2 Anderson, Benedict R. O'G., Imagined communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism (London: Verso, 1991), pp. 53–4Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., pp. 15–16.

4 Ibid., pp. 55–8.

5 Ibid., pp. 121–2.

6 Ibid., p. 115 and following.

7 Hefner, Robert, ‘Reimagine community: A social history of Muslim education in Pasuruan, East Java’, in Asian visions of authority, ed. Keyes, Charles, Kendall, Laurel and Hardacre, Helen (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1994)Google Scholar, pp. 82, 94, also noted this gap, but chose to explore educational pilgrimages within the local Islamic school system rather than the educational pilgrimage to Mecca.

8 Gellner, Ernest, Nationalism (London: Phoenix, 1997), p. 81Google Scholar.

9 Ibid., p. 83.

10 Ibid., p. 84.

11 For a detailed summary and critique of Gellner's argument, and its application to Southeast Asia, see Mabry, Tristan James, ‘Modernization, nationalism and Islam: An examination of Ernest Gellner's writings on Muslim society with reference to Indonesia and Malaysia’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21 (1998): 64–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 See Denny, Frederick Mathewson, ‘The meaning of ummah in the Qur'an’, History of Religions, 15 (1975): 34–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Oddly, Denny claims that ummah means ‘community or nation’, (p. 44) as if the two words are interchangeable, although he consistently gives it as community in translation. Of course in Qur'anic times, there was nothing like a nation in the Middle East, but rather tribal organisations, trading centres such as Mecca and Medina, and the two great but weakening empires in Persia and Byzantium.

13 For a general discussion of ziarah throughout the Muslim world, see Bhardwaj, Surinder M., ‘Non-Hajj pilgrimage in Islam: A neglected dimension of religious circulation’, Journal of Cultural Geography, 17, 2 (1998): 69–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On ziarah in the Jawi community in Java and its relationship to the pre-Islamic past, see James Fox, ‘Ziarah visits to the tombs of the wali, the founders of Islam on Java’, in Ricklefs, Merle C., Islam in the Indonesian social context (Clayton, Victoria: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies Monash University, 1991), pp. 19–36Google Scholar.

14 Drewes, G. W. J., ‘Indonesia: Mysticism and activism’, in Unity and variety in Muslim civilization, ed. von Grunebaum, Gustave E. (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1955), pp. 297–8Google Scholar, described this process for Java, where it was probably most coherent due to the desire to create a link to the Majapahit kingdom. If he is correct, the nine Hindu guardian deities were transformed into Muslim saints, or wali, who in the tales became responsible for all the cultural traditions being repackaged as Islamic. Fox discusses the legend of the wali in detail in ‘Ziarah visits to the tombs of the wali’. One version of the legends can be found in Mustafa, Ian, Cerita Sejarah Wali Sanga (Bandung: Indah Jaya, 1985)Google Scholar.

15 I have been told that in the past ziarah pilgrimages were made to Kruse, a mosque at the old capital of Pattani; however, that has not been the case for many years now. Since the 1970s, Kruse has been a political site for Muslims rather than a pilgrimage site. An associated Chinese temple long has been, and remains, a pilgrimage site for Chinese. See Satha-anand, Chaiwat, The life of this world: Negotiated lives in Thai society (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2005)Google Scholar, ch. 3. The Taloh Manoh Mosque in Narathiwat, built, according to legend, on the instruction of Haji Saihu in 1769 is another likely site, as it has a tomb in the same style as those at other ziarah pilgrimage sites. The minaret is built in the style of a Chinese pavilion. For a photograph and a brief history, see http://www.tourismthailand.org (last accessed on 16 Sept. 2010).

16 Some from the lower classes were able to make their way to Mecca for the Haj, generally itinerant holy men who travelled overland or servants travelling with wealthy patrons. In later years, as transportation became easier, some were able to borrow enough from friends and family for the trip.

