By Prof. Dr. Abdul Karim
Introduction
Arakan is now a part of the Union of Burma (renamed Myanmar) but
in the past she was independent. In ancient times, Arakan was divided into two kingdoms, south Arakan or Sandoway and north Arakan or Arakan proper. The two parts
were united into one in the last part of the 13th century and this position of Arakan lasted till 1785 A. D.
when the kingdom was merged with Burma (Myanmar).
Geographical Features
Arakan is bounded in the north by India, in the south and west by
the sea (Bay of Bengal) and in the east by the Yoma Mountains. In the north and
west Arakan had a
common boundary with Bengal in the river Naf which is still the borderline
between Bangladesh and Burma. The old kingdom of Arakan was stretched from north to south along
the coastline, divided by the high, stiff and inaccessible Yoma Mountains from
Burma. Though Arakan
is now a part of Burma, land communication between Arakan and the rest of Burma is almost sealed
except for the army and the armed forces; the two parts are however linked by
water communication. Being situated on the sea, Arakan had harbours providing anchorage to
maritime ships; the country is intersected by many rivers and streams of which
three are important, Kaladan, Lemru and Mayu.
The Arakanese kings established alternately capitals in
eight different towns, transferring from one to the other. The places were
Thabeiktaung, Dinnyawadi and Vesali down to the eleventh century, Pyinsa
(Pyinsa-Sambawut) till 1118, Parin 1118-1167, Krit 1167-1180, Launggyet
1237-1433, and Mrohaung (Mrauk-U) 1433-1785. All these capitals were situated
in the Akyab district on or near the river Lemru.
The Area of Arakan
is 20,000 sq. miles. But Arakan
Hill-Tracts District (5,235 square miles) and southern most part of Arakan were partitioned from Arakan. So, it has now been
reduced to 14,200 square miles. In the absence of census it is not possible to
give the exact population figure, but the estimated population is 40 lakh
excluding about 1.5 million of those Rohingya Muslims who had been expelled
from Arakan since
1942. At present inside Arakan,
the Buddhists and Muslims stand at almost in equal proportion, i.e. 20 lakh are
Buddhists, 18 lakh are Muslims and the rest 2 lakh are Animists, Hindus and
Christians.
Coming of the Foreigners
The wall of the Yoma hills rendered Arakan immune from attack
from the east and kept her more or less safe from Burmese occupation. Both
Burma and Arakan
being maritime countries naval attacks from one to the other took place
occasionally. The Shans overran part of Arakan, particularly the Akyab zone in the 10th century.
Occasional raids from Bengal are also known; thus in the 13th - 14th centuries,
in the reign of Minhti (1273 -1374) a naval attack from Bengal is recorded;
Chittagong experienced attacks from Arakan more than once and in the ancient and medieval
periods, Chittagong was often in the hands of the Arakanese kings. Of the
religious groups of people, coming to Arakan from outside, Buddhism reached Arakan earlier than all and
Buddhists had entered there earlier than they reached the interior of Burma.
The Mahamuni image of Buddha, usually placed in the shrine of Dinnyawadi, an
old capital and 22 miles north of Mrohaung may be dated from the early
centuries of the Christian era, the Arakanese assign it to Sandathuriya (146-98
A.D).1 Compared to the Buddhist, the Hindus came to Arakan much latter, which is
proved by their fewer number. Whatever that may be, after the 10th century Arakan was professedly a
Buddhist country, and during about the same time Muslims traders from Arabia
entered into her seaport in course of their trading voyages to the east. Still
later came the Europeans with their large Ocean-going ships, and the Arabs and
the Europeans established trade links between Arakan and the Eastern and Western countries.
The name of the Country
Arakan is a modern name, in ancient times the country was known as
Rakhaing. A. P. Phayre says that Rakhaing was the name of a tribe in old Arakan and he could actually
trace the existence of the Rakhaing tribe at Pegu.2 Muslim writers called it
Rakhang or Arkhang, in a few coins of Sultan Shams-ud-din Ghazi bearing the
date 962 A. H. (1555 A. D.), the name of the mint is read as Arakan. If the reading proves
correct, it may be assumed that even in the 16th century, Arakan was known by this
name.3 The Rohingyas of Arakan
believe that Arakan
is derived from the Arabic word all-Rekan or al-Rukn,4 the Turkish
Admiral Sidi Al-Reis called the place Rakanj 5 and in the Bangali Punthi
literature both Roshang and Rokam are used, but the used of Roshang is more
popular. In the 16th century when the Europeans came, they wrote the name of
the place Arakan and
their maps also the country is known as Arakan. So by evolution the old name Rakhaing was turned
into Rakhang or Arkhang of Muslim
writers and later it becomes Arakan.
It is stated above that the last capital of the kingdom of Arakan was at Mrohaung
(Mrauk-U). The story of the transfer of the capital to this place will be told
at a later stage in this essay. Mrohaung was called by the Bengali poets
Roshang which in the month of the local people of both Arakan and Chittagong became
Rohang, ‘sha’ being turned into ‘ha’ and thus the people came to be known as
Rohangi or Rohingya.
The Rohingyas are the Muslim inhabitants of Arakan, and now they form a little less
than half of the total population. The story of how the Muslims came to Arakan, how their number
gradually increased and how did they fuse themselves into the political, social
and cultural life of the country of Arakan, is the subject matter of this essay. They came to Arakan in several phases,
some came as traders from as far places as Arabia and Persia, others came as
conquerors and in the train of the invading army, some came as victims of
pirates and still others came in peaceful pursuits. In the 17th century Arakan reached its pinnacle
of glory through the contribution of Muslim poets, Muslim
learned men, saints and administrators.
Coming of the Arab Muslims
The Muslim
infiltration into Arakan
has started earlier in history. The oft-quoted statements of the Arab
geographers and traders are important sources to reconstruct the history of the
coming of the Muslims. Referring to early geographers Harvey writes as follows:6
“Ptolemy, the Greek geographer, writing in A.D. 140 even
mentions a Tugma Metropolis, in a spot curiously like Upper Burma, as if it
were Tagaung. But it is to Prome that the Chinese pilgrims chiefly refer when,
in their travels, they speak from hearsay of Burma; and to the Arabs, whose
shipping predominated in the eastern seas from the eighth to the sixteenth
century, Burma was Arakan
and Lower Burma: -
“They say that the king of Rahma (Lower Burma) has fifty
thousand elephants. His country produces cloth made of velvety cotton and aloe
wood of the sort called Kindi. (Ibn Khordadzbeh years 844-8, Persian traveller
from Basra, in Ferrand.)
