Maldives History

The Hilaly Kalo family and King Usman

During the reign of King Usman of Fehendhoo, his chief minister was Nisfu. He was a great astrologer and able to divine auspicious times for important future events up to four years in advance. Every day after the dawn prayer, Nisfu would go out to the northern side of the island and check out the beach. Maldives Holidays

Meanwhile there was a man living in Hulhule' who was descended from the Hilaly family. He was known as Hilaly Kalo and he lived on the island with his wife. One day she said to him, 'Husband, Male' is a much more comfortable place to live than here. Shall we go there?'
Hilaly Kalo never disagreed with his wife so he went to see a boatman and borrowed a dinghy before going to bed that night. Early next morning, he took his wife aboard the boat and began rowing with his bare hands towards Male'.

Nisfu was watching on shore as the couple entered the capital's harbour and ran their dinghy aground. The wife of Hilaly Kalo tried to disembark but she fell face down in the shallow water. As she struggled up onto dry land, the minister returned to his house to have breakfast and rest.

Later he went to the royal palace and advised the king.
'Your majesty, a pregnant frog has descended on Male' and taken the island under her belly.'
'Have you gone mad, chief minister?' asked the king.
'I haven't gone crazy. Listen, your highness! The Hilaly Kalo couple from Hulhule' have decided they don't like it there and they've moved to Male'. Don't let them settle here.'
King Usman used his authoritative voice as he spoke. 'It is not appropriate to mistreat such poor people. What is it to us, if that pair settle here? They haven't said anything to hurt us. Why shouldn't we let them live here?'
'You may end up suffering, your highness,' argued Nisfu. 'Don't do it! Don't give them permission to stay. If your highness grants such permission there'll be serious consequences!'

Later, Hilaly Kalo formally approached the chief minister to ask for a piece of land to build a small house. Nisfu returned to the palace and told the king about Hilaly's request. 'Your excellency, if they settle here, there'll be big trouble. The wife is pregnant with twins. As your humble servant, I warned you about this the other day. Refuse permission.'
'Poor people like that should not be mistreated!' the king insisted. 'If they found life too difficult on their island, then they should be given a place to stay.'
'I have advised you against it,' Nisfu grumbled after he heard the king's words and he left the palace for the Lonuziyaaraiy Kolhu, away from where people lived, and showed Kalo a bit of land among the quinine bushes.

Immediately, Hilaly Kalo made corner studs from the trunk of a wild screw-pine and prepared to start building. Meanwhile, the chief minister kept a close watch for the exact moment that construction began.
'Kalo, if everything is ready,' said his wife, 'shall we get busy and start building the house today?'
Her husband prepared everything they'd need, and his wife indicated the exact spot for the main stud. Kalo put it in place and began building.

While Nisfu was watching all this, a particularly auspicious moment arrived and he decided to leave, pretending that he had just been casually strolling by and noticing the building had begun. The minister went straight home and checked his astrological charts and discovered that if the couple lived in that spot with their house built that way, they would eventually be a serious threat to the king.

So the minister went to the palace to warn Usman yet again. 'Your excellency, if that couple are allowed to build their house in that manner, your reign will not be secure. Send an order for it to be dismantled.'
'Look minister!' retorted the king. 'That sort of decision puts a very heavy burden on poor people!'
But the minister would not give up. 'If they stay, there'll be trouble.'
Faced with this, the king eventually yielded and issued a command that the couple be told to dismantle the house and start building again.

Nisfu was on his way with these instructions when Kalo's wife told her husband to chop off the main stud at ground level before doing any more building. Since Kalo never disagreed with anything his wife suggested, he chopped off the stud and had only just finished removing it when the minister arrived. 'The king's order is that you people dismantle the house and then rebuild it again and stop causing trouble.'
Obediently, Kalo pulled his house apart and removed the corner studs.
'You may now rebuild the house, and no more problems please.'
After Nisfu left, the wife told her husband to place a new corner stud on top of the original one that had been chopped off. The husband built the house as he was told and the couple made themselves comfortable.

Kalo's wife's pregnancy progressed at the same rate as the pregnancy of the chief minister's wife. When Nisfu checked the birth times, he discovered that his own wife gave birth to a boy at the early part of the most auspicious period, whereas Kalo's wife gave birth to twin boys at the peak time, at the very moment the minister had marked for the birth of his own child.