17 Fox, ‘Ziarah visits to the tombs of the wali’, pp. 19–20, noted one particularly apt example of shared pilgrimages in Cirebon at the mausoleum of Sunan Gunung Jati, where the tomb of Putri Cina comprises part of the complex. ‘According to popular tradition, when Putri Cina married Sunan Gunung Jati, she converted to Islam. But her conversion was only partial. She was converted to Islam from the waist up, and as a consequence of this partial conversion, non-Muslim Chinese are permitted to approach her tomb and light joss-sticks to that part of her that remained unconverted.’ Duncan McCargo has recently informed me of a similar site in Pattani province, where people from different religions make pilgrimages, so that this is not unknown in the lower South.

18 van Doorn-Harder, Nelly and de Jong, Kees, ‘The pilgrimage to Tembayat: Tradition and revival in Indonesian Islam’, Muslim World, 91 (2001): 339Google Scholar. In recent years, ziarah has changed, as it has come to resemble a kind of spiritual tourism, carried out in air-conditioned buses, led by knowledgeable tour guides. On the one hand, it seldom includes the kind of sacrifice and commitment it required in the past. On the other hand, it is available to many more people. The identities it generates are thus broader, but perhaps less intense. This, too, is like the Haj.

19 Matheson, Virginia and Milner, Anthony C., Perceptions of the Haj: Five Malay texts (Singapore: ISEAS Research Notes and Discussion Paper, 46, 1984), pp. 4–9Google Scholar. Note that the facts of the trip are less important than the account that is told and remembered, for our purposes.

20 Ibid., p. 13.

21 Recognising the ongoing potency of such sites, in more recent years, the Suharto regime tried to manipulate ziarah pilgrimages. See van Doorn-Harder and de Jong, ‘The pilgrimage to Tembayat’, p. 328.

22 William Roff, ‘The conduct of the Haj from Malaya, and the first Malay pilgrimage officer’, SARI (Institute of Malay Language Literature and Culture) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Occasional Papers No. 1, 1975, p. 96, noted that in 1924, 540 of the 3,317 registered pilgrims died in the Hijaz, ‘some 16 percent, a rate not untypical of the time’.

23 Pearson, Michael N., Pilgrimage to Mecca: The Indian experience 1500–1800 (Princeton: Markus Weiner, 1996)Google Scholar, p. 52. During this period, pilgrims from the Jawi community were numbered with the Indian pilgrims. Pearson (pp. 56–7) estimated the Indian pilgrims separately at around 15,000 during the period of his study; he gave no estimate for Southeast Asia, but subtracted out 1,000 from his calculations in accounting for them.

24 William Roff, The origins of Malay nationalism (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1994) [o.d. 1967], 2nd edn.

25 Mary Byrne McDonnell, ‘The conduct of Hajj from Malaysia and its socio-economic impact on Malay society: A descriptive and analytical study, 1860–1981’ (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1986), p. 76. These figures would include most pilgrims from Pattani, as they generally travelled to Mecca via Malaysia or Singapore. We should also note that travel and migration from the Middle East to Southeast Asia also increased dramatically. Huub de Jonge notes that at the turn of the nineteenth century, there were only 621 Arabs in Java. By 1870, there were 13,000 in all of the Netherlands East Indies, increasing to 27,000 by 1900. Most came from the Hadhramaut to trade, some came from the Hijaz to accompany pilgrims. See de Jonge, Huub, ‘Discord and solidarity among the Arabs in the Netherlands East Indies, 1900–1942’, Indonesia, 55 (1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar: 74, 75.

26 Calculated from McDonnell, ‘The conduct of Hajj from Malaysia’, p. 631 and Vrendenbregt, J., ‘The Haddj: Some of its features and functions in Indonesia’, Bijdragen tot de Tall-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 118 (1962): 149Google Scholar. No actual figures are available for the First World War period since consular offices were withdrawn. Despite the seeming precision of the figures after about 1884, the numbers should be considered rough estimates at least until 1927 when a passport system was implemented; see Roff, ‘Conduct of the Haj from Malaya’, p. 112. The only figure I have been able to find for Siam is 245 pilgrims in the year 1898 (Laffan, Michael Francis, Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003CrossRefGoogle Scholar), p. 218). Nearby Kelantan sent just 70 pilgrims in 1920, in the aftermath of the war, and averaged about 275 over the next decade (McDonnell, ‘The conduct of Hajj from Malaysia’, p. 636).

