The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an archipelagic country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean, near the southeastern boundary of the Arabian Sea. The Maldives is located southwest of India and Sri Lanka, about from the Asian continent's mainland. The Maldives' chain of 26 atolls stretches across the equator from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south.
The Maldives is the smallest country in Asia. Its land area is only , but this is spread over roughly of the sea, making it one of the world's most spatially dispersed sovereign states. With a population of 515,132 in the 2022 census, it is the second least populous country in Asia and the ninth-smallest country by area, but also one of the most densely populated countries. The Maldives has an average ground-level elevation of around above sea level, and a highest natural point of only , making it the world's lowest-lying country. Some sources state the highest point, Mount Villingili, as .
Malé is the capital and the most populated city, traditionally called the "King's Island", where the ancient royal dynasties ruled from its central location. The Maldives has been inhabited for over 2,500 years. Documented contact with the outside world began around 947 CE when Arab travellers began visiting the islands. In the 12th century, partly due to the importance of the Arabs and Persians as traders in the Indian Ocean, Islam reached the Maldivian Archipelago. The Maldives was soon consolidated as a sultanate, developing strong commercial and cultural ties with Asia and Africa. From the mid-16th century, the region came under the increasing influence of European colonial powers, with the Maldives becoming a British protectorate in 1887. Independence from the United Kingdom came in 1965, and a presidential republic was established in 1968 with an elected People's Majlis. The ensuing decades have seen political instability, efforts at democratic reform, and environmental challenges posed by climate change and rising sea levels. The Maldives became a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Fishing has historically been the dominant economic activity, and remains the second largest sector, behind the rapidly growing tourism industry. The Maldives rates "high" on the Human Development Index, with a per capita income significantly higher than other SAARC nations. The World Bank classifies the Maldives as having an upper-middle income economy.
The Maldives is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Non-Aligned Movement, and is a Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It temporarily withdrew from the Commonwealth in October 2016 after being threatened with expulsion from the organisation for its human rights infringements and democratic backsliding. It was readmitted to the Commonwealth on 1 February 2020 after showing evidence of reform and functioning democratic processes.
Etymology
According to legends, the first settlers of The Maldives were people known as Dheyvis. The first Kingdom of the Maldives was known as Kingdom of Dheeva Maari. During the 3rd century BCE visit of emissaries, it was noted that the Maldives was known as Dheeva Mahal.
During – 1166, the Maldives was also referred to as Diva Kudha, and the Laccadive archipelago which was a part of the Maldives was then referred to as Diva Kanbar by the scholar and polymath al-Biruni.
The name Maldives may also derive from Sanskrit (garland) and (island), or Maala Divaina ("Necklace Islands") in Sinhala. The Maldivian people are called . The word (archaic Dhivehi, related to Sanskrit , ) means "island", and () means "islanders" (i.e., Maldivians).Wilhelm Geiger, trans. Mrs. J. C. Willis, Máldivian Linguistic Studies, Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 27 (Colombo: 1911), 149–52. In Tamil, "garland of islands" can be translated as ().
The Sri Lankan chronicle Mahavamsa mentions an island designated as ("Island of Women", ) in Pali, likely arising from an erroneous translation of the Sanskrit term, signifying "garland".
Jan Hogendorn, professor of economics at Colby College, theorised that the name Maldives derives from the Sanskrit (), meaning "garland of islands".Hogendorn, Jan and Johnson Marion (1986). The Shell Money of the Slave Trade. African Studies Series 49, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge , pp. 20–22 In Malayalam, "garland of islands" can be translated as (). In Kannada, "garland of islands" can be translated as (). None of these names are mentioned in any literature, however, classical Sanskrit texts dating back to the Vedic period mention the "Hundred Thousand Islands" (), a generic name which would include not only the Maldives, but also the Laccadives, Aminidivi Islands, Minicoy, and the Chagos island groups.Apte, Vaman Shivram (1985). Sanskrit–English Dictionary. Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi.
Medieval Muslim travellers such as Ibn Battuta called the islands () from the Arabic word ("palace"), which must be how the Berber traveller interpreted the name of Malé, having been through Muslim North India, where Perso-Arabic words were introduced to the local vocabulary.Battuta, Ibn (1929) Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354, translated by A. R. Gibb. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul. This is the name currently inscribed on the scroll in the Maldives state emblem. The classical Persian/Arabic name for Maldives is .Akhbar al-Sin wa 'l-Hind (Notes on China and India), which dates from 851. The Dutch referred to the islands as the (), while the British anglicised the local name for the islands first to the "Maldive Islands" and later to "Maldives".
In a conversational book published in 1563, Garcia de Orta writes: "I must tell you that I have heard it said that the natives do not call it Maldiva but Nalediva. In the Malabar language, nale means four, and diva means island. So that in that language, the word signifies 'four islands', while we, corrupting the name, call it Maldiva."
The local name for Maldives by the Maldivian people in Dhivehi language is , ().
