v o SLRs ISLAMIC repeat Pye siso CONTACTS BETWEEN IRAN & SIAM IN THE 17th CRSTURY nov ISFAHAGEN:.TYTE ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY LIBRARY RY From Isfahan to Ayutthaya M. ISMAIL MARCINKOWSKI With a Foreword by Professor Ehsan Yarshater Director Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University, New York City, United Srates Pustaka NaSIONAL Pts Ltp SINGAPORECONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC SCHOLARS SERIES PUuBLIsHED Trttgs: Persian Historiography and Geography. Bertold Spuler on major works produced in Iran, the Caucasus, Central Asia, India and early Ottoman Turkey translated from German by M. Ismail Marcinkowski Religion and Politics in Iraq. Shi‘ite clerics between quietism and resistance M. Ismail Marcinkowski Facing One Qiblah. Legal and doctrinal aspects of Sunni and Shi‘ah Muslims. Karim Douglas Crow & Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi Edited by Karim Crow Published in 2005 by Pustaka Nasional Pte Ltd Blk 2, Joo Chiat Road, #05-1125, a Joo Chiat Complex, Singapore 420002 See www pustaka,com.sg Mate 73468 c.1 Copyright © M, Ismail Marcinkowski, 2005 First Edition T May 2008 ISBN 9971-77-49 1-7 All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permis- sion of the publisher. Cover Design by Siti Noryani Sa’aban Printed by Kerjaya Printing Pte LtdContemporary IsLAMIC SCHOLAR SERIES Publisher’s Note ‘The Contemporary Islamic Scholar Series is our first venture into publishing scholarly works in the English language. The role of the English language as a medium for the dissemination of the true picture of Islam to the world has become increasingly important in the last five years. Itis also our aim to highlight the works of scholars coming from or based in the South-East Asian region in this series. The strong revival in Islamic awareness and thirst for knowledge demands a clearer understanding of the Islamic worldview. A worldview which can be better put into perspective by these contemporary Islamic scholars. ‘There has been an increasing amount of research in this region, and more is needed, especially on its people and places. In this respect, the writer of this book is to be commended for his contribution to this series. Forthcoming titles From Reading to Writing: The History of Muslim Education Ahmad Shalaby Islam. Belief, Legislation and Morals Ahmad ShalabyFor Adul‘THE ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Contents Foreword by Professor Ehsan Yarshater Director, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University, New York City, United States Preface Chapter 1 The Persian Presence in Southeast Asia Chapter 2 A Unique Source in Persian: The Ship of Sulaymén Chapter 3 Ayutthaya - Shahr-i Nav - Sarnau: Tranians at the ‘City of Boats and Canals’ Chapter 4 Shaykh al-Iskams_ and Chularajmontris: Genesis and Development of an Institution and its Introduction to Siam Epilogue Appendices Chronological Tables of the Rulers of Iran and Siam (late 15th/early 16th to early 18th centuries): (1) The Safavid Shahs of Iran (2) The Kings of Ayutthaya xi 44 69 82 89Appendices (cont.) Selected Maps and Photographs Select Bibliography Index 92 98 114THE ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Foreword by Professor Ehsan Yarshater Director, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University, New York City, United Siates From Isfahan to Ayutthaya. Contacts between Iran and Siam in the 17th Century explores the relations and contacts between Safavid Persia and Siam from the late Middle Ages onwards. In his scholarly and at the same time accessible study Dr. Marcinkowski has diligently researched on selected documents which show these contacts and elucidate some rare aspects of Safavid foreign policy, its desire to export Shi‘ism and convert other nations, as well as attempts at winning commercial concessions. The research is based chiefly on an official report of an embassy to Siam from the pen of Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, a scribe who accompanied the envoy of the Safavid Shah Sulayman to the Siamese capital Ayutthaya. In particular, Dr. Marcinkowski emphasises the importance of Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim's descriptions of the Siamese court and its dealings with pressures from various Christian and Muslim foreign powers, in particular the France of Louis XIV. Moreover, Dr. Marcinkowski’s book sheds light on a Persian community which resided for several centuries in Siam. Persians played also a significant role in the political and commercial affairs of that kingdom, even prior to the arrival of the Safavid envoy. Their descendants continue to hold distinguished positions in present- day Thailand Dr. Marcinkowski is to be commended for having brought the significance of the by no means marginal ‘Iranian-Siamese connection’ to the attention of a wider circle of readers. No onex FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA interested in either Safavid or Siamese history can afford not to consult this very interesting and rewarding book. Ehsan Yarshater New York City, NY November 7, 2003Preface Tran under the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722)! was one of the major polities in early modern world history. At its peak, during the early 17th century, the dominions ruled by the Safavids included Iran proper, as well as Iraq and large parts of Afghanistan and Central Asia, and they also contended with their neighbours in Mughal India over territories in what is now Pakistan. The Safavids—originally a militant mystical order based in northwestern Iran—introduced the Twelver Shi'ite brand of Islam as quasi ‘state religion’ in formerly Sunnite Iran, It would be difficult to understand Tran’s subsequent political, social and religious development in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries—including the events of 1979 which brought the clerics to power—without considering the foundations previously laid under this dynasty. Moreover, the Safavids, although perhaps of Turkic origin? were also responsible for what can be termed as the ‘permanent reunification’ of the lands of Iran, under For an introduction see Roger M. Savory, Fran under the Safavids (New York and Melbourne 1980), and the detailed bibliography in my Mirada Rafi'a's Dastur al-Mulik: A Manual of Later Safavid Administration. Annorited English Translation, Comments on the Offices and Services, and Facsimile of the Unique Persian Manuscript (Kuala Lumpur 2002) See my ‘The Reputed Issue of the “Ethnic Origin’ of Iran's Safavid Dynasty (907-1145/1501-1722): Reflections on Selected Prevailing Views’, Journal of the Pakisian Historical Society 49, no, 2 (Apr-Jun 2001), pp. 5-19.xii FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA that very name, i.e, Iran. Previously, this had only been the case under the Sasanids, Iran’s last pre-Islamic dynasty. However, the Safavids—as Shi‘ites being somewhat alienated from their Sunnite neighbours, i.e. the Ottomans in Anatolia and Iraq, the Mughals in India, and the Uzbeks in Central Asia—also encouraged contacts with the non-Muslim world, from a position of strength and based on mutual benefit. Particularly famous in this regard was Shah ‘Abbis I the Great (r. 1588-1629), under whom the then imperial capital Isfahan became the residence of merchants and even missionaries from many foreign countries, in particular France. In spite of the circumstance that the Safavid empire’s territories were reduced to Iran proper under his suc- cessors, Iran’s rulers remained interested in contacts with the non- Muslim world. A similar curiosity regarding the world outside his own cultural horizon—and again from a position of strength rather than weak as should be kept in mind—was also one of the major characteris of the Siamese King Narai (7. 1656-88). In that e he might perhaps even be considered a kind of predecessor to King Chulalongkorn the Great (r. 1868-1910). As in the case of the Safavids, King Narai’s tolerant and enlightened rule, too, encouraged foreigners from Europe, as well as from various Asian countries, to settle down at his flourishing royal capital Ayutthaya, which became known among foreign mariners under a Persian epithet—Shahr-i Nav—and which was also the birthplace of the enigmatic Malay sufi poet Hamzah Fansini. King Narai’s ‘open- door policy” had in the past all too often and inappropriately been misinterpreted as weakness. As we shall see later, the Iranian presence in Southeast Asia was not marginal and does not only date back to the days of the Safavids. However, contacts between Iran and Southeast Asia deepened further in the second half of the 17th century with the exchange of several official embassies between Iran and Siam as the result of the earlier establishment of an influential Iranian merchant community residing at the Kingdom of the White Elephant, Due to various services toPREXFACE, xiii the Siamese Crown, distinguished Iranians rose to highest positions at the Siamese court and administration. They also introduced the office of Shaykh al-Islam to Siam, which has survived up to the present day. Their descendants continue to play an important role in contemporary Thailand. The present book contains four chapters that are based on some of my hitherto contributions to conferences and academic journals. Tt attempts to provide an outline of these Siamese-Iranian contacts, which covered not only the diplomatic sphere but extended also to cultural exchange. It has been written by an Iranologist based in Southeast Asia and is thought as an encouragement rather than as the last word on this exciting subject. As I have said many times in the past at various international conferences on Southeast Asian and Iranian studies: it is only an inter-disciplinary approach, based on the combined efforts of several scholars from various fields which will produce somewhat more ‘holistic’ results. With reference to academic conventions, I should like to mention that the system of transliteration of Persian and Arabic names and. technical terms is thought to adhere somewhat closely to that of the Journal of Islamic Studies (Oxford, United Kingdom), however, without trying to be pedantic. With regard to the reproduction of Thai names and terms etc., I have done my best to follow the way they are spelled in standard historical studies, such as those by Professor Wyatt. The expert should be able to ‘discover’ what is being referred to, whereas the non-specialist reader, whom this book is mainly addressing, may want to overlook such “academic particularities”. I should like to thank Syed Ali Semait of the Pustaka Nasional publishing house in Singapore for including yet another one of my books in its ‘Contemporary Islamic Scholars Series’, I am also indebted to Professor Ehsan Yarshater of Columbia University for his kind words of appreciation for the present volume. Ihave dedicated this book to my friend Khun Adul Dantakean of Bangkok, whose family originates from Ayutthaya, He has brought me to many historical sides, whether in Ayutthaya (such asxiv FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA the tomb of ‘Shaykh Ahmad of Qumm’ in Ayutthaya), Lopburi or elsewhere in Thailand. To him apply the these words of Epicurus: Of all the things that wisdom acquires for the blessedness of life, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship. Key Doctrines 27 M. Ismail Marcinkowski Paris, rue Lamarck, December 26, 2003THE ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Chapter I The Persian Presence in Southeast Asia* In modem historiographical studies—whether carri¢d out by Arab or Western authors—early Muslim history had been mostly dealt with under epithets such as ‘Arab culture’, ‘Arab civilization’ or ‘Arab seafaring in the Indian Ocean’ and alike. The expression Arab —rather than Mustim or Iranian/Persian which distinguishes further the particular religious or ethnic background of certain early historiographers, travellers and merchants ete-—had been seen as the major characteristic since those three groups applied, at least up to the 10th or Lith centuries cr., predominantly the Arabic language, which functioned as the carrier of the new Muslim civilization, in their writings and transactions, regardless of their particular ethnic background,' With the progressing political fragmentation of the Middle E soon following the formative period of Islamic civilization, and in particular in the aftermath of the Turkic and Mongol onslaughts of the 10th to 13th centuries, the (New) Persian language (fars7) increasingly replaced Arabic in Iran proper, Anatolia, Central Asia, ‘This chapter is based on my two articles ‘Persian Presence in Islamic Communities of Southeast Asia’, and ‘Shitites in South-East Asia’, which are both forthcoming in: Encyclopaedia lranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater (New York NY). ' See G. R. Tibbets, ‘Early Muslim Traders in South: , Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 30, pt. 1 (1987), pp. 1- 45, and idem, A Study of the Arabic Texts Containing Material an South East Asia, (Leiden and London 1979) (Oriental Translation Fund, New Series, Vol. XLIY)2 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA and the Indian subcontinent as the conduit of Islamic civilization and even as lingua franca. The use of Arabic, which was no longer understood by the common people, was henceforth increasingly restricted to liturgy and theological studies. In particular the ‘Islamizing’ factor of the Persian language in what was to become Muslim India has to be emphasized in this regard. However, research activities that had been carried out on those Persian influences so far consist of disconnected studies of varying degrees of usefulness and competence. ‘To begin with, among the lesser known facts are the cir- cumstances of cultural interchanges between West Asia, Iran in particular, and maritime Southeast Asia during the pre-Islamic Sasnid period, in spite of research that had already been carried out by several scholars about three decades ago. In particular the painstaking studies by Colless? on the activities of Nestorian and Armenian Christians in Southeast Asia during Iran’s Sisanid period, prior to the coming of Islam, have to be emphasized in this connection, With regard to Persian cultural influences in the Malay- Indonesian world since the period of its Islamization (regardless of whichever date attributed to it we might prefer; a circumstance that unfortunately still seems to depend on the ‘religious/ideological standpoint’ of those writing on it’) the amount of available studies is somewhat larger, although there still exists no overall survey. Refer in particular to Brian E. Colless, ‘Persian Merchants «ind Missionaries in Medieval Malaya’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 42, pt, 2 (1969), pp. 10-47, and especially idem, “The ‘Traders of earl. The Mercantile and Missionary Activities of Persian and Armenian Christians in South Bast-Asia’, Abr Nahrain 9 (1969-10), pp. 17-38; 10 (1970-71), pp. 102-21; 11 (1970), pp. 1-21; 13 (1972-73), pp. ; 14 (1973-74), pp. 1-16; 15 (1974-75), pp. 6-17; 18 (1978-79), . Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 2 3 (1955), pp. 182-208. See previous note.‘THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. 3 The existing corpus of secondary sources relevant to our subject seems to focus on actual or alleged ‘Persian elements’ in Malay language, literature and culture.5 Another feature which does not necessarily facilitate progress with respect to our topic is the circumstance of the prevalence of a certain climate of sectarian and at times even ethnic prejudice (besides the lack of scholarly methodology) in particular from the part of Malay authors: Things ‘Persian’ are simplistically and inaccurately seen as entirely ‘Shi‘ite’ (thus not acceptable to a staunchly ‘orthodox’ Sunnite), an erroneous conviction that reveals ignorance of the fact that Persian influences are detectable in the region much earlier than the time of the transformation of Iran into a kind of Twelver Shi ‘ite state, which happened only under the rule of the Safavid Shah Ism&‘il I (x. 1501— 24) toward the beginning of the 16th century. For some conflicting, and at times polemical views refer to Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Preliminary Statement on a General Theory of the Islamization of the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago (Kuala Lumpur, 1969), and G. W. J. Drewes, ‘New Light on the Coming of Islam to Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia, ed. Ahmad Ibrahim, Sharon Siddique, and Yasmin Hussain (Singapore 1990, Ist reprint), pp. 7-19, and Mohd. Taib Osman, ‘Islamization of the Malays: A ‘Transformation of Culture’, in: Readings on Islan in Southeast Asta, ed. Ahmad Ibrahim, Sharon Siddique, and Yasmin Hussain (Singapore, 1990, Istreprint), pp. 44-47; A.H. Johns, ‘Islam in Southeast Asia: Problems of Perspective’, in: Southeast Asian History and Historiography: Essays presented (0 D.G.E. Hall, ed. C.D. Cowan and O.W. Wolters (Ithaca and London 1976), pp. 107-22. For instance, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, ‘New Light on the Life of Hamaah Fansiti’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 40, pt. 1 uly 1967), pp. 42-51; idem, The Mysticism of Hamaah Fansaari (Kuala Lumpur 1970); idem, Concluding Postscript 10 the Origin of the Malay Sha'ir (Kuala Lumpur 1971); Baroroh Baried, ‘Shi‘a Elements in Malay Literature’, in: Profiles of Malay Culture. Historiography, Religion and Politics, ed, Sartono Kartodirdjo (Jakarta 1976), pp. 59-65; LR. Brakel, ‘The Birth Place of Hamza Pansuri’ Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 42, pt. 2 (1969), pp. 206-12; idem, ‘Persian4 FROM ISFAHANTO AYUTTHAYA Perhaps the latest and most comprehensive study of Southeast Asia’s early maritime contacts with its regional neighbours, as well as with East Asia and the Middle East, has been carried out by Jacq-Hergoualc‘h,® and it supersedes partly an earlier work by Wheatley.’ A cohesive and comprehensive tracing of the Persian cultural presence in Southeast Asia in chronological order is difficult, if not altogether impossible, due to the diversity and multifaceted nature of the Southeast Asian communities. In the following, attention shall therefore be given to some of the most striking features of those Persian influences on Southeast Asian Islamic culture, Persian influences are particularly discernible in the vocabulary of the two dominant languages of this region, i.e. in Malay (the Influence on Malay Literature’, Abr Nahrain 9 (1969-1970), pp. I-16; idem (wwansl.), The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah. A Medieval Muslim- Malay Romance (The Hague 1977) (English translation], and idem (ed). ‘The Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah, A Medieval Muslim-Malay Romance (The Hague 1975) [introduction and Romanized Malay edition}; Sit Richard Winstedt, “Taju’s-salatin’, Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 81 (1920), pp.37-38; idem, A History of Classical Malay Literature, revised, edited and introduced by Yusof A. Talib (Kuala Lumpur 1996, 2nd impression), passim; Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg, Persian and Turkish Loan-Words in Malay (Kuala Lumpur 1982). Of more interest and competence, since they are from the pen of a notable Iranologist, are the studies by Alessandro Bausani: See his ‘Note sulla struttura della hikayat classica malese’, Annali del Instituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli , n.s. 12 (1962), pp. 153-92 [English transl.: Notes on the Structure of the Classical Malay Hikayat, transl, Lode Brakel, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, Working Paper no. 16 (not accesible to me}]; idem, ‘Note sui vocaboli persiani in malese-indonesiano’ , Annali del Instituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, n.s. \4,n0. | (1964), pp. 1-32; idem, ‘Note su una antologia inedita di versi mistici persiani con versione interlineare malese’, Annali del Institito Universitario Orientale di Napoli, n.s. 18 (1968), pp.39-66; idem, ‘Un manoscritto persiano-malese di grammatica araba del xvi secolo’, Annali del Instituto Universitario Orientate di Napoli, n.s. 19 (1969), pp. 69-98; idem, ‘Is Classical Malay a “Muslim Language’ Boletin de la Asociacion Espaiiola de Orientalistas 11 (1975), pp. L11-21.‘THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 5 lingua franca of the Muslims in the Malay-Indonesian archipelago), and in Thai or Siamese (from the 16th century and Ayutthaya period onwards). To begin with Siam, present-day Thailand, it is deplorable that to the knowledge of this writer, so far there does not exist any comprehensive study on Persian elements in this language, whether in Thai or any Western language. Nevertheless, modern Thai still contains several words of Persian origin which are in current use: for example, the Thai words dork kulaap or kulaap for ‘rose’ (from Persian gulab, meaning ‘rosewater’), or angun for ‘grape’ (from Persian angtir). Both the Thai words for ‘cabbage’, kalam plii, and ‘cauliflower’, kalam dork, contain the Persian loanword kalam which means ‘cabbage’. The Persian word for ‘cauliflower’ is gul-i kalam, literally ‘the flower of the cabbage’ which is the exact meaning of the Thai equivalent kala dork. However, the most widely used Persian loanword is of course the Thai expression Jarang, meaning ‘European’ (which is understood by many modern tourists as well, after a stay of several days in Thailand). Its origins date of course back to the conflict between the early Arab Muslims. and their ‘Frankish’ adversaries. The guava fruit, for instance, brought to Siam by the Portuguese, is still called in Thai ton farang, i.e. ‘Frankish tree’ As this writer had pointed out elsewhere,’ these Persian elements in the Thai vocabulary are certainly traceable back to the time of the establishment of a highly influential and thriving resident colony of Persian-speaking merchants (whether immigrants from the southern Indian, ‘persianized’ Shi‘ite Deccan kingdoms M. Jacq-Hergouale'h, transl. Victoria Hobson, The Malay Peninsula. Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road (100 BC-1300 AD) (Leiden, Boston and Cologne, 2002 (Handbuch der Orientatistik, section 3, Vol. 13: South- East Asia). Paull Wheatley, The Golden Chersonese (Kuala Lumpur 1966, reprint). J. Harris, ‘The Persian Connection: Four Loanwords in Siamese’, Pasa {Bangkok, Chulalongkorn University Language Institute] 16, no. 1 (June 1986), pp. 9-12. M. Ismail Marcinkowski, ‘Thailand-Iranian Relations’, Encyclopaedia Jranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater (New York NY, forthcoming).6 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA or whether directly from Iran at Siam’s then capital of Ayutthaya from the 16th century onwards—the subject of the present book). As we shall sce later, Siam, as well as its capital city Ayutthaya, (at least since the days of the 15th-century Persian author ‘Abd al- Razzaq Samarqandi'') were both known by a Persian epithet, ie. Shahr-i Nav, ‘City of Boats and Canals’, among the Muslim merchants—Persians, as well as non-Persians—in the Indian Ocean rim. A somewhat different picture evolves with regard to Persian cultural influences among the Muslims of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago. Persian cultural elements appear to be eminent in classical as well as contemporary Malay language. Several studies of varying scholarly quality have been published during the last decades: Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg’ s Persian and Turkish Loan- Words in Malay” cannot be considered an academic work, since it is mostly based on guesswork when discussing the etymology of vocabulary of supposed ‘Persian’ origin. More scholarly and comprehensive is the work by Khush-Haykal Azad,!3 who himself has a good command of Malay-Indonesian. Loanwords from Ar: (and above all from Sanskrit, of course) in classical as well as contemporary Malay-Indonesian are doubtlessly more numerous than those of certain Persian origin. However, the frequent occurrence of the latter in daily usage—such as shah, ‘king’ (only when added to the names of the Malay rulers), otherwise raja, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ‘Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formation’, The Journal of Asian Studies 51, no. 2 (1992), pp. 340-63, Edward Granville Browne, A Literary History of Persia, Volume Ill: The Tartar Dominion (1265-1502) (Cambridge, London, New York, and Melbourne, 1984, reprint), pp, 397-98, Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg, Persians and Turkish Loan- Words in Malay (Kuala Lumpur 1982 M. Khush-Haykal Azad, Véizhehd-yi farsi-yi dakhil dar zabau-i matayw (Tehran 1378 4.11, solar/1999), which contains further references to studies written in Malay-Indonesian,‘THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. 