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Kedah

State of Malaysia

  • 16 min read
  • 10 chapters

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Kedah was previously known as Kadaram (Tamil: கடாரம்; Kaṭāram) by the ancient and medieval Tamils, Kataha or Kalahbar (Arabic: قتح; qataḥa or Arabic: قلحبر; qalaḥbar) by the Arabs, and Syburi (Thai: ไทรบุรี; RTGS: Sai Buri) by the Siamese when it was under their influence.

Kedah borders the state of Perlis to the north and shares an international boundary with the Songkhla and Yala provinces of Thailand. It borders the states of Perak to the south and Penang to the southwest.

The state's capital is Alor Setar and the royal seat is in the capital's suburb Anak Bukit. Other major towns include Sungai Petani (its largest urban area by population), and Kulim on the mainland, and Kuah on Langkawi.

History

Early history

Around 788 BC, a large settlement may have been already established around the northern bank of Merbok River. The settlement consisted of a large area of Bujang Valley, covering branches of the Merbok and Muda River that was about 1,000 square miles in area. It was built at the estuary of a branch of Merbok River, now known as Sungai Batu. Archaeological evidence found in the Bujang Valley (Malay: Lembah Bujang) reveals that an animist settlement resided in ancient Kedah possibly as early as 110 AD. The discovery of a temple, jetty remains, iron smelting sites, and clay brick monuments probably dating back to 110 AD shows that a maritime trading route with south Indian Tamil kingdoms was already established since that time. The discoveries in the Bujang Valley also made ancient Kedah perhaps the most ancient settlement in Southeast Asia.

Hindu-Buddhist Era

Ancient Kedah was first mentioned in the Tamil poem Paṭṭiṉappālai written at the end of the second century AD. It described goods from Kadaram "heaped together in the broad streets" of the Chola capital. Apart from Kadaram, Kedah was known by various names at different times in Indian literature: Kataha-Nagara (in Kaumudi Mahotsava drama), Anda-Kataha (in Agni Purana), Kataha-Dvipa (in Samarāiccakahā), and Kataha (in Kathasaritsagara). In Middle Eastern literature, ancient Kedah was referred to as Qilah by Ibn Khordadbeh in the Book of Roads and Kingdoms, Kalah-Bar by Soleiman Siraf & Abu Zaid al Hassan in Silsilat-al-Tawarikh (travels in Asia), and Kalah by Abu-Dulaf Misa'r Ibn Muhalhil in Al-Risalah al-thaniyah. The Tang dynasty Buddhist monk, Yijing who visited the Malay Archipelago between 688 and 695, also mentioned a kingdom known as Ka-Cha in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, which according to him was thirty days sail from Bogha (Palembang), the capital of Sribogha (Srivijaya).

In the seventh and eighth centuries, Kedah was under the loose control of Srivijaya. Indian and Arab sources consider Kedah to be one of the two important sites during the Srivijaya period, often calling the king of the straits "the ruler of Srivijaya and Kataha". In 1025, Rajendra I, the Chola king from Coromandel Coast in South India, captured Kedah in his Chola invasion of Srivijaya and occupied it for some time. A second invasion was led by Virarajendra of the Chola dynasty who conquered Kedah in the late 11th century. During the reign of Kulottunga I Chola overlordship was established over the Srivijayan province of Kedah in the late 11th century.

Kedah Sultanate

According to Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa or the Kedah Annals, Kedah was founded by a Hindu king named Merong Mahawangsa. According to the text further, the Sultanate of Kedah started in 1136 when King Phra Ong Mahawangsa converted to Islam and adopted the name Sultan Mudzafar Shah. However, an Acehnese account gave a date of 1474 for the year of the ruler of Kedah's conversion to Islam. This later date accords with an account in the Malay Annals where a raja of Kedah visited Malacca during the reign of its last sultan seeking the honour of the royal band that marks the sovereignty of a Muslim ruler. However, in Thai chronicles it is told that Kedah was a Thai city like Nakhon Si Thammarat and was a part of Siamese kingdom but later was changed into a Malay state after invasion of Muslim kingdoms.

It was later under Siam, until it was conquered by the Malay sultanate of Malacca in the 15th century. In the 17th century, Kedah was attacked by the Portuguese after their conquest of Malacca, and by Aceh. In the hope that Great Britain would protect what remained of Kedah from Siam, the sultan handed over Penang and then Province Wellesley to the British at the end of the 18th century. The Siamese nevertheless invaded Kedah in 1821, and it remained under Siamese control under the name of Syburi. In 1896, Kedah along with Perlis and Setul were combined into the Siamese province of Monthon Syburi which lasted until it was transferred to the British by the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909.

Incorporation into Malaya

In World War II, Kedah (along with Kelantan) was the first part of Malaya to be invaded by Japan. The Japanese returned Kedah to their Thai allies who had it renamed Syburi, but it returned to British rule after the end of the war. Kedah became one of the states of the Federation of Malaya in 1948, which then achieved independence in 1957. Malaya was then enlarged to become Malaysia in 1963, joined by Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore (independent in 1965).

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