many moors in the west of the island are traders, professionals or civil servants and are mainly concentrated in colombo, kalutara, beruwala, dharga town, puttalam, jaffna, kandy, matale, vavuniya and mannar. moors in the west coast trace their family lines through their father. along with those in the central province, the surname of many moors in colombo, kalutara and puttalam is their fathers first name, thus retaining similarity to the traditional arab and middle eastern kinship system.