7 gandom (‘wheat’), anggur (‘grape’) or dewan (an assembly-hall, e.g. Dewan Rakyat, i.e. the Malaysian Parliament)—may serve as an indicator that the ‘Persian presence’ in the Malay language is by no means marginal. Already during the 1960s and 1970s, Alessandro Bausani published a series of pioncering studies’ which address not only the issue of Persian vocabulary in Malay, but also that of the hikayat genre in classical Malay literature. The hikayat genre reveals strong Shi‘ite elements that evoke the epic struggle between the Umayyads and early Shi‘ite archetypal exponents, such as Muhammad Ibn al- Hanafiyyah,'s The advice or nasthat genre of classical Persian literature, too, is well represented in classical Malay literature, such as by the Taj al-Salatin by Bukhari al-Jawhari (of Johore in southern Malaya?) from the 17th century, put into Malay froma so far unknown Persian source for the rulers of the then preeminent Acheh sultanate of Sumatra. The presentation of its topics reveals a close relation to earlier Persian patterns, such as Nizam al-Mulk’s Siyasatnamah, from which the author translates at times generously, besides using the Persian expression nauritz when referring to the beginning of a new year.'® Similar in character, although more encyclopedic, is Bustan al-Salatin by Nir al-Din Ranirt (Hamzah Fansiiri’s fierce See Select Bibliography. See M. Isinail Marcinkowski, ‘Shi*ites in South-East Asia’, Encyclopaedia Tranica, ed. Bhsan Yarshater (New York NY, forthcoming), which contains further references; Baried, ‘Shi'a Elements in Malay Literature’; furthermore Winstedt, A History of Classical Malay Literature, and R. Roolvink, ‘Indonesia. vi-Literatures’, in: The Encyclopedia of Islara, new edition, Vol. 2, 1986, pp. 1230-35, for a general introduction Winstedt, A History of Classical Malay Literature, p. 96, idem, “Taju’s- salatin’, pp. 37-38; Ph. S. van Ronkel, ‘De Kroon der Koningen’, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van het Koninklijk Baiaviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschapen, Batavia, 41, no. | (1899), pp. 55-69. Romanized Malay edition: Bukhari al-Jauhari, Taj Us-Salatin, ed. Khalid M. Hussain (Kuala Lumpur 1992). Is8 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA, legalistic adversary). This work too was written at Acheh, about the middle of the 17th century.'’ Close adhesion to their Persian patterns makes both works rather appear to be faithful translations from Persian language and thought into an intellectually less elaborate Malay setting. It should be noted that Raniri, who was well-read in the Persian scholarly tradition, originated from India.'* Moreover, both works refer extensively to the topic of the ‘Just King’, as exemplified by Anushirvan, the archetypal sixth-century tuler of pre-Islamic Sasanid Iran. Recently, the concept of the ‘Just King’ and its correlation to topics in several Islamic and pre-Islamic literatures of Southeast Asia has been studied extensively by Setudch-Nejad.'° I should like to mention here only in passing that I myself had been working on the issue of Persian influences on classical Malay literature at the time of writing, as a contribution to an international conference.” What has been stated above is thus merely of a somewhat preliminary character. 17 Winstedt, A History of Classical Malay Literature, pp. 100-1. Romanized Malay edition: Siti Hawa Haji Salleh (ed,), Bustan al-Salatin (Kuala Lumpur 1992). 18 The standard study on him is Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, A Commentary on the ‘Hujjat al-Siddiq’ of Nur al-Din al-Raniri (Kuala -Lumpur 1986). 'S, Setudeh-Nejad, ‘An Interpretation of Thai History Regarding some “Sasanian’-based Characteristics Assimilated in the History of Thought, Cosmology and Cultural Heritage of the Siamese People since Ancient ‘Times’, in: Proceedings of the 8th International Thai Studies Conference, January 9-12 2002, Nakhorn Phanom, Thailand, organized by Ramkhamheng University, pp. 132-74; idem, ‘Islamicised Manifestations of Persian Cosmology in the Javanese Notion of Rai Adil, and Other Aspects of Statecraft in Southeast Asia’, Islamic Culture 75, no. 1 (January 2001), pp. 13-25. ® For the 38th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), San Francisco CA, U.S.A. (November 2004). Paper entitled: ‘Persian Cultural Influences in Classical Malay/Indonesian Literature’ (in preparation).‘THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 9 The issue of Persian cultural influences in Southeast Asia is also closely related to the still ongoing dispute among scholars concerning the historical course of the Islamization process of that region: the at times ‘ideologically’ over-burdened polemical debate focussed so far on the questions of the ‘origin’ of Islam in Southeast Asia—whether ‘from Arabia’, ‘from India’, or ‘from Iran’—and of the time when the ‘coming of Islam’ to the region was supposed to have taken place.”' It is not intended here to contribute further to that discussion.” As a matter of fact, however, the vast majority of the Muslims in what is know Malaysia and Indonesia are Shafi‘ite Sunnites. The same is the case with the Muslims of southern India (contrary to northern India, where the Hanafite rite is prevalent). On the other hand, one has also to consider the circumstance that southern India was also the seat of the Twelver Shi‘ite Golconda kingdom, which lasted until the 1680s. Persian influences on Islamic religious thought in Southeast Asia” are circumstantial with regard to the Acheh sultanate, which was able to proceed to a dominant position in the Straits, after the fall of Malacca in 1511 had caused the Jatter’s peninsular Malay successor states to lapse to a period of cloistering. According to Hurgronje, who wrote at the beginning of the 20th century,” Muharram, the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar, used to be called ‘Asan-Usén’ by the Achenese, in commemoration of the Prophet's two grandchildren al-Hasan and al-Husayn, whereas they referred to its LOth day as ‘Achura’ (from ‘Ashrirda’). He adds that See e.g. AL-Attas, Preliminary Statement on a General Theory of the Islamizauion of the Malay-Indonesien Archipelago, and Drewes, ‘New Light on the Coming of Islam to Indonesia”. See A. Cordon (ed.), The Propagation of Islam in the Indonesian-Malay Archipelago (Kuala Lumpur 2001), which has a detailed bibliography on that issue. On particularly Shi'ite elements: therein see also my aforementioned forthcoming ‘Shi‘ites in South-East Asia’. * C.S.Hurgronje (transl. A. W. S. O'Sullivan), The Achenese, 2 vols. (Leiden 1906), Vol. 2, pp. 202-6.lo FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA some of the Achenese, although Sunnites, used to perform mourning ceremonies, reminiscent to those in Shi‘ite countries, although on smaller scale. He also states that Achenese used to consider the first ten days of Muharram as ‘unlucky’, but opts for a southern Indian connection, rather than in favour of a direct link to Iran. At any rate, Persian influences in Acheh, which had close maritime and trade links with India and the Persian Gulf region, are more apparent in 16th- and 17th-century Islamic thought and mysticm. Hamzah Fanstii (fl. second half of the 16th century), the famous Malay mystical poet, was the main exponent and disseminator of wujiidiyyah thought—the ‘pantheistic’ teachings of Ibn al-‘Arabi (d, 1240)—in the region during that time.” Persian cultural influences are also discernible with regard to the Malay principality and trade emporium of Malacca,”’ a state which lasted from the early 15th century to 1511, the year when it was conquered by the Portuguese. Although Malacca was at least nominally a vassal of Siam, which also claimed the suzerainty over the entire Malay Peninsula,” it was able to establish itself as the foremost power in the archipelago, giving the propagation of Islam in the region a new vigorous impetus.” Already by that time, Persian was the lingua franca in the Indian Ocean trading world and a Persian-speaking merchant community was present in Malacca. The office with the Persian title of sha@hbandar or ‘harbour master’, % Tid, p. 206. Foran excellent introduction see Syed Muhammad Naquid AL-Attas, Raniri and the Wujiidiyyah of 17th Century Acheh (Singapore 1966). 7B. W, Andaya, ‘Malacea’, in: The Encyclopedia of Islam, new edition, Vol. 6 (1991), pp. 207-14; Muhammad Yusoff Hashim, transl. D. J. Muzalfar Tate, The Malay Suitanate of Malacca (Kuala Lumpur 1992). » D. K. Wyatt, “The Thai ‘Palatine Law’ and Malacca’, Journal of the Siam Society 55, no. 2 July 1967), pp. 279-86. For convenient introductions see Gordon (e¢.), The Propagation of Islam in the indonesian-Malay Archipelago, and Syed Muharamad Naguib al- Attas, ‘Indonesia, iv-History: (a) Islamic period’, in: The Encyclopedia of Islam, new edition, Vol. 2 (1986), pp. 1218-21.‘THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, nN 73468 e°4 known in many of the Indian Ocean trade ports, as well as in several parts of the Ottoman empire, was also established in Malacca. It attracted the attention of several Western scholars. The office appears to have been known in the Indian Ocean region as early as about 1350.*! The introduction of steam ships in the Indian Ocean region by the British and Dutch colonial powers in the first half of the 19th century facilitated the contacts of Southeast Asian Muslims with the Arab lands of the Middle East, in particular with the sacred places on the Arabian peninsula and the study centres in Egypt. Returning pilgrims and religious students began to spread, at least since those times, puritanical ideas, in particular ‘Wahhabism’, in the archipelago. ‘Philosophical sufism’ in the tradition of Hamzah Fansiiri and his followers again became increasingly associated with ‘heresy’ and ‘deviant’ thought, such as Shi‘ism ‘from Iran’. This constricting development is currently continuing and also negatively affects the general climate of stability and scholarship. To my knowledge, for instance, the only institution of university level in Malaysia that teaches Persian is the rather broad-minded Inter- national Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) at Kuala Lumpur. At the time of writing, however, the future course of this institution, too, was uncertain. %©B, W. Andaya, “The Indian ‘Saudagar Raja’ (The King’s Merchants) in Traditional Malay Courts’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 51, pt. 1 (1978), pp. 13-55; W. H. Moreland, ‘The Shahbandar in the Eastern Seas’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society n.s. 52,(1920), pp. 517-33; A. Raymond, ‘Shahbandar: In the Arab world’, in: The Encyclopedia of Islam, new edition, Vol. 9 (1997), pp. 193-94; M. B. Hooker, ‘Shahbandar: In South-East Asia’, in: The Encyclopedia of Islam, new edition, Vol. 9 (1997), pp. 194-95; H. Yaleand A.C. Burnell, Hobson. Jobson. The Anglo-Indian Dictionary (Ware (UK] 1996, reprint), pp, 816— 7, entry ‘Shabunder’, with detailed references, and ibid, p. 914, entry “Tenasserim’. Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, pp. 816, entry ‘Shabunder’, referring to Ibn Baiid’s visit to the Malabar coast in southern India.12 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA The overwhelming majority of the Muslims in Southeast Asia ascribes today to the Sunnite branch of Islam of the Shafi‘ite legal rite and are Ash‘arite in their ‘theological outlook’. The large-scale ‘Islamization’ of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago (Sumatra and parts of Java in particular) during the 13th and 14th centuries c.k. was advanced by Arab traders from the Hadramawt in southern Arabia, as well as by merchants from southern India, areas in which Shafi ‘ite Sunnism was prevalent, although Muslims, mostly traders from the Middle East and India, have certainly visited Southeast Asia much earlier. Many of them were attached to the leading mystical ‘orders’ then en vogue in the Middle East and India. From the Ghaznavids onwards (who ruled between the second half of the 10th and the end of the 12th centuries c.z. in what is today Afghanistan, large parts of Iran, and north-western India), but especially since the establishment of the Delhi sultanate in the 13th century c.E., Persian served as the lingua franca among the educated Muslims of India. The spread of Islam in Southeast Asia at that time, predominantly by way of the southern and western Indian trade emporia,™ happened in the garb of mysticism and was imbued by the ideals of ‘sainthood’ (velayat/wilayah) of classical Persian sufism which met and were blended (admittedly on a somewhat lower level) with local folk beliefs and even shamanistic elements from the region’s pre-Islamic period. Along with sufism, Shi‘ite elements too entered Malay- For the most popular orders on the Malay Peninsula see Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Some Aspects of Sufism, as Understood and Practised Among ihe Malays, cd. Shirle Gordon (Singapore 1963). For a general survey of major traditions and affiliations, as well as their geographical distribtution, see J, S, Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in islam (Oxford 1971) M. Ismail Marcinkowski, Persian Historiography and Geography: Beriold Spuler on Major Works Produced in Iran, the Caucasus, Central Asia, India and Early Ottoman Turkey. With a foreword by Professor Clifford Edmund Bosworth, F.B.A. (Singapore 2003), pp. 64ff. * D.G.E. Hall, A History of South-East Asia (Houndmills and London 1994, 4th edition), pp. 221ff,‘THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 3 Indonesian Islam, certainly by way of southern India, where it was well- represented.* We have no information on the question whether the activities of the Isma‘ilis in India had any bearing on the archipelago. At any rate, at the end of the 13th century ‘Shi‘ites’ did not manage to establish a state of their own, although at that time ‘Shi‘ism’ is said to have caused a split in the ruling family of Perlak, apparently the earliest Muslim sultanate on Sumatra’s northeastern coast.’ Shi‘ite influences are nevertheless manifest in the Muslim literatures of the archipelago and have been studied by several Western and Indonesian scholars, most importantly by Baried and Wieringa.** They are particularly evident in what is known as the hikayat genre. The anonymous Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah, of which we have an excellent study and English translation by Brakel,*? seems to be the oldest Malay work of this kind of literature which enjoys popularity among the Muslim peoples of Southeast Asia up to this day. It appears that the Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah was translated—at times literally—in northeastern Sumatra, possibly Pasai, from a Persian original.” Basing his conclusions on internal evidence in the Malay translation, Brakel places the (unknown) Persian original in the 14th century and advocates a date “not much later” (perhaps the second half of 14th 8 Forastill cogent example see D. A. Rinkes, Nine Saints of Java (transl. H. M. Froger, ed. A. Gordon, intro, G. W. J, Drewes) (Kuala Lumpur 1996, reprint), % _ Q, Khalidi, “The Shi’is of the Deccan: A Historical Outline’, AL-Teavhid 9, no. 2 (November 1991-January 1992), pp. 163-75 (with an excellent bibliography). * Zakaria Ali, Islamic Art in Southeast Asia, 830 4.D.-1570 A.D. (Kuala Lumpur 1994), p. 214 3 Baried, ‘Shi'a Elements in Malay Literature’, and E. Wit “Does ‘Traditional [slamic Malay Literature Contain Shititic Elements? ‘Alt and Fitimah in Malay Hikayat Literature’, Studia Istamika Jakarta] 3, no. 4 (1996), pp. 93-111 » See supra, n. 5. Brakel, The Hikayar Muhammad Hanafiyyah (1975), p. 56; Winstedi, A History of Classical Malay Literature, pp. 8 and 12.4 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA century) for the Malay translation, the oldest manuscript of which is from 1632. Brakel*! provides a detailed list of other versions or translations of the Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah into several Indonesian languages, such as Javanese, and refers also to versions in Turkish, Urdu, Dakhni and Punjabi. The Hikayer Muhammad Hanafiyyah, “part of the common literary heritage of the Muslim peoples of Asia”, recounts the epic strive between the Umayyads and Muhammad Ibn al-Hanafiyyah, an enigmatic early Shi‘ite archetypat't. 2roic figure and one of the sons of the first Shi‘ite Imam “Ali b. Abi Talib, Significantly, Brakel, who noticed also certain affinities to the genre of ‘Abu Muslim-namahs’ of the Turco-Iranian world," stated that later manuscript versions of the Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah ave been ‘purged’ of some of its too inimical statements concerning Mu ‘awiyah, Abt Hurayrah and their surrounding. Although the period between the 15th and 17th centuries was marked by vigorous Islamization activities from the part of the sultanates of Malacca and Acheh respectively, the spread of Islam during that period was still in its initial stages in other parts of Southeast Asia, i.e. the rest of Indonesia and the Philippines,‘ Even the low degree of ‘Islamization’ on the Peninsula and in Sumatra itself is telling: after the fall of Malacca to the Portuguese in 1511, for instance, Kedah on the Malay peninsula had to be ‘re-islamized? again by Achch after the people there had ‘relapsed’ to animism. ‘The enlightened and tolerant rule of the Achenese sultan ‘Ala? al-Din Riayat Shah (¢, 1588-1604) was propitious for a flourishing of mysticism based on the thought of Ibn al-‘Arabi (d 1240), as exposed by the ‘pantheistic’ Malay sufi poet Hamzah Fansari, to “| Brakel, The Hikayar Muhammad Hanaflyyah (1975), pp. LO2If. 2 dbid., p. 108) * Ibid., pp. 26-27, On connections of this genre to eastern Iran and Central Asia (referred to by Brakel, ibid. p. 58) see also 1 MGélikoff, Aba Mustim, Je ‘Porte-Hache’ du Khorassan dans la tradition épique turco-iranienne (Paris 1962), Al-Auas, "Indonesia, iv-History: (a) Islamic period’.‘THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. 15 whom we shall return later when discussing the question of his place of birth. It should also be considered that this period, contemporaneous with the rule of the eccentric Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1603) in India, appears to reveal a general flourishing of speculative philosophy and mysticism in the Indian Ocean region. However, when the staunch Shafi‘ite Sunnite Nur al-Din al-Raniti (d, 1656), who was born in India, rose to favour with the following Achenese rulers, a period of legalism was initiated, resulting in persecution and repression of ‘heterodox’, non-conformist sufism of the kind espoused by Hamzah Fansiiri and his followers. In the past, this conflict between ‘heterodoxy’ and ‘orthodoxy’ in 17th-century Acheh, personified by Hamzah and Raniri, had usually been studied within the context of mysticism alone.” According to Al-Attas," the circulation of expositions of the ‘orthodox’ Sunnite creed, such the ‘Aga’id of Al-Nasafi, in order to counter this trend, is a clear indicator of this latent conflict, However, the prevalence of Shi‘ite thought among ‘heterodox’ sufis in Acheh should also be taken into consideration, Hamzah himself referred often to the first Imam of the Shi‘ites in several of his poems. Besides his native Malay, Hamzah was also fluent in Arabic and Persian. Apparently, he also went to Iraq during his travels to the Middle East. What he did in Iraq, which had by that time sunk to rather provincial levels, but still continued to be the traditional destination of Shi ‘ite pilgrimage, can only be a matter of conjecture, Several modern scholars,” including this author, consider it even ‘* See the magisterial study by Al-Attas, The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri. See Al-Attas on him in A Commentary on the ‘Hujjat al-Siddiq’ of Nur al- Din al-Raniri (intro.), “7 Idem, Ranirt and the Wujiidiyyah of 17th Century Acheh Idem, The Oldest Known Malay Manuscript: A 16th-Century Malay Translation of the ‘Aqiid of Al-Nasaft (Kuala Lumpur 1988), p. 34, © A. Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. Volume Two: Expansion and Crisis (New Haven and London, 1993), p. 190. M. Ismail Marcinkowski, ‘The Iranian-Siamese Connection: An Iranian Community in the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya’, Iranian Studies 35, nos. 1-3 (Winter-Summer 2002), p. 29.16 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA possible that Hamzah himself was a Shi‘ite. As we shall see later, in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries Twelver Shi‘ism had also a strong foothold in nearby Siam, present-day Thailand, The conflict between the thoughts of Raniri, who served as Shaykh al-Islam to the rulers of the Achch sultanate, and Hamzah, whose followers had been persecuted by the former, gives evidence of two underlying peculiarities that persisted in Malay/Indonesian Islam, namely a profound ‘heterodox’ mystical tradition with, at times, strong Shi'ite undercurrents dating back to the time of the arrival of Islam in the region, hidden under a veneer of Sunnite legalism. It is telling that the ‘purge’ (referred to above) of classical Malay Muslim literature of its earlier ‘heterodox’ tendencies, as exemplified above with reference to the manuscripts of the Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah, did not prevent these texts from remainin: 4 popular among local Muslims. Within this setting, it is significant that the issue of latent Shi‘ite tendencies in Southeast Asia again became at the beginning of the 20th century the subject of a heated debate among the Muslims in British-administered Malaya and Singapore, as well as the Dutch East Indies: Al-Sayyid Muhammad b. al-‘Aqil al-Hadrami, a member of the resident Arab community, evoked an outcry among, his peers and fellow Sunnites when he considered the cursing of the first Umayyad caliph Mu‘awiyah meritorious in several of his works, published in Singapore.‘' Although this episode, which at times involved even leading Egyptian ‘reformist’ scholars of the time, such as Rashid Rida, was rather significant with regard to the situation within the local Southeast Asian Arab communities, it had 5! Al-Sayyid Muhammad b, al-Aqil al-Hadrami, Al-‘aiab al-jamil (Jakarta [2] 1971); tdem, Al-nasa'ih al-kafiyyah li-man yatawalla Mu'‘awiyah (Qumm 1412 AH lunar/1991); idem, Tagiyyat al-iman bi-radd tazkiyyat Ton Abi Sufyan, Qom, n.d, [same year as previous?]