List of Sri Lankan Moors
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This is a list of Sri Lankan Moors. Sri Lankan Moors (Tamil: இலங்கைச் சோனகர், romanized: Ilaṅkaic Cōṉakar; Sinhala: ලංකා යෝනක, romanized: Lanka Yonaka formerly Ceylon Moors; colloquially referred to as Muslims or Moors) are a minority ethnic group in Sri Lanka, comprising 9.3%[1][circular reference] of the country's total population. They are mainly native speakers of the Tamil language with influence of Sinhalese and Arabic words, however, some of them use Sinhalese as their native tongue.[2][3][4] They are predominantly followers of Islam.[5]
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The Moors trace their ancestry to Arab traders who settled in Sri Lanka in waves beginning from the 8th century.[6][7][8] The population of Moors are the highest in the Ampara, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts.
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The Portuguese named the Muslims in India and Sri Lanka after the Muslim Moors they met in Iberia.[9] The word Moors did not exist in Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Portuguese colonists.[10] The term 'Moor' was chosen because of the Islamic faith of these people and was not a reflection of their origin.[11]
The Tamil term for Moors is Sonakar, which is thought to be derived from the word sunni.[11][12] The Tamil term Sonakar along with the Sinhalese term Yonaka have been thought to have been derived from the term Yona, a term originally applied to Greeks, but sometimes also Arabs.[13][14]