English Wikipedia's page on Islam in Myanmar gives few firm dates: Persian Muslims at the Yunnan border in 860 (Chinese chronicles); Muslims in Arakan before Anawrahta's time (the date 'uncertain'); trade colonies of Arab, Persian and Chinese traders in Lower Burma between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, chiefly round Pegu; a first Mongol invasion of 1277 that brings Yunnan Muslims.
The Hmannan's story of two Kala Muslim brothers at Thaton is called 'semi-historical'; the page's Muslim officers of Manuha date to the twelfth century and conflict with 1055. It lists no dated mosque before 1300; the Buddermokan shrine-mosques of the Arakan and Mergui coast are undated; and it finds no Muslim community or mosque at Pagan before 1300. For 1 January 1200 the safe statement is that Muslim shippers and brokers are present at the Mon, Arakan and Tenasserim ports, that nothing says how many or where they pray, and that long-term settlement is mostly a later story.
Who holds it
- Title
- Headmen of the Muslim traders
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia, Islam in Myanmar (citing Yegar 1972, Tin and Luce 1960, Ba Shin 1963).
What it holds
- Cargoes and credit, not land (inferred)
How things stand that morning
Foreign shippers and brokers at the ports, with no known endowment or mosque.
Places of note
- Martaban: Mon port.
- Pegu: Trading town of the Mon plain.
- Sandoway (Thandwe): Arakan coast, with undated shrine-mosque tradition (page).
Where the sources disagree
- Brief asks for Muslim communities of the ports. The evidence is a trade presence only, and the page flags its own early dates as doubtful.
Evidence: A modern summary page with contradictory early dates; no inscription.
Primary sources for Kingdom of Pagan
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma, The Royal Historical Commission of King Bagyidaw (Monywe Sayadaw and others), drawing on U Kala's Maha Yazawin (about 1724) and earlier chronicles (1829 to 1832). The standard Burmese court chronicle, compiled six centuries after 1200 from older chronicles now lost. Read online
- The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- Epigraphia Birmanica, being lithic and other inscriptions of Burma, Various, edited by Taw Sein Ko, C. Duroiselle and C. O. Blagden (inscriptions of the 11th to 15th centuries; the series ran from 1919 to 1936). The Archaeological Survey of Burma's series of edited inscriptions with full translations. Read online
- Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava; Inscriptions of Burma, Various (the Pagan kings, queens, ministers and donors), edited by Tun Nyein, Taw Sein Ko, G. H. Luce and Pe Maung Tin (inscriptions of the 11th to 14th centuries; editions 1899 and 1933 to 1956). The dedicatory inscriptions of Pagan are the only contemporary texts for the kingdom of Narapatisithu (reigning 1174 to 1211). Read online
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.