The three boys were raised in their two houses. On the seventh day, Kalo named his first son Hassan and the second, Hussein. Nisfu named his own son Mohamed Manik. When the three boys reached their seventh year they were circumcised. All the boys recovered and stayed healthy.

One day Nisfu went to the palace and approached the king, 'Your excellency, shall we take Kalo's children? Even if we take one, that would help the poor family.'
The minister kept insisting until the king said, 'Alright, if you can look after them, you may take them.'
'I don't know about two children, but I can look after one of them,' replied the minister and he left and headed towards the couple's house.

The wife had a boy on each side when she called out for her husband and he came straight away. 'The minister is on his way to take one of our children! Which one shall we give him? Over there is Hassan and here is Hussein. Hussein's the oldest isn't he?'
'It's up to you, my wife,' sighed Kalo.

While they were discussing this, Nisfu arrived at the house. 'King Usman has ordered that you hand over one of your children.'
'Come in,' said the wife. 'Which one of the two boys would you like to take away? Over there is Hassan and here at the front is Hussein. It is easiest to take Hussein.'
The chief minister took the boy home.

So the twins grew up in separate houses, and they were around ten to twelve years old when Nisfu went to see the king and said, 'Your excellency, allow one of Kalo's children to be sent away from this island. If you don't, it could cause your highness serious trouble.'
'What offence have they committed? What have they said?'
'If both those boys settle here, it may bring you a lot of trouble.'
The minister was insistent but the king said, 'What have these boys done? If we act like that without good reason, people will curse us!'
'Your excellency, the boys haven't committed an offence and haven't said anything offensive. I can organise a way to do this without any bad consequences for your royal self.'
'In that case, go ahead.'

Nisfu returned to his house and slept through the night. After the dawn prayer, he went to the end of Kottey and waited for the sun to rise. He returned home for breakfast and then walked to Kalo's house where Hassan was eating his first meal for the day. After the boy finished, the minister asked him if he wanted to go to the beach for a breath of fresh air. They walked to the northern beach where a boat was arriving. Nisfu waited until the vessel was about to moor and he called out, 'Which island is this vessel from?'
'This is the Landhoo tax boat,' came the reply.
'Don't anchor the boat,' ordered the minister. 'Take Hassan here to Landhoo, and your boat will not have to pay government tax for four years.'
The crew took Kalo's son aboard, then turned their boat around and headed off to their island.

Kalo's other son Hussein grew up in the chief minister's house. After Hassan had been sent off to Landhoo, the minister went to the palace to see the king. 'I have sent Kalo's son Hassan away, your excellency.'
'What did you do to avoid any embarrassment to me?'
'I coaxed the boy out for a walk around the island. We went to the northern beach. There was a ship that had just arrived. I asked where it was from and they said from Landhoo, so I sent the boy with them. As I came back from the beach, some people on the street asked me what I was doing. I told them I had sent off a young man to look after an island.'

The minister returned home and rested on a pillow on the small bench bed. As he lay there, Hussein came up and sat on a long bench nearby, lifted Nisfu's feet onto his lap and began to massage them. Things like this made the minister more fond of Hussein than he was of his own son.

The minister returned to his work as the astrologer, and he did the readings and calculations for the next four years.


Four years later, one night after dinner, Nisfu lay down to rest and Hussein came up and began to massage his legs. A little later, the minister got up and told Hussein to follow him. He took the boy outside and looked up into the sky. The night was very clear. 'Since you hardly ever sleep at night, wake me if I fall asleep when that reaches mid-heaven.' He pointed out a particular star and then returned to rest on his pillow. Hussein stayed awake, massaging the minister's legs. Nisfu fell asleep and Hussein continued the massage until he realised he needed to go to the toilet.

This really isn't very good! thought Hussein. I've never had to go to the toilet in the dark before! The minister might wake up as soon as I leave and he'll accuse me of being ill-mannered. So I shouldn't go. I'll try to hold on.

