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The Muslim Buddhist Kings of Arakan
“Thereafter it is common for the kings, though Buddhist to use
Mahomedan designations in addition to their own names, and
even to issue medallions bearing the Kalima, the Mahomedan
confession of faith, in Persian script; doubtless at first, about
this time, the kings had these medallions struck for them in
Bengal, but later they struck their own.”1 G.E.Harvey.
Narameikhla (1404-34) was the first Muslim Buddhist king of Arakan and he was the first
Arakanese king of Myauk-U dynasty who kept Muslim name as vassal of Bengal in accordance
with the agreement reached between Sultan Jalaluddin Mohammed Nasiruddin Nazir Shah of
Bengal and Narameikhla. When he was ousted by Minkhaung (1401-22) of Ava, he ran away to
Bengal where he took shelter with her independent ruler Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah (1390-1410) of
Gaur where he served Azam Shah with distinction in the field. After many years in exile he was
given an army to regain his throne in 1428. Although his Muslim commander at first betrayed and
imprisoned him he was ultimately reinstated in 1430.2
When he was in Bengal he observed the Muslim greatness and he studied Islam and was
graduated in his Muslim studies and turned away from what was Buddhist and familiar to what was
Muslim and foreign and accepted Islam under the Muslim name of Samoom Sulaiman Shah.3
From his reign the Muslim Sultanate of Bengal became influential in Arakan and a good cultural
relation between Bengal and Arakan was established, and “ from this time Bengali was accepted
at the Arakan court as the chief cultural language, mainly because many of the high officials of
Arakan came from Chittagong and the other neighbouring territories whose mother-tongue was
Bengali.”4 He left Arakan as a wicked and evil man, but he returned from Bengal with a reformed
character.
He wanted to make Arakan a prosperous and powerful country. So in 1433 he moved the capital
to Myauk-U as it was a lucky site in defense of foreign aggression and Laungkyet was ill-fated by
turmoil of foreign incursions. 5 Narameikhla and his successors continued to use Muslim titles as
signs of vassal of Bengal Sultans.
