RASSL lecture on Ceylon Moor intelligentsia in late 19th Century
View(s):Ramla Wahab- Salman, will deliver this month’s Royal Asiatic Society Sri Lanka’s public lecture tomorrow, Monday, February 27 at 5 p.m. at the Royal Asiatic Society No. 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 7. She will speak on the subject of ‘Ceylon Moor Intellectual Production in the late 19th Century (1882-1889)’.
The study looks at the Ceylon Moor intelligentsia of British Ceylon in the late 19th Century. It uses primary and secondary historical material of the period with an emphasis on Muslim Nesan (Muslim Friend), which functioned as a weekly printed publication in British Ceylon from 1882-1889.The study contextualizes the affinities and differences in political thought of Muslim Nesan’s owner and editor M.C. SiddiLebbe with Orabi Pasha who was an Egyptian political exile in Sri Lanka and includes reference to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s influences in furthering education of Muslims in the English language and modern sciences.
The talk deals with topics of relevance to the Ceylon Moors intelligentsia of the late 19th century including resistance to British colonialism in Egypt, the Sudan, educational renaissance amongst Indian Muslims and the debate surrounding the origins of the Moor race in Ceylon.