Maldives: Late afternoon sunlight falls on a handwritten Koran on an antique wooden book stand or rehal (X-shaped foldable book rest) atop a fine grass kunaa mat

Indigenous epigraphic records dating from the late 12th century CE indicate that, in 1153, the Maldives were converted to Islam by a wandering Arab mendicant. Certainly today the islands are one hundred percent Muslim, and eight centuries of tropical monsoon and Islamic iconoclasm have left little trace of the pre-Islamic religion and culture of the islanders.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

David Henley

Credit:

Pictures From Asia