Muslim traders

The economic factor can be regarded as the decision of social development in a human society and with that development of the economic situation; various structures of a society similarly are described. Several scholars have analyzed through their various researches that commercial activities and development of commerce are major facts which a society will organize systematically in the world. The economic factor which was a reason for the origin and development of socio- political organization of ancient Sri Lanka can be studied under two major divisions. Those are an economy based on agricultural activities and economy based on trading activities. R. A. L. H. Gunawardhana has suggested that periods of prolific activity in building of irrigation works in Sri Lanka coincided with the most flourishing periods of trade. The explanation for this is that commercial gain provided the resources for hydraulic engineering. He points out that there was only one new major irrigation project undertaken between the seventh and the ninth centuries, in sharp contrast to the intense irrigation activity in the period immediately proceeding. H. J. Benda has clearly shown from his primary studies that economy based on agriculture and commerce has affected the changes of society and political organization. Therefore, from this research, the growth of commercial activities will be discussed based on those views and how the commercial activities affected the society. Commerce is a factor which is based on buying of items, transaction, selling and consumption. A commercial market is a place where meeting of merchants and consumers takes place. The research will be mainly based on primary sources and wherever necessary material will also be obtained from limited secondary sources published on the political system of the island.

Keywords: internal trade, International trade, Social change, Commercial commodities, Trading groups, Muslim Merchant community.

അറബികളുടെ കടൽസഞ്ചാരവും വ്യാപാരവും ഇന്ത്യൻ മഹാസമുദ്രതീരത്തെ ജനസമൂഹങ്ങളുമായുള്ള ബന്ധങ്ങളും ആഴത്തിൽ പരിശോധിക്കുകയാണ് പുസ്തകം. വ്യാപാരബന്ധങ്ങളിലൂടെയും സൂഫികളിലൂടെയും സാധ്യമായ ഇസ്ലാമിക വ്യാപനത്തിന്റെ അടരുകളെ ഈ പുസ്തകം പരിചയപ്പെടുത്തുന്നു. ആധുനികലോകത്ത് ഏറെ ചർച്ചചെയ്യപ്പെട്ട ഈ ഗ്രന്ഥം, നിരവധി അവാർഡുകൾക്ക് അർഹമായിട്ടുണ്ട്.

The Muslim communities that flourished in the ports of southeastern China c. 10th-14th centuries AD were part of a trade diaspora that played a central role in the commercial life of maritime Asia. In contrast to past treatments which portray these communities as essentially static entities, this paper proposes a tripartite periodization. In the first (c. 907-1020), trade and merchants were concentrated in Guangzhou, with frequent tribute missions playing a major role. In the second (1020-1279), maritime trade involved multiple ports and free trade under the supervision of the maritime trade superintendencies, and the Muslim communities became increasingly integrated into the society of southeastern China. In the third period (1279-1368), preferential Mongol policies towards Muslims significantly altered the nature of the communities and their diasporic identity. Les communautés musulmanes qui se sont épanouies dans les ports de la Chine du sud-est des 10th-14th siècles faisaient pa...

This study attempted to evaluate the quality of life of Muslim traders in Iloilo City. They have traded in this city and resided in its vicinity for several years after migrating from Lanao del Sur when martial law was declared by the then President of the Republic of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos in 1972. Most of these Muslim traders were Maranaos who fled and found their way to the peaceful city of Iloilo. The respondents in the study were the 63 Muslim traders in Iloilo City who were selected through convenience sampling method. In addition, data were gathered for the year 2013-2014. The data gathering instrument was adopted from the Quality of Life Index (QLI) generic version III subjected to computer-process and graphically displayed the weighted mean scores of the total quality of life and subdomains using the boxplot presentation. The results revealed that the weighted mean scores for the overall quality of life with all subdomains of the respondents were above 15. This means that Muslim traders perceived the quality of their life as extremely good while they establish their business in the city. Further, they have accepted and established their current condition in Iloilo City especially on health and functioning, economic status, psychological and spiritual and family domains.