Caste system in the Maldives

In the service of kings and nobles, slaves were frequently promoted to important positions.[7] Sometimes, the given names of their slave ancestors were adopted as surnames by their descendants.[7] For instance, a family by the name of Yaagoot descended from a slave by the same name who worked as a slave for a Diyamigili sultan in the eighteenth century.[7] An African Negro slave by the name of Heyna who belonged to Sultan Mohamed Imaduddine IV in the nineteenth century was the ancestor of a family by that name.[7]

The majority of the kilege titles and furadaana positions shared names, with the only distinction being the removal of the kilege suffix (faan).[7]

Faarhanaa, Rannabandeyri, Dorhimeyna, Faamuladeyri, Maafaiy, and Handeygiri or Handeygirin were among the Furadaana offices.[7] One of the furadaana was usually the prime minister (Bodu Vizier).[7]

However, there have been several instances of prime ministers who were either kileges or had no other positions.[7]

The Faarhanaa, the Rannabandeyri, or the Handeygirin would have been the most likely candidates for prime minister among the furadaana.[7]

Usually, the Dorhimeyna served as the military's commander-in-chief.[7]

The vazierun, or ministers, were ranked below the furadaana in the sultans' and sultanas' courts. The line separating the ministers from the furadaana sometimes blurred in subsequent years.[7]

The terms furadaana and ministers were frequently used interchangeably, with bodu muskulin replacing the term furadaana in ordinary speech.[7]

The chief admiral and foreign minister was the Velaanaa (or Velaanaa-Shahbandar), the minister of public works was the Hakuraa, the chief treasurer was the Bodubandeyri, the chief of palace staff was the Maabandeyri, who was in charge of maintaining the royal seal known as the Kattiri Mudi, and the commander of the land forces was the Daharaa (or Daharada).[7]

Below the ministers, there were a number of smaller positions, such as the Meerubahuru, who oversaw immigration and the port of Malé.[7]

There was also the Faiylia, who was in charge of keeping records of public business.[7]

The Uttama Fandiyaaru, or chief justice, had authority over the furadaana.[7] The chief justice was in charge of ecclesiastical and civil justice, as well as the maintenance of mosques, cemeteries, charity trusts, religious rites, and the approval of marriage and divorce.[7]

He was also in charge of keeping the Tarikh, the official history book.[7] The Bandaara Naibu, or the Attorney General, and the Chief Justice, shared responsibilities for criminal justice.[7]

The atoluverin, or regional governors, acted as the sultan or sultana in the distant provinces ("atolls"). In the Maldive language, from which the word atoll (atolu) has been borrowed, atoll (atolu) refers to a province rather than a coral reef enclosing a lagoon.[7]

Atoll's English counterpart in the Maldives is eterevari.[7]

The kateeb, who was (and is now) the principal temporal and spiritual authority, served as the sultan or sultana's representative on each particular populated island or settlement. For the benefit of the bodubandeyri or chief treasurer, the atoluverin and the kateebs administered criminal justice and gathered the vaaru (poll tax) and varuvaa (land tax).[7]

In Malé, the avarhuverin of Henveyru, Maafannu, Macchangoli, and Galollu had the temporal responsibilities of the regional kateebs as well as the atoluverin's tasks.[7] In Malé, the avarhuverin were in charge of maintaining public lands, maintaining law and order, and administering criminal justice.[7] Malé's kateebs were solely religious officials.[7]

Every island had a naibu (now known as Qadi or Gazi), who served as the chief justice's representative.[7] The naibu was in charge of administering criminal justice as well as civil and religious justice.[7]

He also approved marriage and divorce as well as the management of charity trusts known as waqf.[7] Each island had a mudimu who served as the chief justice's representative and was in charge of maintaining mosques and graveyards.[7]

The kilege was the highest honor bestowed by the Maldives' sultans and sultanas. The following titles have been bestowed throughout the previous four to five centuries of the monarchy: Ras Kilege, to both men and women.[7]

All of the following kileges are solely available to men: Faarhanaa Kilege, Rannabandeyri Kilege, Dorhimeyna Kilege, Faamuladeyri Kilege, Maafaiy Kilege, Kaulannaa Kilege, Oliginaa Kilege, Daharada Kilege, Kuda Rannabandeyri Kilege, and Kuda Dorhimeyna Kilege.[7]

Only Rani Kilege, Maavaa Kilege, Kambaadi Kilege, and Maanayaa Kilege were given to women.[7]