27 Matheson and Milner's contention that pilgrims before the 1860s saw the Haj through the lens of traditional court culture is somewhat difficult to evaluate because both the accounts presented come from members of the court, while none of the three presented from the later period came from that group. That at least some pilgrims had different experiences is evident in the Padri movement, inspired in 1803 by three returning Hajis who taught a rather puritanical version of Islam that would lead to a revolution against the Dutch. See Reid, Anthony, ‘Nineteenth century pan-Islam in Indonesia and Malaysia’, Journal of Asian Studies, 6, 2 (1967): 272Google Scholar.

28 Matheson and Milner, Perceptions of the Haj, p. 23.

29 Othman, Mohammad Rezuan, ‘The role of Makka-educated Malays in the development of early Islamic scholarship and education in Malaysia’, Journal of Islamic Studies, 9, 2 (1998): 147CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Azra, Azyumardi, The origins of Islamic reformism in Southeast Asia (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin; Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, 2004)Google Scholar, p. 42. According to Azra, the first of these, al-Masa'il al-Jawiyyah (the questions of the Jawi people) may have been underway as early as the 1650s, but certainly in the 17th century. While it is possible that many of these students could have been pilgrims, since extended stays were then common, there were at least some who came primarily to study.

31 Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, pp. 52–3, noted that Hamzah al-Fansuri, a scholar who died early in the 17th (or perhaps the 16th) century, spent time in Mecca. He also spent time in Siam (see Riddell, Peter, Islam and the Malay–Indonesian world (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001), pp. 104–5Google Scholar). The much more prominent Abd al-Ra'uf, or Ali al-Jawi al-Fansuri al-Sinkili, from what is now Aceh, travelled to Mecca in about the 1640s (Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, p. 71; Riddell, Islam and the Malay–Indonesian world, pp. 125–6). The third, Muhammad Yusuf, or Abd Allah Abu al-Mahasin al-Taj al-Khalwati al-Maqassari, went to Mecca at about the middle of the 17th century. Both al-Sinkili and al-Maqassari studied with al-Kurani at Mecca, and thus may have been among those asking questions. (The other major ‘Jawi’ scholar from the period, al-Raniri, was born in Gujarat (Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, p. 54).)

32 I base this observation on the evidence available in Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, Riddell, Islam and the Malay–Indonesian world and the other secondary sources employed here. Abd al-Ra'uf, or al-Sinkili, was relatively young at about age 26 years when he left for the Middle East. According to Azra, even Daud ibn Abd Allah al-Fatani, who arrived over a century later, was in his mid-twenties, if not older.

33 Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, pp. 122–6; Matheson, Virginia and Hooker, M.B., ‘Jawi literature in Pattani: The maintenance of an Islamic tradition’, JMBRAS, 61,1 (1988): 14–15Google Scholar; Mohd. Nor bin Ngah, Kitab Jawi: Islamic thought of the Malay Muslim scholars (Singapore: ISEAS Research and Discussion Paper, no. 33, 1983), p. 6. When a Malay language government printing press was established in Mecca in 1884, a Pattani scholar, Ahmad bin Muhammad Zain bin Mustafa bin Muhammad al-Fatani (see below), was appointed to supervise it. He had many of Daud's works printed. See Matheson and Hooker, ‘Jawi literature in Pattani’, pp. 21, 28–9.

34 Othman, ‘The role of Makka-educated Malays’, p. 147.

35 Roff, William, ‘South-east Asian Islam in the nineteenth century’, in The Cambridge history of Islam, vol. 2, ed. Holt, Peter Malcolm (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1970)Google Scholar, p. 177, noted that in Singapore there were scholars from the region, including from Pattani, who had studied at Mecca. There were also scholars from the Hadhramaut and the Hijaz in Singapore.