Hussein continued massaging his master's legs until his stomach began rumbling like the full moon tide breaking on a shallow reef. He realised he would have to go to the toilet and decided to make a quick trip to the beach and hurry back before the minister woke up. Hussein ran towards edge of the island and down to the shore, lifting his sarong and jumping blindly off the edge of some eroded land into very deep water. Suddenly he was immersed over his head. Scared and shocked, he forgot about going to the toilet and realised he had better hurry back before the minister woke up. He crawled out of the water and ran as fast as he could.

Two men dressed in white called out to him near the octagonal bathing tank and said, 'Hussein, here's a chair for you.' When he went over there he found three chairs with the men sitting on two of them.

Meanwhile the chief minister woke up and realised Hussein was missing. He went into the inner room where his other son Mohamed Manik was sleeping and dragged him off the bed. 'Why are you hurting me?' cried out the boy who protested he hadn't done anything wrong.

Nisfu ignored his son's cries and hauled him quickly outside through the doorways. When they reached the area where the Henveiru gate is now, Hussein was sitting with the men in white and he noticed Nisfu and knew it was time to go. Hussein had only taken a few steps when he turned back and saw the two men in white had disappeared. The three chairs were also gone.

Nisfu came up to Hussein he told him to wring the water from his sarong onto his son's head. 'Have you gone mad, minister?' asked Hussein. 'I can't shake water off my body like someone who's just been bathing.' But Nisfu told him to stop playing games and he grabbed at Hussein's sarong, leaving him naked as he wrung out the wet sarong over Mohamed's head. Then he took both boys home.

Next day at the first light of the sun, Nisfu went to speak with the king. 'Your excellency, you must give Hussein Kalo some work to do.'
'Bring him here then,' said the king, and after meeting the boy, Usman liked him and agreed to keep him as an assistant. Within three days, Hussein was a royal servant.


Now listen!

One night in Landhoo island, Hassan couldn't go to sleep after dinner. He got up, remade the bed and killed a few bed-bugs. Then he recited a lot of prayers and lay down again. But sleep wouldn't come. Sometimes he felt hot, other times he thought he was being bitten by bugs. So he got up again and walked to the windless calm side of the beach and there was a ship with two masts.

The yardarms were drawn up the mast but the sails were furled. The boat was moving towards the shore. He began to realise it would soon run aground and that there couldn't be anybody on board or they would have turned the boat around by now. For sure, there was nobody on it! He ran towards the shore and the moment that he stepped into the water, swam across and climbed into the ship, was the exact same moment that Hussein fell off the eroded edge of Male'.

When Hassan got aboard the ship, the anchor was waiting to be dropped. As the vessel came to a halt and Hassan secured it, he thought it might be a European ship. I'd better check out what's on board, there might be pork and alcohol here! He lifted the cargo hold covering and found hessian bags full of gold pieces. He closed it and went into the deck cabin. There he found a chest the same length as the room. He opened it with the key sitting in the handle. The real treasure wasn't in those hessian bags! It was here! The chest was full of diamonds and precious stones. What am I going to do with all this! he thought. I'll take it to Male' as a gift for the king.

Hassan left the ship and gathered other young men old enough to act as crew. He gave them as much gold as they could carry and asked them if they would like to accompany him to Male'. Enough of them were willing, so they left.

After many days and nights of sailing, the vessel cruised through Bodu Kalhi as the sun was rising, and anchored at Dhoonidhoo. Hearing about this, the king summoned the harbourmaster. 'Go and find out where that ship has come from, and its destination. Find out whether it's owned by a prince or minister or merchant, and what sort of trade it is seeking. Then report back to me.'

The harbourmaster sailed off to the ship, approaching it from windward. 'Who owns this vessel? Where is it sailing to, and what is your business here?' he shouted.
'This ship doesn't belong to anyone important and its not seeking trade,' cried out Hassan in reply. 'It carries a gift of gold for king Usman from Hassan, the son of Hilaly Kalo, who was sent to Landhoo.'

The harbourmaster returned to the palace and respectfully addressed the king. 'Hassan, the son of Kalo, who was sent to Landhoo, has arrived with a ship full of gold for your highness.'
'Then bring him here!'

