Patani Darussalam (Malay: Kesultanan Patani Darussalam, Jawi: كسلطانن ڤطاني دارالسلام, also sometimes Patani Raya or Patani Besar, Greater Patani; ) is a historical region and sultanate in the Malay Peninsula. It includes the southern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala (Jala), Narathiwat (Menara), and also parts of Malaysia modern state Kelantan and Besut district in state of Terengganu. Its capital was the town of Patani.
The Patani region has historical affinities with the Singgora (Songkhla), Ligor (Nakhon Si Thammarat), Lingga (near Surat Thani) and Kelantan sultanates dating back to the time when the Patani Kingdom was a semi-independent Malay sultanate paying tribute to the Siamese kingdoms of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. After Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese in 1767, the Sultanate of Patani gained full independence, but under King Rama I, it again came under Siam's control.
In recent years, a secessionist movement has sought the establishment of a Malay Islamic state, Patani Darussalam, encompassing the three southern and parts of Songkhla Thai provinces. This campaign has taken a particularly violent turn after 2001, resulting in an intractable insurgency across southern Thailand and the imposition of martial law.
Name
Founding legend
According to legend, the founder of Patani was a raja from Kota Malikha named Phaya Tunakpa. Phaya Tunakpa went hunting one day and saw a beautiful albino mouse-deer the size of a goat, which then disappeared. He asked his men where the animal had gone, and they replied: "Pata ni lah!" ("This beach!" in the Patani Malay language). They searched for the mouse-deer but found instead an old man fishing, who identified himself as Che' Tani. The old man said that he was sent by the raja's grandfather to build a new town further beyond but had fallen ill on the journey; as he could not go any further, he stayed at that place. The raja later ordered a town be built at the site where the mouse-deer had disappeared. The town became Patani, which is believed to be named either after "this beach" where the mouse-deer had disappeared, or the old man as Pak Tani meaning "Father Tani".
Patani, Pattani
In Thailand's southernmost provinces, "Patani" has become a controversial term used to refer to the area encompassing the provinces of Pattani (with two t's), Yala, Narathiwat, and parts of Songkhla, mostly inhabited by Malay Muslims. Patani in Malay is written with one "t", but in Thai sources with two "t"s. When written in Thai, "Patani" (ปตานี) "pa-ta-ni" sounds markedly different from "Pattani" (ปัตตานี) "pat-ta-ni". Malays say P’tani (ปตานี), pronounced as "pa-ta-ni" with a very brief first syllable and stress on the second syllable. "P'tani", the original Malay word for the region, has been used for a long time and is usually never written in Thai. So while technically being the same word as "P'tani", "Patani" with one "t" has a certain separatist political connotation.
Culture
From the cultural point of view the term "Patani" may refer to the territories of the historical Sultanate of Patani, as well as to the wider areas that were once under its rule.
Cultural background: Patani traditions
thumb|250px|The Hikayat Patani chronicle of the [[Patani Kingdom.]]
The inhabitants of the Patani region have been traditionally part of the Malay culture, having a historical background in which Islam has constituted a major influence.
The Patani people speak Kelantan-Pattani Malay, a form of the Malay language. Patani had a complex and distinct culture that included a rich oral literature, rice harvest ceremonies, colourful paintings on the hulls of Korlae boats, and the performances of a kind of Wayang theatre. Living in a borderland at the northern end of the Malay Peninsula, over the centuries the Patani people adapted themselves to a life of harmony with the local Chinese, Buddhist, Indian, Arab and Orang Asli communities.
Despite the ethnic affinity of the Patani with their Malay neighbours to the south, the Patani Kingdom was led by sultans who historically preferred to pay tribute to the distant Siamese kings in Bangkok. For many centuries the King of Siam restricted himself to exacting a periodic tribute in the form of Bunga mas, ritual trees with gold leaves and flowers that were a symbolic acknowledgment of Siamese suzerainty, leaving the Patani rulers largely alone.
The 20th century: forced assimilation
Until well into the 20th century, the government in Bangkok had relied on local officials in the implementation of policies within the Patani region, including the exemption in implementing Thai Civil Law, which had allowed Muslims to continue their observance of local laws based on Islam regarding issues on inheritance and family. However, by 1934 Marshall Plaek Phibunsongkhram set in motion of a process of Thaification which had as its objective the cultural assimilation of the Patani people, among other ethnic groups in Thailand.
The National Culture Act was enforced as a result of the Thaification process, promoting the concept of 'Thai-ness' and its centralist aims. Its "Mandate 3" was directly aimed at the Patani people. By 1944, Thai civil law was enforced throughout the land including the Patani region over-riding the earlier concessions to local Islamic administrative practices. The school curriculum was revised to that of a Thai-centric one with all lessons in the Thai language. Traditional Muslim courts that were used to handle civil cases were removed and replaced with civil courts run and approved by the central government in Bangkok. This forced assimilation process and the perceived imposition of Thai-Buddhist cultural practices upon their society became an irritant for the harmonious relationship of the ethnic Malay Patani people and the Thai state.