36 Trengganu, Aceh and Singapore in different historical periods had some status as centres of scholarship.

37 Laffan, Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia, p. 48.

38 Ibid., pp. 70–1, 75; Hurgronje, Christiaan Snouck, Mekka in the latter part of the 19th century; Daily life, customs and learning of the Moslims of the East-Indian-Archipelago, trans. Monahan, James Henry (Leiden: Brill, 1970), pp. 6–8Google Scholar.

39 Laffan, Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia, p. 218.

40 See Kaptein, Nico, ‘Fatwas as a unifying factor in Indonesian history’, in Islam in the era of globalization (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002)Google Scholar.

41 Chaloemkiat Khunthongphet, ‘Kantotan naiyobai rattaban nai si jangwat phak tai khong prathet Thai doi kan nam khong Hayi Sulong Abdunkadae’ [Resistance to government policy in the four southern provinces of Thailand under the leadership of Haji Sulong Abdulqadir] (M.A. thesis, Silapakon, 1986; published in Pattani: Munnithi Ajan Haji Sulong Abdulqadir Tohmeena, 1989), p. 2. Chaloemkiat's work is the most detailed account of Sulong's life, and the source for many of the basic facts here.

42 Kahin, George McT., Nationalism and revolution in Indonesia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1952), pp. 29–36Google Scholar, 52–3; Anderson, Imagined communities, p. 116 and following.

43 Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, p. 143.

44 Kittisak Nakmuang, ‘Kanburana kanchat nai hua jangwat chai daen phak tai’ [Restoring the nation in the southern border provinces] (M.A. thesis, Thammasat, 1995), pp. 187–94; Salae, Rattiya, Kanpatisamphan rawang sasanik thi prakot nai jangwat Pattani Yala lae Narathiwat [The interaction between religious adherents in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat] (Bangkok: Samnakngan Kongthun Sanapsanun Kanwijai, 2001), pp. 57–8Google Scholar; Mahatthai, Krasuang, Prawat mahatthai suan phumiphak jangwat Pattani [History of the Ministry of the Interior by Province, Pattani province] (Bangkok: Ministry of the Interior, 1985), pp. 42–3Google Scholar.

45 Kittisak, ‘Restoring the nation’, pp. 191–3.

46 Interview, Den Tohmeena, 10 Feb. 2004.

47 Numan Hayimasae, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954): Perjuangan dan sumbangan beliau kepada masyarakat Melayu Patani’ (M.A. thesis, University Sains Malaysia, 2002), p. 81.

48 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 2. According to Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, p. 83, however, Sulong studied at the school of Haji Abdul Rashid bin Abdul Rahman at Sungai Pandang in Pattani.

49 Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, p. 124; Riddell, Islam and the Malay–Indonesian world, p. 199. In Malay, Kruse is spelled Kresik. It may also be worth noting that according to legend, Malik Ibrahim, one of the nine Wali Sanga, spread Islam to Pattani before moving on to Java (Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, p. 124), where he is said to have ruled in Gresik, a commercial centre.

50 According to Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, pp. 83–4, after the death of his second cousin, Syeikh Wan Ahmad (in 1908, see below), Sulong moved in with Tuan Minal, or Pak Do Omar (full name, Syeikh Zainal Abidin al-Fatani), a member of the family. Numan does not specify where Sulong stayed before that time; however, if Wan Ahmad was his second cousin, as Numan claims, he may have stayed in his household, which would also explain his move at the time of Wan Ahmad's death.

51 Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, pp. 83–4. Wan Ahmad was born in Sena Janjar, Pattani in 1856, and studied at Pondok Bendang Daya, before travelling to the Middle East for further study. He spent time in Jerusalem and Egypt, settling in Mecca where he taught at Masjid al-Haram, the central mosque of Mecca, and of the Ka‘ba. He published a large number of books in Arabic and Malay, on topics ranging from science to history to politics, and was apparently also a medical practitioner and researcher. He was also given responsibility for the first state-sponsored Malay language printing press in 1884. See Othman, ‘The role of Makka-educated Malays’, pp. 148–9; Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, p. 151; Matheson and Hooker, ‘Jawi literature in Pattani’, pp. 21, 28–9. The progressive, scientific orientation of this prominent Pattani scholar must have contributed to Sulong's own modernist outlook.

