The Maldives ( or ), (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ) or Maldive Islands, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an island country consisting of a group of atolls stretching south of India's Lakshadweep islands between Minicoy Island and the Chagos Archipelago, and about seven hundred kilometres (435 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka in the Laccadive Sea of Indian Ocean. The twenty-six atolls of Maldives encompass a territory featuring 1,192 islets, of which two hundred and fifty islands are inhabited.

The inhabitants were Buddhist, probably since Ashoka's period,Fact: date=November 2008 in the 3rd century BC. Islam was introduced in 1153. The Maldives then came under the influence of the Portuguese (1558) and the Dutch (1654) seaborne empires. In 1887 it became a British protectorate. In 1965, the Maldives obtained independence from Britain (originally under the name "Maldive Islands"), and in 1968 the Sultanate was replaced by a Republic.

The Maldives is the smallest Asian country in terms of both population and area; it is the smallest predominantly Muslim nation in the world. With an average ground level of 1.5 metres above sea level, it is also the country with the lowest highest point in the world, at 2.3 metres.

Etymology of "Maldives"

The name "Maldives" may derive from Maale Dhivehi Raajje ("The Island Kingdom the authority of Malé"), the local name for the Maldives. The island nation was synonymous with its capital "Maale" and sometimes called 'Malédeeb', and the people were called 'Dhives'. The word Dheeb/Deeb (archaic Dhivehi, a corruption of Dweep in Sanskrit) means 'island' and Dhives (Dhivehin) means 'islanders' (ie: the Maldivians). During the colonial era, the Dutch referred to the country as Maldivische Eilanden in their documentation, while "Maldive Island" is the anglicized version of the local name used by the British, which later came to be written as Maldives.

Some scholars theorize that the name "Maldives" derives from the Sanskrit mālādvīpa, meaning "garland of islands" . None of the names are mentioned in any literature, instead classical Sanskrit texts dating back to the Vedic times mention the "Hundred Thousand Islands" (Lakshadweepa); a generic name which would include not only the Maldives, but also the Laccadives and the Chagos island groups.

Some medieval Arab travelers such as Ibn Batuta called the islands "Mahal Dibiyat" from the Arabic word Mahal ("palace")." This is the name currently inscribed in the scroll of the Maldive state emblem. Although the classical Yemeni name for Maldives is Dibajat.Akhbar al-Sin wa 'l-Hind (Notes on China and India), which dates from 851
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200504/the.seas.of.sindbad.htm Saudi Aramco world Magazine, Volume 56, Number 4, The seas of sinbad, By Historian and Arabist Paul Lunde