Tok Takia's Legacy in Ayutthaya, Thailand: Tracing Qadriyyah Circulations through the Bay of Bengal

Abstract

This article fills some of the gaps in the secondary literature about the growing Muslim presence in the Siamese capital of Ayutthaya during the mid-sixteenth century. It does so by reconstructing the arrival of Tok Takia, a miracle-working Sufi missionary who arrived from somewhere in the Indian subcontinent. The study begins with a description of the Tok Takia Complex which consists of a mosque that once was a Buddhist temple and a maqam where Tok Takia was buried in 1579 before introducing references to the former in Thai primary sources. Before dealing with details about Qadriyyah presence across the Bay of Bengal, this research reconstructs the geopolitical and commercial developments from the late fifteenth century contributing to the growth of Muslim—and specifically, Kling Muslims—presence in Ayutthaya mentioned in a range of Siamese and Portuguese primary sources. This paper presents reasons for suggesting that Tok Takia’s missionary activism was connected to the Nagore-e-Sharif complex in present-day Tamil Nadu.

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

“…Having provided details about the sources on which my reconstruction is based, and my methodological approach, in the following section I describe the growth of the Muslim presence in the former Siamese capital, which began in the sixteenth century. I have argued elsewhere that the Muslim presence in Ayutthaya is connected to the growth of Portuguese presence on the western littoral of the Bay of Bengal (Joll and Srawut Aree 2022b). Edward Van Roy's discussion of Portuguese diplomatic, military, and commercial overtures in Siam before Alfonso d'Albuquerque's invasion of Melaka in 1511 mentions that an envoy was charged with informing Siam of Portuguese plans.…”