Maldivians consider the introduction of Islam in 1153 as the cornerstone of their country's history.

Islam remains the state religion in the 1990s.

Except for a brief period of Portuguese occupation from 1558-73, Maldives also will remain independent.

Because the Muslim religion prohibits images portraying gods, local interest in ancient statues of the pre-Islamic period is not only slight but at times even hostile; villagers have been known to destroy such statues recently unearthed.

Western interest in the archaeological remains of early cultures on Maldives begins with the work of H.C.P. Bell, a British commissioner of the Ceylon Civil Service.

Bell is shipwrecked on the islands in 1879, and he returns several times to investigate ancient Buddhist ruins.

Thor Heyerdahl's research indicates that as early as 2000 BCE Maldives lay on the maritime trading routes of early Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus Valley civilizations.

Heyerdahl believes that early sun-worshipping seafarers, called the Redin, first settled on the islands.

Even today, many mosques in Maldives face the sun and not Mecca, lending credence to this theory. Because building space and materials are scarce, successive cultures constructs their places of worship on the foundations of previous buildings.

Heyerdahl thus surmises that these sun-facing mosques were built on the ancient foundations of the Redin culture temples.

The interest of Middle Eastern peoples in Maldives resulted from its strategic location and its abundant supply of cowrie shells, a form of currency widely used throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast since ancient times.

Middle Eastern seafarers had just begun to take over the Indian Ocean trade routes in the tenth century CE and found Maldives to be an important link in those routes.

The importance of the Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the twelfth century CE. may partly explain why the last Buddhist king of Maldives converted to Islam in the year 1153.

The king thereupon adopted the Muslim title and name of Sultan Muhammad al Adil, initiating a series of six dynasties consisting of eighty-four sultans and sultanas that will last until 1932 when the sultanate becomes elective.

The person responsible for this conversion is a Sunni Muslim visitor named Abu al Barakat.

His venerated tomb now stands on the grounds of Hukuru Mosque, or miski, in the capital of Male.

Built in 1656, this is the oldest mosque in Maldives.

Arab interest in Maldives also is reflected in the residence there in the 1340s of the well-known North African traveler Ibn Battutah.

The importance of the Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the twelfth century may partly explain why the last Buddhist king of Maldives converts to Islam in the year 1153 (or 1193, for certain copper plate grants give a later date).

The king thereupon adopts the Muslim title and name (in Arabic) of Sultan (besides the old Divehi title of Maha Radun or Ras Kilege or Rasgefānu) Muhammad al Adil, initiating a series of six Islamic dynasties consisting of eighty-four sultans and sultanas that is to last until 1932, when the sultanate becomes elective.

The Portuguese establish themselves in 1558 on Maldives, which they administer from Goa on India's west coast.

Fifteen years later, a local guerrilla leader named Muhammad Thakurufaan organizes a popular revolt and drives the Portuguese out of Maldives.

This event is now commemorated as National Day, and a small museum and memorial center honor the hero on his home island of Utim in South Tiladummati Atoll.

The Dutch, who had replaced the Portuguese as the dominant power in Ceylon in the mid-seventeenth century, have established hegemony over Maldivian affairs without involving themselves directly in local matters, which are governed according to centuries-old Islamic customs.

However, the British expel the Dutch from Ceylon in 1796 and include Maldives as a British protected area.