Muslim Cultures in the Indian Ocean

2018-2024 – Muslim Cultures in the Indian Ocean research program

Outline: Started just after the international conference on Muslim Cultures in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Ocean research programme grew in force slowly, at the beginning based only on the research activities developed in the field of Islamic archaeology, including international collaborations, and several MoU’s signed with several Indian Ocean region partners. The programme is now pluri-disciplinary with ISMC researchers and colleagues all over the Indian Ocean region, working in different fields, from archaeology to contemporary social sciences.

Our research programme is the reconnaissance of the Indian Ocean, not as a periphery but as a centre for the study of Muslim cultures. Cultural encounters across the Indian Ocean through the centuries have given rise to cities, ports, and civilisations, which, while remaining distinctive, also exhibit layers of shared knowledge. Cultural contacts, exchanges and networks were facilitated by the sea as a link between these diverse worlds such as Asia, India, the Middle East, and Africa. Just like the Mediterranean – so well studied by Fernand Braudel – the Indian Ocean is a rich contact zone that is central to the understanding cultural diversity in this vast region. Following recent workshops organised by UNESCO, our programme supports the notion of protection, conservation, and heritage management of Indian Ocean cultures. Our research on material and immaterial cultures in the Indian Ocean focuses on texts, objects, sites, and monuments. Some research mainstreams are strongly supported by our program such as Muslims and the sea; trading networks, sufism and Islamisation.

The Indian Ocean programme focuses mainly on Muslim Heritage, especially on the Maritime Silk Roads between China, India, and Africa. With global warming and rising sea levels, maritime heritage is at risk. Our faculty is working with Google Arts, Heritage on the Edge, to highlight these dangers, and with the World Monument Fund and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture to save these monuments. Rescue and salvage archaeology is the key component of our programme to protect Muslim material culture. Our experts work with conservation architects to excavate and restore ancient sites and monuments. Sustainable development and capacity training are at the heart of our programme to raise awareness about historical sites, and to train local populations to maintain these sites and to benefit from them through an eco-responsible tourism. Our results are already impressive: with UNESCO we managed to save and keep on the World Heritage List some sites in danger such as the ones in Kilwa, Tanzania; we are working on adding other sites to the List such as Kua in Tanzania, and the Coral Mosques of the Maldives. The Indian Ocean Archives project of our partner, the Catholic University in Portugal, brings historians and archaeologists together to reconstruct the history of Islamisation, urbanisation, and trading networks in the Indian Ocean. Digital humanities are part of the Indian Ocean programme with 3D scans of existing monuments in Kua, Tanzania; and virtual computer models of Fatimid Cairo, based on the data produced by our excavations in Egypt, in collaboration with the Institute of Ismaili Studies. My publications include Earthen Architecture in Muslim Cultures (2018) by Stephane Pradines; Ports and Fortifications in the Muslim World (2020) by Stephane Pradines; Historic Mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa (2022); and Muslim Cultures of the Indian Ocean, Diversity, Pluralism Past and Present by Stephane Pradines and Farouk Topan (2023). Field schools in Tanzania, Comoros, and Pakistan are part of this programme to support and strengthen our local networks and provide new opportunities to study abroad for young local scholars. Research and education are strongly connected in this programme, and I developed a core course; ‘Worlds of the Greater Indian Ocean’ for the AKU’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and a summer school in Lisbon on the Indian Ocean Studies in partnership with the Catholic University of Portugal. Islamic archaeology and conservation field schools in Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Mayotte (Comoros), the Maldives and Lahore, Pakistan are also part of this programme to support and strengthen our local networks and provide new opportunities for young local students to learn from the field, and to study abroad. I am also  working on our third Asian and Indian Ocean Summer school in Lisbon with the Catholic university of Portugal. The Indian Ocean programme will plan more workshops, short courses, and seminars (Wocmes, MESA, East-Africa, Pakistan); lectures by visiting scholars and fellows; PhD positions.

Publications

  • 2025 – « La route des épices : de la mer Rouge à l’Océan Indien », in Exhibition Catalogue Mamlouks 1250–1517, Carine Juvin Editor, Louvre/Skira, Paris, 174-181.
  • 2023 – co-edited with Farouk Topan, Muslim Cultures of the Indian Ocean. Diversity and Pluralism, Past and Present, Edinburgh university press, 356p.
  • 2023. & Topan, F., “Introduction to Muslim Cultures of the Indian Ocean” In Muslim Cultures of the Indian Ocean, ISMC-EUP, p. 1-17.

2017: The Coral Mosques of Maldives

Director: Stephane Pradines (ISMC-AKU).

Partner institutions: UNESCO, Van Berchem Foundation, Maldivian Heritage Department.

Outline: This programme has two main objectives, first archaeological and scientific to provide historical context to the foundation of the coral mosques and the beginning of Islam in the Maldives and the relationship between Islam and Buddhism; but also for documentation and conservation purposes to serve the needs of the Maldivian government and international organizations such as UNESCO in order to add these monuments on the World Heritage list (International Impact). Our objectives are twofold, first archaeological and scientific, but also for documentation and conservation purposes to serve the needs of the Maldivian government and international organizations such as UNESCO. First we documented an important Maldivian site, Meedhoo (Fandiyaaru), located in the southern atoll. It is a major archaeological site in the Maldives and is very well known for its tombs and mosques. This site is not yet listed in the proposal for the UNESCO World Heritage List. We implemented a map previously created in Fenfushi and we carried out some test pits to provide some dates for these buildings that were never dated scientifically and to see if some structures pre-date the mosques and Muslim tombs. In Meedhoo Island, we prepared the first plan of the Fandiyaaru compound. Our major discovery was to contradict the stated fact that the site was built on a previous Buddhist site. We didn’t find any evidence of this. Despite the indisputable Buddhist occupation on the island, our excavations revealed that the Islamic sites (mosques and cemeteries) were not built on previous pre-Islamic buildings. In Fenfushi Island, we implemented the map previously created. This implementation was a major advance because we added another old mosque and a further modern mosque, including another cemetery. This plan will be extremely important in the future as it considerably enlarges the zone that needs to be protected.During our excavation of the old mosque, we discovered an old platform of a previous mosque built in sand stone, and not in coral. We dated this mosque from the 12th century. Our test pits confirm that there were no pre-Islamic settlements or structure under the old mosque of Fenfushi.We reinterpreted the so-called “old bathing tank”. We found absolutely no evidence to support the interpretation that it was a pre-Islamic Buddhist bathing tank. Our investigations suggest that the bathing tank was in fact a water tank built by the sultan for the local community. Our two excavations to the north and south of the Maldivian atolls bring very important information. The Maldivian mosques were not built on Buddhists temples. At least this is the case for the two major sites that we investigated.

Publications

  • 2025- Stéphane Pradines and Anita Nadeem, “The Mosques of the Maldives and Buddhist Indian Ocean Worlds”, Religion and Identity in the Indian Ocean World, Edited by Mark Fielding and Joshua Esler, Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 221-256.
  • 2021 – with Fabien Balestra, “Excavations on the Coral Mosques of the Maldives”, Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World 2, pp. 200–226.
  • 2019. “A short note on the Masdhayi Fiyohi traditional knife of the Maldives”
  • Journal of the Arms and armour Society, Volume 23-2, p. 97-107.