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The Iranian-Siamese Connection: An Iranian Community in the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

M. Ismail Marcinkowski*
Affiliation:
International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), Kuala Lumpur

Extract

Those who are familiar with the history of Muslim civilization in Southeast Asia in general, and in Thailand in particular, might be conversant with traces of the Malay or Arabic cultural and religious influences in this region. Cultural interchanges between Iran and maritime Southeast Asia during the pre-Islamic period have been studied by a number of scholars including Brian Colless who wrote several works on the activities of Nestorian and Armenian Christians in the region during the Sasanid period. Much more work has been done on Iranian influences in the spread of Islam into Southeast Asia although the interpretation of the phenomenon often depends on the religious perspective of the writer. Much of the modern literature focuses on actual or alleged Persian elements in Malay language, literature, and culture.

The purpose of the present paper is to review some of the literature to date on the Iranian community in the Siamese Ayutthaya kingdom in the seventeenth century and to highlight the main problems those studies have focused on.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2002

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References

1. For an introduction, in particular on contemporary issues, refer to Forbes, Andrew D. W. (ed.), The Muslims of Thailand, 2 vols., (Gaya, Bihar, India, 1989)Google Scholar; Kraus, Werner, “Islam in Thailand. Notes on the History of Muslim Provinces, Thai Islamic Modernism and the Separatist Movement in the South,Journal of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (henceforth JIMMA) 5 (1984): 410–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Forbes, Andrew D. W., “The ‘Cin-Hō’ (Yunnanese Chinese) Muslims of North Thailand,JIMMA 7, (1986): 173–86Google Scholar; Suthasasna, Arong, “Occupational Distribution of Muslims in Thailand: Problems and Prospects,JIMMA 5 (1984): 234–442Google Scholar; Scupin, Raymond, “Cham Muslims of Thailand: A Haven of Security in Mainland Southeast Asia,JIMMA 10 (1989): 486–91Google Scholar; idem, Muslims in South Thailand: A Review Essay,JIMMA 9, (1988): 404–19Google Scholar; idem, The Socio-Economic Status of Muslims in Central and North Thailand,JIMMA 3 (1981): 162–89Google Scholar; Regional Islamic Da'wah Council of Southeast Asia and the Pacific (henceforth RISEAP) (ed.), Muslim Almanach Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur, 1996), 206–20 (on Thailand).Google Scholar

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3. For some conflicting, and at times polemical, views see Syed Muhammad Naguib al-Attas, Preliminary Statement on a General Theory of the Islamization of the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago (Kuala Lumpur, 1969), and Drewes, G. W. J., “New Light on the Coming of Islam to Indonesia?Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia, ed. Ibrahim, Ahmad, Siddique, Sharon, and Hussain, Yasmin (Singapore, 1990), 719Google Scholar; Mohd. Taib Osman, “Islamization of the Malays: A Transformation of Culture,” Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia, 44—47; Johns, A.H., “Islam in Southeast Asia: Problems of Perspective”, in: Southeast Asian History and Historiography: Essays presented to D. G. E. Hall, ed. Cowan, C.D. and Wolters, O. W. (Ithaca and London, 1976), 107–22.Google Scholar

4. For instance, al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naguib, “New Light on the Life of Ḥamzah Fanṣūrī,JMBRAS 40 (1967): 4251Google Scholar; idem, The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri (Kuala Lumpur, 1970)Google Scholar; idem, Concluding Postscript to the Origin of the Malay Sha'ir (Kuala Lumpur, 1971)Google Scholar; Baried, Baroroh, “Shi'a Elements in Malay Literature,Profiles of Malay Culture. Historiography, Religion and Politics, ed. Kartodirdjo, Sartono (Jakarta, 1976), 5965Google Scholar; Brakel, L. F., “The Birth Place of Hamza Pansuri,JMBRAS 42 (1969): 206–12Google Scholar; idem, Persian Influence on Malay Literature,AN 9 (1969-70): 116Google Scholar; idem (ed.), The Hikayat of Muhammad Hanafiyyah. A Medieval Muslim-Malay Romance (The Hague, 1975)Google Scholar; idem (transl.), The Story of Muhammad Hanafiyyah. A Medieval Muslim-Malay Romance (The Hague, 1977)Google Scholar; Winstedt, Sir Richard, “Taju's-salatin,Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 81 (1920): 3738Google Scholar; idem, A History of Classical Malay Literature, revised, edited, and introduced by Talib, Yusof A. (Kuala Lumpur, 1996)Google Scholar, passim; Jabbar Beg, Muhammad Abdul, Persian and Turkish Loan-Words in Malay (Kuala Lumpur, 1982)Google Scholar.

