The History of Islam in the Maldives: Influences and Adaptations

In 1879, the British steamship Sea Gull struck a reef near the Maldives. Colonial official Harry Charles Purvis Bell, sent to investigate, found mysterious coral mounds locals called havitta or ustubu — terms linked to the Sanskrit-Pali-Buddhist words chaitya and stupa. Bell became the pioneering chronicler of Maldivian archaeology, and his excavations confirmed Buddhist complexes across several atolls. At Gan alone, ruins of dozens of structures and earthworks indicated a substantial Buddhist religious centre. This discovery posed a question that still lingers: how did a Buddhist kingdom scattered across 1,200 coral islands become one of the world’s most uniformly Muslim nations?

The story matters not just for historians but for anyone visiting the Maldives today. The country’s constitution declares Islam the official state religion, requires all citizens to be Muslim, and bars the practice of other religions by law. Understanding how that identity formed — and what it replaced — is essential for navigating both the archipelago’s layered past and its present-day cultural boundaries.

Pre-Islamic Maldives: Buddhism Across the Atolls

Buddhism likely reached the Maldives around the third century BCE, carried by traders and monks from Sri Lanka’s Theravada tradition. According to historian Naseema Mohamed’s paper “Pre-Islamic Maldives,” the faith arrived in multiple waves. Theravada came first from Sri Lanka. Later, Mahayana Buddhism arrived from the Indian subcontinent, bringing Bodhisattva worship — including the goddess Tara. By the sixth century CE, Vajrayana added mantras, tantric rituals, and sacred symbols to the mix. Hindu artifacts have also been found, indicating that Hinduism was present before Islam.

Bell’s late-nineteenth-century excavations uncovered substantial monastic complexes on islands such as Gan, where dozens of structures and earthworks suggested a significant religious centre. The mounds — havitta — that puzzled Maldivians in Bell’s day were the weathered remains of Buddhist stupas. These discoveries confirmed that the pre-Islamic Maldives was not a cultural backwater but an active participant in the Indian Ocean’s Buddhist and Hindu networks.

What remains contested is how deeply Buddhism penetrated daily life across all atolls. The difficulty of inter-island travel meant that old practices likely survived longer in some places than others — a pattern that would repeat during the Islamic period.

The Conversion of 1153: King, Scholar, and Sea Demon

The turning point came in 1153 CE (548 AH), when the Buddhist king Dhovemi announced his conversion to Islam at the hands of a visiting Muslim scholar. According to documentation on historical copper plates known as Loamaafaanu, the king renamed himself Sultan Muhammad al-Adil, establishing the first Islamic dynasty that would rule the Maldives for over eight consecutive centuries. Buddhist temples were abolished, mosques built, and Sharia introduced as the primary source of governance.

The identity of the scholar who converted the king is disputed. Maldivian tradition names him as Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari. The fourteenth-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, who visited the Maldives and served as a qadi (judge), described al-Barbari as a Maghrebi — often interpreted as Moroccan. Some historians trace his origin to Somalia instead. The question remains unresolved.

Ibn Battuta’s writings record the already-established tradition linking al-Barakat to the country’s conversion. His account provides the earliest external description of Islamic life in the Maldives, including details about marriage, inheritance, and the role of qadis — a role he himself held. But his version also contains the sea-demon episode, which modern scholars treat with caution.

Institutionalizing Islam: Language, Law, and Architecture

The conversion reshaped Maldivian society from the ground up. The Dhivehi language absorbed hundreds of Arabic words and was written in Arabic script until the mid-twentieth century, when the Thaana script — itself influenced by Arabic numerals — became standard. Sharia rulings came to govern marriage, inheritance, and commercial transactions. The sultanate aligned the Maldives with broader Islamic political traditions.

Coral-stone mosques represent the archipelago’s most distinctive architectural achievement. The Old Friday Mosque in Malé, built in 1658, features intricate Quranic verses and geometric ornamentation carved directly into coral blocks — a technique that emerged from the maritime environment where timber was scarce but coral abundant. Several of these mosques, together with manuscripts and historical materials, preserve tangible evidence of centuries of Islamic life in the Indian Ocean.

External relations shifted toward Islamic capitals and ports in Yemen, Oman, and the East African coast. The Maldives supplied cowrie shells — a major currency across Asia and Africa — along with coir, coconuts, spices, and dried fish. Regular contact with Muslim traders and scholars drew the archipelago deeper into the Islamic commercial world.

A Contested Legacy: Violence, Memory, and Modern Identity

The official government narrative presents the conversion as complete and peaceful. Archaeological and written evidence suggests otherwise. Copper-plate records from 1195 and 1196 — four decades after the royal conversion — describe actions against Buddhist institutions in the southern atolls. Medieval copper plates record the destruction of Buddhist monasteries and the construction of a mosque on the former monastery site at Dhanbidhoo.

