KlingMuslims in Sixteenth-Century Ayutthaya: Towards Aggregating the Fragments

Abstract

This article reconstructs the history of Kling Muslims’ contribution to the religious and ethnic cosmopolitanism of sixteenth-century Ayutthaya. This study's argument is constructed based on an aggregate of written fragments about the Kling in both Portuguese primary sources and the wider academic literature. We reveal that, amongst the many ways in which Siam benefited from the Iberian invasion of Melaka in 1511, the dramatic geopolitical rupture of the invasion re-routed trade across the Bay of Bengal. As a result, Kling merchants began arriving in Ayutthaya in greater numbers via the new network of Siamese-controlled ports and portages. Moreover, this study demonstrates the utility of greater synergy among South Asian, Southeast Asian, Thai, and Malay Studies through focusing on the exonyms employed in primary and secondary sources. Finally, this article contends that Ayutthaya's ethnic and religious cosmopolitanism was impacted by the arrival of South Asian Muslims, referred to as Kling in the Malay World and Khaek in Siam, approximately one century before Persians arrived in greater numbers. This, among others, was an unintended result of Portugal's sixteenth-century interventions into, and alliances with, the Siamese.

Ayutthaya's Seventeenth-century Shi‘ite Muslim Enclave: A Reassessment

“…Some of my findings develop arguments made elsewhere about Ayutthaya's Tok Takia Complex south of the city. This is the earliest example of a Buddhist temple being converted into a mosque following its abbot's conversion to Islam following his interactions with a Indian Sufi Sheikh from present-day Tamil Nadu, who would come to be known as Tok Takia (Joll 2017, Joll andSrawut Aree 2022a). Wat Am Mae/ Yae, located in Ayutthaya's Great Khaek Village, is the only mosque within Ayutthaya's walled city mentioned in primary sources.…”

“…V 372). The only mosque mentioned in the secondary literature from the sixteenth century was Masjid Takia Yokin, located on the western bank of the Chao Phraya River south of the city (Joll and Srawut Aree 2022a).…”

“…In my analysis, the Tok Takia Mosque located on the western bank of the Chao Phraya River is referred to in Boran's APA as Wat Khaek Takia. Furthermore, it had once been a Buddhist temple (Joll 2017, Joll andSrawut Aree 2022a). In present-day Thailand, mosques are also referred to as wat, as these are sites of (Islamic) worship that resemble the function of Buddhist temples.…”