing from the south of the Arabian Peninsula to the west coast of India. The historic Arab connection now means that 90 percent of the islands are Muslims and they claim that Islam was carried to them during the Prophet Mohammed`s (PBUH) lifetime by a Muslim saint wrecked on the Laccadives. ABOUT Lakshadweep was earlier known as Laccadives, Minicoy and Amindives Island. In 1956 it become a Union Territory of India. Administrator was appointed to govern these territories. The islands form the smallest of the Union Territories of India and the country's only coral islands. Lakshadweep consists of ten inhabited and 17 uninhabited islands, some attached islets, four newly formed islets and 5 submerged reefs. Kavaratti, Agatti, Amini, Kadmat, Kiltan, Chetlat, Bitra, Andrott,Kalpeni and Minicoy are the inhabited
Related Articles -
Arab Sea, Maliku, Minicoy, Sea of Larwi, Lakshadweep, Arab navigators, Dibajat, Cannanore, Maldives,
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