“The king of Rahma enjoys no great repute … His troops are
more numerous than those of Ballahra, Gudjra and Tekin. They say that when he
marches to battle he is accompanied by about fifty thousand elephants. He
campaigns only in winter indeed his elephants cannot stand thirst and so they
can go forth only in winter. They say that in his army the washer-men amount to
between ten to fifteen thousand. In his states are found cloths not found
elsewhere; a dress made of such cloth is so fine and light that it can pass
through a signet ring. It is of cotton. We have seen a sample. For barter the
people use cowries, which form their currency. But gold, silver, aloes are also
found and a stuff called camtara (yak hair) whereof fly-flaps are found. The same
country produces … the rhinoceros, an animal which has on his forehead a single
horn, and in this horn is a human figure…. We have eaten the flesh. He is found
in other parts of Iand. but here the horn is more beautiful, often containing
the image of a man, peacock, fish or anything else. The Chinese make girdles of
this horn and pay high price among themselves, upto three or four thousand
dinar and even more according to the figure’s beauty. These horns are bought
with cowries. (Sulayman, Year 851 …….)
“In Ind. lies a realm called Rahma, bordering on the sea.
Its ruler is a woman. It is revenged by the plague, and any man who comes from
elsewhere in Ind. and enters the country, dies there. Yet many come by reason
of the great profits to be made. (Ibn al-Fakih, Persian Traveller, Year
900-Ibid. )”
There are some of the extracts from the writings of old Arab
and Persian writers, all of whom mentions a place or kingdom which they called
Rahma and which Harvey identifies with lower Burma. Other Arab geographers,
al-Masudi, al-Idrisi also refer to the kingdom of Rahma and historians of early
Bengal have much speculated about the identify Rahma with the kingdom of
Dharmapala of the Pala dynasty in Bengal or in other words they identify Rahma
with Bengal.7
In the golden age of the trading activities of the Arabs,
their merchant-vessels used to ply all over the sea- coast from the Red Sea to
the Chinese coast, and this golden age of the Arabs continued at least up to
the 17th century. With the coming of the Europeans with their superior vessels
and huge capital, the Arabs began to lose hold on their eastern trade. It
develop upon the geographers and scholars to do researches on all matters
connected with trade and commerce, the location and nature of the sea-ports,
availability of commodities, their places of origin, price and facts of other
nature. In later time, i.e. during the hey-day of European trade with East
Indies, European scholars and traders also did the same kind of research for
the benefit of their traders. These Arab Geographers refer to various trade
centres on the cost of the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, although
unfortunately most of these places can not be identified at present with the knowledge
at our disposal. The modern scholars have tried to identify two places-
Samandar and Ruhmi. The first is identified with Chittagong 8 and the
second is identified with both Bengal and lower Burma as we have seen above.
Whether or not, the kingdom of Rahma is to be identified with Bengal or Lower
Burma, these accounts of the Arab geographers leave no doubt that the Arabs
were acquainted with and the Arab traders frequented the ports of Bengal, Arakan, Burma and other
coastal kingdoms. If the Arabs visited the Chittagong port, they were also
acquainted with Arakan
and came into contact with the Arakanese kings. So the identification of Rahma
is immaterial for the purpose of our present study, there is no doubt that the
Arabs had contact with Arakan
during the 8th to 10th centuries of the Christian era. A part from the general
statements of the Arab geographers, there is positive local evidence of the
early Arab contact with Arakan.
In the Arakanese traditional history, it is stated that in the reign of Mahatoing
Tsandaya (788-810 A.D) several Arab ships wrecked off the coast of Rambi Island
(Ramree), the Muslim
sailors somehow escaped and swam into the shore. In the Arakanese history they
are called kula-s or foreigners. When they were taken and produced before the
king, the latter allotted a piece of land for them and they were allowed to
settle there.9
This is the first evidence of the Muslim settlement in Arakan. R.B. Smart writes in
the British Burma Gazetteer as follows: 10 “The local histories
relate that in the ninth century several ships were wrecked on Ramree Island
and the Mussalman crews sent to Arakan
and placed in villages there. They differ but little from the Arakanese except
in their religion and in the social customs which their religion directs, in
the writing they use Burmese, but amongst themselves employ colloquially the
language of their ancestors.”
This is a very important piece of evidence regarding the
origin of the Rohingyas. These shipwrecked Arab Muslims became the nucleus of
the Muslim
population of Arakan;
later other Muslims from Arabia, Persia and other countries entered into Arakan. The important point
to be noticed about these shipwrecked Muslims is that they have stuck to their
religion. i.e. Islam and Islamic social customs. Though they used Burmese
language and also adopted other local customs, they have retained the language
of their ancestors (probably with mixture of local words) in dealing among
themselves. Another point to be noted is that the Arab shipwrecked Muslims have
retained their religion, language and social customs for more than a thousand
years. Later on, of course other Arabs also come in the trading and other
pursuits and some of them have stayed on in Arakan and in this way people of Arab blood increased
as time passed by. So the Rohingyas have been staying in Arakan for more than a
thousand years.
Second phase of the coming of the Muslims
The fifteenth century is a great turning point in the
history of Arakan;
during this time a large contingent of Muslim entered into Arakan from Bengal and they went there by invitation of the
ruling prince. The cause was political. In the beginning of the 15th century,
the Arakanese king Min-Saw-Mun attacked some area of Burma, but was defeated.
The Burmese king retaliated by attacking and taking possession of Launggyet,
the capital and the king was expelled from his kingdom. The story is given
below in the words of A.P Phayre:
“The war between the Burman monarch, Meng-tshewl (Minkong)
and the Arakanese king Min Saw Mun resulted in the latter’s defeat
and expulsion from his kingdom in the local era 768 (1406 A.D). Min Saw Mum
fled to Bengal, the governor of Chittagong took from him his queen,
Tsan-mwe-sheng, on which the fugitive king went to Thura-tan where the king
received him with distinction, ….. For several years the Talaings (a hilly
tribe who were fighting for the Arakanese) and the Burmans struggled for the
possession of Arakan,
and the letter were finally expelled in the year 788 (i.e. 1426 A.D) by the
efforts of the Arakanese and Talaings.
“During this period, the dethroned king was residing at the
king of Thu-ra-tan, who being engaged in war could not afford him any
assistance, while there the Delhi king came to attack Thu-ra-tan, with a huge
army consisting of elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers, also dogs are
large as bullocks, trained to war. By the advise of Min-Saw-Mun, the dog were
disabled by means of iron-hooks baited with raw flesh, seizing which they were
caught by the mouth and easily overpowered. The elephants and horses fell into
pits dug for them, and covered over with straw and earth, at the bottom of
which were iron spikes; thus the Thu-ra-tan king obtained a complete victory.
The Arakanese exiled king taught the king’s subjects the art of entrapping a
herd of wild elephants by driving them into a space enclosed by a stockade and
ditch; he also instructed them in the art of training elephants.
“Out of gratitude for these services, the king determined to
assist the exiled prince in the recovery of his kingdom. He appointed a general
called in the Arakanese U-lu-Kheng (Wali Khan) to command the army of
restoration. This person however betrayed his trust, and joining with a Rakhine
Chief, named Tse-u-Ka, they established a government and imprisoned
Min-Saw-Mun. He escaped and fled to Bengal.