52 Mahmud, Nik Anuar Nik, Sejarah Perjuangan Melayu Patani 1785–1954 (Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 1999), p. 51Google Scholar; Pitsuwan, Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism (Bangkok: Thai Khadi Institute, 1985), pp. 147–8Google Scholar. According to Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, p. 83, the school was Ma'had Dar al-Ulum.

53 Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, p. 84. Tok Kenali (Muhammad Yusof bin Muhammad) was a prominent scholar in his own right who taught at al-Haram as well. In 1903, two years before Sulong arrived at Mecca, Wan Ahmad took Tok Kenali to Jerusalem and Egypt, where they evidently took an interest in educational reform and visited al-Azhar, still under the influence of the famous Islamic modernist Muhammad Abduh (see below), who passed away in 1905. Tok Kenali was deeply saddened by the death of his mentor, and stayed on at Mecca for only about two more years, returning to Kelantan in 1910, so Sulong would not have studied with him for long. See Othman, ‘Role of Makka-educated Malays’, p. 151, footnote 26; Azra, Origins of Islamic reformism, p. 151.

54 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, pp. 2–3; Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, p. 85.

55 Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, pp. 147–8.

56 Freitag, Ulrike, ‘Hadhramaut: A religious centre for the Indian Ocean in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?’, Studia Islamica, 89 (1999): 168–71Google Scholar. Freitag argued that the colleges never reached the level of Al-Azhar, or schools at Mecca, and that they reversed the decline only temporarily. The point to be made here, however, is not their effectiveness, but the breadth of reform throughout the region, and its plural nature.

57 Dodge, Bayard, Al-Azhar: A millennium of Muslim learning (Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1961)Google Scholar, p. 129 and following. An earlier round of reforms had taken place in the aftermath of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, which included the introduction of some secular subjects; see Tibi, Bassam, Arab nationalism, 3rd edn (Houndsmill and London: Macmillian, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, p. 84 and following.

58 Roff, William, ‘Indonesian and Malay students in Cairo in the 1920s’, Indonesia, 9 (1970): 74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Azra, Azyumardi, ‘The transmission of al-Manar's reformism to the Malay–Indonesian world: The cases of al-Iman and al-Munir’, Studia Islamica, 6, 3 (1999): 77–100Google Scholar; Roff, ‘Southeast Asian Islam in the nineteenth century’, pp. 73–87. This may have provided some impetus to creating a Jawi nation. However, the political impact of these ideas, according to Roff, The origins of Malay nationalism, p. 87, was limited back in Southeast Asia, due to difficulties in reaching a mass audience.

60 Karpat, Kemal H., The politicization of Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)Google Scholar, ch. 11, especially pp. 256–7. Karpat noted that much of the Pan-Islamic/Islamic sentiment came from below, and especially from those in formal education, similarly to nationalist sentiment. This sentiment was susceptible to manipulation by political leaders.

61 Sulong's adherence to Abduh's strand of Islamic modernism was first discussed in Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, p. 148 and following. His modernism is also a theme in Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’. More recent explication of Sulong, Abduh and modernism can be found in Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, Ockey, Botrian jak prawatsat [Lessons from History] (the earliest version of the argument I present here) and Aphornsuvan, Thanet, ‘Origins of Malay Muslim “separatism” in southern Thailand’, in Thai South and Malay North: Ethnic interactions on a plural peninsula, ed. Montesano, Michael and Jory, Patrick (Singapore: National University of Singapore, 2008)Google Scholar.

