Richard Forster Magh Marauders, Portuguese Pirates, White Elephants and Persian Poets: Arakan and Its Bay-of-Bengal Connectivities in the Early Modern Era1 RICHARD FORSTER University of Hawaii at Manoa Introduction from the sea, as opposed to one limited by territorial The plight of Muslims in the western Burmese state boundaries, this paper aims to show that during its ascendancy as a maritime power of the sixteenth and of Arakan (or Rakhine) illustrates a tendency in nation- early seventeenth centuries, the Kingdom of Arakan alist historical consciousness to deny those aspects of participated in and was shaped by a cultural continuum the past, which would otherwise unsettle dominant of a heterogeneous littoral society that extended in an national narratives. Since Burmese independence from British colonialism in 1948, many Muslims have been arc around the Bay of Bengal. This is not to discount the importance of autochthonous traditions, or influ- denied Burmese citizenship under the rationale that ences emanating from further inland and outside of this they are “illegal immigrants” who entered the country Bay of Bengal zone of cultural interaction. Indeed, to a from Bengal as compradors of the exploitative colonial large extent we might recognize that a distinctive era regime of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Hav- ing suffered several waves of state-sponsored oppres- was brought to a close as the seventeenth century pro- gressed, and the connectivities that gave life to this sion and violence in the latter part of the twentieth distinctive littoral society were terminally interrupted century, large numbers of people have fled Arakan for by territorial divisions imposed by the landed empires refugee camps in neighboring countries. The specific of the Burmese from the east and the Mughals from the cause of refugees often identified as Rohingya has re- ceived some media attention in recent times, although west. Nonetheless, when Arakan’s early modern his- tory is viewed in terms of its connectivities to other a chronic refugee problem has been ongoing for many parts of the Bay of Bengal via the sea, the parochial decades.2 At the same time, the Rohingya people and excesses of tropes of Arakan’s Buddhist purity become other Muslim Arakanese have had little support from impossible to sustain. the nativist Rakhaing nationalist movement, which has vigorously opposed both Burmese imperialism and what it sees as the foreign influence of Islamicization.3 Earliest Arrivals of Islam Despite such narratives of Arakanese purity, abundant Contemporary Muslims, and the Rohingya4 them- evidence points to over one thousand years of settle- selves trace their ancestry in Arakan, in part, to the ment in Arakan by Muslims, who came from various shipwreck of seafaring Arab and Persian traders, as places across the seas and around the Bay in several early as the eighth century of the Common Era.5 While distinct waves of immigration prior to the colonial era. positive identification of many of their referents is dif- One of the major aims of this paper is to chart the ficult, Arab geographers of the tenth and twelfth centu- many ways in which this post-colonial nationalist view ries, such as Al-Masudi and Al-Idrisi respectively, men- of the Arakanese past fails to account for the diverse, tion ports in the eastern Indian Ocean like Samandar cosmopolitan and indeed multicultural nature of and Ruhmi, which modern scholars have identified Arakan in the early modern period. In taking a view with Chittagong and lower Burma.6 As Karim argues, if Volume 11, Issue 1, Spring 2011 63 Arakan and Its Bay-of-Bengal Connectivities Arab sailors were familiar with Chittagong and lower fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw a corresponding Burma there is no reason that they shouldn’t also have increase in Arakan’s Muslim population at various called at those of Arakan proper. levels of society, from the rural peasantry to the courtly Certainly, Arakanese chronicles record that during elite at the capital of Mrauk-U. Michael Charney has the reign of Ma-ha-toing Tsan-da-ya in the late eighth convincingly argued that current notions of religious to the early ninth centuries of the Common Era, several identity cannot be unproblematically applied to Arakan 9 foreign ships were wrecked on the coast of the island of of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In neigh- Ran-byi (or Rambree). According to the chronicles, boring Bengal itself, the arrival of Islam was a compara- the Muslim survivors of these vessels were taken to tively recent occurrence, with popular conversion of- Arakan proper and settled in villages.7 Although more ten the gradual result of syncretic blendings of charis- positive evidence is lacking prior to the modern era, it matic Sufi teachings with Hindu and other indigenous 10 seems likely, since the coast of Burma was well known beliefs and practices. Rather