“The king of Thu-ra-tan now appointed two nobles; named
Dan-ba-tsu and Ban-ba-tsu, to carry out his intentions together with a large
army under the command of Tshat-ya-Khat (Sandi Khan). They arrived with orders
to place Min-Saw-Mun on the throne and bring back the head skin of U-lu-Kheng.
The expedition was successful. U-lu-Kheng suffered the fate his crime deserved
and the historian records in glowing terms the joy of the people, from the
inhabitants of the kingly city to those of the smallest village in the empire
that the descendant of their ancient line of kings was restored to them.
“The restored king, however, was forced to submit to the
degradation of being tributary to the king of Thu-ra-tan, from his time the
coins of the Arakan
kings bore on the reverse, their names and titles in Persian Character.11
This event had far reaching effects on the history of Arakan and spread of Muslim influence there. The
Arakanese king Min-Saw-Mun passed his exiled life in Bengal for a quarter of a
century and he must have been accompanied by his family and retinue. During
this twenty-five years the Arakanese people came in contact with the local
people and became conversant with local language and local customs and culture.
In the above quotation Phayre states that the Arakanese king taught the Bengali
army as to how to face foreign invasion and deal with invading elephants,
horses and dogs. Similarly, the Arakanese who accompanied the king must have
also learnt many things from Bengali Muslim hosts.
When the Arakanese king Min-Saw-Mun took shelter in Bengal
in 1406 AD. Sultan Ghiasud-din Azam Shah was on the throne, but he was restored
by Sultan Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Shah in 1430 AD. During the interval, Bengal
witnessed several palace intrigues, several kings were killed by kingmakers and
several occupied the throne through their blessings. Thus the family of
Ghias-ud-din Azam Shah was exterminated and a line of kings under their slave
Shihab-ud-din Bayazid Shah occupied the throne, the latters were also removed,
and Hindu king Raja Ganesh occupied the throne. A prince of his family Jadu
became a Muslim and
occupied the throne under the title of Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Shah. This man
restored the Arakanese king to his throne. So the king Min-Saw-Mun and his
family and retinue experienced all these events and happenings in the Bengal
Court. The changes did not take place easily as we have stated in a few
sentences. There were movements and counter movements, fightings, killings,
political groupings and regroupings; at one stage the guardian saint of Pandua,
Shaikh Nur Qutb Alam interfered and invited Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi of Jaunpur to
intervene and save the Muslim
kingdom. The Sharqi Sultan came and invaded with a large army, but had to
return when by tricks, Raja Ganesh got his son Jadu converted to Islam and
feigned to relinquish the kingship to his converted son. There was the scene of
re-conversion of Jadu to Hinduism by passing him through a cow made of gold.
The Arakanese king returned to his kingdom with all these experiences. Arakan had no proper coinage,
they became now acquainted with minted coins; Arakan used Burmese script, literature was not
developed, but in Bengal they found Bengali, Arabic and Persian languages and
literature. So the Arakanese returned to their country with much commitment to
a civilised life and a better living.
The next important point to be noted is the arrival of large
Muslim population in
Arakan. In those
days Arakan’s fighting force was predominantly navy and elephant corps, but
Bengal was weak in both, Bengal was strong in army, or land force. And, in
fact, not one but two expeditions were sent to Arakan by the Bengal king. The first expedition
was sent under Wali Khan who proved a traitor, but the second expedition
succeeded in seating Min-Saw-Mun to his throne. In both the expeditions, many
people belonging to the auxiliary forces, like carriers, tent bearers, cooks
and butlers, washer-men etc. accompanied the actual fighting force, or in other
words combatant and no-combatant people taken together, several thousand
Muslims entered into Arakan
in 1430 AD. while reinstating the ousted king Min-Saw-Mun. It is almost certain
that the first expeditionary force did not return to Bengal because they
rebelled and they knew what could be their fate if they returned to Bengal. So
it is very probable that they remained in Arakan hiding, and settled in villages and out
of the way places. It is also doubtful if all soldiers of the second
expeditionary force returned home, because their services were needed by the
reinstated king. So these soldiers also helped in swelling the Muslim population as found in
later times.
In the previous pages it has been stated that the king of
one country was reinstated in his kingdom by that of another, but the
enterprise was not so easy. It involved not two but three kingdoms, Bengal, Arakan and Burma. So it may
reasonably be assumed that much diplomatic exercises preceded the actual
restoration of the Arakanese king, and actually it took long twenty-five years
to accomplish the task. The Bengali king did not certainly undertake such
hazardous and expensive enterprise for no ultimate gain for himself. It is not
possible to say for want of positive events, what was the agreement arrived at
between the two parties, thought it may be reasonably surmised that the king of
Arakan bound himself
to be loyal to his benefactor, the king of Bengal. Events and facts prove that
the Arakanese king not only bound himself to bear the cost of the expedition
but also to pay tribute to the king of Bengal.
M.A Tahir Ba Tha in his Short History of Rohingyas and
Kamans of Burma (translated by A.F.K Jilani, edited by Mohd. Ashraf Alam) says,
“Narameikhla agreed to the following conditions:
To return the twelve towns of Bengal.
The kings of Arakan
must use Muslim
titles.
The court emblem must be inscribed with Kalima Tayuba in
Persian.
The coins, medallions must be inscribed with Kalima Tayuba
in Persian
and to mint them in Bengal.
To use the Persian as court language of Arakan.
To pay taxes and presents annually.
The above points may not be accepted in all its
details, but there is no doubt that the king of Arakan had entered into an agreement with the
king of Bengal before he was restored. The terms of agreement must have been
favourable to the Bengal king.
When the king Min Saw-Mun reached the capital, he was widely
acclaimed by his people. The first thing he did was to transfer the capital
from Launggyet to Mrohaung, which in the hands of Bengali poets and people
became Roshang (Rohang). Min Saw-Mun probably received the idea of transferring
the capital from his benefactor, the Bengal Sultan Jalal Uddin Muhammad Shah.
The Bengal Sultan transferred the capital from Pandua to Guar 12 because
the former place saw many killings, including the killing of several kings as a
result of the palace intrigues. The boy king Jalal Uddin did not like to reign
from that cursed city. For Min Saw-Mun also the city of Laungggyet was a cursed
city from where he was ousted and which city also saw the rise and fall of many
kings, Harvey writes:13
“The turmoil of foreign inroads showed that Launggyet was
ill-fated and the omen indicated Mrohaung as a lucky site, so he decided to
move there; though the astrologers said that if he moved the capital he would
die within a year, he insisted, saying that the move would benefit the people
and his own death would matter little. In 1433 he founded Mrohaung and in the
next year he died. A populous sea-port, built on hillocks amid the rice-plain,
and intersected by canals which served as streets, Mrohaung remained the
capital for the next four centuries.”