. See also the excellent study by W. Ende, ‘Schiitische Tendenzen bei sunnitischen Sayyids aus Hadramaut: Muhammad b. “Aqil al-‘AlawT (1863-1931)’, Der Islam 50 (1973), pp. 82-97,‘THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA u nevertheless also revealed the persistence of ‘Shi‘ite tendencies’, in spite of the growing influence of Middle Eastern “modernist? tendencies in Southeast Asian Islam from the early 19th century onwards, Malaysia, in particular, during the second half of the 1990s, saw a campaign against what was perceived as ‘deviationist teachings’, among them Twelver Shi‘ism, and also against the cult of ‘holy men’ and shamans (bomohs) prevalent among the still predo- minantly rural Malays. However, it appears that this campaign was motivated by rather internal political considerations and aiming at closing the ranks of the little more than 50 percent of the country’s Malay population (vis-a-vis a large ethnic Chinese and Indian minority). As a matter of fact, during the 1980s and 1990s, many Malaysians and Indonesians (mostly former Sunnites) were to be found at the theological study centres of Qumm in Iran. Atany rate, in spite of the glimpse on cultural contacts presented above between Iran and Southeast Asia throughout history, it is most remarkable that these contacts became most apparent during the Safavid period, with the establishments of relations with the Ayutthaya kingdom. In the following chapter, we shall therefore focus on the Safinah-yi Sulaymant (The Ship of Sulayman), a late 17th-century Persian travel-account, which heretofore constitutes the only extant Persian source for the extensive contacts of Safavid Iran with the Kingdom of Siam of which we have knowledge.Chapter 2 A Unique Source in Persian: The Ship of Sulayman * The Ship of Sulayméin, a Persian travel account of an embassy sent by the Safavid ruler Shah Sulayman (r, 1666-94) to the court of the kingdom of Siam in the year 1685, was written by the embassy’s secretary Muhammad Rabi‘ b, Muhammad Ibrahim (in the pertinent literature usually simply referred to as Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim). It constitutes an outstanding document on the historical and cultural presence of Iran in the eastern Indian Ocean region. With regard to the overall significance of The Ship of Sulayman, its (as far as we know) uniqueness, and in particular its consequences for the study of Thai history, Professor David K. Wyatt of Cornell University, a leading contemporary scholar in Thai studies, stated already in the 1970s: ‘This chapter contains material from my “The Iranian Prescnce in the Indian Ocean Rim: A Report on a 17th-Century Safavid Embassy to Siam (Thailand)’, Islamic Culture 77, no. 2 (2003), pp. 57-98 (based on contributions to two conferences: (1) a paper presented al the International Confererice on Iran and the World in the Safavid Age (6-8 September 2002, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London), hosted by the Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF), the Centre for Near anc! Middle Eastern Studies of SOAS, and the Department of Middle Eastern Studies of Manchester University; (2) 2 paper presented at the Conference on Thai- Iranian Relations: Past-Present-Future, jointly organized by the Asia- Pacific Institute at Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, and the Cultural Centre of the Iranian Embassy at Bangkok, Thailand, 1 March 2003). Furthermore, this chapter includes also material that is contained in myA UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN 19 The Ship of Sulaiman deserves to be included among the most important primary sources for the history of Siam in the reign of King Narai. It is particularly welcome because it should serve to open up new avenues of inquiry that haye previously been neglected,' The work was translated for the first time into English about three decades ago by John O’ Kane and published by Columbia University Press in the ‘Persian Heritage Series’? which is edited by Professor Ehsan Yarshater, O’Kane’s work is based on a manuscript (then believed to be single) kept in the British Museum.’ His translation —or more correctly his introduction—received some criticism from scholars of Thai studies as well as iranologists, since it did not address the historical context. Another handicap of O’Kane’s translation is that he neither had access to the Thai language, nor did he consult a scholar of Thai studies. According to Jean Aubin, a second manuscript copy of the Safinah-yi Sulaymani is said to be ‘Holier than Thou: Buddhism and the Thai People in Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s 17th-Century Travel Account Safineh-yi Sulaymani’, which is forthcoming in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft (based on a paper presented at the Fifth European Conference of Iranian Studies (Ravenna, Italy, 6-11 October 2003), organized by Societas Iranologica Europaea (SIE). ‘David K, Wyatt, ‘A Persian Mission to Siam in the Reign of King Narai’, in: David K. Wyatt, Studies in Thai History, Collected Articles (Chiang Mai 1999, 2nd reprint), p. 95. * [Muhammad Rabi‘) [bn Muhammad Ibrahim, The Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane (New York 1972) [henceforth Ship of Sulayman, transl. O'Kane]. Muhammad Rabi‘ b. Muhammad Ibrahim, Safnah-yi Sulaymani, British Museum manuscript BM Or. 6942, described in G. M, Meredith-Owens, Handlist of Persian Manuscripts, 1895-1966 (London 1968), pp. 48-49. See Jean Aubin, ‘The Ship of Sulaiman, translated from the Persian by John O’Kane (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1972)’ [review article], Studia Iranica 2, no. 2 (1973), p. 286, and Wyatt, ‘A Persian Mission to Siam in the Reign of King Narai, pp. 89-95. From the the side of scholars of Thai studies, severe criticism had been reiterated in personal communications to the present writer by Professor B.J. Terwiel.20 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA extant in Iran.* In 1977, Dr, ‘Abbas Fardqi published his edition of the Persian text which has been reprinted recently,* The Ship of Sulayman’ consists of four chapters, referred to as ‘gifts’, tuhfah in the Persian text, but translated as ‘jewels’ by O’Kane. The entire account contains qur’anic quotations and lines of Persian poetry, some apparently by Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim. It starts with the usual eulogies to God, the Prophet and ‘Ali b. Abi ‘Talib, the first Imam of the Shi‘ites.? After this, the author refers to his own name and profession, “Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim Muhammad Rabi‘”!° (i.e, Muhammad Rabi Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim), “scribe to the contingent of the royal musketeers”,"! which apparently refers to the sfangchi corps.” This is followed by ornate praise of Shah Sulayman." After this, he refers in the following manner to the addressee of the embassy, the Siamese king: Good rulers, therefore, take a further step on the path toward world harmony. With ambassadors and delegations as their key they unlock the doors of worldwide friendship. Such was the intent of the Siamese king, possessor of the white elephant and the throne of solid gold. For he loves all Muslims and was overawed sceing that our king [i.c. the Safavid Shah Sulayman], the brilliant luminary of world rule had risen into the Heavens In the Kitibkhanah-yi Malik, see Aubin’s review of O'Kane’s translation Of The Ship of Sulaiman, refected to in the previous footnote, p. 286, ‘Muhammad Rabi* b, Muhammad Ibrahim, Saffnah-yi Sulaymani, Safarntimah-yi Safir-i Iran bik Sixdim, 1094-1098, navishtah-yi Muhammad Rabi' b. Muhammad Ibrahim, ed, ‘Abbas Farigi (Tehran 1378 AH solar/ 1999, reprint of the edition Tehran 2536 shahanshaht [1977]) ‘The following summary is based on O’Kane’s translation. Skip of Sulayman, transl, O'Kane, pp. 15-16. 9 Bid. p. 17 0 bi "Bid. See on the tufangchis my Mirza Raft'a’s Dasuitr al-Muluk (index), See on the Dastitr al-Mulitk itself also my ‘Mirza Rafi‘a’s Dastur al-Muluk A Prime Source on Administration, Society and Culture in Late Safavid Iran’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenléindischen Gesellschaft 153, no. 2 (2003, in press at the time of writing). Ship of Sulayman, transl. O'Kane, pp. 17-19.A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN: a of eternal sovereigaty, our king who is the noble planet of good fortune, adornment of the throne of omnipotence and bearer of Chosroes* crown and the cap of Kayan. Thereupon the Siamese monarch hastened ta open the accounts of friendship and affection, ‘May Allah bless him and guide him into the fold of Islam’."* ‘The name of the embassy’s addressee, the Siamese King Narai (r. 1656-88), however, does not appear throughout the account. Morcover, the introduction refers also to the purpose of the Iranian embassy, '* a reply to a Siamese embassy to Iran in 1682 which was led by an Iranian, as we shall see later, Our author mentions furthermore that he had been appointed to the post of official scribe for the delegation, '6 The first chapter (and in fact the whole account) is written in a highly embellished style and reports on the first part of the travel, which started on 25 Rajab 1096/27 June 1685, from the Persian Gulf port Bandar ‘Abbas to India.” Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim served as the embassy’ secretary. He presents a dramatic account of storms that occurred during the crossing of the Sea of Oman, as well as of other severe problems arising from a shortage of drinking water, great heat (caused by the end of the monsoon season), and either too strong or low winds, respectively. He adds that the travel was carried out on an English ship,"* presumably of the English East India Company. During the entire account we come across qur’anic quotations and lines of Persian poetry, which had been inserted into the narrative by Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim. The ship arrived safely at Muscat after a journey of fourteen days." Along with adescription of that city, the author refers also to previous fights between the Portuguese and the local Kharijite Arabs, which had resulted in the expulsion of the former from the region about the middle of the 4 dbid., p. 19 8 Bid., p. 20 '§ Ibid., pp. 20-21. 7 bid., p. 25 8 Ibid., p.27 % Bid. p.29n FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA 17th century. As a devout Twelver Shi‘ite, he cannot resist to use sion to indulge in some kind of theological speculation on 'e sect.*” Despite his obvious contempt for the Kharijites as such, however, he refers to the Omanis as tolerant people. After a three-day stay at Muscat, the ship set sail for India.?! The author informs us that the ship was new and that the first twenty days of that part of the journey passed smoothly, due to favourable winds. ‘Thereafter, however, he had to complain of severe storms again. In this connection, he refers to the death of an Iranian merchant of Mazandarani origin, who went overboard during a typhoon. Interestingly, he refers to the unfortunate man as a pilgrim from Mecca, who was on his way back to India, which was apparently his permanent residence.” After a turbulent journey of forty-seven days the ship arrives at the city of Chinapatam, i.e. Madras, in Southeast India, a port which then was under the control of the English. Our author gives a detailed description of the fort and elaborates on the respectful reception given to them by the English. He refers to the inhabitants of the city as “of various racial backgrounds” but adds that “most of them are Telegu Hindus”, as well as “Portuguese Franks”. He reports, that the nearby city of Maildpiir, too, had been previously under the ‘Franks’ (in this case the Portuguese), but that it was reconquered by the Qutbshahs, to whom he, interestingly, refers merely as vdlis, ‘governors’. Moreover, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim mentions also that news of the death of King Charles II of England (which had occurred on 6 February 1685) reached Madras during his time of stay there, Full of contempt, our author gives also his impressions on ‘Frankish’ = Ibid. 4 Ibid., p. 30. Ibid., p. 32, Further below, we shall refor again to some aspects of the activities of Iranians in the region. "Wid, p.35 Ibid. p. 36. We will return briefly to this further below, when addressing Safavid activities in the region. % pid., p. 36.‘A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN 23 dinner customs, dancing and religious practice. Nevertheless, he finds some words of admiration for the ‘Western’ women, but disapproves their, in comparison with his home country, open participation in public life.26 The second chapter elaborates on the travel from India to the then Siamese port of Zandisuri, i.e. Tenasserim in present-day Burma, by crossing the Gulf of Bengal, and from Tenasserim via land first to Ayutthaya and then to Lopburi, which was at that time the residence of the Siamese King Narai. The ship with Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim and the Iranian embassy on board left Madras on 17 Shawwal 1096/16 September 1685. They encountered similar difficulties as those during their journey from Bandar ‘Abbas to India. This time they almost suffered shipwreck near the coast of the Burmese kingdom of Paigii, i.c. Pegu, to which Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim strangely refers to as a part of Khita, ‘Cathay’, i.e. China, however, with a “separate king”.”” Finally, they arrived at the Siamese port of Mergui,* where the Iranian Hajji Salim, a representative of the Siamese king and former ambassador to the court to Iran,” welcomes them, Hajji Salim is also supposed to have introduced them to some aspects of Siamese customs and protocol. The reception from the part of Siamese officials present at that port is described as particularly respectful. Interestingly, our author mentions an Iranian by name of Muhammad Sadiq as governor of Siamese Mergui and the entire adjoining province,?” who functions as their host during their stay at that city. After some days rest, the embassy continues its way by boat to Tenasserim. It is remarkable that Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim refers sometimes to the entire country of Siam as Shahr-i Nav,3! but at other occasions he applies that expression only to its capital, Ayutthaya, With regard % bid. p. Al. 7 [bid., p. 43. % Ibid, pp. 43-44, On him more later, % Ship of Sulayman, wansl, O'Kane, p. 46. We will return to the term Shahr-i Nav further below.4 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA to Tenasserim, our author states that it was inhabitated by Siamese, Indian Sunnite Muslims (he mentions explicitly their respective Hanafite and Shafi‘ite legal rites), Hindus and ‘Franks’ 2? At that time, the governor Muhammad Sadiq appears to have been with them still. Here, our author reports that the Iranian ambassador Husayn Beg had succumbed to a disease on 12 Muharram 1097/19 December 1685, after other members of the delegation too had become victims of various illnesses.» From Tenasserim the re- maining members of the embassy continue their way to the Siamese capital Ayutthaya, a travel which takes them one and a half. months, the normal time supposedly being twenty-five to twenty-six days.* ‘Twenty-five days of that part of the journey they spent in a boat floating on “a great river™, perhaps the Tenasserim River. Finally, having crossed the peninsula, they arrived at Paj Puri, i.e. Phetchapuri, where there are received by a Sayyid Mazandarani, another Iranian governor in Siamese service.>° From there, they proceed to a city to which our author refers to as Suhan, at the “tiver to Shahr-i Nav”, situated in one day distance by boat travel from the capital.” The present writer is not certain about its exact location, but the river mentioned by Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim seems to be the Chao Phraya. The governor, raja, in charge of that town was another Muslim, referred to by our Iranian author as ‘Chelebi’ According to Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, he was “from Rim”, i.e, an Anatolian Turk, who had recently ‘converted’ to Shi'ism.>8 Professor Anthony Reid seems to identify the area administered by ‘Chelebi’ with that of today’s Bangkok.” At that place our travelers are also 2 Ibid. p. 47. > Ibid., p. AB, * Wid., p.49. % Ibid. % Ibid., p.50. e Ibid. ® Bid, p. 50. » Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. Volume Two: Expansion and Crisis, p. 191.‘A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN a5 greeted by mernbers of the local Iranian community. Soon later, they proceed upstream, thus on the Chao Phraya River, to the royal capital Ayutthaya. There they are informed of the fact that the king had left for Lubii, i.e. Lopburi, Having arrived at that city, our author describes it as a strong fortress and mentions a certain Khvajah Hasan ‘Ali Khurasani, supposedly a descendant of Khvajah ‘Abdul al-Latif, a former Safavid vazir of Khurasin, as the head of the Iranian community residing in Siam and the successor in that position to Aqi Muhammad, who had died earlier! Particularly disturbing throughout the entire account is the severe contempt of its author for Siamese customs and manners, especially if compared with the distinguished examples of respect and hospitality frora the part of the Siamese towards the Iranian guests, to which even Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim himself refers to at numerous occasions.” We shall return to this feature toward the end of this chapter. Interestingly, however, the lodgings for the Iranian guests in Lopburi are described by our author as ‘Iranian’ in style, furnished with hammams and carpets etc.” During their stay at Lopburi, Ibrahim Beg, a ghulim of the imperial Safavid Household (khassah-yi sharifah),* is chosen as successor to the deceased Iranian ambassador, to the disappointment of Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim.’ Also very important is his account on the background for the Iranian community’s loss of influence and favour with the king, which our author considers to be the result of the ‘machinations’ of a new favourite, the Greek Constantine Phaulkon, to whom he does not refer to by this name, but rather by the contemptuous expression haramzddah, i.e. “bastard”, translated by 1 Ship of Suleyman, transl. O’ Kane, p. 51 “| [bid., p. 55, also pp. 56-60. 2 Ibid., p. 56. © Ibid. p. 57. ” See my Mire Raji'a’s Dastitr ai-Mutik (index), ¥ Ibid. “© Ship of Sulayman, transl, O’ Kane, p. 58.26 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA O'Kane somewhat restrainedly as the “the evil Prank”.”” Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim even claims that it was Phaulkon who influenced the king towards not meeting the Iranian embassy en voute and then postponing the audience.* Finally, a first audience took place, and the event is described by our author, focussing particularly on the manner of how the letter of the Safavid Shah was presented to the Siamese monarch.“? About the actual contents of the letter, however, the reader is left in the dark. It follows a description of several hunting expeditions and dinner invitations in which our Iranians had been participating,5° Subsequently, the king moved to his capital Ayutthaya and the Iranian embassy had to follow him.*! Again, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim reiterates that he and his companions were lodged in ‘Iranian’ houses, with Siamese and Iranian attendants.* Soon later, the members of the Iranian embassy decided to embark on their return journey, and in order to save time they chose not to return by land to Tenasserim, but rather directly by sea? Before that could happen however, the king invited them to another hunting expedition, this time to the aforementioned Stihan, followed by similar kinds of activities.“ At this point, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim inserts the important information of the Iranian communities’ custom of performing ta‘ziyyah ceremonies in honour of the martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson al-Husayn b. ‘Ali b. Abi Talib at Karbala’, These ceremonies even used to be paid for by the (Buddhist) Siamese monarch, who also provided a special building and other facilities for that purpose. Other audiences with Jbid., pp. 50-59. For a (controversial) reappraisal of Phaulkon see George A. Sioris, Phaulkon, the Greek Counsellor at the Court of Siam: An Appraisal (Bangkok 1998), Ship of Sulayman, transl. O' Kane, p, 66. ® — Ibid., pp. 61-65. © Ibid., pp. 66-74. 8 Wid. p.74 2 pid. 3 Ibid., p.75. # bid. and p. 77.A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN 2 the king and the exchange of gifts follow, although our witness complains of the supposedly lower value of the Siamese presents, which was in his view again due to the machinations of the “evil Frankish minister”, i.e. Phaulkon.® Finally, the Iranian embassy left Siam for Iran by ship on 22 Safar 1098/18 January 1687.°? The third chapter amounts to what can be called a ‘report on the interior affairs of the Kingdom of Siam’. Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim begins this part by referring to the terms Chin and Machin as they appeared in Muslim geographical literature of earlier times,** but, more interestingly, he gives an explanation for the expression Shahr-i Nav for the country of Siam and, more specifically, for its then capital Ayutthaya.» In the following, our source refers in some length to the conflict of Siam with neighbouring Pegu.@ Ibn Muhammad Tbrithim’s statement that Iranians had been highly respected in the kingdom and that they were even said to have brought King Narai to the throne is momentous." According to him, Iranians also used to exercise a strong cultural influence over the private habits of the king, such as his choice of dishes and drinks as well as his clothes. Moreover, King Narai used to surround himself with lifeguards from India, most probably Iranians, or at least Shi‘ite Indian Muslims from the southern part of the subcontinent.” He refers at some length to the conflict between the rising fortunes of Constantine Phaulkon Ibid., pp. 17-78. See also Guy Tachard, 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) [first published in 1688, 3rd reprint], pp. 214-15. For further information on ta‘ziyyah in Iran and elsewhere see also Peter J. Chelkowski (ed.), Ta‘ziyeh. Ritual and Drama in Iran (New York 1979), Ship of Sulayman, transl, O' Kane, pp. 76-77. 2 Ibid, p. 86. * bid., pp. 87-88. 2 Ibid. p. 88. © ibid. pp. 80-94 “bid. pp. 94-95 @ Bbid., pp. 99. © ibid., p. 100.28 FROM ISFAHANTO AYUTTHAYA, and his ‘pro-French leanings’ and the affairs of the Iranian community. The third part contains also ‘information’, or more accurately, ‘comments’ from our author’s part on Siamese religious practice,® the legal system,%* as well as the holidays and festivals, the marriage and funeral rites, official titles, criminal investigations and kinds of punishments, but all this from a somewhat haughty perspective of supposed cultural superiority. After reporting on the suppression of a revolt started by the resident community of Macassar Sunnite Muslims,” he closes the third part of his account with a lengthy reference to what he perceives to have been the daily routine,” income,” and expenses” of the Siamese monarch, and adds to this some remarks on the economy and the major trade goods,” as well as the life and food of the common people.” The importance of the third chapter lies in the fact that it highlights the role played by various members of the local Iranian community as supporters of the Siamese ruler, who is portrayed as an extreme iranophile. This portion is extremely valuable with regard to the earliest history of the currently still influential Bunnag family, which traces its roots back to Iranian ancestry, and which was influential at the Siamese court during the following centuries. We will refer again to this point further below. The fourth chapter refers in a rather general fashion to some of Siam’s neighbours, such as the then Spanish Philippines, the Dutch possessions in what is now Indonesia, and even China and Japan, ® [bid., pp. 96-106 and 111, % Ibid. pp. 111-21. % Ibid. pp. 121-27. ® — Bbid., pp. 128-36 4 — Bbid., 140-49. ® — Bid., pp. 136-38 ® Ibid., pp. 138-40. 1 bid, pp. 149-55. ” [bid., pp. 155-56. ® — Bid., pp. 149-55. % Bbid., pp. 156-57.\ UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN: 29 all of which is mostly based on hearsay. He starts this section with a ‘geographical part’, containing ‘observations’ on Siam’s flora and fauna, and what he perceived to be the ‘effects’ of the tides, which is, however, generally rather bizarre and fantastic than really informative. His knowledge on the island of Ceylon, which he must have passed on his way to Siam, as well as on his return, is also based on hearsay, by quoting earlier Muslim geographers and historians.” He has also a part on the kingdom of Achi, i.e. Acheh in northern Sumatra, and states explicitly that he did have seen it,” most probably on his way back to Iran. He refers to a supposed Arab descent of its kings,’® to fabulous amounts of gold to be found in that country,” and to the supposed ‘treacherous nature’ of its inhabitants.