5. Ibrahim, Ibn Muhammad, The Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane (New York, 1972).Google Scholar

6. A convenient starting point for this literature is Devare, T. N., A Short History of Persian Literature at the Bahmani, the Adilshahi, and the Qutbshahi Courts (Deccan) Poona, 1961).Google Scholar

7. For instance, by Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680, 2 vols. (New Haven and London, 1993), 2: 180.Google Scholar

8. Tibbetts, G. R., Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean Before the Coming of the Portuguese (London, 1981), 488.Google Scholar

9. Transliterated as such by the translator O'Kane. See [Muhammad Rabi’] Ibrahim, Ibn Muhammad, The Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), 42ff.Google Scholar

10. Tibbetts, Arab Navigation, 488.

11. Beek, Steve Van, The Chao Phya. River in Transition, (Kuala Lumpur, 1995), 29.Google Scholar See also Jumsai, Sumet, Naga: Cultural Origins in Siam and the West Pacific (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988). 161.Google Scholar

12. This heading was apparently added by O'Kane.

13. Ibrahim, Ibn Muhammad, The Ship of Sulayman, 88.Google Scholar On the supposed genesis of the Thai people Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim has, however, only the following to offer: “The Iranians and the Franks [i.e. the Europeans] call the natives of Shahr Nav, Siamese, but the natives themselves trace their stock back to Tai, whom they hold to be one of their devils and genii.” (ibid.)

14. Kaempfer, Engelbert, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam 1690 (Bangkok, 1998, reprint), 49.Google Scholar

15. Van Beek, The Chao Phya, 54-56.

16. Yule, Henry and Burnell, Arthur Coke, Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrase (New Delhi, 1979Google Scholar, reprint of the New Edition by William Crooke of 1903), 795, s.v. [tracing it back to the dubious form Shahr-i Naw]. See also Tibbetts, Arab Navigation, 488. The form ‘Sarnau’ appears also in di Varthema, Ludovico, The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia Felix, in India, Persia, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503-1508, trans Jones, John. W. (London, 1853), 212–13, 235-37, 259.Google Scholar

17. I am indebted to my colleague Dr. Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad (ISTAC), whose family originates from Lucknow, for this information.

18. Ismail, Abdul Rahman Haji, ed., Sejarah Melayu: The Malay Annals (Kuala Lumpur, 1998).Google Scholar An English translation of this work is found in C. C. Brown, trans., JMBRAS 25 (1952): 45ff. Winstedt, Sir. R. O., ed., “The Malay Annals or Sejarah Melayu. The Earliest Recension from MS no. 18 of the Raffles Collection in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society, London,JMBRAS 16 (1938): 27Google Scholar, dated the composition of the earliest version of the Sejarah Melayu between 1511 and 1535.

19. Al-Attas, The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri, 5, 7.

20. Ibid., 7.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid. Also see L. F. Brakel, “The Birth Place of Hamza Pansuri, 206-12.

24. Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. Volume Two: Expansion and Crisis (New Haven and London, 1993), 190.Google Scholar According to Oudaya Bhanuwongse, “Speech,” in Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran [Bangkok], ed., Sheikh Ahmad Qomi and the History of Siam (Bangkok, 1995), 207Google Scholar, the expression Chao Sen refers in Thai to “Shiism.”

25. Van Beek, The Chao Phya, 29.

26. Ibid., 32

27. Wyatt, Thailand. A Short History, 86. Kennon Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible,” idem (ed.), From Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya's Maritime Relations with Asia (Bangkok, 1999), 38Google Scholar, pointed out that Ayutthaya was from the fourteenth century onwards part of the trade network that linked the Arabian peninsula with Southeast Asia.

28. Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, The Ship of Sulayman, 94.

29. Kennedy, J., History of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur, 1993Google Scholar, reprint of the 3rd edition of 1970), 20-27.

30. Sunait Chutintaranond, “Mergui and Tenasserim as Leading Port Cities in the Context of Autonomous History,” Kennon Breazeale (ed.), From Japan to Arabia, 104-18.