The Muslims who went to Arakan from Bengal built the Sandi Khan mosque
at Mrohaung and thus the Muslims settled at the capital city in large number.
In fact these were the people who followed the king to reinstate him there.
Seated on the throne, the king had to pay attention to the payment of cost of
the expedition and pay the tribute as stipulated. The payment must have
continued for several years. This payment, however, posed a problem, because Arakan had no regular
coinage, unstamped silver pieces of various sizes were used in their
transaction. But in Bengal, they used minted and stamped coins of superior dies
and exquisite finishing. The Bengal coins were of standard size, weight and
shape bearing inscriptions in Arabic characters giving the names and pedigree
of kings, dates of issue and the name of mint. So if the Arakanese had to pay
and they did so, in the coins of the same fashion. For this reason, they had to
provide for minting coins in the Bengal fashion, i.e. with standard weight,
size and shape. It is in this connection that the Arakanese king had to invite
experts, mint masters, die staff, and artisans for minting the coins. The
Arakanese coins that they produced reveal much more information than only the
minting of coins. Their coins bore the name of the king and date, but the most
important point to be noted is that though the kings were all Buddhists, they
took a Muslim name
along with their Buddhist name, the Muslim names were written in Arabic characters, sometimes
both in Arabic and Bengali characters. This suggests that Arabic and Bengali
calligraphers were also appointed along with mint experts.
Min Saw-Mun bound himself to pay the tribute to Bengal, but
he died in 1434 A.D. Sultan Jalal Uddin Muhammad Shah of Bengal had also died
in the meantime, he died in 1432 A.D. So it is doubtful whether the pact or
agreement reached between the two monarchs remained valid. As there is no
written record, nothing definite can be said, but facts show that the practice
of adopting a Muslim
name by the Arakanese kings continued for more than two hundred years. The
Arakanese kings who are known to have taken Muslim names are as follows:
Name of Kings Reigning Period Muslim Names
1. Min Saw Mum or Narameikhla 1430-1434 Sulaiman Shah or Sawmun Shah
2. Naranu or Min Khari 1434-1459 Ali Shah or Ali Khan
3. Basawpyu 1459-1482 Kalima Shah
4. Min Dawlya 1482-1492 Mu-Khu-Shah
5. Basawnyo 1492-1494 Muhammad Shah
6. Yanaung 1494 Nuri Shah
7. Salingathu 1494-1501 Shiek Abddullah Shah
8. Minyaza 1501-1513 Ilyas Shah-I
9. Kasabadi 1513-1515 Ilylas Shah-II
10. Mim Saw O 1515 Jallal Shah
11. Thatasa 1515-1521 Ali Shah
12. Min Khaung Raza 1521-1531 El-Shah Azad
13. Min Bin 1531-1553 Zabuk Shah
14. Min Dikha 1553-1555 Daud Khan
15. Min Palaung 1571-1593 Sikandar Shah
16. Minyazagyi 1593-1612 Salim Shah-I
17. Min Khamaung 1612-1622 Husain Shah
18. Thiri Thudamma 1622-1638 Salim Shah-II
Col. A.P. Phayre who first discovered some of those coins
and studied them says:14
“The restored king (Meng Yoan Mwyn- Min Saw-Mun), however
was forced to submit to the degradation of being tributary to the king of
Thuratan (Bengal) and from this time the coins of the Arakan kings bore on the
reverse their names and titles in the Persian character. This custom was
probably first made obligatory upon them as vassals, but they afterwards
continued it when they had recovered their independence and ruled the country
as far as the Brahmaputra river.”
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“The Arakanese sovereign, no doubt wished to follow the
kingly practice existing in Bengal, of coins being struck in the name of the
reigning monarch. We learn from their annals about the middle of the fifteenth
century of the Christian era that they conquered Bengal as far as Chittagong of
which they kept possession for about a century. It was then that they first
struck legendary coins. On the reverse of the earliest of these, we find the
date and the kings names written in the Burmese character together with
barbarous attempts at Muhammadan names and title, that they assumed as being
successors of Mussalman kings, or as being anxious to imitate the prevailing
fashion of India.”
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“The Muhammadan Names are fanciful designations”
A. P. Phayre is in great confusion; in the first place he
says that the Arakanese kings became vassals of the Bengal king, and became
tributary to the latter. While he said this he was explaining the facts
correctly. As a result of his restoration to his throne, the king Min Saw-Mun
was obliged to pay for the cost of the expedition and pay tribute meaning that the
Arakanese king accepted suzerainty of that of Bengal. In the second passage
Phayre forgot what he had written earlier, and said that he made a barbarous
attempt at imitation of the Bengali fashion of striking coins. In the third
statement he called the Muslim
names as fanciful designation. Phayre could not read the Arabic characters
properly, so to him it was “barbarous imitation” and “fanciful designation”.
Nowadays many scholars, European, Bengali and Arakanese, have deciphered the
coins, and have read the Muslim
names properly. There is no doubt that the names are clear Arabic words, e.g.
Husain, Ilyas, Kalima, Mohammed, Nuri, Salim, Sikandar etc. Not only that,
European writers like Fray Sebastien Manrique also have written the Muslim names of Arakanese
kings. Manrique was himself in the Arakanese court for a pretty long time; he
was present in the capital on the occasion of the coronation of the king Thiri
Thudamma (Muslim
name Salim Shah). So Manrique’s evidence cannot be questioned. What is more
important is that Manrique used the Muslim name (Salim Shah) only, he did not use the Buddhist
name of the king. So there is no doubt that the Arakanese kings took the Muslim names purposely and
deliberately, and not only one king but all reigning for more than two hundred
years used the Muslim
names and inscribed the same in the coins. So A.P. Phayre is wrong when he says
that the Arakanese king made “barbarous imitation” and adopted “fanciful
designations”.
The Arakanese kings used to take the title “Dhavala
Gajeshwara” (Lord of the Red elephant) and they inscribed this title in their
coins.15 The following interesting account about white elephants is
reproduced:
“White elephants are comparatively rare, and they are
revered by the Buddhists, who believed that the Buddha had been a whit elephant
in his last incarnation, before being born as a man. Possession of one was
symbol of universal sovereignty. Determining white elephant is quite a science,
and considerable literature is to be found on the subject …….. but as a guide
we can say here that the two main tests applied are that the elephant shall
have five toe nails on its hand feet instead of four, and that if you pour
water on a white elephant, he return red while a black elephant becomes even
blacker.
