Page 12 - Hikayat-Patani-The-Story-Of-Patani 1

A SHORT HISTORY OF PATANI 3

Langkasuka last is heard of in the fourteenth and early fifteenth cen­
tury.7 By that time, the region of Patani already had felt the power of
the newly-established Thai monarchies of Sukhothai and Ayudhya. Lang­
kasuka never is mentioned by name in the Thai records, but as Patani
or Tani it figures consistently among a group of Buddhist states —
including Kedah and Pahang — centered on NakhQn Si Thammarat
(Ligor). The Nakhtjn Si Thammarat chronicles perpetuate a tradition
which suggests that this group of states was brought together in the first
half of the thirteenth century under Nakhtjn Si Thammarat’s leader­
ship, perhaps during the time of the great Candrabhanu, who invaded
Ceylon in 1247 and ca. 1260. These states remained as a group under the
leadership of Nakhtjn Si Thammarat in a suzerain-vassal relationship to
the Thai monarchy until the early sixteenth century, when Ayudhya
began to appoint the governors of Nakh^n Si Thammarat and it came
more securely under central Thai control.8

THE FOUNDATION AND ISLAMIZATION OF PATANI
The transition, or transfer, from Langkasuka to Patani nowhere is
made clear, and must be inferred from fragmentary evidence. Legends
variously attribute Patani’s foundation to people from Kedah or from
an unidentified Kota Mahligai, while others make of the city’s founders
totally legendary creatures.9 A matter-of-fact explanation of the state’s
origins is given by Syukri, who suggests that a small coastal fishing village
gradually rose at the expense of an earlier inland kingdom in the region
and developed into a bustling port, to which the ruler of the inland town
— Kota Mahligai — eventually removed his kraton, thus founding
Patani.10 The date of this event is no more certain than the details.
Tome Pires, who wrote of the region in 1512—15, spoke of Patani as
though it had been in existence for a long time, perhaps since the 1390s,
although it still was identified by Chinese mariners as Langkasuka at the
time of the voyages of Admiral Cheng-ho (1403—33).11 The date of its
foundation thus might best be sought between the middle of the four­
teenth and the middle of the fifteenth century, at a time of expanding
trade, increasing Thai interest in the Peninsula, and the spread of Islam.
Two conflicting traditions identify the origins of the first rulers of

I Wheatley, 1961, pp. 91—103, 258, 260.
8 Wyatt and Bastin, 1968; and forthcoming book by Wyatt.
0 See below, Chapter VI, section 1.
10 Syukri, pp. 24—27.
II Cortesao, 1944, pp. 2, 105, 110, 232, 244, 268; Wheatley, 1961, pp. 258, 260.