This translation of Ibrahim Syukri’s Sejarah Kerajaan Melayu Patani (SKMP) makes available a little known but important manuscript published privately ca. 1950 and printed in jawi (Malay written in a modified Arabic script). Shortly after its publication, the book was banned in both Thailand and Malaysia. It appears that a few copies of the original printing survived.
The SKMP represents a valuable contribution to the limited literature available on the Malay population of present-day southern Thailand. While the account of Patani’s history is based on a distinctively Malay interpretation of the record, the SKMP is more important as a political statement of the strong sense of ethnic identity shared by Patani’s Malay population. The SKMP will be of particular interest to those seeking to understand the persistence of conflict in southern Thailand.