“Written evidence of the existence of white elephant is
found in several accounts of the time. In particular Ralph Fitch claims to have
seen a white elephant in 1586 when he was at Pegu. It was shown to him as a
“Siamese loot”, and he was some what surprised at having to pay half ducat to
get in to see it. Manrique, a Portuguese Friar, who travelled to Arakan in 1630 saw the white
elephant at Mrauk-U (Mrohaung or Roshang) probably the same one which Fitch and
Manrique describe the luxury in which the elephant was kept, in a gilded stall
lined with silks and cushions and with a retinue of servants to prepare and
serve food in vessels of silver and gold, to attend to its daily bath, and
other needs. Much later in Mindon’s time (1853-78 A.D) we read that the Royal
Elephant was even breast-fed by a succession of human mothers lined up
specially for the purpose, and that the mothers actually queued up for the
honour.”16
It is to be noted that the title “Dhavala Gajeshwara” was
inscribed on their coins in Arabic script and in Arabic rendering which is
“Sahib-ul-Fil-ul-Abyaz” and also in Bengali script. The Bengali Muslim poet like Alaol,
Mardan and others also ascribed this “Dhavala Gajehwara” tittle to the
Arakanese king of their time.
As stated above Min Saw-Mun made the pact with the Bengal
Sultan to pay for the cost of the expedition and to pay tribute, but how long
the Arakanese kings were obliged to honour the pact made by Min Saw-Mun with
Sultan Jalal-ud-din is not known. Certainly all the monarchs of Arakan who ruled for more
than two hundred years did not honour the pact, because there is positive
evidence that some kings of Arakan
did not only annul the pact unilaterally, but actually fought against the
Bengal kings, or Mughal Viceroys of Bengal under their control. Both sides
fought between themselves on the possession of Chittagong in the Husain Shahi
period (1493-1538) and Afghan period (1538-1576). Those kings of Arakan who fought against the
Sultans of Bengal also adopted Muslim
names and inscribed these names in their coins. To cite a few examples two
Arakanese kings Minyazagyi (Salim Shah-I 1593-1612) and Min Khamaung (Hussain
Shah 1612-1622) were contemporary of Jahangir, both invaded Bengal several
times, but they also adopted Muslim
names, Thiri Thudama (Salim Shah-II 1622-1638) was a contemporary of both
Jahangir and Shah Jahan; he invaded Bengal in the later part of the reign of
Jahangir, and actually looted the city of Dhaka, but he also adopted a Muslim name. Why then the
Arakanese kings adopted Muslims names? There is no proof that any of them
accepted Islam, they remained Buddhists although. Min Saw-Mun and a few of his
successors were tributary, but later kings ruled and maintained their
sovereignty without any let or hindrance. That is why, the question is why did
they inscribe Muslim
names in their coins.
Various writers have explained this question in their own
way. As we have seen above, A.P. Phyre thinks that initially it was made
obligatory upon the kings of Arakan
to mint the coins with “Persian” inscription, but latter when they “recovered
their independence”, they just continued the previous practice. A Modern
historian of Arakan
entitled this period of the history of Arakan as “Muslim
conquest of Arakan”,
meaning that the Bengal kings conquered Arakan in 1430 and kept it under their control for long two
hundred years. He says:17
“Narameikhla embraced Islam and adopted the Muslim name of Solaiman Shah
……. Eleven kings successively ruled Arakan for the hundred years from 1430 to 1530. The
relation with Bengal remained extremely cordial. The Arakanese paid tribute to
Bengal and learnt history and politics. In 1531 Minbin (Zabuk Shah) ascended
the throne. With him the Arakanese graduated in their Moslem studies and the
empire was founded.”
It is probably a little too much to say that Min Saw-Mun
accepted Islam, because there is no evidence to make such a positive statement.
The writer speaks about one hundred years, 1430-1530. But he is silent about
the next one hundred years 1530 to about 1638, during this second period also
the Arakanese kings inscribed their Muslim names in Arabic and sometimes in Bengali characters.
That they adopted Muslim
names in this second period also is proved by the accounts of European writers
apart from the coins themselves. Another writer says as follows:18
English translation: “ In striking the coins and in
fixing the value of the coins of the above mentioned kings of Roshang or Arakan Gaudina policy (Policy
of Gaud or Bengal) was followed. In those coins the policy of inscribing
Islamic creed (Kalima) and the Muslim
names of their kings in Persian character was followed. This policy was
followed for 215 years for 1430 to 1645 during the reigns of independent kings
of Roshang. Due to inscribing the Islamic creed (Kalima) and the Muslim name of their kings in
the coins in Persian characters, and because in the court of the Arakanese
kings Muslim
ministers were appointed, modern Arakanese Rohingya Muslims believe for certain
that those Arakanese kings adopting Muslim names accepted Islam. Such belief is baseless and
there is no historical proof in support of this belief.”
This is another extreme, and the writers do not try to
explain why the Arakanese kings adopted Muslim names, and why did they inscribe these names in
Arabic characters. (It may be noted here in passing that the inscription on the
coins is in Arabic and not Persian character). A third scholar, Sultan Ahmed
Bhuiyan has tried to rationalise the point. He writes”:19
English translation: “The adoption of Muslim names by Arakanese
kings was not obligatory. If it was obligatory, there is no reason for them to
accept Muslim names
even after they assumed independence. We know that the culture and
civilisation, daily life, etiquette, dress, education etc. of the undeveloped
people are regulated on the ideals of developed communities. In those days, the
Muslim nations were
at the top in education, knowledge and kingly dignity. As we, in our time, are
following the western culture in all aspects, similarly in those days it became
a fashion (for the undeveloped people) to imitate Muslim culture. The 15th – 16th century was the
glorious period in India of the Mughal and Pathan rule, and it was also the
glorious period of Mughal and Pathan civilisation. So the Arakanese kings
considered it glorious for them to inscribe Muslim names and Muslim creed (Kalima) in their coins along with
their Buddhist names.”
At the present stage of our knowledge, we know for certain
that a Sultan of Bengal, Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Shah reinstated an Arakanese
king Min Saw-Mun (Narameikhla) to his throne. This must have been done through
an agreement between the two kings; otherwise the Bengal Sultan would not have
incurred such a huge expenditure for fitting an army. We do not know what were
the points of agreement between the two kings, and in the absence of any
written record it will not probably be possible to have any idea in future
also. But from the events that followed in Arakan we may surmise the following points of
agreements: 1st, the Arakanese king bound himself to pay for the cost of
expedition. 2nd, the Arakanese king became a tributary to the king of Bengal.
To meet these demands, the Arakanese kings started minting silver coins in the
same fashion as the Bengal kings did. With the help of these coins he met cost
of expedition and also paid the tributes.
So far so good, but the Arakanese kings did something more,
they accepted Muslim
names and inscribed these names in Arabic characters. There is no evidence that
the Arakanese kings gave up their Buddhist religion and accepted Islam. So the
reason for accepting Muslim
names and inscription in Arabic, should be sought elsewhere.
With the restoration of Min Saw-Mun to his throne, a big
contingent of Muslims entered into Arakan.
The contingent included the army, not one army but two, of which the members of
the first expeditionary force spread over the country and mixed with the
people. The second army also must have been a big one, because they had to
fight against both Arakanese and the first contingent of Bengal army. Next, the
contingent included the administrators, officers and intellectual persons.