* He proceeds to the Andamans, whose inhabitants he considers to have practised cannibalism," and thence to N&kbari, i.e. the Nicobars.® This is followed by remarks on countries, which he certainly did not visit, such as the Philippine islands, to which he refers to strangely as Halilah,* but whose capital city he rightly identifies as Manilah, i.e. Manila." He identifies the ‘Castilians’ , Spaniards, as its rulers and gives a quite detailed (and generally somewhat admiring) account regarding the installment of its governors and the presence of Chinese settlers, but this is followed by the, one is tempted to say, ‘usual’ references to gold treasures.*> To this he adds what he had heard about Japan, aside from the usual fantastic stories, in particular on the activities of the Dutch and ® [bid., p. 159 ff. ® bid, p. 174 ff, 8 bid., pp. 181 and 182 ff. ® pbid., p. 185 ff. ® bid, p. 186. "bid. 8% hid, p. 18730 FROM ISFAHANTO AYUTTHAYA Portuguese in that country, and that only the Dutch were able to retain some favour there. In a similar style he refers to Siam’s then neighbours Pegu and China*’ (with regard to the latter he has even a section on supposed visits of Alexander the Great to that country**) With regard to his return travel, he states that he passed Pattani, the rebellious Siamese vassal and one of the petty Malay principalities, whose inhabitants adhered to the Shafi ‘ite legal rite.'? His quite accurate account of the custom to send a ‘golden flower’ (Malay: bunga mas) to the kings of Siam as a sign of loyalty is interesting. Our author also refers to the then Dutch city of Malagah, i.e. Malacca, but states that he did not land there.’! Passing on to India, he makes reference to Kiichi, ic. Cochin, then also under the Dutch, and the Malabar coast, which he called Malivar. His report on the customs of the local people are again rather bizarre, but he states that the Dutch have recently taken over the port from the Portuguese.’ The returning Iranian delegation had to stay six full months at Cochin,” since they missed the season for sailing directly to the Persian Gulf. Instead, they embarked on a ship bound to Surat and were attacked on the way by pirates, resulting in the deaths of some passengers.” While trying to enter the port of Surat, they found it under a blockade of an English fleet, due to a conflict with the Mughals. The English forced the ship to sail to Mumbat (Mumbai), which was under their control, and our Iranians stayed 1 [bid., pp. 193-98. ” Ibid, pp. 198-203. Ibid, p. 215 fF © Ibid. p. 218. % bid., p. 219. "Ibid. 2 pid. p. 220 ff. ® Ibid., p. 225. " Ibid., p. 226 ff. %S bid., p. 229.A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN 31 three and a half months there, although they were apparently treated with respect by the English.°* Our source refers in this connection to the circumstance that the city was given by Portugal as dowry to the English King” Charles Il (on the occasion of his marriage with Catherine of Braganza). Finally, the embassy left Mumbai on 5 Jumiada II 1099/8 April 1688 on a ship bound for the Persian Gulf.”* After having survived another attack by pirates en route, they arrived safely at Bandar ‘Abbas on 24 Rajab 1099/14 May 1688.” ‘The fourth chapter is followed by a quite detailed ‘Appendix’ on the Mughal conquest of Haydarabad, Hyderabad, on the Deccan —the capital of the Golconda kingdom, ruled by the Shi‘ite Qutb-shihs—which actually happened on 21 September 1687,!” News of this momentous event apparently had also reached the returning Iranian mission which was passing close by. The earlier fall of the kingdom of Bijapiir on 12 September 1686 was also noticed by our author.'®! Remarkably, he refers to the rulers of both kingdoms merely as ‘governors’.'" The Ship of Sulayman closes % Ibid, p. 229 ff. 7 bid., p. 230 Hf. * Bid., p.231 » — Bid., p. 233. 1» HLK, Sherwani, History of the Qutb Shahi Dynasty (New Delhi 1974), p. 650. See furthermore idem ‘Golkonda’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition [henceforth EF], Vol. 2 (1983), pp. 1118-19; idem, ‘Dakhan’, EP, Vol. 2. (1983), p. 99, RM. Eaton, ‘Kutb Shahis’, EP, Vol. 5 (1986), pp. 549-50, J, Burton-Page, ‘Haydaribad’, EP, Vol. 3 (1986), pp. 318-23; Carl W. Ernst, ‘Deccan: I, Political and literary history’, Encyclopedia Iranica (henceforth Ene.Iran.}, Vol. 7 (1994), pp. 181-85. Of relevance is also the so far almost neglected study by T. N. Devare, A Short History of Persian Literature at the Bahmani, the Adilshahi and the Quibshahi Courts (Deccan) (Poona 1961) ulayman, transl. O'Kane, p. 236 ff. See also Muhammad Baqir, Enc.dran, Vol. 4 (1989), pp. 253-54; R.M. Eaton, ‘‘Adelsahis,” Enc.lran. (1985), Vol. |, pp. 452-56, P. Hardy, “Adil Shahs,” EV? (1986), Vol., 1, pp. 199. '™ Ship of Sulayman, transl. O'Kane, 236. 10132 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA with the mentioning of the escape of the Mughal prince Akbar to the court of Iran,'® which took place in 1682. The Ship of Sulayman provides also meaningful and significant information on the collapse of the southern Indian Shi‘ite kingdoms vis-d-vis the Mughal onslaught, since our author happened to be in the region not much later. Substantial also are Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s observations on the activities of western powers in the Indian Ocean region, in particular on the Dutch, English and the waning fortunes of the Portuguese. From the perspective of Iranian as well as Southeast Asian and Thai studies, the account is particularly rich in information on Siam’s Iranian community, making it a kind of ‘Who is Who’ in this field. However, it has no answer to the burning question of who were actually the very first Iranian visitors to the country. Moreover, it does not contribute to our knowledge on ‘Shaykh Ahmad of Qumm’ (whose name does not even appear at all), the ancestor of the powerful Bunnag family and Siam’s first Shaykh al-Islam to whom we will return later, but it does refer to his early successors. References to flora and fauna, as well as to countries which our author certainly did nor see, such as China, Japan and the Philippines, but also those to some regions which he did visit, Acheh for instance, are usually unreliable, since based on hearsay. Thai expressions, if he bothers to refer to them at all, appear mostly in a corrupted and at times unintelligible form in his account. However, a rather disturbing feature of The Ship of Sulayman is that it is full of contempt for the Siamese, their customs and beliefs, giving evidence of its author’s complete lack of understanding of and sympathy for the country and its hospitable people. He refers constantly to a supposed cultural superiority of Iran and its religion, a trait which warrants attention. Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, who stayed in Siam between Autumn 1685 until January 1687 and who traveled widely in that kingdom, did not use his sojourn there to produce an accurate picture of Siamese society, culture and society. ‘© Ybid., pp. 239-40.A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN. 33 He differs thus sharply from Engelbert Kaempfer who visited Siam not much later and spent much less time there, but whose account is perhaps the most unbiased and informative, and even from that of the Frenchmen Guy Tachard, who too was in Siam in 1685." As a matter of fact, Kaempfer’s account has to be considered as the most accurate account on Siam towards the end of the 17th century, although he too has not been immune from generalizations and misunderstandings. Nevertheless, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s introduction of the Siamese king, from which I have quoted above, reveals the author’s rather limited appreciation of the ‘moral worth’ of members of other cultures with a background in worldview and religion differing from his own. In Ion Muhammad Ibrihim’s words, the virtue of the Siamese king consisted (solely?) in his “love for all Muslims”"™, that is to say in his support for the community of Persians residing in his kingdom, as well as in “awe”'® of the Safavid ruler. In the preamble, the Siamese king is not introduced as an equal to the Shah but rather as a vassal of the latter, thus being in need of help and instruction. [bn Muhammad Ibrahim’s supplication on behalf of King Narai, “May Allah bless him and guide him into the fold of Islam”,!” becomes thus only intelligible within the context of this See Engeloert Kaempfer, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam 1690 (Bangkok 1998, facsimile reprint of the 1727 cdition), and Tachard, A Relation ef the Voyage 10 Siam. For a fresh appraisal of Kaempfer’ s contribution see now Birgitt Hoffmann, ‘Engelbert Kacmpfer (1651-1716) und die kulturelle Begegnung zwischen Europa und Asien’, Lippische Studien 18 ((Lemgo} 2003), ed. $. Klocke-Daffa, J. Scheffler, G. Wilbertz, pp. 125-46 (thanks to Professor Hoffmann for providing me with a copy of her article). For a general survey of contacts between Europe and Asia, on the period between late 17th and the 18th centuries see rhammel, Die Entzauberung Asiens: Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18, Jahrhundert (Munich 1998). + Ship of Sulayman, transl. O Kane, pp. 239-40 1 [bid. pid.34 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA supposed ‘master-client’ relationship between the ‘orthodox’ ‘Twelver Shi‘ite Shah and the ‘idolatrous’ Buddhist king of Siam. The supplication is thus not a sign of magnanimous tolerance but rather a demarcation of superiority and inferiority from the perspective of the Muslim author. I should like to reemphasize that the second chapter contains important information on the Persian community in Siam, in particular on their loss of influence at the Siamese royal court, It is also very relevant to the present purpose, since it aims at providing information on the interior affairs of the Kingdom of Siam. Moreover, its importance lies also in the fact that it highlights the role played by various members of the resident Persian community as supporters of the Siamese ruler, who is portrayed as an extreme iranophile, thus making him a ‘worthy’ addressee of the Shah’s embassy, although being an ‘infidel’. Persians indeed exercised a strong cultural influence over the king, as we shall see later. Moreover, ‘Persian influences’ are also detectable in Siamese secular, and even temple, architecture of the late Ayutthaya period, whereas stereotyped ‘Iranians’, alongside other ‘alicns’, featured even in Siamese temple murals, at least during the early part of the subsequent Bangkok period.'® The third chapter, too, is relevant in order to make out Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s attitude towards his hosts, because of his ‘comments’ on Siamese religious practice and social life. In the following, and based on the relevant second and third chapters, I shall concentrate on the author's often biased perception of Siamese customs, before proceeding to his views on Siamese. religious practice. Among the author’s first staternents on the Siamese people are his descriptions of their clothing. [n the second chapter we read: ‘See Clarence Aasen, Architecture of Siam. A Cultural History Interpretation (Kuala Lumpur 1998) (index: ‘Persians’), and Rita Ringis, Thai Temples and Temple Murals (Kuala Lumpur 1993, 2nd ed), p. 145A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN 35 Except for the king himself, all the natives of Siam of whatever station in life, men or women, consider their bare flesh to be sufficient clothing and they expose their bodies without concern. The sole blessing of clothing they avail themselves of is [...] a small cloth which veils their private parts! This statement is indeed quite astonishing, even if we take into consideration the constantly tropical climate in Southeast Asia. As a matter of fact Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s utterances are in clear contrast to the observations of even the French Jesuit missionary Father Guy Tachard, who visited Siam for the first time in 1685 in the company of an official embassy led by Chaumont and sent by King Louis XTV.'"" Inspite of his bias to the ‘heathen native’ Siamese prevailing throughout his account, Pére Tachard is more detailed on their clothing. Tachard’s statement is worth to be quoted in full in order to make out by contrast the deficiency of Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim observations: 10 The Siamese are not magnificent in their Apparel. The inferior sort of People Men and Women are Clothed much alike. They have a Longuis which is a piece of very simple stuff about two ells and a half long, and three quarters of an ell broad. They put this Longuis about their Body, so that it makes as it were, a kind of Coat reaching from the Girdle below the knee, but the Womens [sic] come down as low as the Ankle. The Women have besides that a piece of white Betille, almost three ells long which they put about them in manner of a Scarf to cover the rest of their Body, for that purpose the Men have another Longuis, which they never use but when it is cold, rains or when the Sun shines too clear. The habits of the Mandarins when they are in their home dress, differ only from those of the common people by the fineness of the stuff, But when they go abroad they have a Longuis of silk or painted cloth six or seven Ells long, which they have the knacks of adjusting so well about their body, that it reaches Ship of Sulayman, trans), O’Kane, p. 56 See Chevalier Alexandre de Chaumont, ‘Relation of the Embassy to Siam 1685", in: Michael Smithies (ed., transl.), The Chevalier de Chaumont and the Abbé de Choisy: Aspects of the Embassy to Siam 1685 (Chiang Mai 1997), pp. 21-149.36 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA. no lower than their knee. The Considerable Mandarins have under this Longuis a narrow pair of Drawers; the extremities whereof are Embroidred with Gold and Silver. They have also Vests with Bodies and Sleeves pretty wide, They have Shoes shaped like the Shoes of the Indians. On the days of Ceremony when they are to appear before the King, they have a Cap of Betille starched, which tapers into a point like a Sugar-loaf, and is tied with a string under the Chin, The King gives to some Mandarins according to their quality, Crowns of Gold or Silver, made much after the shape of the Coronets of our Dukes and Marquesses, to be put about their Cap, which is a mark of great distinction,"!! Thus Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s statement has to be considered as rather undifferentiated, if not outrightly biased. Another more striking example of this bias is his description of the embassy’s first audience at the court of King Narai: When we arrived the Siamese officials and translators who were accompanying us all prostrated themselves, as if they were worshipping God, the one true King, [...] The huge mass of people, face down on the mats and rugs, looked like a large congregation of Muslims saying their prayers. They were arranged row after row like a collection of dead bodies and not a single person mace a move or showed the least sign of life.!"= Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s consternation at the practice of sajdah or prostration in front of a mortal is indeed quite surprising and can only be considered as double standard if we take into account that the same proskynesis, even along with the kissing of the sovereign’s feet and to be performed three times, was also usual at the Safavid court during that time, as noticed by Kaempfer during his sojourn at the Safavid capital.''? However, the perhaps most prominent example of supposed cultural superiority throughout the text from m na i Tachard, A Relation of the Voyage to Siam, pp. 266-67. Ship of Sulayman, twansl, O° Kane, p. 62. On the concept of kinghip in 17th-century Ayutthaya see Beth Fouser, The Lord of the Golden Tower. King Prasat Thong and the Building of Wat Chaiwatthanaram (Bangkok 1996), pp. 17-21. Engelbert Kaempfer, Am Hofe des persischen Grofkonigs (1684-85). Das erste Buch der Amoenitates Exoticae, German intro. and transl. Walther‘A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN 3” the part of Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim—even bordering to ethnic bias—is the following: When we came closer io the threshold, we noticed a vessel for water and a piece of stone. On entering we were told that the king is very particular about maintaining cleanliness and order. Since all men of state as well as the servants go barefoot and arrive with dirty fect, they are obliged to wash before they are admitted to the royal presence, Their good sense has let the following saying fall from its grip and now they tread with heavy feet upon its meaning, ‘Water poured on the top of filth will only spread the filth owt further" Despite these statements which are self-evident, it should also be noted that Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim held King Narai himself in rather high esteem. Although he stated that “[...] the honourable king of Siam, in view of what would suit his high station, comes out ata loss when placed in the scales with other generous patrons”,''> he is quick to admit that this supposed parsimony was “not the fault of the king nor did he once commit the slightest indiscretion in any of his formal dealings with us”,!'® but was rather due to the inter- ventions of the pro-French and supposedly ‘anti-Islamic’ Phaulkon. More revealing, however, is what Ibn Muhammad [brahim has to say about the reasons behind the many ‘cultural misunderstand- ings’ between the members of the Iranian embassy and their Siamese hosts. The author admits that foJur lack of familiarity with the Siamese protocol and the fact that we were not let by a clever ambassador (who had in fact expired earlier] and. counselled by an intelligent guide who knew the Siamese language made our situation «ll the more difficult. Otherwise this innocent king is known to be unique among his peers in generosity and freedom with his purse.""” Hinz (Leipzig 1940), pp. 18, 42, 208. Ship of Sulayman, transl, O'Kane, p. 63 NS Wiel, p.T7 M6 hid "7 Thiel m38 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA It is again surprising that ‘language deficiencies’ alone should be responsible for those ‘misunderstandings’, since we know from the author’s own statements elsewhere in his account!" that the Lranian delegation had been entrusted to the care of the local Persian community, especially that of Hajji Salim. Apparently, Hajji Salim had a good command of the Siamese language. He was in the service of the Siamese king and had also been in charge of an earlier official Siamese embassy to the court of Isfahan.! We are therefore left with the impression that either Hajji Salim did not fulfill his task sufficiently or, more likely, that the above statement is just an excuse for the lack of interest in an ‘alien’, supposedly inferior ‘pagan’ culture, Before proceeding to [bn Muhammad I[brahim’s views on Siamese religious beliefs and practices, we should like to have a glance on what he has to contribute to the knowledge on the origin of the Siamese people and on their language. In the third chapter, which, as a matter of fact, is particularly rich in observations on Siamese life, he conjectures on their supposed origins ‘The Iranians and the Franks call the natives of Shahr Nav (i.e. Siam and her capital Ayutthaya!™] Siamese, but the natives themselves trace their stock back to Tai, whom they hold to be one of their devils and genii. ‘They tell many fables and foolish tales concerning their lineage and in the end none of it connects or makes any sense, Although the natives do not trace their line back to Adam, it is quite possible that in accord with the view of the local Iranians, the lost people of Siam go back to Sn ibn ‘uth ibn Nab. The Siamese language is very imprecise and most words aie not pronounced clearly anyway. Every sound is confused with an- other sound especially the ‘m’ and the ‘n’, Thus it is very possible that Siam is a mispronunciation of San. ‘There is another opinion held by sev- cral historians that Siamak, the son of Kayumarth, sired children and that "8 For instance in ibid., p. 44, Sec my ‘Thailand-tranian Relations’, Enc.fran. (forthcoming). See on that Persian expression for Ayutthaya my ‘The Iranian-Siamese Connection: An Iranian Community in the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya’, pp. 25-27. hyA UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN 39 the Siamese can be traced back to this progenitor, Supposedly, as time passed by his name was shortened to Siam." Thus, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim ‘created’ a person by name of ‘Tai’ for the progenitor of the Thai people, by having misunderstood the received information. His Siamese informants might have referred to their own country rather as miiang thai, the ‘country of the Thais’, which is known today as prathét thai, Thailand. His observations on the Siamese or Thai language, however, contain a kernel of truth, since Thai, contrary to Persian, is a polytonal language. The rest of his story, especially the part on Siyamak, is, of course, absurd guesswork. Jbn Muhammad Ibrahim’ s observations on Theravada Buddhism, or better, on the way it was practised during his sojourn in Siam,'” are even more confused and biased, This is quite astonishing, since he stayed in the kingdom for more than a year. In the third chapter, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim gives us a taste of his ideas on the adherents of religions or philosophical systems other than his own. He states [...] the general mass of mankind agrees that this world must have a Creator but concerning the details and the attributes of our Creator and the nature of His agents, men differ. In this matter all mankind can be divided into two groups. If people adhere to a distinct religious body and a particular form of God’s law, they are known as people of faith and religion. If such is not the case, they are rightly referred to as people of lust and contempt. ‘There can be no doubt that the Siamese belong to the second group, being most blind and hopelessly gone astray, for it is clear that they do not adhere to any form of divine law or specified practice, He continues: During our stay in Siam it was ascertained through conversation with their learned men [one wonders in what language that conversation might "1 Ship of Sulayman, transl. O'Kane, pp. 88-89. "2 See Kanai Lal Hazra, History of Theravada Buddhism in South-East Asia (New Delhi 1982). 1) Ship of Sulayman, trans]. O'Kane, p. 111.40 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA have taken place...], who actually make use of the devil in teaching falschoods, that the local practice is idolatry plain and simple, as well as belief in transmigration.” He continues with a lengthy debate on transmigration, mainly based on the standard works of medieval Muslim heresiographers, rather than by referring to his own observations during his stay in Siam, which is, by the way, a major characteristic of his account in general. Throughout, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim appears to confuse con- sistently Hinduism and Buddhism, a fault which we also come across even in Kaempfer’s account of Siam. Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim seems not to be aware that in Theravada Buddhism, to use the words of the Venerable Nyanaponika Thera, the eminent German Buddhist scholar, “[...] the idea of a personal deity, a creator god conceived to be eternal and omnipotent, is incompatible with the Buddha’s teachings”.'