Maldives High Sea

The Maldives are a chain of low coral atolls scattered across the Indian Ocean. Traders carried the islands' cowrie shells and coir fibre to distant markets; cowries served as currency in Bengal and elsewhere in Asia and on parts of the East African coast. In the fourteenth century the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta spent nine months in the islands, becoming chief judge and marrying into the ruling family. His account describes both court life and the customs he encountered there.