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The early history of the Malé militia by Michael O'Shea with assistance from Fareesha Abdulla and Majid Abdul-Wahhab April 2003
In 1194 A.D. a government copper plate was witnessed by a list of dignitaries, including a commander-in-chief, an admiral and chief judge. One hundred and fifty years later, in 1344, the famous Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta stayed on Maldives for over a year and became chief judge. Batutta's list of the queen's ministers includes a commander of the army, admiral, and minister of police. In Buraara Mohamed Fulhu's popular oral historical narrative (suppressed in Maldives by the Gayyoom regime), the fourteenth century ruler Queen Rehendhi poisons two husbands who lay claim to her throne, and after each murder, her return to power is affirmed by a formal gathering of the two Malé militia regiments. There is reference to the two regiments in an account of the death of King Hilali Hassan in 1398. The soldiers were summoned by the beating of a drum when the king passed away. As part of a required ritual, they informed the court that the deceased king could not be properly buried until a successor was enthroned. The militia had an essential, and commanding, ceremonial presence during rituals for the coronations and funerals of Maldive monarchs. Among their varied duties, these part-time soldiers often performed a 'public works' role. Carpenters from the militia were used by the monarchs to build ships, and during the final year of the reign of King Haji Hassan III in the fifteenth century, the Malé militia was ordered by nobles and high officials to dig a new pool and freshwater well in the palace grounds for the ailing sovereign. In 1467, Haji Hassan (also known by the derogatory title Hassan Hadi or Hassan the Dirty) had returned from hajj in western Arabia with 70 negro slaves. They killed a member of the Malé militia, and when the Chief judge protested, he was burnt by the negroes acting on the king's orders. Buraara has the judge saved by the miraculous power of prayer, but the negro slaves seem to have usurped the militia entirely. There is no further mention of these slaves; those who survived the diseases of Malé must have been assimilated into the militia and court families. Malé soldiers were also used to forcibly collect attractive women for the kings' harems. This practice is mentioned by both Buraara and Francois Pyrard, and appears at the climax of the popular Maldive folktale Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu. The sixteenth century was a time of great violence in the Indian Ocean, and Maldives came under sustained attack from Portuguese and Moslem pirates based on the western coast of India. The militia generally avoided man-to-man combat at sea, and Buraara mentions that none of them were capable sailors. In his account, skilled Maldive fighters or edhuru were rare – they were employed as bodyguards, or used their skills to claim and enforce their own leadership. Buraki Ranin's slave Black Ibrahim from Gaafaru island, and other edhuru, had magical superhuman powers. Black Ibrahim himself was taught by Ullhavah Kaaru Edhuru Ibrahim Thakurufaan 'who lived near Galolhu square in Malé'. This man taught his skills to the sons of the elite. They used 'learning boards' to practice their lessons. 'They were taught the Koran, and all the boys were circumcised together. After they recovered they were taught poetry, mauloodh knowledge and nahuf. Then they learnt the art of combat.'Edhuru were masters of arms, and educated men as well. One centre of this martial learning was at Beypore, in south west India. Buraara claims both Andhiri Andhirin and his nemesis, Bodu Mohamed Thakurufaan, were trained there. If edhuru threatened the ascendancy of the militia, they were exiled. They could only live in Malé by acknowledging the sovereignty of the king and dominance of the militia. Records of this period show Malé forces energetically fortified the capital and conducted cannon duels for weeks with threatening ships. During the bombardments of Malé in the 1550s, the queens and wives of regiment leaders actively participated in the defense of the capital. These senior women would tie a small white scarf around their heads and grind gunpowder for the fort guns. They also nursed men wounded in battle. Referring to a slightly earlier period, Buraara says, 'Buraki Ranin was very skilled in treating sword wounds.' Buraara's account has the militia complaining to King Ali VI because he refuses to surrender during the final destructive bombardment of the capital by Andhiri Andhirin's invading forces in 1558. The king is the hero of this section of the story, and his heroism is that of an edhuru. Fifteen years later, when Bodu Mohamed Thakurufaan and his associates take control of Malé, their Maldive forces are competent sailors. Ribudhoo in the South Nilandhoo lagoon, and Thinadhoo on Huvadhu atoll, resisted orders from Bodu Mohamed's new government, and the militia was sent against these recalcitrant islands. Francois Pyrard, shipwrecked on Maldives in 1602, was appalled by the militia's cruel and ruthless treatment of their fellow Maldivians and his ailing shipmates. Torture was used on both men and women. The 'Dhivehi Thaareekhu' records that young King Ibrahim Iskander inaugurated professional military training in Malé in1648. Soldiers were taught wrestling, and trained to use swords, guns, and bows and arrows. The results were immediate. In 1649, accurate shooting drove away an invading force led by two brothers from Goa who were claimants to the Maldive throne. For the first time, Malé power extended north into the Laccadives, as Maldive forces temporarily invaded and conquered islands normally controlled by the Azhi Raja and Begum of Cannanore.