* As a matter of fact, our author did certainly notice the ardent reverence paid by the Siamese to the images of the Buddha, along with those of Brahma and other deities of the Indian pantheon. He will certainly also have witnessed ceremonies connected with the world of ‘spirits’,'"° without being able to distinguish between ‘animism’ and Buddhism. However, certainly he did not have direct access to learned monks, although he devoted a great deal of the third chapter to a description of ceremonies in nm Mbid. "5 Bhikkhu Bodhi (ed.), The Vision of Dhamma, Buddhist Writings of Nyanaponika Thera (Kandy 1994, 2nd enlarged edition), pp. 292-93. Nevertheless, Nyanaponika Thera (ibid., p. 293) stated also that “Theism is regarded as a kind of kamma-teaching in so far as it upholds the moral efficacy of actions. Hence a theist who leads a moral life may, like anyone else doing so, expect a favourable rebirth, (..] If, however, fanaticism induces him (o persecute those who do not share his beliefs, this will have grave consequences form his future destiny. For fanatical attitudes, intolerance, and violence against others create unwholesome kamma leading to moral degeneration and to an unhappy rebirth.” For a good intruduction see Niels Mulder, Inside Thai Society. Inter- pretations of Everyday Life (Amsterdam 1996), especially pp. 43 ff. 16A UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN + al the temples at which he must have been present, but again, he had no knowledge of the nature of Buddhist meditation. '”” Furthermore, he had certainly no information on the contents, divisions and extent of the Tipitaka, the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhist scriptures.'"* Moreover, he was not in the position to distinguish between popul: expressions of religiosity on the one hand, and Buddhist phi- losophical thought, theory of knowledge," and therefrom resulting Weltanschauung on the other. Since Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim was lacking a deeper under- standing of Theravada Buddhist ethics and the essence of its worldview, ' he had also been unable to appreciate the broad- minded attitude of the Siamese king toward religion and religious practice." Here, however, he would have found himself in the company of contemporary Christian European observers who too saw in King Narai’s tolerance towards his non-Buddhist guests a sign of weakness, indecisiveness and wavering, which would make. his realm ‘destined’ to be ‘converted’ to either Roman Catholic Christianity or Twelver Shi ‘ite Islam." This misinterpretation of "7 Paravaheers Vajirafana Mahathera, Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice. A General Exposition According to the Pali Canon of the Theravadta School (Kuala Lumpur 1987, 3rded.). For a convenient survey of the material contained in the Pali Canon (based on the slightly more inclusive Burmese version) see White Lotus Pres (ed.), Guide 10 the Tipijaka. An Introduction to the Buddhist Canon (Bangkok 1993, reprint). A still unsurpassed introduction is K. N. Jayatilleke, Early Bucelhist Theory of Knowledge (Delhi 1980, reprint), For two fascinating surveys sce Padmasiti De Silva, An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology (Houndmills and London 1991, 2nd ed.), and Steven Collins, Selffess Persons. Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism (Cambridge (UK), New York and Melbourne 1995, reprint), respectively. GI Ship of Sulayman, twansl, O'Kane, pp. 120-21. "2 On the varicus embassies that had been sent to Siam to ‘convert’ its monarch and/or to establish trade links during the 16th and 17th centuries see Michael Smithies, Descriptions of Old Siam (Kuala Lumpur 1995), pp. 1-100; idem and Luigi Bressan, Siam and the Vatican in the Seventeenth Century ne 9 bo.aa FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA King Narai’s tolerance, however, was not limited to foreign visitors to Siam, but perhaps also to some of the higher echelons at the capital: already at the time of his last sickness which let to his demise in 1688, events unfolded which resulted in the execution of Phaulkon, the usurpation of royal power by a new ruler, and the expulsion of most of the foreigners. '33 Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, whose book is not entirely unsym- pathetic towards the Siamese, as seen above when referring to personality of the king, nevertheless ends his account of religion in Siam (along with his third chapter) by cursing her ‘idolatrous’ people. This is perhaps the most disappointing and saddening, if not despicable, part of the whole book: [..] they ate denied a part in the joys of the afterlife, they have no share in the clean and holy practices of this life, ‘Oh God, make them firm in their error. Make short their lives. May their necks be twisted and their death be brought on in haste, Give them pains in their bowels and punish them with ruthless, awesome punishments*.!" The above considerations have hopefully also shown that bias towards things ‘oriental’ during that period did not emanate exclusively from European observers, but was also prevalent in Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s account on Siam. The particularly injurious way in which ‘the Other’, in this case, Theravada Buddhism and Buddhist practice in Siam are presented in The Ship of Sulayman can serve as an eye-opener to the fact that prejudice against things Siamese and Buddhist ‘superstition’ emanated not only from Catholic missionaries, such as Tachard, but also from Muslim (Bangkok 2001), and Dirk Van der Cruysse, Siam and she West 1500— 1700, trans. Michael Smithies (Chiang Mai 2002). See David K. Wyatt, Thailand. A Short History (Chiang Mai 1999, reprint), pp. 116 ff, and especially E, W. Hutchinson, 1688 Revolution in Siam The Memoir of Father de Béze (Hong Kong and Bangkok 1990, 2nd impression). Ship of Sulayman, transl. O’Kane, p. 158. baA UNIQUE SOURCE IN PERSIAN 43 authors. As in the case of the French Catholic missionaries, most of the 17th-century ‘descriptions’ of Siam and her people could thus be considered as a mere prelude to the ‘conversion’ of the Siamese king and his subjects to Islam or Christianity, followed by political and economic penetration. Hence, religious prejudice in The Ship of Sulayman from the part of a follower of a strictly monotheistic system and his inability to look behind popular expressions of religiosity, resulting in a lack of interest to study in depth Siamese culture and society for their own sake, as well as his failure to present to his readers back home an authentic picture of Siam, are among the major weaknesses of the Ship of Sulayman for which its author Tbn Muhammad Ibrahim has to be held accountable.Chapter 3 Ayutthaya - Shahr-i Nav - Sarnau: Iranians at the ‘City of Boats and Canals’* As we have seen in the first chapter, Iran’s cultural and trade relations with Southeast Asia date back far into the pre-Islamic period. However, official diplomatic relations between Iran and Siam, exemplified by the exchange of non-permanent missions rather than by the establishment of permanent representations with ‘extra- territorial’ embassy buildings, become only traceable during the Safavid period (1501-1722). Contacts between Iranians (whether via the Indian subcontinent or from Iran proper) and the Thai people were, as a matter of fact, only possible after the latter had gradually settled and dominated the central plains of present-day Thailand, This process of migration culminated in 1351 in the founding by King U Thong (r. 1351-69, under the throne name Ramathibodi) of Ayutthaya (Phra Nakhon Si Ayurthaya) as the capital of a Thai kingdom which became known This chapter contains material that I had presented at the following occasions: (1) at the 2nd Australian National Thai Studies Conference, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (12-13 July, 2001), sponsored by RMIT, Australian National University’s Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and the National Thai Studies Centre; (2) at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), San Francisco CA, U.S.A. (17-20November 2001); (3) ata public lecture at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (AMM), Kuala Lumpur (6th April 2002); (4) at the 4th Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, Bethesda MD, U.S.A. (24-26 May 2002), organized by The Society for Iranian Studies (SIS) and co-sponsored byIRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS" 45 as Siam. Ayutthaya, about 80 kilometres to the north of modern Bangkok and strategically located on the navigable Chao Phraya river system which leads to the Gulf of Thailand, was destined to become one of the region's most important trade emporia, situated conveniently halfway between East Asia, China in particular, and India. In the first half of the 15th century, the Muslim Chinese writer Ma Huan, who accompanied the famous Ming admiral Cheng Ho on some of his explorations in the Indian Ocean region, visited Siam (Hsien-lo) also. Ma Huan reported of the presence at Ayutthaya (Yu-ti-ya) of “five or six hundred families of foreigners”, although without mentioning ‘Iranians’ among them! Already in 1442, however, the Persian writer ‘Abd al-Razziq Samargandi, in his Matla' al-Sa‘dayn, refers explicitly to close trade connections between the Persian Gulf emporium Hormuz and, what he refers to as Shahr-i Nau (‘New City’), a Persian synonym for Ayutthaya, As we shall see soon, there existed a variety of spellings for this Persian expression. Authors of Arabic geographical literature of the 15th century, for instance, such as the famous Ibn Majid, refer to the same Shahr-i Nau, calling it Shahr Nawa.> The Association for the Study of Persianate Socicties (ASPS); (5) at the ath International Round Table Conference on the Safavids, Bamberg, Germany (5-6 July 2003). The above conference material had been included and published for the first time as “Persian Religious and Cultural Influcnices in Siam/Thailand and Maritime Southeast Asia: A Plea for a Concerted Interdisciplinary Approach”, Journal of the Siam Society 88, pt. |-2 (2000), pp. 186-94, and afterwards, more detailed, in my “The Iranian-Siamese Connection: An Iranian Community in the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya”, Iranian Studies 35, nos. 1-3 (Winter-Summer 2002), pp. 23-46. Ma Huan, Ying-yai Sheng-lan. The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores (1433), trans. J. V. G, Mills (Bangkok 1997, reprint of the 1970 Hakluyt edition), p. 106) For an English translation of the respective passage sec Browne, A Literary History of Persia, Volume Il: The Vartar Dominion (1265-1502), pp.397- 98. See G.R. Tibbetis, Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean Before the Coming46 FROM ISTAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA The circumstance of Ayutthaya being referred to by a Persian name among foreigners, non-Thais, warrants attention. It should be noted that there existed a variety of different spellings for Shahr-i Nau: There is first the just referred to form Shahr-i Nau, ‘New City’, then the corruption Shahr Nawi from a Malay poem of Hamzah Fanstiti who was born in Ayutthaya in the 16th century (as we shall see later).* The corrupted form Shahr Naw is also to be encountered in the eminent early 1 6th-century Malay chronicle Sejarah Melayu5 Furthermore, there is the aforementioned form Shahr Nawa, recorded by Tibbetts in his Ibn Majid translation. Finally we find the form Shahr-i Nav (‘City of Boats, Canals’) throughout Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim's travel account Safinah-yi Sulaymani, The Ship of Sulayman, the Persian source which we have already discussed in some detail in the second chapter. The form Shahr Nawa, recorded by Tibbetts seems to be the result of a spelling mistake in his Arabic source (if we exclude meanings such as ‘sound’ or ‘luxury’ for Navd in Persian). Ultimately, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, when referring to Ayutthaya, conveyed in his Ship of Sulaymén the correct meaning of ‘City of Boats and Canals’ (which is still apparent even to the casual present-day visitor to Ayutthaya or Bangkok) by spelling it throughout his account Shahr-i Nav. With the Persian expression Shahr-i Nav he is referring to the kingdom of Siam and to its then capital Ayutthaya, O'Kane, too, has offered throughout his English of the Portuguese (London 1981), ‘index of place names’ and ‘Arabic index’. See ALAlas, The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansiiv7, pp. 3 {t., and my ‘Persian Presence in Islamie Communities of Southeast Asia’, forthcoming in the Encyclopaedia Iraniea. Abdul Rahman Haji Ismail (ed.), Sejarah Melayu, The Malay Annals, MS. Rafftes No. 18. New Romanized Edition (Kuala Lumpur 1998), pp. 110ft.; English translation in C.C. Brown, C. C. (trans.), “The Malay Annals’, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 25, pt. 2-3 (1952), pp. 45 fF.IRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS? 41 translation this, to my mind, correct vocalization which is also to be found in Faraqi’s edited text. However, modern (in particular Western) scholars have in the past tended to prefer the above- mentioned variant form Shahr-i Naw (jc. literally ‘New City’). Shahr-i Nau is said to have been applied since the 14th century throughout Muslim geographical literature (Persian and remarkably as well as Arabic) with reference to Ayutthaya, a city which was indeed founded in 1351 as Siam’s ‘new capital’é and which was named after the sacred city of Ayodhya in India.” However, as we have seen above, there existed a variety of other spellings for'the Persian name, which is important to note since different meanings are to be derived from them. Steve Van Beek, a modern scholar in Thai studies, tells us the following about the etymology of the city’s full Thai name, which seems to be in line with Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s observations and the therefrom derived spelling of Shahr-i Nav, literally ‘City of Boats, Canals’: [...Plrom the beginning, Ayutthaya’s destiny was written in water. Its Sanskrit name, Krung Thep Dvaravati Si Ayutthaya, is derived from the Mon word krerng, meaning ‘canal’ or ‘river’, Although located in the heart of a fertile rice region, it sat on level ground, open to enemy attack. U-Thong [the founder of the city] compensated for this disadvantage by tuming his city into a mini-Mont-Saint-Michel, a citadel ringed by a wall of earth and water, much like the mythical Phrasumen Mountain which, according to Hindu cosmology, occupied the centre of the universe. Ayutihaya’s distance from the river-mouth protected it irom sea-borne invasion. The rivers and canals which radiated from it were arteries for transport and were its principal avenues of contact with a further world,® See, for instance, Reid, Sowiheast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450 1680. Volume Two: Expansion and Crisis, p. 190. Steve Van Beek, The Chao Phya. River in Transition (Kuala Lumput 1995), p. 29. Ibid. See also Sumet Jumsai, Naga: Cultural Origins in Siam and the West Pacific (Singapore 1988), p. 16148 FROM ISFAHANTO AYUTTHAYA At any rate, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim himself has emphasized the character of Ayutthaya as a ‘City of boats and canals’, when referring to the Persian name for the city: ‘The name Shahr-i Nav. The mainstray of travel and transportation in that whole region is the boat. In fact the name of the country and the capital means city of the boat. However, the local inhabitants call the city Ajaudia, which in their language means big city [sic]. Finally, the Franks and men of learning who have gone more deeply into this subject refer to the city in their books as Siam," By the 17th century, Ayutthaya was indeed a city dominated by boats and canals,"' as it was also the case with Thailand’s present capital Bangkok far into the 19th century (and, to a certain extent, even until today).!? Whatever the correct spelling may be—Shahr-i Nav or any other variant—it is interesting to notice that the corruption of a Persian expression entered the vocabulary of European travellers to the eastern Indian Ocean region under various forms, since Persian was the lingua franca in the trading world of the Gulf of Bengal and the eastern Indian Ocean rim.'? Yule and Burnell, for instance, present a selection of observations of mostly Western travellers to the region, from the 16th century to the first half of the 18th century.'* Most of them refer to Ayutthaya—Shahr-i Nav—as ‘Sarnau’ or alike Apparently, this headline was added by the translator O”Kane. Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane, p. 88. On the supposed ‘genesis? ofthe 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 (sic}" (ibid.). Kaempfer, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam, p. 49. Van Beck, The Chao Phya. River in Transition, pp. 54-56. Engelbert Kacmpfer, Ant Hofe des persischen GroBkénigs (1684-85), p. 135. Yule and Buell, Hobson-Jobson. The Anglo-Indian Dictionary, pp. 795~ 96, entry ‘Sarnau, Sornau’.IRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS? 49 Ayutthaya’s early history from the 14th century onwards has been studied in detail by Professor Charnvit Kasetsiri of Bangkok's Thammasat University,"® Thailand’s leading scholar on the history of the Ayutthaya Empire (1351-1767), and by Professor Wyatt.!® Ayutthaya is situated at a distance of only about 140 kilometres from the Gulf of Siam, at the lower course of the Chao Phraya river, which was during that time navigable even for larger vessels,'” Ayutthaya—today a major tourist destination in Thailand'*—can be reached comfortably by a highway from Bangkok in an one- hour drive. Even today the city constitutes still an island” since it is completely surrounded by rivers. Its location near the coast made it easily accessible to foreign merchant ships and destined it to become one of the major trading emporia of Southeast Asia. Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim stated that “[s]ince Siam is close to the ports of India and is situated on the sea route to China and Japan, merchants have always been attracted to settle there.” Significantly, Hamzah Fansiiri, who was also well-read in Persian and Arabic mystical literature, was most probably born in Ayutthaya in the 16th century, In one of his Malay poems Hamzah refers to his origin in the following fashion Charnvit Kasetsiri, The Rise of Ayutthaya: A History of Siam in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Kuala Lumpur 1976), and idem, ‘Origins of a Capital and Seaport: The Early Settlement of Ayutthaya and Its East Asian Trade’, in: Kennon Breazeale (ed.), From Japan to Arabia Ayutthaya’s Maritime Relations with Asia (Bangkok |999), pp. 55-79. "© Wyatt, Thailand. A Short History, pp. 61-74, and idem, ‘Ayutthaya, 1409— 24: Internal Politics and International Relations’, in: Breazeale (ed.), From Japan to Avabia: Ayutthaya’s Maritime Relations with Asia, pp. 80-88, Yan Beck, The Chao Phya. River in Transition, p. 32. On Ayutthaya’s major tourist attractiona and archaelogical sites see Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) (ed.), Ayuttyaya 1350-1767, Historical City Park (TAT Handbook) (Bangkok 2000). ” Van Beck, he Chao Phya. River in Transition, pp. 28-29. ® Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane, p. 94.50 PROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA Hameah Shahr Nawi terlalu hapus, Seperti kayu sekalian hangus; Asalnya Laut tiada berharus, Menjadi kapur didalam Barus. (Hameah of Shahr Nawi is truly effaced, Like wood, all burnt to cinders; His origins is the Ocean without currents, he becaine camphor in Barus (in Sumatca}).®® At another location Hamzah applies even a philosophical-mystical metaphor, ‘existence’—wujud—for Ayutthaya: .Mendapat wujud ditanah Shahr Nawi. (..He acquired his existence in the land of Shahr Nawi)* Whether we take this supposed Shahr Nawi/Shahr-i Nau as Hamzah’s birthplace or as a location where he went through a kind of intellectual and/or spiritual transformation process, both refer technically and beyond any doubt to Ayutthaya, the then capital of the kingdom of Siam. Professor Syed Muhammad Naquib Al- Attas, perhaps the most competent living scholar on Hamzah, states on this issue: [...] we must accept it 2s most probable, that his mother, perhaps together with his father, left Barus {in Sumatra] for a time and gave birth to him elsewhere, returning to Barus when he was still an infant, Or having been borin the foreign place {i.e. Ayutthaya], Hamzah remained in that place, returning to Barus after the death of his parents, Seen in this light, the significance of Shahr Nawi [i.e. the form applied by Hamzah) is clearly revealed. Al-Attas explains somewhat philosophically, but plausibly, that Ibid., p. 2 pid. p.7. 2 [bid., pp. Sand 7. * [bid., p.7.IRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS" 51 Hamzah js telling us originally he was of Barus, but that he acquired his existence in Shahr Nawi, The word ‘existence’ (wujud), generally speaking, refers either to the state of being, or existing, pertaining to non- beings—in which case it exists only in thought; orit refers to Real Being, pertaining to the Self-existent Essence of God. In the sense in which Hamzah uses this word in the above quotation, he is referring to his own existence, not to a mystical state, and this means that he acquires his human form and qualities. This can mean none other than reference to his birth into this world 25 Al-Attas quotes another Malay verse from Hamzah: Hamzah Shahr Nawt zahirnya Jawi. (Hamzeh of Shahr Nawi is born (also: ‘has the appearance of”) a Malay...)26 Al-Attas concludes his observations on Ayutthaya as Hamzah’s birthplace by stating: ‘There is no need to go further. Apart from the fact that he tells us he was born a Malay, we must not consider it a mere coincidence that he connects his birth (zahirnya) with Shahr Nawi by mentioning Shahr Nawi along with zahir. In this and in the quotations immediately preceedin; ig it, both referring to Hamzah as a physical entity [...], Hamzah, I suggest, purposefully links himself with Shahr Nawi and not with Barus—another strong indication that he was in fact born in Shahr Nawi.” Another important fact with regard to Hamzah is the already referred to circumstance that he knew Persian, although he apparently never went to Iran (or India?).* Again, in the view of the Al-Attas (whois himself a Sunnite of Hadrami descent), this leads to the only conclusion that % ” ry 9 Ibid. Ibic Ibid. Ibid., p. 9. Ibid. Confer Brakel, ‘The Birth Place of Hamza Pansuti’, pp. 206-12. »p.852 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA, [tlhe fact that Hamzah lived in Shahr Nawi fora considerable period means that there was a sizable Muslim population there. [...] Persians predominated in the composition of that Muslim population—otherwise why would the place be known to the Muslims under a Persian name?” Considering all these scattered pieces together it would not be too far-fetched to assume that Hamzah in fact ‘converted’ in the Siamese capital to Twelver Shi ‘ite Islam, a notion which is substantiated by the fact of the presence there of a large community of Muslims ascribing to that persuasion.