31. See Richards, J. F., The Mughal Empire (Cambridge, 1996), 7.Google Scholar

32. Ibid., 7 (map).

33. Among the most important recent studies of the history of Indian Ocean trade relations are Risso, Patricia, Merchants & Faith: Muslim Commerce and Culture in the Indian Ocean (Boulder, 1995)Google Scholar; Arasaratnam, Sinnappah, Maritime India in the Seventeenth Century (Delhi, 1994)Google Scholar; Chaudhuri, K. N., Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean. An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge, 1986).Google Scholar See also Gupta, Ashin Das, “Indian Merchants and the Trade in the Indian Ocean, c. 1500-1750,Raychaudhuri, T. and Habib, I., eds., The Cambridge Economic History of India c. 1250-c. 1750 (Cambridge, 1982), 1: 407–33Google Scholar; idem, Introduction II: The Story,Das Gupta, A. and Pearson, M. N., eds., India and the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800 (Delhi, 1987), 2545Google Scholar; idem, “The Maritime Merchant, c. 1500-1800,” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Presidential Address to the Medieval Section, 35th Session 1974, Jadavpur University Calcutta (Delhi, 1974), 115.Google Scholar

34. For a comprehensive survey refer to Sherwani, H. K., History of the Qutb Shahi Dynasty (New Delhi, 1974)Google Scholar, which, however, does not have much to say about the religious beliefs of the Qutb-Shahi kings and the role played by Twelver Shiite Iranians in society and culture. See also Minorsky, Vladimir, “The Qara-Qoyunlu and the Qutb-Shahs (Turmenica, 10),Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (henceforth BSOAS) 18 (1955): 5073.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35. Studies on the history of the Twelvers in southern India include Khalidi, Omar, “The Shi'is of the Deccan: A Historical Outline,Al-Tawhid 9 (1991-92): 163–75Google Scholar (with an excellent bibliography); Hollister, John Norman, The Shi'a of India (New Delhi, 1979, reprint), 101–25Google Scholar, and Rizvi, Sayyid Athar Abbas, A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna ‘Asharī Shi'is in India, 2 vols. (Canberra, 1986), 1: 247341.Google Scholar

36. A remarkable but so far generally neglected study on Persian literature under the southern Indian Muslim rulers is A. N. Devare, A Short History of Persian Literature at the Bahmani, the Adilshahi and the Qutbshahi Courts (Deccan).

37. Alam, Shah Manzur, “Masulipatam: A Metropolitan Port in the Seventeenth Century,Islamic Culture 33 (1959): 169–87.Google Scholar For developments during the following century, see Arasaratnam, Sinnappah, “The Coromandel-Southeast Asia Trade, 1650-1740: Challenges and Responses of a Commercial System,Journal of Asian History 18 (1984): 113–35Google Scholar, and idem, The Chulia Muslim Merchants in Southeast Asia, 1650-1800,Moyen Orient et Océan Indien 4 (1987): 126–43.Google Scholar See also Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 2:147.Google Scholar

38. Alam, “Masulipatam,” 177. See also Kennon Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible,” idem (ed.), From Japan to Arabia, 41, who refers to ‘trade representatives’ of Siam residing in Golconda, and vice versa.

39. Sherwani, History of the Qutb Shahi Dynasty, 625ff.

40. Subrahmanyam, “Iranians Abroad,” 348.

41. Ferrier, Ronald, “Trade from the Mid-14th Century to the End of the Safavid Period,The Cambridge History of Iran (Cambridge, 1986), 6: 423Google Scholar, who bases his assertions on the statements of Ludovico de Varthema and Tomé Pires.

42. Subrahmanyam, “Iranians Abroad,” 348.

43. Ferrier, “Trade,” 423. For a survey of the general framework of seventeenth- century Safavid trade see Matthee, Rudi, The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730 (Cambridge, 1999)Google Scholar, an extended version of his “Politics and Trade in Late Safavid Iran: Commercial Crisis and Government Reaction under Shah Solayman (1666-1694),” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California Los Angeles, 1991.

44. Nagazumi Yoko, “Ayutthaya and Japan: Embassies and Trade in the Seventeenth Century,” Breazeale, ed., From Japan to Arabia, 89-103; Nagashima, Hiromu, “Persian Muslim Merchants in Thailand and their Activities in the Seventeenth Century: Especially on their Visits to Japan,Nagasaki Prefectural University Review 30 (1997): 387–99Google Scholar (I am grateful thanks to Professor Baas Terwiel, Hamburg, who supplied the present author with a copy of the Nagashima article).

45. Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible,” 1-54.

46. On the shāhbandars of Malacca see Andaya, Barbara Watson, “Malacca,The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition (henceforth EI2) (Leiden, 1991), 9: 209Google Scholar, and Schumann, O., “Ḍarība,” in: EI2 Supplement, fasc. 3-4 (Leiden, 1981), 199200.Google Scholar On the shāhbandars in Masulipatam see Subrahmanyam, “Iranians Abroad,” 345.

47. Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade,” 5.

48. Kaempfer, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam, 39.Google Scholar

49. de Chaumont, Chevalier Alexandre, “Relation of the Embassy to Siam 1685,Smithies, Michael (ed. and transl.), The Chevalier de Chaumont and the Abbé de Choisy: Aspects of the Embassy to Siam 1685 (Chiang Mai, 1997), 111.Google Scholar

50. Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade,” 5.

51. This brief summary on the maritime ministry is based on Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade,” 5-16. See also Leonard Y. Andaya, “Ayutthaya and the Persian and Indian Muslim Connection,” Breazeale, ed., From Japan to Arabia, 119-36.

52. Andaya, “Ayutthaya,” 127.

53. See G. G. Gilbar, “Malik al-tuār,” EI2, 6: 276-77, and Ismail Marcinkowski, M., Mirza Rafi'a's Dastur al-Muluk: A Manual of Later Safavid Administration. Annotated English Translation, Commentary on the Offices and Services, and Facsimile of the Unique Persian Manuscript (Kuala Lumpur:, 2002), §108 (and commentary).Google Scholar

54. Leonard Y. Andaya, “Ayutthaya,” 127-28. See also Andaya, Barbara Watson, “The Indian ‘Saudagar Raja’ (The King's Merchants) in Traditional Malay Courts,JMBRAS 51, pt. 1 (1978), 1355.Google Scholar

55. Chao Phraya Thiphakorawong Maha Kosa Thibodi, Chotmaihet prathom wong sakun bunnak riapriang doi than phraya chula ratchamontri (sen) than phraya worathep (thuan) than chao phraya thiphakorawong maha kosa thibodi (kham bunnak) [Records of the Beginning of the Bunnag Lineage, Compiled by Phraya Chula Ratchamontri (Sen), Phraya Worathep (Thuan) and Chao Phraya Thiphakorawong Maha Kosa Thibodi (Kham Bunnag)], published by Phraya Si Thammasan (Thaen Bunnag) on the occasion of his 60th birthday, 5 May 1939] (Bangkok, 1939), 3 [in Thai], cf. Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible,” 9.

56. Andaya, “Ayutthaya,” 125.

57. Chao Phraya Thiphakorawong Maha Kosa Thibodi, Chotmaihet prathom 3,; also Andaya, “Ayutthaya” 125. The expression “chao sen,” according to Oudaya Bhanuiwongse (see his “Speech,” Sheikh Ahmad Qomi and the History of Siam (Bangkok, 1995), 207)Google Scholar refers in Thai to Shiism.

58. This and the following is based on Wyatt, Thailand. A Short History, 108. See also idem, “Family Politics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Siam,” in: idem, Studies in Thai History. Collected Articles (Chiang Mai, 1999), 96Google Scholar (stemma). See also Scupin, Raymond, “Islam in Thailand before the Bangkok Period,Journal of the Siam Society 68 (1990): 6364Google Scholar, and Farouk, Omar, “The Muslims in Southeast Asia: An Overview,Ariff, Mohammad (ed.), Islamic Banking in Southeast Asia (Singapore, 1992), 89.Google Scholar

59. Wyatt, Thailand, 108 (however, on page 74 he refers to the post as “Ministry of the Treasury”).

60. Wyatt, Thailand, 108.

61. Wyatt, “Family Politics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Siam, 96.

62. Alam, “Masulipatam,” 178.

63. Records of the Relations Between Siam and Foreign Countries in the Seventeenth Century. Copied from Papers Preserved at the India Office, 5 vols. (Bangkok, 1915-17), 2: 9298.Google Scholar

64. Hutchinson, E. W., 1688 Revolution in Siam. The Memoir of Father de Bèze (Hong Kong and Bangkok, 1990), 11 (n. 2), 127, 128.Google Scholar

65. Du Mans, Père Raphaël, Estat de la Perse en 1660, ed. Schefer, Charles (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1890), 339Google Scholar (appendix).

66. Kaempfer, Am Hofe des persischen Groṣkönigs (1684-85). Das erste Buch der Amoenitates Exoticae, German introduction and translation by Hinz, Walther (Leipzig, 1940), 199.Google Scholar

67. Ibid., 212-13. The “native Persian” was apparently the Hajji Salim Mazandarani named by Ibn Muhammd Ibrahim. See The Ship of Sulayman, 20, 104, 105. On Hajji Salim see also Aubin, Jean, “Les Persans au Siam sous le regne de Narai (1656-1688),Mare Luso-Indicum 4 (1980), 121–22Google Scholar (I am grateful to Professor Baas Terwiel, Hamburg, who supplied me with a copy of the Aubin article.)

