Min Khamaung

In this Burmese name, Min is an honorific, not a given name.

Min Khamaung မင်းခမောင်း Naradhipati Wara Dhamma Raza Hussein Shah (ဥသျှောင်သျှာ)
King of Arakan
Reign	7 July [O.S. 27 June] 1612 – 1 June [O.S. 11 May] 1622
Coronation	10th waxing of Waso, 974 ME
Predecessor	Min Razagyi
Successor	Thiri Thudhamma
Born	1577/1578 (Monday born) Kha Maung Seik (ခမောင်းဆိပ်)
Died	1 June [O.S. 11 May] 1622 (aged 45) Saturday, 4th waxing of Nayone 984 ME Mrauk U
Consort	Dhamma Déwi II Shin Htwe Thupaba Déwi II
Issue	Thiri Thudhamma Nat Shin Mae and many others
Names Naradhipati Waradhamma Raza နရာဓိပတိ ဝရဓမ္မရာဇာ Hsinphyushin Waradhamma Hussein Shah ဆင်ဖြူရှင် ဝရဓမ္မ ဥသျှောင်သျှာ Hsinphyuthakhin, Hsinnithakhin Mintaragyi Hussein Shah ဆင်ဖြူသခင်၊ ဆင်နီသခင် မင်းတရားကြီး ဥသျှောင်သျှာ
House	Min Bin
Father	Min Razagyi
Mother	Pyinsala Sanda (ပဉ္စလစန္ဒာ)
Religion	Theravada Buddhism

Min Khamaung (Arakanese:မင်းခမောင်း; Burmese pronunciation: [mɪ́ɴ kʰa̰ máʊɴ], Arakanese pronunciation: [máɴ kʰa̰ máʊɴ];1557 - c. May 1622) also known as Hussein Shah; was the king of Arakan from 1612 to 1622.

Early life

The future Arakanese (ရခိုင်) Rakhine king was born to Princess Pyinsala Sanda (ပဥ္စလစန္ဒာ) and Prince Razagyi in Khamaungseit (ခမောင်းဆိပ်) which is modern day Maungdaw Township on the year 1577. He had a younger sister who was of one year younger than him. The brother and sister had eventually fell in love by living together without parents and they got married. They gave to birth to their son Thiri Thudhamma.

During a war between Taungoo and Arakan, the crown prince Khamaung was captured by Portuguese mercenary Filipe de Brito e Nicote and was held ransom in exchange for his independence from the various Burmese kingdoms until 1603.[1] He later managed to escape.

Reign

Min Khamaung succeeded the throne after his father, Min Razagyi's, death in 1612.[2] At that time, Mrauk U-Arakan was chaotic due to the Portuguese insurrections.[3] Razagyi had formed an unwilling alliance with the Portuguese mercenary captain Sebastian Gonzales Tibao to fend off the Mughals. However, Tibao had betrayed and taken over the Arakense navy and begun using it to raid the coast in 1610.[4]

By 1615, Khamaung was able to get subdue Tibao and resolved any tensions caused by the insurrections with the Burmese diplomatically. Khamaung then launched a second attack to retake Bhulua from the Mughals. The governor of Bhulua fled, allowing Arakan to occupy the city. Khamaung and his forces followed the Bhulua garrison to the Dakatia River, where the Arakanese forces were defeated and Khamaung was captured. Khamaung negotiated for his freedom, promising not to attack Bhulua again in exchange for various resources- such as elephants, equipment and servants.[5]

The subahdar (governor) of Bengal, Qasim Khan, found this release humane but unstatesmanlike as it missed an opportunity to subjugate Arakan. Accordingly, Qasim Khan built up an army and sent an expedition in February 1616 to take Chittagong back from Arakan. The forced launched a quick and early siege that- with superior Mughal siege weaponry and firepower- seemed poised to take Chittagong before the Arakanese army could arrive. However, dissent amongst the ranks stemming from a personal officer of the subahdar being the commander of mostly imperial forces. The Arakanese recovered their defence with reinforcements and proceeded to cut off food supply lines with an army of 10,000 men.[5][6]

After the successful defence, Min Khamaung strengthened his military and situation by capturing Sandwip back from Tibao with the help of different Portuguese mercenaries in late 1617. Regaining the lost navy, he began to rad far into Bengal, as far inland as to attack towns on the Meghna River.[5]

Min Kamaung's military repelled and crushed the last of the Portuguese insurrection and invasion with the aid of Dutch military assistance from Dutch East India company VOC in 1625.[3]

Death

The King died on 1 June [O.S. 11 May] 1622 Saturday, 4th waxing of Nayone 984 ME in Mrauk U at age 45 of natural illness. He was succeeded by his son Heir-apparent Min Hari Thiri Thudhamma.[7]

References

1. Rajanubhab, D. (2001). Our Wars With the Burmese. Bangkok: White Lotus Co. Ltd. pp. 185–187. ISBN 9747534584.
2. Rakhine Razawin Gyi (in Burmese). U Htun Shwe. p. 139 Phase.
3. Catherine Raymond (2000). Illustrating the Kingdom of Arakan in the XVIIth Century: An Arakanese Perspective from the Dutch Sources. Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. p. 10Phase.
4. Harvey, G. E. (1925). History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. pp. 141–142.
5. Chowdhury, Mohammaed Ali (2004). Bengal-Arakan Relations. Kolkata: Firma KLM Private Limited. pp. 106–109. ISBN 81-7102-118-2.
6. Karim, KM (2012). "Qasim Khan Chisti". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
7. Rakhine Razawin Gyi (in Burmese). U Htun Shwe. p. 143 Phase.

Bibliography

• Harvey, G. E. (1925). History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
• Myat Soe, ed. (1964). Myanma Swezon Kyan (in Burmese). Vol. 9 (1 ed.). Yangon: Sarpay Beikman.
• Myint-U, Thant (2006). The River of Lost Footsteps—Histories of Burma. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-16342-6.
• Sandamala Linkara, Ashin (1931). Rakhine Yazawinthit Kyan (in Burmese). Vol. 1–2 (1997 ed.). Yangon: Tetlan Sarpay.

Min Khamaung Mrauk-U Kingdom Born: 1577/78 Died: 1 June 1622
Regnal titles
Preceded by Raza II	King of Mrauk-U 7 July 1612 – 1 June 1622	Succeeded by Thiri Thudhamma