than being rigidly de- to Arab pilots from very early times, that Arab traders termined by belonging to a religious community, were no novelty in Arakan.8 Charney suggests that the construction of an individ- ual’s sense of identity in Arakan during this period Regardless of the extent of these earliest arrivals, the depended much more upon kinship ties and patron- early modern period was certainly one in which Arakan client relationships, as well as local spirit cults.11 became integrated with other regions of the Bay of Bengal littoral; areas which were also increasingly fal- This important caveat notwithstanding, this period ling under the influence of Islam. This integration saw a growing Islamic presence in Arakan via a range of within an increasingly Islamic sphere during the processes, such that Islam was practiced, in some form or an- other, at many levels of society. It became the faith not only of visiting sailors and merchants, but also segments of the arti- sanal and agricultural laboring classes, and by courtly elites. Indeed, despite state patronage of Buddhism and the central importance of the Maha- muni image at Mrauk-U, the trappings and political symbolism of the Dar-al- Islam were invoked by no less than the rulers of Arakan themselves. Right: A Indo-Islamic political and Cultural Influences topographical on Arakan map of Arakan and The rise of Arakan as a the Bay of maritime power in the Bay Bengal of Bengal might be said to 64 EXPLORATIONS a graduate student journal of southeast asian studies Richard Forster originate with the troubled though ultimately redemp- ticularly significant. He views the chronicles upon tive career of the early-fifteenth-century King which so many histories of this period have been based Narameikla.12 This king, according to Arakanese as unreliable, since they are legendary in tone, tend to chronicles, ruled central Arakan briefly from the capi- contradict one another, and were recorded well after tal of Laun-kret beginning in 1404, before fleeing to the era to which they refer.18 However, the important Bengal in the face of invading armies of Mons and question remains: What might have motivated Burmans from beyond the Yoma Mountains. While Arakanese chroniclers to claim that their kings had some scholars have expressed doubts as to the reliabil- been subordinate to their Bengali neighbors were this ity of these Arakanese chronicles as historical not based on some truth? 13 sources, they do tell us that Narameikla took refuge in Other evidence, though generally supportive of the the Islamic Sultanate of Bengal for a quarter of a cen- chronicles in this regard, has also produced skepticism tury between 1406 and 1430. There he served a succes- and debate. From the time of Narameikla’s successor, sion of Sultans in their struggles to remain autono- Min Khari, until 1622, Arakanese kings often adopted mous from rival lords and ultimately Northern India’s Islamic titles, in addition to ones derived locally and 14 imperial center at Delhi. from Buddhist conceptions of kingship. For instance, The Arakanese king is said to have trained the Sul- Min-Khari was also known as Ali Khan, while several of tan’s men in capturing and training wild elephants, as the more powerful Arakanese monarchs, Razagri and well as offering sage advice on how to expedite the Thirithudhamma took the title, Salim Shah, to name a clearing of a bamboo forest that stood in the path of the couple of examples.19 Similarly, Arakanese coinage, Sultan’s army. Narameikla advised the Sultan to have until the year 1634, sported Persian inscriptions attest- coins scattered among the canes so that the common ing to the use of these titles, in addition to being people would of their own volition cut down the forest stamped with the kalima (or the Muslim declaration of in order to collect the wealth.15 Having thus earned the faith).20 Subrahmanyam has suggested that the adop- gratitude of Jalal-ud-din, the Sultan of Bengal, Nara- tion of Islamic titles by Arakanese rulers was their way meikla is said to have returned to Arakan with the sup- of claiming sovereignty over eastern Bengal during the port of ‘Muslim’ or Rohinga troops,16 and, after an decline of the Sultanate of Gaur and before the Mughal initially abortive mission marred by treachery commit- Empire had consolidated its claim on the entire ted as the force approached Arakan from Chittagong, region.21 to have finally recovered his kingdom on the second Leider raises many worthwhile objections against the attempt. This new era of sovereignty was gained then, undiscerning use of admittedly thin evidence to con- it is said, at the price of owing vassalage to Bengal. struct a picture of the Arakanese court as one steeped While Arakan had a long history of absorbing Hindu in Islamic culture and values, arguing instead for the and Buddhist influences from across the Bay, Nara- central importance of Buddhism in courtly culture.