Over the past several hundred years, the term kilege has acquired the optional and honorific suffix "faan".[7]

The king-sultan or the queen-sultana were the ex-officio Ras Kilege. The other kileges, who were also referred to as amirs or commanders of the realm, should not be confused with kaleygefan (or kaleyfan), which is either a term of low status or an honorary method of addressing or referring to holy individuals.[7]

A person and his or her immediate family are promoted to the aristocracy when they are given the title of kilege, which were no inherited titles, though.[7]

The term "kangathi" was a lesser title.[7] These were frequently given to well-known regional figures or occasionally to Malé's middle class.[7]

In contrast to the kilege nobles, the awardees were not recognized as aristocrats.[7]

Maafahaiy, Meyna, Ranahamaanthi, Gadahamaanthi, Hirihamaanthi, Fenna, Wathabandeyri, Kaannaa, Daannaa, and Fandiaiy were some of the kangathi titles.[7]

No instance of a woman receiving a kangathi title has been documented.[7]

Members of the royal family had their names prefixed with Manippulu if they were princes, and Goma if they were princesses, or more frequently with nickname like Tuttu, Don, Titti, or Dorhy.[7] The term "manippulu" was a new term.[7]

Princes and princesses were both referred to as goma until the early eighteenth century.[7] A prince was really called Kalaa, while a princess was called Kambaa.[7]

The royal (patrilinear) line of the governing family did not hold any public office until in recent times of monarchy.[7]

Baburu Aminaa Fulhu on the left who was the last first-generation slave of Maldives.

Slaves of African origin were called baburu, which meant negro in Maldives.[1]

Slavery was well-known in the Maldives, first and foremost in the nation's capital Male and on the islands where sizable populations of the nobility resided.[1]

Arab vessels carried the majority of the slaves to the Maldives. The majority of these routes for the slave trade began in East Africa and continued via Zanzibar and the Omani port of Muscat. According to reports, Sultan Hasan Ill authorized the purchase of a large number of slaves in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah during the middle of the 15th century. This Sultan's unwillingness to allow a slave to be punished for killing a Maldivian is the reason he is referenced once again in the historical narrative Ta'rikh.[1]

Slaves had access to a variety of occupations outside lower caste employment. Some of them worked in the Sultan's guard. Only Africans were essentially subject to slavery.[1]

The number of slaves being sent to Maldives after the 18th century was drastically decreased, and by the start of the 19th century, the already meager supply of African slaves had all but vanished.[1]

Baburu Amina Fulu, who passed away in the 1940s, was the last first-generation slave of Maldives.[1]

Slaves from Eastern Europe were known as Charukeysi (Circasian).[1]

During the Middle Ages, several aristocratic families used local commoners as slaves and occasionally even sold them. During the rule of Sultan Mohamed Ibn Al-Hajj Ali Thukkalaa, the situation changed.[1]

Fulhu was a rank by affiliation. The name suggested ownership by a person of noble birth. In other words, Ahmed Fulhu as an example would be either a slave, a slave's ancestor, or a servant of the royal family.[7]

Fulhu was the title given to those of the lowest status who joined the royal household for work or foreign slaves purchased by the great nobles and brought back to the Maldives from the slave markets of Arabia.[7] Africans generally made up these slaves.[7]

The most notable remnants of the old caste system may be seen among the few groups at the bottom of the social order. Giravarus is one such group.[1]

Giraavaru people were compelled to leave their island in 1968. They were moved over to Male and housed in a few blocks on reclaimed grounds in the Maafanu neighborhood.[1][8] They were assimilated with other social groups in Male'.[1]

Working primarily as Raaverins, or keepers of coconut plantations, the slaves were eventually absorbed by several social groups or castes, most notably the Raaveri.[1]

Names with suffix Kalo and Fulhu would be of lower class and would not have been welcomed in the presence of the monarch and nobility unless they were either servants or officials.[7]

It is unlikely that a person with name suffix Kalo would have ever been permitted to enter the presence of royalty.[7]

A name with suffix Maniku was lower middle class[7] unless they inherited the name from upperclass.[6]

If the bearers of names with suffix Seedi and Didi were married to royalty or Kilege nobles, or if they were Kilege nobles or descended from them, then their names may have been considered to be of a higher social class. Otherwise those with such names were upper middle class.[7]

Names with suffix Didi or Manikufanu in the southern provinces were of nobility.[1]