History
Ancient history and settlement
In the 6th–5th century BCE, kingdoms already existed in the modern-day Maldives. The country has an established history of over 2,500 years according to historical evidence and legends.
The Mahāvaṃsa (300 BCE) has records of people from Sri Lanka emigrating to the Maldives. Assuming that cowrie shells come from the Maldives, historians believe that there may have been people living in the Maldives during the Indus Valley Civilisation (33001300 BCE). Several artefacts show the presence of Hinduism in the country before the Islamic period.
According to the book () (On the Ancient Ruins of Meedhoo), written in the 17th century in Arabic by Allama Ahmed Shihabuddine (Allama Shihab al-Din) of Meedhoo in Addu Atoll, the first settlers of the Maldives were people known as Dheyvis. They are said to be from Kalibangan in India. The time of their arrival is unknown but before Emperor Ashoka's kingdom in 269–232 BCE. Shihabuddin's story tallies remarkably well with the recorded history of South Asia and that of the copperplate document of the Maldives known as Lōmāfānu.
The ancient history of the Maldives is told in copperplates, ancient scripts carved on coral artefacts, traditions, language, and different ethnicities of Maldivians. The Maapanansa, the copper plates on which the history of the first kings of the Maldives from the Solar Dynasty was recorded, were lost early.
A 4th-century notice written by Ammianus Marcellinus (362 CE) speaks of gifts sent to the Roman emperor Julian by a deputation from the nation of Divi. The name Divi is very similar to Dheyvi who were the first settlers of the Maldives.
The first Maldivians did not leave any archaeological artefacts. Their buildings were probably built of wood, palm fronds, and other perishable materials, which would have quickly decayed in the salt and wind of the tropical climate. Moreover, chiefs or headmen did not reside in elaborate stone palaces, nor did their religion require the construction of large temples or compounds.Kalpana Ram (1993). Mukkuvar Women. Macquarie University.
Comparative studies of Maldivian oral, linguistic, and cultural traditions confirm that the first settlers were people from the southern shores of the neighbouring Indian subcontinent,Xavier Romero-Frias, The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom including the Giraavaru people, mentioned in ancient legends and local folklore about the establishment of the capital and kingly rule in Malé.
A strong underlying layer of Dravidian and North Indian cultures survives in Maldivian society, with a clear Elu substratum in the language, which also appears in place names, kinship terms, poetry, dance, and religious beliefs. The North Indian system was brought by the original Sinhalese from Sri Lanka. Malabar and Pandya seafaring culture led to the settlement of the Islands by Tamil and Malabar seafarers.
Buddhist period
Despite being just mentioned briefly in most history books, the 1,400 year-long Buddhist period has a foundational importance in the history of the Maldives. It was during this period that the culture of Maldives both developed and flourished, a culture that survives today. The Maldivian language, early Maldive scripts, architecture, ruling institutions, customs, and manners of the Maldivians originated at the time when Maldives were a Buddhist kingdom.
Buddhism probably spread to the Maldives in the 3rd century BCE at the time of Emperor Ashoka's expansion and became the dominant religion of the people of the Maldives until the 12th century. Archeological evidence from an ancient Buddhist monastery in Kaashidhoo has been dated between 205 and 560 CE, based on the radiocarbon dating of shell deposits unearthed from the foundations of stupas and other structures in the monastery. The ancient Maldivian Kings promoted Buddhism, and the first Maldive writings and artistic achievements, in the form of highly developed sculpture and architecture, originate from that period. Nearly all archaeological remains in the Maldives are from Buddhist stupas and monasteries, and all artefacts found to date display characteristic Buddhist iconography.
Islamic period
The importance of the Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the 12th century may partly explain why the last Buddhist king of Maldives, Dhovemi, converted to Islam in 1153 (or 1193). Adopting the Muslim title of Sultan Muhammad al-Adil, he initiated a series of six Islamic dynasties that lasted until 1932 when the sultanate became elective. The formal title of the sultan up to 1965 was, Sultan of Land and Sea, Lord of the twelve-thousand islands and Sultan of the Maldives which came with the style Highness.
A Moroccan traveller named Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari is traditionally cited for this conversion. According to the story told to Ibn Battutah, a mosque was built with the inscription: 'The Sultan Ahmad Shanurazah accepted Islam at the hand of Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari.'The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveller of the Fourteenth Century The folk tale regarding the spread of Islam by al-Barbari involved a local belief to an oceanic deity named Rannamaari. According to the legend, Rannamaari demanded the sacrifice of a female virgin each month by the locals. This tradition was practiced for a long time, until al-Barbari visited Maldives and managed to convert the local ruler and convinced him along with his subjects to abandon the Rannamari worship. According to Norwegian archaeologist , it is likely the myth of Rannamari was heavily influenced by Buddhist tantric rituals and beliefs that were practiced in the islands at the time.Egil Mikkelsen;