🇲🇻Halal Travel Guide to the Maldives

Built from interlocking carved coral blocks with Qur'anic inscriptions cut directly into the stone, and a lacquered timber interior. On the UNESCO tentative list. Non-Muslim visitors need permission from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, usually arranged through a guide.

The Islamic Centre's mosque, with a golden dome visible from the water, holding over 5,000 worshippers. Opened 1984 and the largest in the country.

The tomb of Abul Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari, the Moroccan or Somali traveller traditionally credited with bringing Islam to the Maldives in 1153. Beside the Old Friday Mosque.

A small 1815 coral-stone mosque used for the Eid prayers, in the old quarter near the Friday mosque.

A 17th-century coral-stone mosque on a local island, notable because Fenfushi was the island whose stonemasons carved much of the country's coral architecture.

In the far south, beside a cemetery with coral headstones said to be among the oldest Islamic graves in the country.

The main mosque of the reclaimed island beside the airport, convenient for anyone staying there before a flight.

Every inhabited island, however small, has a mosque at its centre with an ablution area, and the call to prayer structures the day. Visitors are welcome to pray.

In Sultan Park, covering the pre-Islamic Buddhist period, the conversion in 1153, the sultanate, the Portuguese occupation and independence. Modest but the only place to get the history.

The shrine of the traveller credited with the country's conversion to Islam in 1153 - the single most historically significant site in the Maldives.

A building tradition using cut and carved coral blocks fitted without mortar, with lacquered woodwork inside. Found nowhere else, and on the UNESCO tentative list.

The wooden palace of Sultan Muhammad Thakurufaanu, who led the rebellion that ended the Portuguese occupation in 1573. In the far north.

A UNESCO biosphere reserve where hundreds of manta rays and whale sharks gather to feed between May and November. Strictly managed - snorkelling only, limited numbers.

Traditional Maldivian drumming and dance, African in origin, performed on local islands and at resorts, building from slow chanting to a very fast finish.

Most local island guesthouses serve three meals, usually Maldivian and international, with the day's catch grilled in the evening. Half board is the normal arrangement and the food is better than the price suggests.

A long-running garden café in the capital with Maldivian and Western dishes and famous ice cream. A pleasant break from Male's density.

Maldivian and Asian cooking in the centre of Male, reliable and popular with locals at lunch.

A rooftop restaurant with a view over the harbour, doing Maldivian dishes alongside an international menu.

The hotels on Male and Hulhumale serve halal food throughout; the mainland is dry, unlike the resorts.

The Maldivian institution - a room with formica tables where men drink black tea and eat short eats in the afternoon. A dollar or two, and the best local food anywhere.

The busiest local island has a dozen guesthouse restaurants along the beach road, all alcohol-free, doing grilled fish and curries.

Some local islands have a licensed boat moored offshore serving alcohol to tourists, outside the island's jurisdiction. Worth knowing about so you can avoid or find them as you prefer.

Resorts serve halal meat as standard given the Maldivian staff and the Gulf clientele, but also serve pork and alcohol. Several resorts market themselves explicitly to Muslim travellers - ask before booking.

Not a restaurant, but the best hour in the capital - yellowfin tuna landed and cut on the waterfront in the late afternoon.

A row of cafés along the reclaimed island's public beach, alcohol-free, useful for an airport layover.

Guesthouses grill the day's catch on an uninhabited sandbank at sunset. The best meal of most Maldives trips.

The busiest and most developed local island, 90 minutes by speedboat from Male, with dozens of guesthouses, dive centres, a bikini beach and excursions daily. The easiest introduction.

Small, exceptionally clean - it runs a well-known waste management programme - with a good house reef and a quiet, conservative village.

A long island with a three-kilometre sandbank and the best access to the resident whale sharks of South Ari. Quiet and good for divers.

Fulidhoo for nurse sharks and stingrays in the harbour at night; Thoddoo for watermelon farms and a genuinely rural island.

A reclaimed island with a long public beach, cheap hotels, a bridge to Male and ten minutes to the airport. Useful for late arrivals and early flights.

One resort per island, with overwater villas, house reefs and full board. Expensive, and licensed for alcohol. Several market explicitly to Muslim travellers with prayer rooms and private pool villas.

Seven to ten nights moving between atolls with three or four dives a day. The best way to dive the country, and several operators run alcohol-free boats.

Dense, hot and with no beach, but the only place with the mosques, the museum and the fish market. One night is enough.