*° Hamzah’s frequent referring to utterances of the first Shi'ite Imam ‘Ali (d. 661) in his works should serve as a further indication for this.?! Furthermore, only at Ayutthaya Hamzah could have acquired his thorough knowledge of the Persian language and Persian mystical thought. To the mind of Anthony Reid, until recently Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles and now Director of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute (ARI), too, itis obvious that “[t]he greatest of the Muslim mystical poets of the Malay world, Hamzah Fansuri, appears to have learned his mysticism among the (mainly Shi‘ite) Muslims of the Siamese capital’”.” Was Ayutthaya centre not only of the Theravada Buddhist kingdom of Siam but also a transmitter of Iranian culture and Shi‘ite scholarship and mysticism? Surely the above considerations cannot be taken as sufficient proofs in themselves, but it is nevertheless interesting that Hamzah, till today the most famous Malay mystical ® Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680, Volume Twos Expansion and Crisis, p. 190. According to Oudaya Bhanuwongse, ‘Speech’, in: Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran (ed.), Sheikit Ahmad Qomi and the History of Siam (Bangkok 1995/2538 Buddhist Era), pp- 206-207, the expression Chao Sen refers in Thai to ‘Shi’ism’. For textual evidences refer to Al-Attas, The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansiiri, p. 365. ® Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. Volume Two: Expansion and Crisis, p. 190. See also G.W.J. Drewes and L.F, Brakel (eds.), The Poems of Hamzah Fansuri (Dordrecht 1986), pp. 4-7.IRANIANS AT “THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS? 33 poet, referred to ‘Shahr Nawi’ as the place where he received his ‘existence’, whether spiritually (in that case: who was his ‘master’ 2) or as his place of place (why there?). At any rate, we have already seen that even the eminent Arab geographer and navigator Sulayman b. Ahmad al-Mahti, who flourished in the second half of the 16th century, thus a contemporary of Hamzah, is said to have referred to Ayutthaya by the Persian expression Shahr-i Nau. Hamzah’s Shahr Nawi, in turn, is thus most probably a mere adaptation to the flow of his Malay poetry. The reason then for emphasizing Ayutthaya as the birthplace of Hamzah Fansiii, the most eloquent mystical poet of the otherwise staunchly Sunnite Malays (and for my lengthy discussion of that matter), is to let appear clearer that city’s role as the leading centre for the dissernination of ‘Iranian culture’ during the 16th and 17th centuries in Southeast Asia. Hamzah’s scholarly and literary activities have to be considered in this context. Morcover, since Hamzah flourished during the second half of the 16th century, it is quite possible that there have been Iranians present in Ayutthaya before that time, i.c. before the arrival of the mysterious ‘Shaykh Ahmad’, who arrived at Ayutthaya at the beginning of the 17th century and who is, as we shall see later, usually considered the pioneer of the Iranian community at the then Siamese capital. In order to understand the background for the presence of Iranians in Siam itis important to consider also the wider geopolitical setting. The insubordinate status of the principality of Malacca (a vassal of Ayutthaya on the Malay peninsula) during the 15th century and especially its final extinction by the Portuguese in 1511, had forced its Siamese overlords to look for additional gateways towards trade with the western Indian Ocean region. Thus, already during the 1460s Siam had taken control over Tenasserim, which was followed by Mergui in 1480, and in this manner gained direct acc to the “ Sunait Chutintaranond, ‘Mergui and Tenasserim as Leading Port Cities in the Context of Autonomous History’, in: Breazeale (ed.), Prom Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya's Maritime Relations with Asia, pp. 104-18,sf FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA Gulf of Bengal and India. Further west, the 16th century saw major political changes in northern India with the gradual establishment of the Mughals. Towards the beginning of the 17th century the Mughals had gained full control over Bengal and Orissa, by which they obtained access to the Bay of Bengal. A formidable power in the southern Indian region was the Deccan kingdom of Golconda of the Qutb-Shahi dynasty (1512-1687), a successor state of the Bahmanid kingdom (1347-1525). In addition to what has been said in the course of the second chapter, it cannot be emphasized enough that the Quib-Shahi rulers were Twelver Shi ‘ites with political links to the Safavid shahs of dran, whose names where even mentioned alongside the names of the Twelve Imams in the sermon during Friday prayers. Their, at least from the cultural perspective, highly ‘persianized’ kingdom was not only a major trading power but was also to become a haven for Shi‘ites, in most cases Iranians from Iran, but also from northern India, who were at times subjected to persecution under the Sunnite Mughals. In his study on the migration of Iranians from Iran to India and Southeast Asia, Subrahmanyam* has provided numerous evidences for their massive economic, political and literary presence in the Golconda kingdom of the Qutb-Shahs By the second half of the 16th century there existed intensive trade links between Golconda’s main port Masulipatam (or Matchlibandar) and Siamese Tenasserim.* “Besides the already referred to comprehensive study by Sherwani, History of the Qutb Shahi Dynasty, see also Vladimir Minorsky, “The Qara-Qoyunki and the Qutb-Shahs (Turmenica, 10)’, Bulletin of the School of Orienial and African Studies 18, no. | (1955), pp. 50-73. Subrahmanyam, ‘Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formation’, See Shah Manzur Alam, ‘Masulipatam: A Metropolitan Port in the Seventeenth Century’, fslewnic Culture 33, no. 3 (1959), pp. 169-87, and Sinnappah Arasaratnam, ‘The Coromandel-Southeast Asia Trade 1650— 1740: Challenges and Responses of a Commercial System’, Journal of Asian History 18, no, 2 (1984), pp. 113-35, idem, “The Chulia MuslimIRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS" 55 The southern Indian Qutb-Shahi kingdom served thus also as an important gateway to Southeast Asia, the Thai empire of Ayutthaya in particular, since merchant ships bound for the east used its harbours as stopover on their way to Southeast Asia. In spite of the existence of ‘Bengali’, ‘Gujarati’ and ‘Hadrami’ trade networks in the Indian Ocean region,” the role of the ‘Iranians’ should be seen beyond that of pure merchants. This last aspect, i.e. the various additional educational and cultural activities of the ‘Iranians’, however, still needs further investigation and clarification, since similar consideration is due to the ‘Hadramis’ with regard to their spread of sufism in Southeast Asia. In the light of the dominating role of ‘Persianized’ Muslim states on the subcontinent, however, it is not surprising that the Siamese trading emporium Ayutthaya should have been known under a Persian name to the mait nly Muslim. merchants, as stated above. Politically and militarily, the Qutb-Shahi kingdom, since the second half of the 17th century, was on the downward trend, which was in particular due to Mughal pressure from the north, To the knowledge of this writer, Indo-Persian historiographical literature (especially from the Deccan), too, has yetnot been investigated with reference to Siamese-Deccan relations from the 15th century onwards.** The first Iranians in the Ayutthaya kingdom might thus have settled in Tenasserim and Mergui. At least, there is evidence for Iranians in Siam’s Burmese neighbour state Pegu and in Malacca Merchants in Southeast Asia 1650-1800", Moyen Orient et Océan Indien 4 (1987), pp. 126-43, idem, Maritime India in the Seventeenth Century (Delhi 1994), Several articles which are contained in the volume edited by Denys Lombard and Jean Aubin, Marchands et hommes d'affaires asiatiques dans l'Océan Indien et la Mer de Chine 13'-20' sigcles (Paris 1988), address the issue of those ‘networks’, Foran overview of Persian literary activities in the southern Indian Muslim kingdoms see the excellent, but so far often neglected study by Devare, A Short History of Persian Literature at the Bahmani, the Adilshahi and the Quibshahi Courts (Deccan).56 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA for the early 16th century.” The presence of ‘Iranians’ at the Siamese capital Ayutthaya, however, seems to have remained rather limited in number up to the beginning of the 17th century. Several factors seem to have contributed to an immigration of Iranians (mainly from southern India, but perhaps also directly from Iran) to Siam, in particular during the 17th century: the political instability on the Deccan, the extension of international Safavid trade under Shah ‘Abbas II (1, 1642-66), as well as the expansion of Siamese trade with East Asia, in particular Japan", which resulted in Ayutthaya becoming an important entrepér of its own for trade with that region, and thus attracting foreign immigration. Up to the end of the 17th century Shi‘ite ‘Iranians’, whether immigrants from India (in particular the Shi ‘ite Deccan kingdoms) or from Iran proper, might have even have constituted the majority of the Muslims resident at Ayutthaya, since the French traveler and diplomat Guy Tachard, who stayed during the 1680s at the Siamese capital, reported even of ta‘ziyyah, Shiite mourning processions, that were sponsored by the Siamese (Buddhist!) monarch. According to Tachard [...] the Moors [the Shiite Muslims resident at the Siamese capital] made great Illuminations for eight days together, in Honour of their Prophet Mahomet i.e, Muhammad] and his Son [sic], whose Funerals they celebrated. They began to solemnize the Festival the Evening before about ® Ronald W, Ferrier, “Trade from the Mid-14th Century to the End of the Safavid Period’, in: The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods (Cambridge, UK, 1986), p. 423 (based on assertions by the early L6th-century travellers Ludovico de Varthema and Tomé Pires). Ferrier has also written a fine book on 17th century Safavid society and culture: see his A Journey to Persia. Jean Chardin’s Portrait of a Seventeenth-Century Empire (London and New York, 1996) See Yoko Nagazumi, ‘Ayutthaya and Japan: Embassies and Trade in the Seventeenth Century’, in: Brezeale (ed.), From Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya’s Maritime Relations with Asia. pp. 89-103, and Hiromu Nagashima, ‘Persian Muslim Merchants in Thailand and their Activities in the 17th Century. Especially on their Visits to Japan’, Nagasaki Prefectural University Review 30, no. 3 (1997), pp. 387-99,IRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS’ 37 four of the Clock at Night, by a kind of Procession, wherein they were above two thousand Souls. [!]. There they carried the Figure of the Tombs of those two Impostors, with many Symbols of a pretty neat Representation, amongst others, certain great Cages covered with painted Cloth, and carried by Men that marched and continually turned in cadence to the Sound of Drums and Timbrels. The quick and regular Motion of these huge Machines which we saw at a distance, without perceiving those hat carried them, occasioned an agreeable Surprise At the Head of this great Confluence of People, some Grooms led three or four Horses in rich Trappings, and a great many People carrying several Lanthorns at the end of Jong Poles, lighted all the Procession and sung in divers Quites after a very odd manner, With the same Zeal they continued this Festival for several Nights together till five of the Clock in the Morning. It is hardly to be conceived how these Porters of Machines, that uncessantly turned, could perform that Exercise for fifteen or sixteen Hours together, nor how the Singers that raised their Voices as high as was possible for them, could sing so long, The rest of the Procession looked modest enough, some marched before the Singers, who surrounded Coffins carried upon eight Mens Shoulders, and the rest were mingled in the Croud with them. There were a great many Siamese Men and Women, Young and Old there, who have embraced the Mahometan Religion {i.c. Islam). For since the Moors have got footing in the Kingdom, they have drawn over a great many People to their Religion, which is an Argument that they are not so addicted to their Superstitions (a derogative remark referring to Theravada Buddhism?], but that they can forsake them, when our Missionaries have had have had Patience and Zeal enough to instruct them in our Mysteries. It is true, that Nation is a great Lover of Shows and splendid Ceremonies, and by that means it is that the Moors, who celebrate their Festivals with a great deal of Magnificence, have perverted many of them to the Sect of Mahomet. As we have seen, our main sources for research on the fate of the ‘Iranian community’ in Ayutthaya are either Ibn Muhammad (brahim’s Persian travel account or reports by European, mainly french, visitors to Siam during the 17th century. Thai sources of ‘The Prophet Muhammad had no surviving son: perhaps referring to his cousin and son-in-law “Ali, the First Shiite Imm, most probably, however, to ‘Ali's sons Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn. Tachard, 4 Relation of she Voyage to Siam, pp. 214-15.58 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA, the period, known as the ‘Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya’, are for the most part surviving fragments of Thai historiography from Ayutthaya which survived the sack of the city at the hands of the Burmese in 1767 and which had been gathered and rearranged in the early 19th century during the subsequent ‘Bangkok period’. However, although these sources have been made accessible to a wider circle of scholars by the late Dr. Cushman’s excellent synoptic English translation, the researcher encounters still a major obstacle: Non-Siamese individuals—whether subjects of the Siamese Crown or foreign residents and visitors—remain in these chronicles for the most part ‘hidden’ under Thai official titles and formal addresses. Morcover, if they are referred to at all they appear often under the designation khaek if they are of Middle Eastern or Indian ethnic origin (in the latter case non-Muslims are included). Interestingly, in the ‘Royal Chronicles’ (when referring to events from the 16th century onwards), and even today, the Thai language refers to a “Westerner” by the expression farang. As we have seen in the first chapter, this expression is directly derived from Persian, where is has the same connotation, Moreover, Thai historians of the 19th and early 20th centuries have based their works also on other fragments of Thai chronicles to which the present author had no access." They refer to a certain “Richard D, Cushman (iransl.), The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. A Synoptic Translation, ed. David K. Wyatt (Bangkok 2000), index of proper names, “khaek’, For an introduction to Thai historical writing refer to Charnvit Kasetsiri, “Thai Historiography from Ancient Times (o the Modern Period’, in: A. Reid, and D, Marr (eds.), Perceptions of the Past in Southeast Asia (Singapore 1982, Ist reprint), pp. 156-67, and David K. Wyatt, ‘Chronicle Traditions in Thai Historiography’, in: C.D, Cowan and O. W. Wolters (eds.), Southeast Asian History and Historiography. Essays Presented to D. G. E. Hall (Ithaca and London 1976), pp. 107-22. See Chao Phraya Thiphakorawong Maha Kosa Thibodi, Chotmaiher prathom wong sakun bunnak riapriang doi than phraya chvla ratchamontri (sen) than plraya worathep (thuan) than chao phraya thiphakorawongIRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS’ 39 “Shaykh Ahmad Qomi’ or ‘Kuni’, an immigrant who is said to have arrived ‘from the West’ as a merchant toward the beginning of the 17th century, perhaps via India. To the mind of the present writer, it is yet by no means established that this person originated actually from Qumm in Iran. Nevertheless, this mysterious ‘Shaykh Ahmad’ is an important figure, since he is said to have risen to favour with Song Tham (r, 1610/11-1628), who appointed him to the highest administrative positions and who put him in charge of Siam’s entire trade with the Middle East and Muslim India‘, Under the Thai title chularajmontri the Muslim office of Shaykh al-Islam was introduced to Siam—apparently by ‘Shaykh Ahmad’ who was appointed to this position by the king as its first holder. We will return to the establishment of the office of Shaykh al-Islam, being the head of the Muslim community resident in Siam and thus an important and far-reaching feature of Iranian-Siamese cultural contacts, in the course of the fourth chapter. The fortunes of Ayutthaya’s Iranian community rose even under King Narai (r, 1656-88) who opened the kingdom further to foreign trade and who was also interested in cultural contacts. Ayutthaya’s turning into an emporium of international trade in Asia, the presence of numerous foreign merchants there, as well as political and strategic considerations might have driven the Siamese rulers— apparently on advice of the resident ‘Iranian’ community—to seck diplomatic contacts with other countries with an interest in Indian Ocean trade, perhaps also as a counterbalance to Mughal India. The court of Golconda, for instance, received in the year 1664 a maha kosa thibodi (kha bunnak) [Records of the Beginning of the Bunnag Lineage, Compiled by Phraya Chula Ratchamoniti (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 [in Thai]. “© Wyatt, Thailand, A Short History, p. 108. Marcinkowski, ‘Iranians, Shaykh al-Islams and Chularajmontris’; idem Mireli Raft'a's Dastiir al-Mulitk, pp. 86-87 and 268-78.oo) FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA, splendid Siamese embassy*?. In 1669, another Siamese embassy, sent by King Narai, arrived at Isfahan, at the court of Shah Sulayman. Another Siamese trade mission was in Iran in 1680/ 81. A letter by the Apostolic Vicar and titular bishop Frangois ‘of Caesaropolis’, a French missionary based at the Iranian capital, to his sovereign Louis XIV, dated 20 January 1683, refers also to a Siamese embassy which was present at the Safavid court during that year. Engelbert Kaempfer, too, who also visited Iran prior to his sojourns in Siam and subsequently Japan, reports in July 1684 of (another?) Siamese embassy present at the shah’s court at Bagh- i Sa‘dabad, referring to a ‘born Persian’ as the leader of the Siamese delegations! Kaempfer states: Immediately after the Swedish [embassy] the Siamese envoy, a born Persian, was ushered in. He was just about to return home. As it is customary regarding the dimissal of ambassadors, he received a robe of honour [i.e. khal‘af], as did the negro who was in his retinue. He was dismissed after he had kissed the Shah’s feet—in accordance with court- protocol—and received the reply letter to his prince, which had been attached on his forchead-band by the Divanbeg? [literally: Reichsprofoss} and the Naéir (literally: Oberhofineister]. In Iran, it is not customary to detain the dimissed with a large banquet. This has the big advantage that the person in question does not have to wait for a special court assembly, but would rather been allowed to take leave from the Shih even during one of his rides, At such an occasion rather the stirrup than the foot is to be kissed. ” The Siamese ambassador's matter was referring to his king’ s request to the Shah for Persian naval assistance against the (Burmese] kingdom Alam, ‘Masulipatam: A Metropolitan Port in the Seventeenth Century’, p. 178. 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), Vol. 2, pp. 92-98. Hutchinson, 1688 Revolution in Siam. The Memoir of Father de Béze, p. 11 n. 2, and pp. 127-28. Raphaél Du Mans, Estat de la Perse en 1660, ed. Charles Schefer (Paris 1890), p. 339. Kaempfer, Am Hofe des persischen Gropkinigs (1684-85), p. 199IRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS? él of Pegu, which borders towards the west on Siam. Pegu was considered an enemy by Siam because of his hostile attitude and in particular because of a very old claim of the king of Pegu against the Empire of the White Elephant [i.e. Siam], The Siamese ambassador submitted numerous extremely precious gifts, among them golden vessels, Chinese porcela and Japanese lacquer work and furthermore rare birds of all kinds. ‘The gifts, whose estimated value amounted to 200,000 ounces ot 267,000 Tuler, were presented by forty carriers. The individual referred to above as the Siamese ambassador was most probably the Hajji Salim Mazandarani referred to by Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim™. The Iranian embassy of 1685/86 to Ayutthaya (of which Ion Muhammad Ibrahim was a member) was thus rather a return-visit Lo the Siamese mission to Isfah’n of 1684 and thus not to the earlier Siamese visit of 1669. It appears that the embassy that had been described by The Ship of Sulayman was the last diplomatic contact between Iran and Siam until the 20th century. Diplomatic ties—in fact the first between Iran and any Southeast Asian country—between Tehran and Bangkok (which had in the meantime replaced Isfahan and Ayutthaya as the respective capitals of the two countries) were established in 1956, now with permanent embassies in both countries Ayutthaya’s development towards a major trading power since the second half of the 15th century had resulted in an influx of nu- merous foreign merchants, Many of them were to stay permanently, This necessitated the introduction of maritime laws and of clearly marked responsibilities for officials dealing with foreigners”, Similar had been the case with other states on the Indian Ocean rim, such as Malacca on the Malay peninsula and Masulipatam, the Ibid., 212-13 (transl. from German by Dr. Marcinkowski) The Ship of Sulayman, tr. O'Kane, pp. 20, 104, L05, See also Jean Aubin, ‘Les Persans au Siam sous le regne de Narai (1656-1688)', Mare Luso Indicum 4 (1980), pp. 121-22. ‘ai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible’, in: idem (¢d.), From Japan to Arabia: Ayutihaya's Maritime Relations with Asia (Banykok 1999), pp, 1-54. 2 se Kennon Breazeale, ‘TI6 PROM ISPANAN TO AYUTTHAYA main port of the Indian Golconda kingdom, where officials with the Persian title shahbandar, ‘harbour masters’, were to be found’. ‘The maritime relations of Ayutthaya were placed under a minister known in Thai as Phra Khiang, rendered by Breazcale as ‘Ministry of External Relations and Maritime Trading Affairs’, Similar to the case of the Persian name for Ayutthaya, the title Phra Khlang, too, became known to 17th-century European merchants and mariners of the time operating in the Indian Ocean region under various corrupted forms, such as ‘Berklam’ or ‘Barcalon’s’, This ministry was structured into four main departments: the “Department of General Administration, Appeals and Records’, the ‘Department of Western Maritime Affairs’, the ‘Department of Eastern Maritime Affairs and Crown Junks’, and the ‘Department of Royal Warehouses’. ‘The ‘Department of Western Maritime Affairs’ was concerned with the Indian Ocean trade and was called in Thai Krom Tha Khwa (literally; the ‘Harbour Department of the Right’), At court, the official in charge of it sat to the right of the king, higher than his colleague of the stern Department’, who sat to the left of the Siamese monarch and who was regarded lower in rank. The holder of the ‘western department’ was usually a Muslim. The afore- mentioned ‘Shaykh Ahmad’ was put in charge of the Krom Tha Khwa. Apparently, the Krom Tha Khwa department had also various territorial responsibilities, in particular with regard to the Siamese Indian Ocean ports on the west coast of the peninsula, The power of the ‘Western Department’, which was larger and more complex than its ‘eastern’ counterpart, declined towards the later 18th century. Leonard Andaya has referred to the office of Phra Klang as ‘king’s merchant’ and noticed apparent similarities between the Malik al- Subrahmanyam, ‘Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formation’, p. 345; B. W. Andaya, ‘Malacca’ Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible’, p. 5. Kaempfer, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam 1690, p. 39; Michael Smithies (ed., tt), The Chevatier de Chawnont and the Abbé de Choisy: Aspects of the Embassy to Siam 1685 (Chiang Mai 1997), p. 111.IRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS" 63 Tujjar (‘king of merchants’) in Iran and comparable offices in the Southeast Asian trading world, such as that of sha@hbandar. He states: This Persian model of a ‘king of merchants’ appeared in the Malay courts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, where they where called saudagar raja. The term combines the Persian (and not the Arabic as in the Safavi empire) saudagar and the Malay or Sanskrit, raja, meaning king, The function of the saudagar raja was similar to that of the Persian office of malek-of-tojjar, but in the Malay courts he was expected to have knowledge of the language and customs of Europeans and Asians. (...] The title was in frequent use in the seventeenth and cighteenth centuries but apparently not during the heyday of the Melaka kingdom in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The prominence of the saudagar raja title in the Malay world coincides with the growing Perso-Arabie influence in the trading world of Southeast Asia at this time,‘® In 1610, presumably towards the beginning of the rule of the Siamese king Song Tham, a contemporary of the Safavid Shah ‘Abbis I the Great (1, 1588-1629), the Phra Khlang ministry is said to have been reformed with the help of two Iranian immigrants. Apparently, the division of the ministry into a ‘right’ and ‘left’ department happened under their influence. Leonard Andaya refers to these two men, in fact ‘Shaykh Ahmad’ and his brother, as originating ‘from southern India’ (sic), unfortunately without presenting evidence for this assertion: according to him, Ahmad was to stay in Ayutthaya and to become head of the Krom Tha Khwa, the ‘right department’ in charge of trade with the Indonesian world and the western Indian Ocean area. His brother is said to have returned to India. Abmad and his followers were granted a village site for their houses, a mosque and a cemetery, which is still known today as Ban Khaek Kuti Chao Sen. Leonard ¥. Andaya, ‘Ayutthaya and the Persian and Indian Muslim Connection’, in: Breazeale (ed.), From Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya's Maritime Relations with Asia (Bangkok 1999), p. 125. On the Malik al- Tigjar in Safavid Tran see also Marcinkowski, Mirza Raft'a's Dastitr al- Mulitk, quick-reference.64 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA We derive more detailed information on the mysterious ‘Shaykh Ahmad’ from Professor Wyatt’s genealogical studies into the ori igins of Thai nobility.