Though we have no knowledge about the administration in Arakan in the 15th – 16th
century, we find that not only soldiers and members of the subordinate staff
but also the ministers and judges came from the Muslim community. The seventeenth century
Bengali Muslim poets
give in their writings an impression that the capital city of Roshang (Mrohaung
or Mrauk-U) thronged with the Muslim
population, so that the Muslim
ministers maintained courts, i.e. religious, social and cultural assemblies of
their own. Then in the third category came the Muslim artisan and craftsmen, the officers and
men connected with the mint and other state establishments. Last but not the
least came the traders and businessmen in the hitherto terra incognita
abounding in agricultural and natural resources. Later, in the essay, we shall
give an idea of the Muslims who entered into Arakan in large number. We shall also see that
when the king of Arakan
picked up quarrel with Shah Shuja, the former did not take action against the
latter openly for fear of estranging his relations with the Muslim subjects. So it is
possible that initially the Arakanese king accepted Muslim name and inscribed legend in coins in
Arabic just to satisfy his overlord, the Bengal king, but later the practice
continued. The kings found it expedient to continue the practice to keep his Muslim subjects in good
humour.
We have seen above that the Muslims entered into Arakan in a body twice; first
the shipwrecked Arabs and second with the restoration of Min Saw-Mun. The Arabs
trade with the east continued up to the 16th centuries the Arabs traders
visited the Arakanese ports quite often, may be once a year during trading
season. Some traders must have remained there either voluntarily or out of necessity.
In this way the Arab Muslims became familiar with the land of Arakan. But with the
restoration of Min Saw-Mun, a large number of Muslims entered into Arakan and taken together,
the Muslims in Arakan
became a force in the body-politic of Arakan.
Third Phase of the coming of the
Muslims
There was yet another group of Muslims to enter into Arakan. They were the people
of the coastal areas of Bengal, but kidnapped and sold to slavery by the
pirates. They belonged to both Hindu and Muslim community, but both became unfortunate
victims. The pirates were the Portuguese and Maghs of Arakan. When the Portuguese
first came to Bengal they came for trade and commerce, they were followed by
missionaries whose purpose was evangelisation. But the Portuguese in course of
their establishment of trade relations with Bengal often took recourse to
violence and piracy. So from the beginning their religious and commercial
motives were hampered by their wanton acts of piracy and their involvement in
the slave trade. S.N. Sen says:20
“Nothing was unfair to a fanatical Christian, and fanaticism
was the order of the day, particularly in the comparatively less civilised
lands of the west, when a Moor or Muslim
happened to be the victim. They had waged a long and Portuguese patriotism and
bitter war against the Moor in their native country, and Portuguese piety
equally demanded the extermination of the hated Moor in the neighbouring tracts
of Africa. Commercial rivalry added further zeal to racial hatred and religious
aversion, and a Moor was considered to be fair prey whenever encountered.”
There are various examples of Portuguese piracies in the
ocean as well as in the coastal districts, and men, women and children, and
valuable i.e. whatever came before them were lifted and carried away, so that
the whole coastal area of Jessore, Khulna, Bakerganj were desolated and no
habituation was to be founded there. The Magh king of Arakan employed the
Portuguese to perpetrate their piratical activities into Bengal and later the
Magh were also joined with the Portuguese, so that they jointly raided the
coastal districts. Manrique, a Portuguese priest who visited Bengal and Arakan and who spent six year
in the Angustinian Church at Dianga (Deang, opposite Chittagong town) was
himself a witness to such piratical raids. He gives a picture as to how
the Magh kings employed the Portuguese to loot and plunder the coastal
districts of Bengal. He writes:21
“…… the Magh kings decided to always retain Portuguese in
their service, granting the best of them the rank of Captain and conferring on
them Bilatas, or revenue-producing lands, on the understanding that they
maintained a certain force of their country men and also Geli as …… Beside the
annual income they were authorised to take their vessels into the principality
of Bengala, which belonged to the great Mogul. Here they would sack and destroy
all the villages and settlements on the banks of the Ganges, to a distance two
or three leagues up-stream, and besides removing all the most valuable things
they found, would also take captive any people with whom they came in contact.
This raiding was pronounced by the Provincial Council at Goa to be just, since
the Mogors (Maghuls) were not only invaders and tyrannical usurpers but also
enemies of Christianity …….. They usually made there general attacks three or
four times in the year, irrespective of minor raids which went on most of the
year, so that during the five years I spent in the kingdom of Arracan, some
eighteen thousand people came to the ports of Dianga and Angarcale.”
Of these eighteen thousand captives Manrique and other
Portuguese priests baptised eleven thousand four hundred seven. Before
Manrique, his predecessor priests baptised sixteen thousand ninety captives
from Bengal. Manrique gives other examples of carrying away of captives from
Bengal by the pirates. Manrique and other priests welcomed the piratical
activities, because the more people the pirates enslaved, the better for them
to baptise them. The Maghs also joined the Portuguese in piracy and they
jointly carried on piratical attacks to the coastal districts of Bengal.
Shihab-ud-din Talish, the famous 17th century historian gives a horrible
picture as to how the Magh and Portuguese pirates carried away people from
Bengal, oppressed them and sold them as slaves. He says:22
“As these (piratical) raids continued for along time, Bengal
became day by day more desolated. Not a house was left inhabited on either side
of the river lying on the pirates’ track from Chatgaon to Dacca. The prosperous
district of Bakla (Bakergung) was swept clean with the broom of plunder and
kidnapping, so that none was left to occupy any house or kindle a light in that
region.
“When they came from Chatgaon to ravage Bengal they skirted
the imperial frontier post of Bhulua (Noakhali) on their right and the island
of Sondip on their left, and reached the village of Sangramarh at the southern
apex of the Delta of Dacca (some 30 miles from Dacca) and then point of
junction of the Brahmaputra and the Ganges. From this place they sailed up the
Ganges if they wished to plunder Jessore, Hughli and Bhushna, or up the
Brahmaputra if Vikrampur, Sonargaon and Dacca were their objectives.
“The Arakan
pirates both Magh and Feringi used constantly to plunder Bengal. They carried
off the Hindus and Muslims they could seize, pierced the palms of their hands
passed thin strips of cane through the holes, and threw the men huddled
together under the decks of their ships. Every morning they flung down some
uncooked rice to the captives from above as people fling grain to fowl. They
sold their captives to the Dutch, English, and French merchant at the ports of
the Deccan. Sometimes they bought their captives to Tamluk and Balasore for
sale at high prices…… Only the Feringis sold their prisoners but the Maghs
employed all whom they carry off in agriculture and other occupations, or as
domestic servants and concubines.”