62 I rely here on Dodge, Al-Azhar: A millennium of Muslim learning, pp. 129–32; Kerr, Malcolm, Islamic reform: The political and legal theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966)Google Scholar, especially ch. 4; Haddad, Yvonne, ‘Muhammad Abduh: Pioneer of Islamic reform’, in Pioneers of Islamic Reviva, ed. Rahnema, Ali (London: Zed, 1994), pp. 30–63Google Scholar.

63 Kerr, Islamic reform, p. 108.

64 Ibid.

65 Although Den was unclear himself, he believed the house came at the time of his marriage to Sabiya, who was from Mecca (interview, 10 Feb. 2004). According to Den, Sulong was then 27 years old, making the year either 1922 or 1923.

66 Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka in the latter part of the 19th century, pp. 6–8.

67 Roff, ‘The conduct of the Haj from Malaya’, pp. 99–100. Laffan, Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia, p. 224, cited sources indicating that 1,500 out of 4,000 ‘Indies subjects’ returned at this time.

68 Laffan, Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia, p. 223.

69 Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, pp. 147–8.

70 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 4; interview Den Tohmeena, 10 Feb. 2004; Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, p. 86. According to Numan, Khadija could not bear to see Sulong suffering such grief, and so she suggested the trip, and it was due to her encouragement that Sulong decided to return to Siam.

71 According to Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, pp. 83–5, Sulong had made one earlier return. Numan wrote that in 1915, Sulong set out overland to Southeast Asia, where he intended to teach, to make some money, and to visit Pattani. In Pattani, he would also fulfil a very personal form of ziarah: just after he arrived at Mecca, his mother had passed away, and this would be his first visit to her grave. Sulong would have then been 20 years old, and away from home for eight years. His first stops were to areas on the fringes of the Jawi community; he travelled first to Cambodia, to an area occupied by Cham Muslims. He then moved on to Bangkok, staying at Bankhrua and teaching there for a month, then moved on to Aceh, Sumatra, Singapore, Malaya, and finally arrived at his hometown in Pattani. He stayed there only about a month, fulfilling his duty to his mother, then returned overland to Mecca. No other source mentions this trip, and it seems extremely unlikely that he could have made the journey overland, twice, in the time frame given.

72 Islam in an era of nation-states: Politics and religious renewal in Muslim Southeast Asia, ed. Hefner, Robert W. and Horvatich, Patricia (Hawaii: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997), pp. 27–8Google Scholar. For Sulong here, I make this judgement based on his known adherence to Abduh's thought and on his later actions; see below.

73 Interview, Den Tohmeena, 10 Feb. 2004.

74 Nik Anuar, Sejarah Perjuangan Melayu Patani, p. 51. According to Nik Anuar, Sulong also established a madrasah, called al-Muaruf al-Wataniah (al-Màarif al-Wataniyya), which the government closed. No dates or sources are provided, and it is not clear whether the local or national government would have closed it, or whether this would have been at the request of the same imams who accused him of fomenting rebellion.

75 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 6.

76 Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, pp. 139–41.

77 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 13; Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, pp. 114–44.

78 Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, p. 144. The year 1935 was a key turning point in Thai history. When money became available in the budget, a contest ensued between Phibun, who wanted to spend it on defence, rewarding his military supporters, and Pridi, then the Minister of the Interior. Pridi sought to spend the money to promote democratic participation in the provinces in a programme that would have sent Thammasat graduates throughout the country, increasing his influence at the local level. Phibun correctly saw that Pridi was building influence in the provinces, and, under pressure, Pridi took a rather sudden trip overseas, during which time Phibun consolidated his power. See Stowe, Judith, Siam becomes Thailand (Honolulu: Hawai'i University Press, 1991), pp. 85–8Google Scholar; Thompson, Virginia, Thailand: The new Siam (New York: Paragon, 1967), pp. 88–9Google Scholar. Since Pridi had visited Sulong's school the year before, perhaps it is not surprising that the school was closed at that time. It marked the first (but not the last) time that Sulong would get caught up in the political struggle between Pridi and Phibun. The school then became the headquarters for an organisation established to encourage leading one's life according to Islamic principles.