*° According to this scholar, ‘Shaykh Ahmad’, toge- ther with his younger brother Muhammad Sa‘id, arrived in 1602 ‘from the Persian Gulf’ (sic) at Ayutthaya (unfortunately, again without giving evidences), where they took Thai wives. Ahmad was soon later appointed ‘Head of the Department of the Right’. Soon, under King Song Tham, he was promoted to the position of Phra Khlang. By the end of the reign of that monarch he even ascended to the position of ‘prime minister’ or Samuhanaiyok, with the rank of Chaophraya. About 1630, his eldest son (known under the Thai name Chiin) succeeded him in that position under the official title Chaophraya Aphairacha, until 1670, He was in turn succeeded by his eldest son Sombun, the later Chaophraya Chamnanphakdi. Elsewhere, Wyatt supplied also a genealogical table of ‘Shaykh Ahmad’s’ descendants. The 16th- and 17th-century trade network of Iranian merchants was virtually controlling the eastern Indian Ocean maritime trade and was operating from southern India. Subrahmanyam’'s earlier referred to study contains rich material on the biographies of eminent Iranian merchants of southern India, the most successful of them being Mir Muhammad Sayyid Ardistani (1591-1663), who grew up at the Safavid capital Isfahan and came during the 1620s to the Golconda kingdom. Contemporary Western observers, as well as Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, stated that up to the middle of the 17th century the presence of Iranians in Siam, in particular at. Ayutthaya, seems to have been rather limited in number. Significantly, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim did not even once refer to “Shaykh Ahmad’ % Wyatt, Thailand. A Short History, p. 108; idem, ‘Family Politics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Siam’, in: idem, Studies in Thai History. Collected Articles (Chiang Mai 1999, 2nd reprint), p, 96. Idem, ‘Family Politics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Siam’, in: idem, Studies in That History. Collected Articles (Chiang Mai 1999, 2nd reprint), p. 96 (stemma).IRANIANS AT’ THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS! 65 by his name or as the alleged ‘founder of the Iranian community” in Siam. Moreover, during the 1680s, the fortunes of Siam’s Tranian community were checked by the rise to royal favour yet of another foreigner—the Greek Konstantinos Gerakis, or Constantine Phaulkon, the ‘evil Frank’ whom we have already encountered in the travel account of Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim. This occurred about the time of Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’s visit to Siam. As we shall see later on, the descendants of ‘Shaykh Ahmad’s’ family, a branch of which became known as the ‘Bunnag family’, continued to play a momentous part in Thai history during the 18th and 19th centuries. From Professor Wyatt’s erudite scholarship we learn that ‘Shaykh Ahmad’, who is said to have arrived at Ayutthaya in 1602, features as the ancestor of the “Bunnags’ in 19th- and 20th- century Thai works on the genealogy of Siam’s nobility. At times, he is referred to as ‘Shaykh Ahmad Qomi’, i.e. supposedly ‘of Qumm’ in central Iran, However, his actual place of origin has to be considered far from being established, since we also come across the expression ‘from Arab Jands'®), Thus, an origin ‘from Qumm’, such as stated on a recently erected commemoration tablet at his tomb in Ayutthaya, cannot be verified. The same has to be stated concerning the nisbah ‘Qummi’, ‘of Qumm’. Subrahmanyam has given the most comprehensive summary of the complex development that led to the increase of significance of Siam’s Iranian community in the course of the 17th century. According to this scholar, King Narai himself is said to have been under Iranian cultural influences in terms of his daily food and dress and his preferred architectural styles. He states: [...] Narai’s rise to power had itself been the result of the aid of locally resident Iranians; thus, wereas the court had up to the 1630s been a Leonard Y. Andaya, ‘Ayutthaya and the Persian and Indian Muslim Connection’, p. 125. Subrahmanyam, ‘Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formation’, p. 349. e66 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA dominated by a Japanese element, and then by Chinese, the latter half of the seventeenth century saw the Iranis come to power. The major figure in the transition seems to have been a certain Abdurrazzaq Gilani, probably already the phra klang at Ayuthia in the early years of Narai’s reign, at a time when there was no more than a colony of a hundred Iranians there. However, in time Abdurrazzaq is reported to have fallen from royal favor, and was replaced by Aqa Muhammad Astarabadi, who had arrived in ‘Thailand from the Persian Gulf around 1650, and who apparently already enjoyed the confidence of Narai before the latter’ s accession to the throne. ‘Under Aqa Muhammad's tutelage, the external commerce of the Thai kingdom was transformed: stronger relations were built up with Surat, Masulipatnam, and the Persian Gulf using the royal ships of Narai, under the command of Iranian nakdudas, while goods from the Far Bast were subject to a royal monopoly once in Thailand, The ‘Iranian revolution’ in Thailand did not stop here. Aga Muhammad. reformed the royal bodyguard, importing over two hundred men from India (for the most part, natives of Astarabad and Mazandaran), to whom he offered twice the renumeration they normally received in India, b two attendants, and an allowance for board, lodging, and the maintainace of their horses, The government of Ujang Selang on the Bay of Bengal liworal, was handed over in 1676 to two of Aga Muhammad’s associates, Muhammad Beg and Isma‘il Beg, as part of a larger plan to control production and export of tin. Apparently, the services and the cooperative attitude of the Iranian community towards their host country Siam were appreciated by Ayutthaya’s rulers. According to Reid, Iranian Shiites were among Narai’s closest advisers, especially as commercial counterweights to the more dangerous European companies™. The usu ally reliable Engelbert Kaempfer, who visited Ayutthaya in 1690, refers to the Persian language as a lingua franca among Muslims in Siam’. a s Ibid. On the in the quotation referred to ‘Abd al-Razziig Gilani see The Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane, 97, and on Agi Muhammad Astaribidi see ibid., pp. 55, 59, 98, 100-1, 102, and furthermore Aubin, ‘Les Persans au Siam sous le regne de Narai (1656-1688)’, passim. Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. Volume Two: Expansion and Crisis, p. 190, see also Dhiravat, pp. 176-83. Kacmpfer, Am Hofe des persischen Grofkénigs (1684-85). p. 135)IRANIANS AT THE ‘CITY OF BOATS AND CANALS" or Perhaps this refers to matters pertaining to the trade with the Muslim states in India, since the Malay language seems to have been applied in dealing with the Malay-Indonesian world. However, until the middle of the 17th century the presence of Iranians in Siam, in particular at Ayutthaya, appears to have been rather limited in number, which was also noted by Western 17th-century observers, and Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim even states: From the time merchants first arrived until just before the present king came to power [i.e. King Narai, in 1656], about thirty Iranians had settled in Siam due to the great profits to be made in trade, Each of these Iranians was honored with the utmost respect, presented with a house and given a specific position in the Siamese king's administration.” In this context, it is worth of notice that Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim did not even once throughout his account refer to ‘Shaykh Ahmad‘ by his name or as the alleged ‘founder of the Iranian community’ in Siam. In the end, the fortunes of Siam’s Iranian community were checked by the rise of Phaulkon to royal favour. At any rate, in the view of the present writer, the services of the Tranian community to their host country Siam should mainly be understood in the originally rather ‘quietist’ rather than ‘revolu- tionary’ attitude of Shi ‘ite Islam, which would make a non-Shi‘ite— and even anon-Muslim—ruler preferable to a Sunnite ruler, in case the latter behaves oppressive toward his Shiite subjects.* As we have seen earlier, the steady increase of the Shi'ite community in Siam, in the capital Ayutthaya in particular, might furthermore have See for instance Frangois Caron and Joost Schouten, A True Deseription of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam. A Facsimile of the 1671 London Edition in a Contemporay Translation from the Duich by Roger Maniey (Bangkok 1986), p. 134. Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O’Kane, p. 94. As elaborated in M, Ismail Marcinkowski, “IWwelver Shi‘ite Scholarship and Buyid Domination, A Glance on the Life and Times of Ibn Babawayh al-Shaykh al-Saduq (4. 381/991)’, Islamic Culture 76, no. 1 (Jan. 2002), pp. 69-99. a68 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA been the result of an influx of Shi‘ites, especially Iranians, from the strongly ‘persianized’ Shi‘ite states of the southern Indian Deccan. This circumstance has also been considered above as a direct result of the constant threats from the staunchly Sunnite Mughal empire, which in the course of the 1680s was actually to annex them into its territory.” It cannot be established with certainty how many ‘Iranian’ Muslims lived actually in Ayutthaya towards the second half of the 17th century, until the destruction of the city and kingdom by the Burmese invaders in 1767. Perhaps, from reports by western trayelers, such as that by the already quoted Frenchman Guy Tachard (who perhaps is thus not under suspicion to have been all too sympa- thetic towards things Shi‘ite) and from Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim’ s statements in his The Ship of Sulayman, it can be inferred that the majority of the Muslims living in the then capital ascribed to Twelver Shi‘ism, although there might also have been present a substantial number of Sunnites, especially from the Malay-Indonesian archipe- Jago. It appears that the relations between Ayutthaya’s Shi'ite Muslim community and their Buddhist environment was marked by mutual respect and tolerance, a circumstance which is further substantiated by the aforementioned fact that since the first half of the 17th century various dignitaries from among the resident Persian community served in the highest administrative positions of the kingdom. One of the results of the close cooperation between the Iranians and their Siamese hosts is the introduction of this office of Shaykh al-Islam to Siam, in order to cater for the religious need of Siam’s Muslim subjects. This office continues to exist to this day in Thailand under the name of chularajmontri, It is perhaps the most long-lasting expression of Iranian-Siamese cultural contacts and shall be therefore dealt with in the following chapter. ® The precarious situation of the Golconda kingdom during that time was also noticed by Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim in the ‘appendix’ to travel account: see Ship of Sulayman, transl. John O'Kane, pp. 234-40.Chapter 4 Shaykh al-Islams and Chularajmontris: Genesis and Development of an Institution and its Introduction to Siam* The originally Arabic expression Shaykh al-Islam involves actually two terms: The former, shaykh, signifying an ‘elder’, a ‘senior’ ora kind of ‘patriarch’ in the tribal setting of Bedouin Arabs even prior to the coming of Islam. Originally, there was thus no particularly religious import in it. The second component, /s/am, refers here simply to the religion of that name, As a construction, Shaykh al- Tslam, refers to a religious official in the Muslim world, which shall concern us in the following, As Ihave stated elsewhere, the term Shaykh al-Islam was initially an honourific address in the historical region of Khurasan, which encompassed large areas of today’s eastern Iran as well as parts of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. This Arabic term emerged in an ‘This chapter is based on two conference papers of mine: (1) presented at the 8th International Thai Studies Conference (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, 8-12 January 2002, organized by Ramkhamhaeng University), entitied ‘Iranians, Shaykh al-Islams and Chularajmontris: Genesis and Development of an Institution and its Introduction to Siam’, published in Journal of Asian History 31, no. 2 (2003), pp. 59-76, and (2) presented at the International Conference Commemorating the 300th Anniversary of the Demise of ‘Allamah-yi Majlisi (Isfahan, Iran, 19-20 January 2000, jointly organized by the Iranian Ministry of Culture, the Isfahan Governor General's Office, UNESCO, the Research Centres of Qumm and the Isfahan Seminaries), entitled ‘A Brief Demarcation of the Office of Shaykh al- Islam Based on the Two Late Safavid Administrative Manuals Dastur al- Muluk and Tadhkirat ai-AMuluk’, published in islamic Culture 74, no, 4 (2000), pp. 19-5170. PROM ISPAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA area under Tranian cultural influence rather than in an Arabic cultural setting. The title was conferred upon learned Muslim scholars since the 10th century c.k, not necessarily exclusively all of them theologians or jurists but among them also eminent sufis, i.c. Muslim mystics.? It appears, that this title was indeed more widespread in the eastern parts of the Muslim lands from where it made its way to the rest of Iran and Anatolia,’ which in turn was to become the nucleus of the Ottoman Empire. With respect to the early period of the emerging Ottoman power, the Turkish scholar Bilal Kugpimar has emphasized the complex development and initially interchange- able application of the terms Shaykh al-Islam, Chief Mufti or ‘jurisconsult’ and QZ, i.e ‘judge’ “He pointed out, that the dignity of Shaykh al-Islam was institutionalized as an office (in Turkish referred to as seyhiilislamitk) under the Ottoman Sultan Murad IL (. 1421-44 and 1446-51).5 Subsequently, this office was elevated to the top of the Ottoman religious administration under Sultan Sulayman I (r. 1520-66), known in the West as ‘the Magificen’” and in Turkey as ‘Qanini’, ‘the Lawgiver’.* In result, the Shaykh al-Isiain of the imperial capital Istanbul became the head of the In my ‘A Brief Demareation of the Office of Shaykh al-Islam Based on the Two Late Safavid Administrative Manuals Dastur al-Muluk and Tadhkirat al-Muluk’ JH, Kramers, [R.W. Bulliet), ‘Shaykh al-Islam: 1. Early history of the ‘crm’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, Vol. 9 (1997), pp. 399-400; Ahmad Kazemi-Moussavi, Religious Authority in Shiite Islam, From the Office of Mufti to the Instiusion of Marja‘ (Kuala Lumpur 1996), pp. 81-88: Bilal Kugpinar, “The Community of the Learned and Seyhiilislam in the Early Ouloman State (130-1566)', Al-Shajarah 2, no. 2 (1997), p. 142. * Kramers, [R.W. Bulliet}, ‘Shaykh al-Islam: 1. Early history of the term’, p. 400 Refer to Kuspinar, “The Community of the Learned and Early Ottoman State (1300-1566)’, pp. 162, 164 and 165 + Bid. p, 169. “Ibid. p. 186. Compare also Mehmet Ipsitli, "Klasik Dénem; Osmanh deviet toskilati, in: Ekmeleddin thsanoglu (ed.), Osmank devleti ve medeniyeit tarihi, 2 vols. (Istanbul 1994), Vol. 1, pp. 269-71,SHAYKH AL-ISLAMS AND CHULARAJMONTRIS n entirety of the religious scholars, i.e, the ‘wlama’, throughout the Ottoman Empire.’ The towering role played by the Shaykh al-Islam in the Ottoman world is shown by his authority to appoint the two ‘army judges’ or Qazi-‘Askars, who in turn had also momentous administrative functions.* The significance of the seyhiilislamlik reached perhaps its apogee with the famous jurist Abi Su‘td (1490- 1574),? an intimate of Sultan Sulayman J. The Ottoman Shaykh al-Isldms were directly appointed by the Sultan"! Stanford J. Shaw refers to them as the ‘Grand Muftis of the Empire’ whose main responsibility was the coordination and supervision of the activities of the Qazi-‘Askars and the entirety of the Qagis."? Atany rate, with regard to the later introduction of the office of Shaykh al-Islam to Siam which shall concern us further below, it is important to know that its development took a different course in Iran under the Safavid dynasty which ruled that country from 1501 to 1722." Contrary to the Ottoman Empire, where extensive administrative literature is extant, there exist only two extant 7 Halil Inaleik, The Ottoman Empire. The Classical Age 1300-1600, trans Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber (La Rochelle NY 1973), pp. 171-72. Kuspinar, “The Community of the Learned and Seyhiilistarn in the Barly Ottoman State (1300-1566)’, P. 187, See also M. Ismail Marcinkowski, ‘Some Observations on the Offices of Judge (Qazi) and Army-Judge (Qazi. ‘Askar) in Later Safavid Tran and in the Ottoman Empire’, in: Judi Upton- Ward (cd.), New Millennium Perspectives in the Humanities (New York NY 2002), pp. 231-44. R.C. Repp, ‘Shaykh al-Islam: 2. In the Otloman Empire’, Encyclopedia of Islam (new edition), Vol. 9 (1997), pp. 400-2, p. 401. Kuspinar, “The Community of the Learned and Seyhillislam in the Early Ottoman State (1300-1566)’, pp. 183-4. Inalcik, The Otioman Empire, The Classical Age 1300-1609, pp. 171-72. Stanford J. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 2 vols, Vol. I: “Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808" (Cambridge, London, New York and Melbourne 1978), p. 138, Sce my ‘A Brief Demarcation of the Office of Shaykh al-Islam Based on the Two Late Safavid Administrative Manuals Dasiur al-Muluk and Tadhkirat al-Muluk’.2 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA administrative handbooks in Persian from the war-torn end of the Safavid period which had been studied by two deceased scholars: the Tadhkirat al-Mulitk or ‘Memorial for Kings’ which had been translated into English and commented upon about sixty years ago by Professor Minorsky,"* and the Dastir al-Muliik, ‘Regulations for Kings’, which was edited by Professor Danishpazhth.'’ An English translation, facsimile and commentary of the Dasttir al- Muliik by myself has been published recently." Both Tadhkirat al-Mulitk and Dastir al-Mulik describe in a succinct and nonchalant style the practical obligations of the offices of the religious, military and civil administration towards the end of Iran’s Safavid period. They address not only the responsibilities of the high officials (whether those serving at the imperial capital or in the provinces) but refer also to the lower staff, down to those who had been employed at the imperial palace-kitchens. Therefore Dastir al-Muluk and Tadhkirat al-Mulik constitute also eminent sources for the social and religious life under Safavid rule, as well as for the provincial administrative system. Let us now turn to the office of Shaykh al-fslam as described in the Dastir al-Mulik which, as I have argued elsewhere,"’ appears to be the older one of the two manuals: the office of Shaykh al- “Vladimir Minorsky (tans.), Tadhkirat al-Muluk. A Manual of Safavid Administration (circa 1137/1725), Persian Text in Facsimile (B.M. Or. 9496) (London 1943). Muhammad Rafi'-i Ansari, ‘Dastur al-Muluk’, ed. Muhammad Tagi Danishpazhth, Majallah-yi Danishkadah-yi Adabiyyat va ‘Ukina-i Insiini- yi Danishgah-i Tihran 63-4, no. S~6 (Jul. 1968), pp. 475-504 (intro.); 65-66, no. 1-2 (Nov. 1968), pp. 62-93: 67, no. 3 (Feb. 1969), pp. 298- 322; 68, no. 4 (Apr. 1969), pp. 416~40; 6970, no. 5-6 (Aug. 1969), pp. 540-64, See my Mirza Raft‘a’s Dasiiir al-Mulitk. An earlier, unpublished version of this work was awarded the First Prize of the Iranian President's Award for the Best Study on Iranian Culture (International Category) for the Year 1379 (2000).SHAYKH AL-ISLAMS AND CHULARAJMONTRIS B Islam of the then Iranian capital of Isfahan appears in this manual in the list of the religious offices only in eighth position out of ten The Dastir «l-Muluk refers to the office in the following way: The procedure was such that on days other than Friday he [i.e. the Shaykh al-Islam] sel about the cases of the believers from his own house and enforced good and forbade evil, Legal divorces were done in his presence, ‘The management of the property of orphans and of the absentees was sometimes with the Shay(h al-isldm and sometimes deliberately referred back to the judges, The certificates and religious deeds of the people, too, were referred to him in order to get sealed, Every year 200 Tabrizi niman from the Imperial Treasury had been assigned to him as salary.'* The Tadhkirat al-Mulik, in turn, mentions only five major religious officials, the Shaykh al-Islém of the capital appearing in fourth position. '® In Minorsky’s translation of the Tadakirat al-Mulitk the duties connected with this office appear as follows: The said (oficial), at his own house tried the Shariat actions, ordering what was in conformity with the lav (ma‘rif) and forbidding what was prohibited, In his presence divorces were proclaimed according to the Shaui‘at; conservation of the property of the absent and orphans mostly fell to the Shaykh al-Islim, but later (ba‘d az dit) was entrusted to the gadlis.® As we have scen, the duties of the Shaykh al-Islam in both manuals are rather ill-defined. In both texts they have been described in a Inmy ‘Mirza Ra Society and Culture in Late Morgenkindischen Gesellschaft 153, no, 2 (2003), pp. 281-310. paragraph #8. Above En; facilitate cr translation from Persian s Dastur al-Muluk A Prime Source on Administration, afavid Iran’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen See my Mirea Rafi'a's Dastiir al-Mulak, part 3 (Persian MS), 78a, i s mine. In order to eferting | am henceforth providing not the page numbers of my Mired Raft'@'s Dastiir al-Mubiik but rather the folio numbers of the manuscrit of which a facsimile is also to be found in my book. Moreover, Thave given the numbers of the respective paragraphs in the quick-reference of my book. — Minorsky (trans.), Zaclhkirat al-Muluk, p. 37.” FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA manner similar to those of the Q42f or ‘judge’ of Isfahan, an official on which the Dastiir al-Mulitk provides the following information: The regulation was such, that he sat on days other than Friday in his own house, where he occupied himself with the trial of the shar?'atrelated es brought to him by the people. He sealed also documents and contracts. The legal rulings that had been decreed by him were executed by the authorities of the customary law. The management of the property of orphans and absentees was sometimes with the OaéT and sometimes with the Shaykh al-Islam. The sum of 200 Tabrizi ddman from the Crown Treasury had been assigned for the Qagi as salary, which was renewed from year to year? Professor Savory refers to the Shaykh al-Islam therefore rightly as ‘a leading authority on the religious law with juridical functions overlapping those of the gaé’.” It is interesting what Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716), the German traveler in Swedish and subsequently Dutch services who had visited Iran in the 1680s, had to say with regard to the demarcation of the authority of the Qazis vis-a-vis that of the Shaykh al-Islams, It should be emphasized here again that during his adventurous life Kaempfer visited also the then Dutch East Indies, Japan, and Siam. With respect to the activities of Shaykh al-Islam and Qazi in Safavid Iran he stated: bid. p. 43. 