There are many such examples of piratical activities of the
Maghs and Portuguese who carried away men, women and children from Bengal and
as has been said by Talish, the Portuguese generally sold their captives in
exchange of cash; the buyers English, Dutch and French sold them as slaves in
slave markets. The Portuguese also handed over some of their captives to their
priests for converting them to Christianity. But the Maghs generally did not
sell their captives, they employed them in Arakan in low works particularly agriculture,
cutting of wood, feeding the animals and felling the trees etc. Their number was
not small and an idea of their member may be had from the fact that when the
Chittagong fort fell into the hands of the Mughals, ten thousand Bengali (both Muslim and Hindu) captives
got liberty and they went to their homes. Actually they were not slaves but
free men; they were made to slavery. The Kaladan River originates from the Chin
hills and falls into the Bay of Bengal. ‘Kala’ means place occupied by the
foreigners. Actually the captives of Magh pirates were made to settle there and
they were employed in tilling the soil and developing agriculture. So these
captives also helped in increasing the Muslim population of Arakan.
Fourth Phase of the coming of the Muslims
The next large influx of Muslims from Bengal into Arakan took place in the
middle of the 17th century. This was due to political upheaval in India, in the
Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1627-1658) had four sons, Dara Shikoh, Shuja,
Aurangzib and Murad. The Mughal princes were trained in the art of government.
Shah Jahan could guess that his four able sons would eventually fight amongst
themselves to occupy the throne after his death. So he tried to keep them
separate giving each of them a share of governing the country. Dara Shikoh, the
eldest was kept in the capital by his side, he was more refined, philosophic
but less able in the art of governing. Shah Shuja, the second son was given the
viceroyalty of Bengal and Orissa, he was able but a little devoted to pleasure.
Aurangzib, the third son, was as learned as he was appointed viceroy of the
Deccan province. Murad, the forth son was the viceroy of Gujarat, but he was
less experienced and more indolent. It is happened that Shah Jahan actually
fell ill in 1658 and for some time all hope of his recovery was given up. Dara
Shikoh being in the capital took control of affairs; he stopped leaking out
information from the capital to the countryside. When the princes living in the
provinces did not receive information of the emperor’s health for some time,
they took it for certain that the emperor had been dead and that Dara would not
inform them before consolidating his authority. The princes therefore came out
of their provinces with huge army, proceeded towards the capital and in this
way war of succession began. In the contest Aurangzib, ultimately came out
successful and occupied the throne. Dara and Murad had been killed by Aurangzib
already; Shah Shuja was also defeated, but instead of surrendering he escaped
and took shelter in Arakan.
The king of Arakan
[Sanda Thudhama- Chandra Sudharma (1652-1684)] agreed to grant asylum to Shah
Shuja and his family and send them to Mecca in favourable season. The
Portuguese and Maghs escorted Shah Shuja and his entourage to Mrohaung
(Roshang) and they reached there in 1660. But unfortunately, the Arakanese king
did not keep his word; rather he proposed to marry a daughter of Shah Shuja.
When Shah Shuja did not agree to the proposal, the relation was estranged.
Ultimately, Shah Shuja was treacherously murdered with his family by order of
the king of Arakan.
It is not known how many people were in the retinue of Shuja. It is, however,
probable that about one thousand Muslims entered into Arakan during this time. 23
So by the seventeenth century, the Muslims entered into Arakan in a big way on four
different occasions; the Arabs in course of their trading activities including
the ship-wrecked ones; the Muslim army, actually two big contingents, in course
of restoring the king Min Saw-Mun to the Arakanese throne; the captive Muslims
carried by the pirates in the 16th-17th centuries; and the family and retinue
of Shah Shuja in 1660 A.D. Of them, the army contingents who entered into
Arakan with the restored king Min Saw-Mun were numerically very great, they
also influenced the Arakanese society and culture in a great manner. In
the 17th century the Muslims thronged the capital Mrohaung and they were
present in the miniature courts of ministers and other great Muslim officers of
the kingdom. An idea of their presence is available in the writings of Muslim
poets. The great Bengali poet Alaol, for example writes as follows:24
The above evidence of Alaol is very important, as will be
discussed below. Alaol, originally a Bengali national, went to Arakan being
captive by the Portuguese. He wrote various poetical works in Bengali in the
second half of 17th century. Being a poet, he was honoured by the Muslim Wazirs
and other high officers of Arakan. He had access both in the court as well as
assemblies of ministers and high officials and so he was in a position to write
confidently about the people of Arakan. In the above passage, Alaol says that
people from various countries and belonging to various groups came to Arakan to
be under the care of Arakanese king. He mentioned the people from Arabia,
Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Abbyssinia, Rumi (actually by Rumi, he mentioned
Turkish), Khurasan, Uzbekistan, Lahore, Multan, Sind, Kashmir, the Deccan, Hind
(north Indian), Kamrup and Bengal, Karnal, Malayese, Achin, Cochin and Karnatak
country. The poet also refers to the Shaikhs, Sayyids, Mughal, Pathan, Rajputs,
Hindus, and people of Ava, Burma, Shyam (Indo-China), Tripura, Kukis (of Assam
and Tippera); the Armenians, the Dutch, the Danish, the English, the French and
the Spanish and the Portuguese were also found in the capital city of Mrohaung.25
Alaol’s evidence gets support from the European writers. For example, Ferdinand
Mendez Pinto, a 17th century European traveller says that the Arakanese army
comprised of the following nationalities and countries: “Portugals, Grecians,
Venetians, Turks, Janizaries, Jews, Armenians, Tartars, Mogores, Abyssians
(Abyssinians), Raizbutos (Rajputus), Nobins, Coracones (Khurasanis), Persians,
Tuparass (people from Tripura or Tippera), Gizares, Tanulos, Malabares, Jaos
(Jens), Achem, Moens, Saims, Lussons of the Islands, Borneo, Checomes,
Arracons, Predin, Papuaas, Selebres, Mindancas, Pegus, Bramaas, and many other
whose names I know not.”26 The Portuguese Padre Fray Sebastien Manrique
visited Arakan and stayed for some time; he was also present in the coronation
ceremony of the Arakanese king held on 23 January 1635. He gives a description
of the coronation procession and says that of the several contingents of army
that took part in the coronation, one contingent wholly comprised of Muslim
soldiers, let by a Muslim officer called Lashkar Wazir. The leader rode on
Iraqi horse, and the contingent comprised of six hundred soldiers. In other
contingent, led by Arakanese commanders also there were Muslim soldiers. This
evidence of Sebastien Manrique combined with the fact that there were several
Muslim ministers in Arakan gives a good picture of the presence of the Muslim
in Arakan in the 17th century. The influence of the Muslim officers over the
king of Arakan is also evident from the following episode mentioned by Sebastien
Manrique.
The Arakanese king Min Khamaung Husain Shah (1612-1622) was
succeeded by his son Thiri Thudhama, but his coronation was delayed. The
astrologers said that the king would die one or two years after the coronation.
