The former Malay kingdom of Patani is composed of what are now the Thai provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Insofar as people from other countries know anything about Patani, they know that it has a majority Muslim population in a country which is overwhelmingly Buddhist, while the wish to obtain independence from Thailand has led to the deaths of hundreds in an armed struggle that has intensified over the last couple of years.
Much of the Malayan peninsula is covered with quite difficult terrain, with mountains and forests preventing rapid travel and acting to keep historical states quite small, since it was not easy for rulers to establish large states over which their armies could not travel easily or at speed. As a result, most of the peninsula was occupied by a dozen or more small city states, each of which waxed and waned over the course of generations as leaders proved themselves better or less able to enforce their will over their rivals. Other factors such as geography and climate also had an impact in the rise and decline of states.
The region was important in the international context because it occupied a vital position in linking the trading networks of India, Persia and the Mediterranean to the west with those of China, Japan and Java to the east. Since the detour around the southern tip of the peninsula was lengthy and subject to dangerous storms and the perennial threat of pirates in the Malaccan Straits, many traders preferred to stop on one side of the peninsula and have their goods carried physically across the narrow strip of land for enshipment in another vessel on the other side.
It was in this context that the state of Patani emerged. Like many of the states in island Southeast Asia, its rulers and then its people embraced Islam and this led them into various societal and behavioural norms that differentiated them from non-Muslim people. Diet, dress and language were all affected, for example.
As the Tai people created states further north and, breaking the power of the Khmers, began to extend their influence further south, they came into contact with Patani. Not all Siamese rulers were acquisitive in terms of territory but many were and Patani was forced to defend itself from a number of attempts at invasion. The distance that Tai armies had to travel and the difficulty of the terrain meant that it was not possible to conquer the smaller states until military technology improved.
Much of the Malayan peninsula is covered with quite difficult terrain, with mountains and forests preventing rapid travel and acting to keep historical states quite small, since it was not easy for rulers to establish large states over which their armies could not travel easily or at speed. As a result, most of the peninsula was occupied by a dozen or more small city states, each of which waxed and waned over the course of generations as leaders proved themselves better or less able to enforce their will over their rivals. Other factors such as geography and climate also had an impact in the rise and decline of states.
The region was important in the international context because it occupied a vital position in linking the trading networks of India, Persia and the Mediterranean to the west with those of China, Japan and Java to the east. Since the detour around the southern tip of the peninsula was lengthy and subject to dangerous storms and the perennial threat of pirates in the Malaccan Straits, many traders preferred to stop on one side of the peninsula and have their goods carried physically across the narrow strip of land for enshipment in another vessel on the other side.
It was in this context that the state of Patani emerged. Like many of the states in island Southeast Asia, its rulers and then its people embraced Islam and this led them into various societal and behavioural norms that differentiated them from non-Muslim people. Diet, dress and language were all affected, for example.
As the Tai people created states further north and, breaking the power of the Khmers, began to extend their influence further south, they came into contact with Patani. Not all Siamese rulers were acquisitive in terms of territory but many were and Patani was forced to defend itself from a number of attempts at invasion. The distance that Tai armies had to travel and the difficulty of the terrain meant that it was not possible to conquer the smaller states until military technology improved.
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