Beginning as an impromptu grouping of capable members of the aristocracy, ministers and their slaves, by the nineteenth century the militia had become a distinct class. A government decree in 1827, restricting women from wearing certain cloth and jewellery, acknowledged the existence of four classes: the aristocracy, the ministers, the armed forces and the commoners. The close power relationship between the monarchy and the militia continued, and in 1828 members of a family were accused of using black magic to kill the king's son. They were arrested, beaten and exiled, despite a formal request for their release from the chief judge to the king.  Early twentieth century. This section of Malé's defensive wall was known as Bodu-koattey Buruzu According to a British naval officer staying on Malé for several months in 1835, the Maldive army numbered 550 soldiers divided into groups of about 100 men. Each group was led by a government minister, and the soldiers were paid in red cloth and copper currency. They did not usually bear arms, and performed a variety of duties. The 'Dhivehi Thaareekhu' says that the soldiers' weapons – swords, guns and lances – were kept in an armory at the palace grounds. Portions of produce, collected as tax by the government, were specifically assigned to the militia. In 1883 the royal tax demand for Isdhoo islanders on Laamu atoll allocated 100 kilos of fine grain to the Malé forces. Maldives was compelled to become a British protectorate in 1887 after a British warship threatened Malé with naval bombardment. The militia, now organized into land forces, hangun, and naval units, kalaaseen, offered no resistance and the king had no choice than to accept the British demands. The next king, Ibrahim Nooruddheen (1888-1892), taught martial arts to selected younger members of the Maldive elite. The training ground was at the king's private residence immediately to the south of the Malé palace complex, and instruction took place in the evening under the direct supervision of the monarch. The king approved when he noticed a soldier, Ismail Didi, demonstrating the foot drill he had learnt years before at an English school in Galle in Sri Lanka. He was ordered to train the young men in the western military style. Light arms were issued to this special squad, called the Sifain, and with Ismail Didi as their commander they became a separate section of the militia. (The term Sifain was taken from the Turkish sipahi, feudal lords who fought as cavalrymen for the Ottoman empire.) Later, commoners were permitted to join this select group. In 1907, three northern Maldive islands were occupied by armed Indians led by two exiled Maldivians. As the Malé forces sailed towards them, the invaders retreated to the Laccadives. There was another more serious attack in 1909, when the same exiled Maldivians led another group of Indian mercenaries towards Malé from the north. In a letter about the incident to the British colonial government in Sri Lanka, King Mohamed Shamsuddheen III admitted the capital's defenses were weak. Eventually, the intruders were trapped by the militia on Bandos island just north of Malé and forced to surrender. The Maldive military took no part in the two world wars of the twentieth century, but government accounts for 1917-1922 show that spending on 'chiefs and militia' was half of total government expenditure for that period. In 1933, King Mohamed Shamsuddheen used the Malé mob (called the 'havaru', which is also another name for the militia) to destroy a new British-backed constitutional government for Maldives. Militia members were the most significant part of this 'havaru', which was able to function without restraint when it acted under secret orders from the king. Only a year before, the Sifain had successfully stopped a dispute between Malé islanders and the resident Borah traders from becoming a riot; but in their 'havaru' form, the militia were the agents of civil violence on behalf of their rulers. Immediately after the constitutional coup, government was conducted temporarily by a junta of 68 militia officers.
In 1944, Hassan Fareed was killed in a Japanese submarine attack and Mohamed Ameen became the undisputed ruler of Maldives. He was proud to wear military clothes, and had a close relationship with the British. Before Ameen, the militia's uniform had consisted of Turkish hats, white coats, white trousers and white shoes. When off-duty, they wore a long white shirt and red hat on the side of their heads, with a silver chain attached to the hat to keep it in place. Ameen changed the army uniform to a white shirt with black-stripe collar lining, and the Maldive sarong became the soldiers' informal wear. For formal occasions, the army wore coats, trousers, shoes and an angled hat. Ameen inaugurated an annual Army Day in 1947 and the chief of the army and his men went to Dhoonidhoo island in full uniform. The first route march took place on the 15 August 1945 when the Sifain commemorated the end of World War Two. A three-year civil war began in Maldives in 1960 with a declaration of independence by the southern atolls – Huvadhu, Fua Mulak and Addu (these atolls are now also known as Gaaf Alif, Gaaf Dhaal, Gnaviyani, and Seenu). Starting in 1957, a huge U.K. military staging post had been built in Gan island, Addu, and the British military and the construction company supported the independence movement. Shots were fired into Fua Mulak from a Malé vessel, and Malé forces occupied the important island of Thinadhoo in northwest Huvadhu. Thinadhoo had been an island under special Malé control for centuries, and was better known by the name of 'Havaru Thinadhoo'. One night in late 1961, men rowed north from Addu and attacked the Malé militia on Thinadhoo, driving them from the island. In a revenge attack early the following year, 700 militia from Malé led by Prime Minister Nasir invaded and sacked the island. The entire population was banished, and people died from exposure and starvation. Between 200 and 300 prisoners were taken back to Malé and tortured. Many were killed. Hakeem Hussein Manik was an eyewitness to vicious beatings of prisoners by the Sifain on the streets of Malé, and for days he heard the screams of tortured people inside the Malé fort. End of Part 1 Part 2: From Sifain to NSS – Militia for the Presidents coming soon |
Maldives Culture is an independent internet magazine of Maldivian cultural issues.
Editors and translators: Michael O'Shea and Fareesha Abdulla, Australia
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