Dhivehi

The Dhivehi, who call themselves Dhivehin, are the Indo-Aryan islanders of the Maldives, twenty-six coral atolls in the Indian Ocean, with kin on Minicoy to the north. Their Dhivehi descends from the Elu Prakrit of ancient Sri Lanka and is close to Sinhala though not mutually intelligible; it uses the Thaana script, its earliest records the lōmāfānu copper-plate grants of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and southern atoll dialects differ markedly from the Malé standard.

Settled for over two and a half thousand years, the islands grew wealthy on cowrie shells, currency across the Indian Ocean. Arab traders brought Islam in the twelfth century and the Maldives became a sultanate; Zheng He called there in 1411 and 1430.

The Portuguese seized the islands in 1558 but were driven out in 1573, after which Malé's sultans kept their independence through the age of European sea power.