7 Marcinkowski, Mired Raff‘a’s Dastiir al-Muti part 3 (Persian MS), 7b— 8a, #8. Above English translation from Persian is mine, Confer Minorsky (irans.), Tadhkivat al-Muluk, p. 43, Bulliet deals with the Shaykh al-Islam in the Safavid comtext only cursory: see R.W. Bulliet, “The Shaykh al- Islam and the Evolution of Islamic Society’, Studia Islamica 35 (1972), pp. 56. Note that the terms Shaykh al-islém and Qaéi have been used synonymously by Father Raphaé! Du Mans: see Du Mans, Estat de la Perse en 1660, cd, Charles Schefer, p. 37. Compare Jean de Thévenot, The Travels of Monsieur de Thévenot into the Levant, 3 pacts (London 1687), p. 102. * Iskandar Beg Munshi, History of Shah ‘Abbas the Great (Tarih-e ‘Alamareye ‘Abbasi), trans, Roget M. Savory, 2 vols. (Boulder CO 1978), Vol. 2, p. 1391 (glossary). See also Jean Chardin, Voyages de Chevalier Chardin en Perse, et autres lieux de VOrient, 10 vols. and atlas (ParisSHAYKH AL-ISLAMS AND CHULARAJMONTRIS 8 Although the Qagf or religious judge ranks in the order of precedence behind the Shaykh al-Isiém [“Rechtsiiltester”] he has the same competences as he. The judgments of both of them, against which there is ho appeal, are in the same manner legally valid. The affairs that are dealt with in there presence refer predominantly to contracts, purchases, sales, ‘marriages and divorces, at which they are functioning as judge and notary public or registrar at the same time, and the same applies by the way to the Sadrs [‘Reichshohepriester"]. After the judge [i.e, the Qazi] has heard both parties, examined the witnesses and investigated the particular circumstances, he passes a judgment in the shortest possible time, thus preventing any chatterbox from interfering with it or a lawyer from stopping the course of justice.” 3 Kaempfer also noted that cases involving murder, manslaughter and bodily harm and alike, as well as theft and robbery were referred to the jurisdiction of two other, quasi ‘secular’ officials, which shall not concern us here further, namely the Divanbegt whom he calls ‘Reichsprofo' and the Daraghah or ‘Stadthauptmann’.* In the present context, it can only be noted in passing that the respon: sibilities of the Shaykh al-Islam clashed in certain fields also with another high official of the Safavid religious hierarchy, the Sadr.25 Heribert Busse has emphasized the initially honourific character of the tile Shaykh al-Islam,® a circumstance I already addressed above. It is an imperial decree (firman) issued by the second Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp I (r, 1524-76) issued in 1533 which might be 1811), Vol. 6, pp. 51-53, Kaempfer, Am Hofe des persischen Grofkonigs (1684-1685), p. 100 (above English translation from German mine), Confer Sir Thomas Herbert, Travels in Persia 1627-1629, abr. and ed. Sir William Foster (London 1928), pp. 229-30, and John Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia Being the Nine Years's Travels 1672-1681, 3 vols, (London 1909-12), Vol. 3, pp. 80-81, Kaempfer, Am Hofe des persischen Gropkonigs (1684-85), p. 100. * Marcinkowski, Mirza Raft'a's Dastir al-Mulik, part 3 (Persian MS), 3b~ 5a #2 (English translation from Persian mine). Confer Minorsky ({rans.), Tadhkirat al-Muluk, pp. 42-43. Heribert Busse, Untersuchungen zum islamischen Kanzleiwesen an Hand ‘urkmenischer und safawidischer Urkunden (Cairo 1959), p, 130,16 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA considered a cornerstone for the firm establishment of the Shaykh al-Islam in Safavid Iran.” Since then, the initially rather honourific title Shaykh al-Islam underwent a significant revaluation. This institutionalization of the office with branches in all the major cities of the empire was apparently completed under Shah ‘Abbis I the Great (r. 1588-1629).”* In the further course of the 17th century it was the practice that the Shaykh al-Islam of the imperial capital Isfahan administrated the coronation of the new Shah.” At any rate, as the responsibilities of the holders of the office were in practice not clearly demarcated from other religious offices, the degree to which the Shaykh al-Islam was able to exercise his authority was apparently depending on the strength of his personality. In order to understand the circumstances that led to the introduction and adaptation of the office of Shaykh al-Islam to the environment of Siam—a Buddhist kingdom—we ought to remember the fact that Iranians were already present in the Indian Ocean region as merchants since pre-Islamic times.*° With regard to the 16th and 17th centuries with which we are primarily concerned English translation in Said Amir Arjomand (trans., ed.), ‘Two Decrees of Shah Tahmasp Concerning Statecraft and the Authority of Shaykh ‘Ali al- Karak’, in: idem (ed.), Authority and Political Cutwire in Shi‘ism (Albany NY 1988), pp. 252-6. Confer Andrew Newman, “The First Shaykh al- “Aslam at the Safavid Capital Qazvin’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 116, no. 3 (1996), pp. 387-405. Kazemi-Moussavi, Religious Authority in Shi'ite Islam, p. 88. Fora detailed description of the coronation ceremonies refer to Kacmpfer, Am Hofe des persischen Grofikdnigs (1684-85), p. 42. See also Ferrier, A Journey to Persia. Jean Chardin’s Portrait of a Seventeenth-Century Empire, p.2. © Inaddition to the references given in the first chapter, see David Whitchouse and Andrew Williamson, ‘Sasanian Maritime Trade’, ran 11 (1973), pp. 29-43. Of particular interest in the present context is also Julian Reade (ed.), The Indian Ocean in Antiquity (London and New York NY 1996), a proceedings-volume of a conference conducted at the British Museum between 4-8 July 1988 which contains several articles related to the activities of pre-Islamic Iran in the region. 8SHAYKH AL-ISLAMS AND CHULARAJMONTRIS here, we have seen in the previous chapters that the role played by the Muslim Deccan kingdoms in southern India as promoters of Iranian culture had been momentous: They adhered to Twelver Shi ‘ite Islam, the denomination prevalent also in Iran at that time,*! and they entertained close contacts with the Safavids, whose supremacy they accepted in order to survive vis-di-vis the powerful empire of the Sunnite Mughals in the north? Iranian merchants residing in southern India and operating mainly from Masulipatam, the main port of the Golconda kingdom, became active in trade throughout the eastern Indian Ocean rim and subsequently were also present in Siamese Tenasserim and Mergui, the two important Indian Ocean harbours which had been acquired by Siam in the course of the 15th century.* From then onwards we find them also at Ayutthaya. Siam’s economic ‘open-door policy’ resulted in the emergence at her capital city of colonies of foreign merchants, among them a substantial number of Iranians who were to become the largest Muslim community residing in Ayutthaya. As we have seen aboye, it was the religious tolerance of the Siamese rulers and the Thai people which had enabled the [ranians even to celebrate publicly certain festivals and ceremonies which are particular to Shi‘ite Muslims. Thousands of Ayutthaya’s Muslim and even non- Muslim inhabitants are said to have participated in these celebrations and processions, under the sponsorship of the Siamese kings. See Khalidi, “The Shi’is of the Decean: A Historical Outline’, pp. 16375 (with an excellent bibliography), John Norman Hollister, The Shi'a of India (New Dethi: Oriental Reprint, 1979), pp. 101-25, and Sayyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, A Socio-Mnrellectual History of the Isnd’Asheut Shi'is in India, 2 vols. (Canberra 1986), Vol. 1, pp. 247-341. Riazul Islam, Indo-Persian Relations, A Study of the Political and Diplomatic Retations Beween The Mughai impire and fran (Tehran 1970), pp. 924f., 116ff. and passim; Sherwani, History of the Quib Shahi Dynasty, pp. 46, 337ff., 4321, * Alam, ‘Masulipatam; A Metropolitan Port in the Seventeenth Century’, pp. 169-87. Sunait Chutintaranond, ‘Mergui and Tenasserim as Leading Port Cities in the Context of Autonomous History’, pp. 104-18. “18 PROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA Besides the presence of a large number of Iranian Shi‘ites in the Ayutthaya kingdom, Siam’s economic ‘open-door policy’ and the resulting significant extension of its diplomatic and economic contacts necessitated measures of administrative restructuring and (he creation of new offices,® such as that of Phra Khlang, on which we have elaborated in the course of the previous chapter. Since trade in the region concerned by this office was mainly carried out by Muslims and since Persian was its lingua franca,® the Siamese Kings resorted to putting a Persian-speaking Muslim in charge of this office. In the year 1610, presumably towards the beginning of the rule of the Siamese King Song Tham (r, 1610/1 1-1628), a contemporary of the Safavid Shah ‘Abbis I the Great, the Phra Khlang ministry is said (o have been reformed with the help of two Iranian immigrant brothers,:? one of them being the mysterious ‘Shaykh Ahmad of Qumm’. I have already elsewhere referred to the lack of sufficient sources with regard to the identity of this personality.** Interestingly, neither the so-called Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya, nor the Persian account Safinah-yi Sulayméini mentions a person by that name. The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya refer merely to a certain merchant called ‘Mahamat’ [i.e. Muhammad] from the Indian port of ‘Matchalipatam’ [i.e. the above referred to Masulipatam or Matchlibandar] as having presented precious gifts to King Narai (r. 1656-88).” At any rate, ‘traditionally’! ‘Shaykh Ahmad’, who is % Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trace and the Ministry Responsible’, p. 5. & Kaempfer, Ain Hofe des persischen GroBkenigs (1684-85), p. 138 7 Chao Phraya Thiphakorawong Maha Kosa Thibodi, Chotmaihet [...), p.3, cf. Breazeale, “Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible’, p.9. “For instance in my ‘Persian Religious and Cultural Influences in ‘Siam/ Thailand and Maritime Southeast Asia: A Plea for a Concerted Inter. disciplinary Approach’, Journal of the Siam Society 88, pt. 1-2 (2000), pp. 186-94, See Cushman (transl). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. A Synoptic: Translation, ed. David K, Wyatt *— Bbid., p. 249,SHAYKH AL-ISLAMS AND CHULARAJMONTRIS 9 said to have been in charge of the Krom Tha Khwa, features as Siam’s first Shaykh al-Islam under the Thai title Chularajmontri. Whatever the case may be, the introduction of a paramount office which was to oversee the affairs of all the numerous Muslims throughout the kingdom, many of them immigrants, from the part of its kings appears to be in line with the already mentioned admi- nistrative restructuring. Significantly, the office of Chularajmontri, a kind of ‘minister for Muslim affairs’, was not in existence prior to the arrival of ‘Ahmad’, the reputed first holder of that office. King Song Tham is said to have appointed him to that position.” The office of ChularajmontrifShaykh al-Islam continues to exist up to the present day in Thailand, and since the days of ‘Shaykh Abmad’ there had been fourteen Chularajmontris.® In the following Ishould like to refer to some aspects pertaining to the responsibilities of the Chularajmontris/Shaykh al-Islams in modern Thailand. According to research carried out by Dr. Imtiyaz Yusuf of Bangkok’s Assumption University, during the Ayutthaya kingdom the religious jurisdiction of the Chularajmontri did not cover Siam’s vassal states on the Malay Peninsula.“ Therefore, the full integration of the four predominantly Malay sultanates of Patani, Narathiwat, Yala and Satun into Siam in 1902, under the Chakri dynasty which continues to rule in Bangkok to this day, meant a significant increase of the AUIcast, this is the tenor of most of the articles contained in a proceedings volume of the 1994 Ayutthaya conference to which we will return in the epilogue: sce Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of [ran [Bangkok] (ed.), Sheikh Ahmad Qomi and the History of Siam (Bangkok 1995/2538 Buddhist Era), Imtiyaz Yusuf, ‘Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajmoniri/Shaykh al-Islam’ , Journal of Islamic Studies 9, no, 2 (1998), p. 284. For a list of names see W.K. Che Man, W. K., The Administration of Islamic Institutions in Non-Muslim States: The Case of Singapore and Thailand (Singapore 1991), p. 4 Yusuf, ‘Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajmontri/Shaykh al-Islam’ , p. 284. 280 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA religious authority of the Chularajmontris. Islam became thus the largest religious minority in Siam, and this is still the case with modern Thailand. Interestingly, the extension of the responsibilities of the Chularajmontris, Twelver Shi'ites after all, over the four Malay, staunchly Sunnite sultanates created an unparalleled situation. Regardless of these developments, Siam’s vassals further south, i.e Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah, retained their own autonomous religious administration, a fact which was cemented with the extension of British rule over these three principalities in March 1909." The full incorporation of the four mainly Malay states of Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and Satun into Siam added further to the ethnic diversification of the Thai Muslim community as a whole. A milestone towards a fuller integration of the Muslim community into society was the ‘Patronage of Islam Act’ which resulted, among others, in the creation of the Islamic Centre of Thailand in Bangkok of which the Chularajmontri was to become the head. Imtiyaz ‘Yusuf epitomizes the present-day responsibilities of the office of Chularajmontri in the following way: [...] to represent Thai Muslims at the national level; to issue fatdwa (religious rulings); to regulate the administration of registered mosques; to distribute subsidies and grants to the mosques; to maintain a register of names of all the registered mosques; to publish Islamic religious literature; to declare the celebration of Islamic festivals such as ‘Id al-Fitr [which “On the British-Siamese treaty of 1909 see Wyatt, Thailand. A Short History, p. 206, Thongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped. The History of the Geo- Body of a Nation (Honolulu 1994), pp. 128-29, R.V. Prescott, Map of Mainland Asia by Treaty (Carlton, 1975), pp. 382408, idem, Frontiers of Asia and Southeast Asia (Carlton 1977), pp. 54-59. “© Yusuf, ‘Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of ChularajmontrifShaykh al-Islan’ , p. 284; Omar Farouk, “The Muslims of Thailand: A Survey’, in: Andrew D. W. Forbes (ed.), The Muslims of Thailand, 2 vols, (Gaya, Bihar/India 1988), Vol. 1, pp. 17ff. See also Regional Islamic Da‘wah Council of Southeast Asia and the Pacific (RISEAP) (ed.), Muslim Almanach Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur 1996), pp. 206-20.SHAYKH ALASLAMS AND CHULARAJMONTRIS: al marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan] and ‘Jd al-Adha [commemorating Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Ismael]; to organize the annual Mavlid celebrations [i.c. the birthday of the Prophet); to co-ordinate travel arrangements for the hajj [i.e. the annual pilgrimage to Mecca]; to appoint the amir al-hajj (i.e. the official pilgimage-leader] for Thai pilgrims; to grant religious certification of halal (i.c. ritually pure) for food items produced by Thai food industries; to provide notarial services.” As a result of a reform of the institution of Chularajmontri in 1997, its holder is to be confirmed in office by His Majesty the King, after having been elected by local Islamic organizations.“® Since the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, but in particular since the incorporation of the ‘four provinces’ into Thailand towards the beginning of the 20th century, Sunnites constitute the overwhelming majority among the kingdom's Muslims. In the light of this fact it is interesting to note that until 1945 Thai monarchs always appointed Twelver Shiites to the office of Chularajmontri, who were apparently all descendants of ‘Shaykh Ahmad’, whereas the four last holders of the office since then were all Sunnites.” Thus, until 1945 the office was quasi heritable. It is also revealing that in the Muslims’ everyday language the office of Chularajmontri seems still rather to be known as Shaykh al-Islam, whereas in the Malay, Sunnite states of con- temporary Malaysia the heads of the Islamic religious administration are known as Muftis. This is a further indicator of somewhat stronger Iranian influences on the Muslim community of Thailand, since the office of Shaykh al-Islam became under that particular name "Yusuf, ‘Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajnoniri/Shaykh al-Islam’, p. 285. See also Farouk, ‘The Muslims of Thailand: A Survey’, Vol. 1, pp. 17-24 Yusuf, ‘Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajmontri/Shaykh al-Islam’, pp. 296-1. See also Farouk, ‘The Mus- lims of Thailand: A Survey’, Vol. 1, pp. 22. For a graphical representation of the structuring of the office refer to the chart in ibid., pp. 24. “© Yusuf, ‘Islam and Democracy in Thailand: Reforming the Office of Chularajmontri/Shaykh al-Islam’, p. 285. 882 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA and with the above outlined range of responsibilities only significant in Safavid Iran. In my view, the office of Chularajmontri-Shaykh al-Islam stands thus clearly in the Iranian and Central Asian tradition of Islam, rather than in that of the Arab world. Prom the historical perspective then, the significance of the office of Chularajmontri-Shaykh al-Islim seems to lie primarily in the status enjoyed by its holders within the context of Thai admi- nistrative hierarchy, as has been demonstrated by Wyatt in several studies.” Apparently, descendants. of Ayutthaya’s Iranian commu- nity continue to play an important role in contemporary Thai society, and prominent members of the Bunnag family are interested in research on the significance of their family in Thai history.S! Addi- tionally, it should also be borne in mind that Iranian residents of Ayutthaya feature also in the arts of Thailand during the 19th century, in particular in murals.‘ “Wyatt, ‘Family Polities in Seventeenth- and Eightcenth-Century Siam’, idem, Family Politics in Nineteenth-Century Thailand’, in: idem, Studies in Thai History. Collected Articles (Chiang Mai 1999, 2nd reprint), pp. 106-130; See also Chao Phraya Thiphakorawong Maha Kosa Thibodi, Chownaihet|...,p. 3,cf. Breazeale, "Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible’, p. 9. exemplified in Pitya Bunnag, ‘The Influcnce of Persian Art in Ayutthaya’s Architecture’, in: Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of ran (ed.), Sheikh Ahmad Qomi and the History of Siam, pp. 225-32, and eadem, ‘Some Facts Regarding the Bunnag Family’, in: Cultaral Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran (ed.), Sheikh Aamad Qomi and the History of Siam, pp. 272-84, and by personal communication between me and Assoc, Prof. Dr, Pitya Bunnag, See also Farouk, “The Muslims of Thailand: A Survey’, Vol. L, pp. 7 and 27 n, 75 and 76, and Kukrit Pramoj, Khwampenma khong ltsalam nai prathet Thai {The Origin of Islam in Thciland] (Bangkok 2514 Buddhist Era) [in Thai}, p. L1. Sce on this exciting feature, for instance, Ringis, Thai Temples and Temple Murals, pp. 14,75, 105, and plate 18, and furthermore Aasen, Architecture of Siam. A Cultural History Interpretation, index (‘Persia*, Persians”), a 2Epilogue It cannot be established with certainty how many ‘Iranian’ Muslims actually lived in Ayutthaya towards the second half of the 17th century and until the destruction of the city and kingdom by the Burmese invaders in 1767. The fate of Ayutthaya’s Muslim community after the demise of King Narai in 1688 and in particular after 1767, too, is somewhat shrouded in mystery. At any rate, from the already referred to reports on the particular Shi‘ite ceremonies by several foreign visitors to Siam, such as Tachard and Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, it appears that the majority of the Muslims at Ayutthaya were indeed Shi ‘ites, although there might also have been present a substantial number of Sunnites from the Malay-Indonesian world, prior to the ‘Revolution of 1688’. Whatever may be the case, Siam’s contacts with Iran and the Shi ‘ite Indian states came to an end as the result of basically three circumstances: (1) the collapse of Iran’s Safavid dynasty in 1722 in the aftermath of the Afghan invasion, resulting in the looting of Isfahan. Within the context of Iranian history, this resulted in quite similar consequences as did (2) the destruction of Ayutthaya by the Burmese in 1767 with regard to Siam. Finally to be considered are (3) the activities of the Greek favorite Phaulkon towards the end of the reign of King Narai. Nevertheless, although the fate of Siam’s Tranian community immediately after the sack of “Ayutthaya remains a mystery, several studies by Professor Wyatt have shown that “Shaykh Ahmad’’s descendants featured as pillars of the state during the early ‘Bangkok period’ (i.e. under the Chakri dynasty which84 FROM ISFAHAN TO AYUTTHAYA rules in Thailand since 1782) as the ‘Bunnag family’ and continued to be influential during the 20th century as well,! At any rate, trade, cultural and religious relations with Iran or the rest of the Persian-speaking Shi‘ite world, were severed when the Iran’s then capital Isfahan was captured by semi-barbarous Afghans in 1722, leading to the extermination of Safavid power. Furthermore, as we have seen, the annexation of the Shi‘ite Golconda kingdom already in 1687 by the Mughal empire, might have resulted in a stop of the steady influx of Iranians (or at least Persian-speaking Muslims) to Siam, Nevertheless, Engelbert Kaempfer?, who visited Ayutthaya in 1690, referred to the Phra Klang of that time as an ‘Indian Muslim’ (an Iranian from India?). Along with countless others of their Buddhist compatriots, Muslims must have suffered in particular during the total destruction of Ayutthaya by the Burmese in that fatal year 1767. But apparently some of ‘Shaykh Ahmad’’s descendants must have survived this disaster, since political influence exercised by personalities originating from families of Iranian descent continued even in the subsequent ‘Bangkok period’: the main branch of ‘Shaykh Ahmad’’s family is said to have converted to Buddhism later in the course of that time when it featured in Thai court society as the ‘Bunnag family’. Another branch of ‘Shaykh Ahmad’’s family, however, remained Twelver Shi’ ite Muslims, since we have seen above that until 1945 the office of Chularajmontri or Shaykh al-Islam used to be bestowed upon a descendant of ‘Shaykh Ahmad’, “Shaykh Ahmad’ and the history of the presence of Iranians in Siam have so far been the subject of three conferences in Thailand: the first took place in 1994 at the Historical Study Centre Ayutthaya, It resulted in the publication of a proceedings volume of somewhat Wyatt, ‘Family Politics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Siam’, pp. 96-105, and idem, ‘Family Politics in Nineteenth-Century Thailand’, p. LIS (stemma of the Bunnag family). Both articles contain also rich references to Thai sources. 2 Kaempfer, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam 1690, p. 24.