68. Thus contrary to the view of Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade,” 39. For further evidence see Ibrahim, Ibn Muhammad, The Ship of Sulayman, 20.Google Scholar

69. Subrahmanyam, “Iranians Abroad:” See also Aubin, “Les Persans au Siam.”

70. Subrahmanyam, “Iranians Abroad,” 347-48.

71. Ibid., 348.

72. Ibid. Also see Caron, François and Schouten, Joost, A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam. A Facsimile of the 1671 London Edition in a Contemporay Translation from the Dutch by Roger Manley (Bangkok, 1986), 134.Google Scholar

73. The Ship of Sulayman, 94.

74. Subrahmanyam, “Iranians Abroad,” 349. On Abd al-Razzaq Gilani see Ibrahim, Ibn Muhammad, The Ship of Sulayman, 97Google Scholar, on Aqa Muhammad Astarabadi see ibid., 55, 59, 98, 100-101, 102, and Aubin, “Les Persans au Siam,” passim.

75. Subrahmanyam, “Iranians Abroad,” 349.

76. For a recent portrait of Phaulkon see Sioris, George A., Phaulkon, the Greek Counsellor at the Court of Siam: An Appraisal (Bangkok, 1998).Google Scholar Although the work suffers throughout from a pro-Phaulkon bias, it nevertheless contains valuable bibliographical information.

77. See Kasetsiri, Charnvit, “Thai Historiography from Ancient Times to the Modern Period,Reid, A., and Marr, D. (eds.), Perceptions of the Past in Southeast Asia (Singapore, 1982), 156–67Google Scholar (especially 159ff on seventeenth-century Ayutthaya dynastic chronicles or phongsawadan-histories); also David K. Wyatt, “Chronicle Traditions in Thai Historiography,” C. D. Cowan and O. W. Wolters, eds., Southeast Asian History, 107-22 (especially 118-20)

78. Reynolds, Craig J., “The Case of K. S. R. Kulap: A Challenge to Royal Historical Writing in Late Nineteenth-Century Thailand,JSS 61 (1973): 6390.Google Scholar

79. Wyatt, “Family Politics” 96.

80. For examples see ibid., 98 n. 2, and 99 n. 5. For further sources see also Srisak Vallipodom, “The Roles of Sheikh Ahmad Qomi in the Court of Ayutthaya,”, Sheikh Ahmad Qomi and the History of Siam, 213-14.

81. Andaya, “Ayutthaya,” 125.

82. Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 2:190-91.

83. Besides the cited works by Sherwani, Rizvi, Khalidi, and Hollister, see also Devare, A Short History of Persian Literature. The precarious situation of the Golconda kingdom during that time was also noticed by Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim (The Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane, 234-40)

84. For further information on taziyah in Iran and elsewhere see also Chelkowski, Peter J., ed., Ta'ziyeh. Ritual and Drama in Iran (New York, 1979).Google Scholar

85. The Prophet Muhammad had no surviving son. The reference here is most probably to his grandsons, al-Hasan and al-Husayn.

86. Tachard, Guy, A Relation of the Voyage to Siam, Performed by six Jesuits, sent by the French King, to the Indies and China, in the Year 1685 (Bangkok, 1999), 2: 214–15.Google Scholar Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, the member of the embassy from Safavid Iran, who was in Siam about the same time, mentioned taziyah as being performed by the Iranians resident at Ayutthaya (The Ship of Sulayman, 77-78, 95).

87. Muhammad Rabi’ b. Muhammad Ibrahim, Safinah-yi Sulaymani, British Museum manuscript BM Or. 6942, described in Meredith-Owens, G. M., Handlist of Persian Manuscripts, 1895-1966 (London, 1968), 4849.Google Scholar The BM manuscript was used by Aubin in his “Les Persans au Siam.”

88. Aubin, Jean, “The Ship of Sulayman, translated from the Persian by O'Kane, John (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972)Google Scholar [a review article], Studia Iranica 2 (1973): 286.Google Scholar In the course of the article, Aubin mentions another study, Suhayli-Khwansari, M., “Ravābiṭ-i dūstī-yi Īrān bā Siyam dar ahd-i Shāh Sulaymān-i Ṣafavī,Sālnāmah-i Kishvar-i Irān 18, 99105.Google Scholar (The latter work was unavailable to me.)