So the king was in no mood to perform the coronation, but after 12 years had
passed, the great officers of the state desired that the old custom of
coronation of the king be observed. The king felt that their desire should be
performed. But before acceding to their demand, he consulted his preceptor, who
was a Muslim. Manrique says that his man was a Haji, he visited the holy cities
of Makka and Madina, but he was held to be a saint by the king and his Magh
subjects. Manrique writes: 27
“But first of all he consulted his false preceptor, a
Mahammadan, who, having twice visited the hateful Mausoleum where the obscene
sandals of the descendant of Hagar are said to preserved, was held to be a
saint by these Barbarians.”
Actually Manrique confused here; he was ignorant of the
Muslim rite of the performance of Haj. Manrique’s editors write: 28
“The hateful Mausoleum” is strictly speaking, at Madina,
where Muhammad was buried, but here Manrique confuses Madina with Makka, the
place of regular pilgrimage. There is no support to the statement that the
prophet’s shoes are shown either at Madina or Makka, though soon after
Muhammad’s death his servant Anas used to show his shoes to the faithful,
presumably at Makka.”29 Any way, the main point here is that the
Arakanese king’s preceptor was a Muslim, so an idea of the Muslim influence in
Arakan may be obtained.
Reference and notes
1.
G. E. Harvey: History of Burma,
London, 1925, ( hereafter referred to as Harvey), p.313.
2.
Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal, (hereafter referred to as JASB),
Vol. XIII, 1944, part 1, p. 24.
3.
This is a tricky problem and much
has been written both for and against the reading by different scholars. We
quote below the latest opinion given by Pratip Kumar Mitra and Sutapa Sinha “Chandir
Jhar Hoard of Silver Coins” in Pratna Samiksha, Vols.
2&3, 1993-94, (Journal of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums
Government of West Bengal, Calcutta, 1995, p. 285). :
The coins of the Afghan rulers of Bengal are fairly well
represented in the hoard. Only one coin (Sl. No. 199) of Shams al-din Muhammad
Shah Ghazi, the first Sultan, is available which bears a date of 962 A. H. and
mint name of Arakan. The coin is similar to those published by Marsden, Lane
Poole and Wright. But a controversy had been raised regarding the reading of
the mint name Arakan in these coins. G. S. Farid has very aptly summarised such
controversy in the following words:
“According to
Blochmann the correct reading on Marsden’s coins is Sunargaon and not Arkat.
According to
A.B.M. Habibullah the reading of the mint name Arakan is not acceptable. He
writes Arakan is not only a foreign name, but the form was not known to the
Muslims at that time. Muslim historians always use the name Rakhang. The
reading is also not clear, it looks like Rikab.
N. B. Sanyal
justified the reading of the mint name Arakan. A. Karim holds a view
similar to that expressed by Habibullah as regards the mint name, and concludes
that Marsden has wrongly read ( Te) instead of (Nun) and made Arakat of Arakan.
By no stretch of imagination it could be read as Sunargaon, as suggested by
Blochmann. It appears that Habibullah and Karim have consulted I.M.C. Plate,
Alif, of ‘Arakan’ is partly visible which has been taken as a dot of (Be) of
the word ‘Zarb’ which precedes the mint name, and this has created doubts in
the mind of some of the scholars, although Wright and Rogers have correctly
read as ‘Arakan. Had they consulted the plates illustrated in Marsden’s book
and B.M. Catalogue, the controversy might not have arisen.”
On a close examination of the coin found from the present
hoard, we fully attest the conclusion drawn by Farid and maintain that there
should be no room for any doubt regarding the reading of the mint name ‘Arakan’.
In view of N.B. Sanyal’s assertion that Bengal was not weak vis-à-vis Arakan
during Shams aldin Muhammad Shah’s time, it seems likely that this Sultan
conquered Arakan and issued coins from the Magh capital city. The coins of
Shams al-din Muhammad Shah is (Sic) extremely rare and so far only four pieces
are known to exist. The present coin is a welcome addition to this scare list.”
4.
“The Call of Rohingya” paper published by the Rohingya Patriotic Front, Arakan,
Vol.1, No.1, 1981, quoted in Abdul Hoque Chowdhury: Praehin Arakan Rohingya
Hindu O Barua Bauddha Adhibhasi (Bengali), (Hereafter referred to as A.H.
Chowdhury 1), Bangla Academy, 1994. P, 3.
5.
Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bangladesh. Vol. XVI, No. 3, P. 236.
6.
G.E. Harvey, History of Burma,
pp. 9-10.
7.
S.H. Hodivala: Studies in
Indo-Muslim History, p.5; Proceedings of the Pakistan History Conference,
Karachi Session, 1951, p. 198.
8.
Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Pakistan, Vol. VIII. No. 2, 1963, pp. 13-24.
9.
JASB, Vol. X. Part I, 1844, p. 36.
10. British Burma Gazetteers.
Vol. A, 1917, District Akyab. P. 90.
11. A.P. Phayre writes the name “Mengh-tsan-newun”. I
have modernised the spelling.
12. A.P. Phayre: History of Burma, London, 1884, p. 78.
13. Riaz-us-Salatin,
tr. A. Salam, Delhi, reprint 1975, p. 118.
14. G. E. Harvey,
pp. 139-40.
15. JASB, Vol.
XIII, 1844, pp. 32-34; Vol. XV, 1946, p. 232.
16. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. II, 1882, pp. 233-235; A. P. Phayre: Coins
of Arakan, pp. 5-7.
17. M. Robinson and L.A Shaw: Coins and Banknotes of Burma,
Manchester, 1980, pp. 46-47.
18. Dr. Mohammed Yunus: A History of Arakan, Past & Present,
1994, p. 35.
19. Abdul Huq Chowdhury: Chattagram-Arakan, Chittagong,
1989, p. 64.
20. Sultan Ahmed Bhuiyan: Prachin Muslim Bengla Sahitya,
p. 31, quoted in Abdul Huq Chowdhury: Chattagram-Arakan, p. 65.
21. History of Bengal,
Vol. II. Ed. J. N. Sarkar, D.U. 1948, p. 353.
22. The Travels of Fray Sebastien Manrique, ed. Luard &
Hosten, Vol. 1, p.285.
23. History of Bengal,
Vol. II, ed. J.N. Sarkar, pp. 378-79.
24. Abdul Karim: History of Bengal, Mughal period, Vol.
II, Rajshahi, 1995, p. 363.
25. Abdul Karim and Enamul Huq: Arakan Rajsabhaya Bangla
Sahitya, Calcutta, 1935, p. 12.
26. Ahpai, Khotanchari, Almani, Kastilan could not be identified. According to another reading Ahpai
is actually Bhopali (i.e. from Bhopal) in India.
27. The Voyages and Adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, Translated by H. Cogan, London, 1981, quoted in S.A.
Ahsan: Padmavati (Bengali), Dhaka, 1968, p. 87.
28. The Travels of Fray Sebastien Manrique, Vol. I, p. 352.
29. Ibid., p. 252,
note 6.
If Anas showed the shoes it was at Madina (and not Makka),
because the prophet passed away in Madina.
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