Sri Lankan Moors (
Tamil: இலங்கைச் சோனகர் colloquially referred to as
Muslims) are the third largest ethnic group in
Sri Lanka, comprising 9.23% of the country's total population. They are native speakers of the
Tamil language and predominantly followers of Islam. The Tamil term for Muslims in Sri Lanka is சோனகர் (Sonakar), சோனர் (Sonar) or சோனி (Sooni) probably derived from
Sunni. While some sources describe them as a subset of the
Tamil people who had adopted
Islam as their religion and spoke
Tamil as their mother tongue, which they continue to do so, other sources trace their ancestry to
Arab traders (
Moors) who settled in Sri Lanka some time between the 8th and 15th centuries. Moors today use
Tamil as their primary language, with influence from Arabic. The population of Muslims are the highest in the
Ampara and
Trincomalee districts respectively.