89. Muhammad Rabi’ b. Muhammad Ibrahim, Safīnah-yi Sulaymānī, Safarnāmah-yi Safir-i Īrān bih Siyam, 1094-1098, navishtah-yi Muḥammad Rabī b. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm, ed. Abbas Faruqi (Tehran, 2536 shahanshahi [1977].Google Scholar

90. The following summary is based on O'Kane's translation.

91. Wyatt, “A Persian Mission to Siam in the Reign of King Narai,” 95.

92. Additional remarks in square brackets are by the present author.

93. Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, The Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane, 77, 94-97.

94. In 1978, see Farouk, Omar, “The Muslims of Thailand: A Survey,” in: Forbes, Andrew D. W. (ed.), The Muslims of Thailand, 2 vols, vol. 1 “Historical and Cultural Studies” (Gaya, Bihar/India: Centre for South East Asian Studies, 1988), 3.Google Scholar In 1989 the number had increased to 53, see RISEAP (ed.), Muslim Almanach Asia Pacific, 212-13.

95. The conference was conducted on 15 May 1994. See Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran [Bangkok] (ed.), Sheikh Ahmad Qomi and the History of Siam (Bangkok: Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1995/2538 Buddhist Era).Google Scholar Of relevance are the following contributions therein: Oudaya Bhanuwongse, “Speech,” 206-7; Srisak Vallipodom, “The Roles of Sheikh Ahmad Qomi in the Court of Ayutthaya,” 208-14; Pensri Karnjanomai, “The Muslims’ Role in the Time of Ayutthaya and the Cultural Transference,” 221-24; Pluplung Kongchana, “The Persians in Ayutthaya”, 233-41, P. Ahmadchula “Sheikh Ahmad Qomi,” 246-52; Pluplung Kongchana, “The Historical Development of the Persian Community in Ayutthaya,” 253-69; Pitya Bunnag, “Some Facts Regarding the Bunnag Family,” 272-84. Not available to the present writer was Farouk, Omar, “Shaykh Ahmad: Muslims in the Kingdom of Ayutthaya,JEBAT Journal of the History Department Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 10 (1980-81), 206–14Google Scholar, cf. Yusuf, Imtiyaz, “Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajmontri/Shaykh al-Islm,Journal of Islamic Studies 9, no. 2 (July 1998), 284 n. 32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

96. Yusuf, “Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajmontri/Shaykh al-Islam” 284.

97. For a list of names see Che Man, W. K., The Administration of Islamic Institutions in Non-Muslim States: The Case of Singapore and Thailand (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1991). 4.Google Scholar

98. See Farouk, “The Muslims of Thailand: A Survey,” 17-24.

99. Yusuf, “Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajmontri/Shaykh al-Islam” 296-97. See also Farouk, “The Muslims of Thailand: A Survey,” 22. For a graphical represeantation of the structuring of the office refer to the chart in Farouk, idid., 24.

100. Yusuf, “Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajmontri/Shaykh al-Islam,” 285.

101. Kaempfer, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam 1690, 24.Google Scholar

102. Pluplung Kongchana, “The Historical Development of the Persian Community in Ayutthaya,” 265.

103. Wyatt, “Family Politics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Siam,” 96-105, and idem, Family Politics in Nineteenth-Century Thailand,” in: idem, Studies in Thai History (Chiang Mai, 1999, 2nd reprint), 106–30Google Scholar, stemma of the Bunnag family on page 115. Both of Wyatt's articles also contain rich references and discussions of relevant Thai sources. See also Farouk, “The Muslims of Thailand: A Survey,” 7 and 27 n. 75 and 76, and Pramoj, Kukrit, Khwampenma khong Itsalam nai prathet Thai [The Origin of Islam in Thailand] (Bangkok, B.E. 2514)Google Scholar [not accessible to me].

104. See previous note.

105. Exemplified in Bunnag, Pitya, “The Influence of Persian Art in Ayutthaya's Architecture,Sheikh Ahmad Qomi and the History of Siam (Bangkok, 1995/2538 Buddhist Era), 225–32Google Scholar, and by personal communications between the present author and Dr. Pitya Bunnag.

106. Farouk, “The Muslims of Thailand: A Survey,” 7 and 27 n. 75 and 76; Pramoj, Kukrit, Khwampenma khong Itsalam nai prathet Thai [The Origin of Islam in Thailand], 11.Google Scholar