Denied recognition as a culturally separate ethnic minority, Patani leaders reacted against the Thai government policy towards them and a nationalist movement began to grow, leading to the Southern Thailand insurgency. Initially the goal of the nationalist movement such as the Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) was secession, pursuing an armed struggle towards an independent state where Patani people could live with dignity without having alien cultural values imposed on them.
The 21st century: traditional culture under threat
After 2001, the Patani insurgency was taken over by groups whose leaders are mainly Salafist religious teachers who have promoted religion, rejecting the nation-building ideology of the early secessionist movements.
Current insurgent groups proclaim militant jihadism and are not separatist any more. They have extreme and transnational religious goals, such as an Islamic Caliphate, to the detriment of a constructive cultural or nationalistic Patani identity. Salafi-based groups are hostile to the heritage and practices of traditional Malay Muslims, accusing them of being un-Islamic.
So far, and in the present circumstances, to preserve an identity free of the influence of Militant Islam has been next to impossible for the people of the hapless Patani Region. The activity of the present-day insurgents has changed the face of Patani society by the imposition of extreme religious undercurrents and the enforcement of the stern Salafi rules on local people. However, some think it was the same country known to the Chinese as Pan Pan.
Siamese rule
Patani came under Thai rule briefly during the Sukhothai period, and more extensively during the later Ayuthaya period.
In 1791 and 1808, there were rebellions within Pattani against Thai rule, following which Pattani was divided into 7 largely autonomous states (Mueang): Pattani, Nongchik, Saiburi (Teluban), Yala (Jala), Yaring (Jambu), Ra-ngae (Legeh) and Raman. All were ruled by the King of Ligor.
In 1909 Great Britain and Thailand signed the Bangkok Treaty of 1909. The British recognised Thailand's sovereignty over Pattani, and, in return, Thailand gave up the kingdoms of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu to the British. All seven mueang were reunited into a monthon and incorporated into the kingdom. Later, the central government in Bangkok renamed certain localities with Thai versions of their names and merged some of the mueang.
When the monthon system was dissolved in 1933, three provinces remained: Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
Greater Malay Patani state
On 8 December 1941, during the Second World War, the Japanese invaded Thailand, and crossed Pattani to invade British Malaya. The Thai government, led by Marshall Plaek Phibunsongkhram became an active ally of Japan by promising to help Thailand retake some territorial claims back from the British and the French. This included Sirat Malai, the former Malay dependencies of Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah, and Perlis. It is arguable that this move not only gave more territory to the Thai state but on the contrary, it strengthened the old Malay ties between the Pattani region and the northern Malayan peninsula states.
thumb|right|Malay Muslim provinces in Southern Thailand with northern Malaysia.
Tengku Mahmood Mahyideen, a prominent Pattani leader and the son of the last Raja of Pattani, allied himself with the British in the hopes that Pattani would be granted independence after an Allied victory. His main support came from ethnic Malays displeased by the nationalistic policies of the Phibun regime, which were seen by the southern Malays as forcing them to give up their own language and culture and the economic hardship that ensued as a result of alleged mismanagement. According to Ockey, even leading Thai politicians such as Pridi Phanomyong and Seni Pramot were among those that "overtly or covertly" supported this resistance against the Japanese. Mahyuddin assisted the British by launching guerrilla attacks against the Japanese. In 1945, a petition by Malay leaders led by Tengku Abdul Jalal demanded that Britain guarantee independence for the southernmost provinces of Thailand. At the war's end, the Greater Malay Pattani State (Negara Melayu Patani Raya) flag did fly briefly in Pattani. However, since the British had no power over Thailand, the Thai continued to rule over Pattani, while the British kept Thailand stable as a counterweight to the communist insurgency in Malaya. This led to the formation of several insurgent groups seeking the independence of Pattani.
After World War II had ended, the US had wanted to treat Thailand as an ally because of the resistance movement against the Japanese during the war but the British on the other hand had wanted to treat it as a defeated enemy. With this notion in the balance, the newly elected government led by Pridi had to address the issue of the South. With the aid of advisor Chaem Phromyong, a Muslim, the government began policies of accommodation and integration of the South. With the closure of the war, the government also approved the Patronage of Islam Act. This act recognised the work and role of religious figures in the South and gave them authority once more in the affairs of the Muslims in that region. Coincidentally, this act also paved the way for Haji Sulong to become the president of the Pattani Islamic Committee in 1945. He even opened a school in Mecca and had students from all over the world study under him. Eventually he married and settled in Mecca. During this period, there was a wave of nationalism sweeping the world in the earlier part of the 20th century and Sulong himself was exposed to Arab nationalism. Sulong's return to Pattani happened almost by chance due to the death of his first infant son to alleviate the grief of his family.
Upon his return, he had apparently looked upon the plight of the Pattani region being a distant shadow of its former glory as the 'cradle of Islam' in Southeast Asia. According to Thai historian Thanet, this notion set him into action. From teaching in a khru (small Muslim village school), he eventually opened up a pondok to spread his teachings due to his popularity amongst villagers. Even Pridi Phanomyong visited Haji Sulong at his school and it soon became the most popular Islamic school in Thailand.