story from Abdullah Saeed, Maathodaa, Huvadhu atoll, translated by website authors 1997
In Dhiyamigili, Thaa atoll lived two men, Mohamed and his younger brother Hassan.
Hassan had been to India and China, learning a lot of mathematics and astrology as he travelled. Nobody at home in Dhiyamigili was aware of this at first.
After he had returned from overseas, Hassan stayed at Dhiyamigili with his family. One night the two brothers went fishing on the reef with a net. It was a full moon and they expected a large catch.
But instead of fishing, Hassan watched the moon and stars. Suddenly he saw something in the heavens and told his brother to drop the throwing net. Hassan sat his elder brother on a rock, placed a flat stone on his head and told Mohamed he would be the Sultan of the Maldives.
Later the brothers went to Malé, and Hassan became friendly with the Sultan. The two of them used to go reef fishing. One night Hassan, who was in charge of organising everything, realised he had forgotten the line as they arrived at the dhoani. He left the Sultan on the dhoani while he went back to fetch it.
After a long delay the Sultan sent a servant to Hassan's house. The man found Hassan battling with an impossibly tangled line. The man returned to the Sultan, saying that Hassan wanted to come fishing but the line did not.
With the Sultan still aboard the dhoani, Hassan went to the palace, crowned himself and was accepted by the people. The Sultan became too frightened to leave his ship. However Hassan said he was free to move around.
Hassan eventually gave up the sultanship to his brother Mohamed. Hassan became the Prime Minister.
But Mohamed was fearful of Hassan's intelligence and wanted to be rid of him. So the Sultan had a dhoani loaded with timber and gave the captain a letter to be given to Hassan when they entered northern Huvadhu atoll. Hassan had been told he was going on a business trip to the southern atolls, but the letter revealed it was a journey into exile.
There are two endings to this story:
Ending 1:
Hassan realises as he enters Huvadhu that this means exile and he turns the boat around and returns to Malé.
Ending 2:
Hassan guessed he was being sent into exile and sabotaged the journey by dropping the timber cargo out of the dhoani as it sailed to Huvadhu.
The boat had to search for the floating pieces, and eventually returned to Malé where Hassan asked his brother what the problem was.
Finally Hassan left Malé and returned to Huvadhu. He inspected all the inhabited islands and chose Maathodaa because he liked its position.
He built his house in the middle of the island and used the northern beach. That area is still called Palace beach.
Later the Sultan gave him a title which made him the owner of Fiyoari island and all the islands around to Vaadhoo.
Maathodaa became the chief island of this group. Hassan educated the people, teaching maths and navigation skills. People treat his tomb as an important place.