79 The sultan of Pattani, Abdul Kadir Kammarudin, died in 1933 in Kelantan. One of his sons, Tunku Mahayiddin, took up the separatist leadership. He later got support from the British in Delhi when he served there in the resistance against the Japanese. After the war, he returned to British Kelantan and was an official in the education department while leading the separatist movement.

80 According to the complaint, he campaigned as follows: ‘The reason I have come here is to introduce myself and ask for the help of Muslim brothers and sisters here in one matter. In the upcoming parliamentary election, there are four candidates: myself, Khun Charoen, Momluang Chai, and Mr Thaen. I am the only Malay, the others are all Thai. I ask my Muslim brothers and sisters to choose carefully. Do not choose someone from another chat, language or religion.’ (Chat has become the Thai word for nation, but is here used in the older meaning, ancestry.) Krasuang Mahatthai [Ministry of the Interior]; ‘Batsonthae klaothot Phraphakdi nai kanklao chakchuan nai kanluaktang pho. so. 2480’, National Archives, Mo. Tho. 0201.6.6 box 1, folder 8.

81 ‘Barisan Nasional Pembebasan Repablik Patani [National Liberation Front for the Patani Republic]’, Suara Siswa, 2, 2 (1970): 29Google Scholar. Suara Siswa has reprinted much of the autobiographical portion of Sulong's Gugusan Chahya Keselamatan, a book also containing a selection of prayers, religious practices and favourite verses written while he was in prison in Nakhon Sithamarat in 1948–49, but later banned and confiscated by the government. Phrayaratanaphakdi would later be reappointed as governor; see below.

82 According to Syukri, Ibraham, History of the Malay kingdom of Patani, trans. Bailey, Conner and Miksik, John N. (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 2005, o.d. 1985)Google Scholar, p. 90, the reply to one such letter from an MP, received from the Office of the Secretary of the Prime Minister, read, ‘… the Office of the Ministry of the Interior has given notice that the actions of the Governor of Pattani are considered to be proper and should give no cause for anger from the majority of the people. Be so informed.’

83 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, pp. 24–5.

84 Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, pp. 122–3. The organisation was called Hay'ah al-Munfizah al-Akham al-Shar'iyyah.

85 Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, pp. 94–9. Tengku Mahayiddin answered directly to the British rather than through the Seri Thai movement.

86 Ibid., pp. 94–106; Maluleem, Imron, Wikhro khwamkhatyaeng rawang ratthaban Thai kap Muslim nai khet jangwat chaidaen phak tai [An analysis of the conflict between the Thai government and Muslims in the southern border provinces] (Bangkok: Islamic Academy, 1995), pp. 142–4Google Scholar.

87 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 40. Chaloemkiat also noted that Sulong, as president of the Pattani Provincial Islamic Council and as a respected religious leader was important enough in the region that the British and the Tengku also sought to cultivate relations with him.

88 Pridi had appointed Chaem as Jularachamontri, chief Islamic cleric for the country.

89 Thompson, Virginia and Adloff, Richard, Minority problems in Southeast Asia (Stanford: Stanford University, 1955)Google Scholar, p. 160.

90 Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, pp. 150–1.

91 Ibid., pp. 119–41.

92 The struggle over the appointment of judges was complicated by a struggle over influence within the Muslim community in the South. On the one side were Sulong, head of the Pattani Provincial Islamic Council, and his supporters, while on the other was Jae bin Abdullah Langputeh, long-time MP for Satun and head of the Satun Provincial Islamic Council. Jae, who represented the more Thai-ified Satun constituency, had briefly been a cabinet minister in the Phibun government and would have been influential in any government appointment of judges. Sulong, of course, had strongly resisted the Thai-ification campaigns. This dispute is still remembered in the South today. See Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 49 and following; Numan, ‘Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir (1895–1954)’, p. 122 and following.

93 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 44 and following; Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, p. 154.

94 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 67. Sometimes these have been characterised as requests, sometimes as demands.

