The Maldives have been culturally linked to a king.
 The status of Maldives as a British protectorate was officially recorded in an 1887 agreement in which the sultan Muhammad Mueenuddeen II accepted British influence over Maldivian external relations and defence while retaining home rule, which continued to be regulated by Muslim traditional institutions in exchange for an annual tribute
 The Maldives remained a Buddhist kingdom for another 500 years after the conversion of Malabar Coast and Sindhperhaps as the southwesternmost Buddhist country