So the harbourmaster brought Hassan to the palace. The young man stood at a distance and paid his respects. Then he moved closer and touched the king's feet. Hassan knelt down on the soft coir rug and told the king he had come with a ship full of gold as a gift for him.
'What do you do on that island,' the king asked.
'I am a fisherman, your highness,' Hassan explained, 'and your highness may not fully understand how addicted to it I have become. I must fish at least once a day and also at night but even then my craving to fish isn't satisfied. Once a month I go to a shallow reef over fifty miles out to sea. If I don't drop my line there, I don't get any sleep and I lose my appetite.'
'About this good shallow spot. You know how to get there?' asked the king who was very fond of fishing.
'Of course I know the place, your majesty. I sail there every month.'
'Well,' said the king, 'since your ship and its gold are a gift for me, shall we going fishing in it? It's all rigged to sail.'

At that moment Hassan glimpsed his younger brother Hussein walk through one door and out through another, carrying the royal dinner. My brother will do well out of all this too, thought Hassan.

'I hate watching others catch fish when I don't have my fishing gear, your highness. May I fetch my line from home?'
'Make sure you hurry,' said the king. 'Off you go then.'

The king sat down for his dinner while Hassan ran to his parents' house, calling out as he entered, 'Mother, where's my father's fishing line?'
'In the frond basket in the roof,' she answered.
Hassan climbed up to have a look. The basket was well sealed, so he opened it carefully and found the fishing line rolled into a neat bundle. He sat in the roof, carefully taking hold of the two ends of the line and then jerking it into a tangle.
'I guess this is why you told me not to touch things that belong to someone else, mother,' Hassan yelled abusively from the roof.

King Usman finished his meal and Hassan had still not returned, so he sent a guard to fetch him. The soldier found Hassan up in the roof, telling off his mother.
'By order of the king, you are to come to the palace immediately.'
Hassan said he wasn't going to be late, and told his mother to cook a little bit of sweet sticky rice. She went to the kitchen, boiled the rice and added sugar to it.

Meanwhile the guard returned to the palace and told the king that Hassan was coming soon. After a further delay, the king sent the guard back to bring Hassan quickly. Just as the guard reached Kalo's main door, he met the mother who was entering the house with the steaming hot sweet sticky rice. The vapour went up into his nostrils making him dizzy and he turned around and staggered away.

As his mother placed the pot in the main room, Hassan climbed down from the roof. 'I'll be at the palace straight after my meal,' Hassan called after the stumbling guard. But to his mother he complained, 'It isn't properly cooked. I can't eat something like this and go fishing. It's just sugar added to boiled rice!'

The guard returned to the palace and reported what Hassan had said. Hussein was present during this conversation and he said, 'Your highness, I'm Hassan's brother. I know all the fishing places he knows. If you wait for show-offs like him, you'll never go fishing.'

The king thought about this for a while and decided Hussein was right. So he took his courtiers and young servant to the beach and they all climbed aboard the ship. The sound of royal cannon fire as they sailed through Gaadhoo Kolu alerted Hassan, and he ran with all the strength in his legs and slapping his buttocks with both hands until he reached the Naabudhu Khaana and began beating the drum that summoned the two regiments.

When he heard the drum, king Usman turned the ship around and came back through Gaadhoo Kolu. As it passed between Male' and Funadhoo and got close to the Male' reef, Hussein jumped over the deck railings into the sea. He swam up onto a rock and called back to the king who was still on board. 'Your excellency, I am Hassan's brother. Let's see how powerful a man you are now! Just try and land here in Male'! If you want to stay in Maldives, go to Guraadhoo island in Kolhumadulu atoll.'

Hearing this from on board the ship, Nisfu called out to Hussein, 'Remember, Hassan is first in line for the throne, then Mohamed, and then Hussein. Ok?'
'Hey chief minister! After Hassan is Mohamed, and then Hussein!' Hussein assured him.

King Usman went to Guraadhoo in Kolhumadulu atoll and stayed there.

We are with Japan

Japan had been one of the biggest donor country to Maldives, Japanese aid had benefited average Maldivian life much in past few decades. And Maldivians are in debt to Japan and it people. We would like sympathize with its people for the loss they had been going through recent earth quack and tsunami. We would like to assure Japanese clients visiting Maldives and those who have not visited Maldives that the people of Maldives are with you. May god give you courage and may you rebuild the loss soon.

 

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