The satirist Yameen Rasheed, who was stabbed to death in 2017 for what prosecutors described as mocking Islam, wrote in 2011: “Twelfth-century copper plate grants found in the Maldives reveal the blood-soaked, painful process of conversion… Sultans went through trouble of bringing in Buddhist monks and beheading them in the capital.” Rasheed also noted in a 2018 piece for Maldives Independent that the 2008 Constitution “unilaterally declares all Maldivians to be Sunni Muslim without the courtesy of so much as an opinion poll.”

In 2012, a mob stormed the National Museum in Malé and destroyed 99% of the pre-Islamic collection — including irreplaceable Buddhist artefacts. In 2022, protesters declaring yoga contrary to Islam attacked participants at an India-backed International Yoga Day event attended by more than 150 people, including diplomats. These incidents reflect ongoing tensions over the place of pre-Islamic heritage in a nation that constitutionally defines itself as 100% Muslim.

The 2008 Constitution stipulates Islam as the official state religion, requires the head of state and all citizens to be Muslim, and bars the practice or display of any other religion by force of law. Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom described Islam as “not just a faith but the soul of the nation and the backbone of its identity.” President Mohamed Muizzu, who launched the 900th Hijri anniversary celebrations in September 2026, called Islam “the essence of the Maldives’ cultural sovereignty and independence.”

Note: The 900th anniversary used the Hijri calendar, meaning 900 Islamic years from 548 AH (1153 CE) fell in 2026 — 873 Gregorian years later. The discrepancy is a useful reminder that the Islamic calendar is lunar, not solar.

Context and Comparison: Three Narratives of Conversion

The conversion of the Maldives is told in at least three distinct ways, each emphasizing different sources and conclusions.

Questions Readers Ask

Was the Maldives really 100% Buddhist before Islam?

Buddhism was the dominant organized religion from roughly the third century BCE, but Hindu artifacts have also been found. The degree of Buddhist penetration likely varied across atolls due to the difficulty of inter-island travel. The archaeological record shows substantial monastic complexes on some islands and little evidence on others.

Who was Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari?

A Muslim scholar credited with converting King Dhovemi in 1153. Ibn Battuta described him as Maghrebi (often read as Moroccan), but some historians trace him to Somalia. His tomb, Medhuziyaaraiy, stands in Malé near the Islamic Centre and remains a site of national memory. His precise origin is still debated.

Is the Rannamaari story true?

Historians such as Stephanie Honchell Smith treat it as a conversion legend rather than a verified event. The story — in which al-Barakat recites Quran verses to banish a sea demon demanding virgin sacrifices — is culturally significant and widely repeated in the Maldives, but it lacks independent corroboration. It appears only in Ibn Battuta’s account.

Can non-Muslims visit or live in the Maldives?

Yes, as tourists. Resorts and liveaboard vessels operate under different legal frameworks and allow alcohol, pork, and non-Islamic religious practice. On inhabited islands and in Malé, public practice of any religion other than Islam is prohibited by the 2008 Constitution. Non-Muslims cannot obtain citizenship.

What happened to the Buddhist artefacts?

In 2012, a mob destroyed 99% of the pre-Islamic collection at the National Museum in Malé, including irreplaceable Buddhist statues and relics. The destruction reflected the view, held by some, that pre-Islamic heritage contradicts the country’s Islamic identity. Some artefacts had been recovered from archaeological sites; others had been in museum collections for decades.

Nine Centuries and Counting

The 900th Hijri anniversary celebrations, launched in September 2026, included a national Quran recitation festival, an Islamic calligraphy festival, scholarly programmes, a youth Islamic heritage camp, and plans for a permanent monument in Greater Malé. President Muizzu laid the foundation stone for the Sultan Mohamed Bin Abdullah Grand Mosque and Islamic Civilisation Centre in Hulhumalé — the largest mosque in the country, with capacity for 10,000 worshippers, funded by Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Company. More than 700 young Maldivians have been trained as khatibs (Friday preachers) through a government programme aimed at addressing shortages across widely dispersed islands.

For a deeper look at the material culture that survives from this period, read our guide to Maldives’ coral-stone mosques — structures that carry the archipelago’s Islamic heritage in every carved block.

Sources and further reading

Honchell Smith, Stephanie. “Sufis, Sea Monsters, and Miraculous Circumcisions: The Conversion of the Maldives to Islam.” 2018. 🔗

Mohamed, Naseema. “Pre-Islamic Maldives.” 🔗

Islamic Architectural Heritage Database. “Medhuziyaaraiy: Tomb of Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari.” 🔗

Related reading on IslandHopperGuides

Beyond Luxury: Respecting Maldivian Culture and Etiquette as a Traveler — Practical guidance for navigating the cultural boundaries shaped by Islamic practice.

Maulid Festival: Celebrate the Prophet’s Birthday in the Maldives — How one of the archipelago’s key Islamic observances is celebrated across the atolls.

Malé Unmasked: Exploring the Capital City’s Hidden Cultural Gems — A walk through the city that holds the mausoleum of al-Barakat and the Old Friday Mosque.