95 This is spelled out in the reply from the cabinet, which decided that ‘the current administrative structure is already good, and creating a monthon structure is not appropriate as it is separatism’, quoted in Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 70.

96 Ibid., pp. 67–9.

97 Phrayaratanaphakdi, Prawat muang Pattani [A history of Pattani] (n.l. [Bangkok]: n.p. 1966), p. 76; Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 84. Phrayaratanaphakdi has reprinted the transcripts of the trials and appeals, and various other original documents.

98 Phrayaratanaphakdi, ‘A history of Pattani’, p. 57.

99 Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, pp. 157–9.

100 Yegar, Moshe, Between integration and secession: The Muslim communities of the southern Philippines, southern Thailand, and western Burma/Myanmar (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2002), pp. 114–19Google Scholar.

101 Suara Siswa, 2, 2 (1970): p. 18.

102 Samnakngan lekhanukan khanaratamontri [Office of the Secretariat of the Cabinet]. ‘Khadi Haji Sulong’ [The trial of Haji Sulong], National Archives, So. Ro. 0201.15 box 2 folder 8.

103 As Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 118, footnote 57, pointed out, Surin and Nanthawan Phusawang both wrote that Haji Sulong was arrested because of plans to disrupt the election later in January, yet in the trial this claim was never raised. Since Haji Sulong was supporting Jaroen Suebsaeng in the election, a threatened boycott, like the letter of support to Haji Mahayiddin, was probably intended to pressure the government (Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, pp. 158–9). Not long after the election, a second coup returned Phibun to power, and combined with the arrest of Haji Sulong and the disappointing results of the election, created such anger that a series of protests broke out. Shortly thereafter, violence erupted at Dusong Yor, when government forces clashed with a locally organised self-defence force. In Bangkok, this clash became known as the Haji Sulong Rebellion, although he was already in prison. Spontaneous anger was joined to organised movements and the resulting conflict left many dead and thousands fleeing across the border. For government officials, these events apparently reinforced their belief that strong measures were necessary. See Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, pp. 160–2; Phusawang, Nanthawan, Panha chao Thai Muslim nai si jangwat phak tai [The problem of the Thai Muslims in the four southern provinces] (Bangkok: Social Science Association of Thailand, 1978)Google Scholar, p. 11; Thanet, ‘Origins of Malay Muslim “separatism” in southern Thailand’, pp. 116–18.

104 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 143. For details of the trial, see Thanet, ‘Origins of Malay Muslim “separatism” in southern Thailand’, pp. 119–21.

105 Suara Siswa, p. 29, translated by Naimah Talib and James Ockey.

106 Ibid. While ‘movement’ seems to fit the translated paragraph better here, the word perjalanan translates literally to journey, and it may be that Sulong here is thinking of his life's journey more broadly rather than his political movement more narrowly. If so, he would seemingly be stating that his lifelong task was to raise the status of Islam, and he had not violated the law along the way. He also wrote: ‘… I am doing what the prophet had done, that is to alleviate [sic, elevate?] our religion and position. Furthermore in my struggle I did not go against the law of the country. Hence, I accept the Will of God, with willingness and patience.’ See Mohamed bin Apandi, ‘Translations from Suara Siswa (Kuala Lumpur), Dec. 1970, Articles by: National Liberation Front of Patani Front’, mimeograph held by the Cornell University library, p. 8.

107 Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, p. 146.

108 Krasuang Mahatthai, ‘Phraphiphitphakdi ruang sathanakan yang thang phak tai nai patchuban pho. so. 2495’, National Archives, Mo. Tho. 0201.25 box 41, folder 1345.

109 These basic facts are not disputed. The police claimed that after interrogation, Sulong and his companions were released and disappeared along the way home. The most widely told and widely believed story alleges that they were tortured, forced to drink alcohol, killed, and their bodies were stuffed into a barrel and dumped into the ocean near Songkhla. Chaloemkiat, ‘Resistance to government policy’, pp. 148–50 provides further details.

110 Surin, Islam and Malay nationalism, pp. 157–9.