Academic literature on the topic 'Arakanese culture'

This chapter sets a frame for understanding a composite literary tradition. I give a general overview of how the Bengal–Arakan continuum has been defined in terms of geographical and cultural features. I then turn to an Arakanese Islamicate idiom in official documents from the foundation of Mrauk U in 1430 up to Ālāol’s lifetime. After the study of the use of an Islamicate idiom, I identify the centers in which Bengali literature was produced in Arakan during the same period. I distinguish two trends in the Bengali literature of Arakan, one represented by the works of provincial authors and the other by texts produced and consumed by urban audiences. I highlight the features of those two corpuses, as well as what clearly allows us to distinguish one set of texts from the other; the main feature being the function of multilingual literacy in the composition and reception of the texts.

Chapters Three and Four articulate the competing historical narratives and representations of memory sustaining Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ conflict. This chapter examines what the authors designate the Rohingya ‘Origin’ narrative, and interrogates it against the available historical record; the next chapter considers the Rakhine and Burman perspectives. Drawing on the concept of intractable conflict, this chapter commences with an assessment of ‘Rohingya’ written historical sources and their sociopolitical context, then presents an overview and critique of these historical accounts. The chapter summarizes the key narrative of Rohingya origins, examining their representation of various waves of Muslim migration in the distant past, seeking to establish the Rohingya as a national race with deep historical roots in Arakan—and a people integral to Arakan’s political and socioeconomic life until its 1784 conquest by the Burmans. The chapter then offers an analysis of the pre-colonial Muslim population, and assesses their perspectives about the origins of the contemporary conflict. The chapter thus documents and analyses Rohingya claims that various waves of settlers have been assimilated, over centuries, into what is now a single ethic identity with a strong historical connection to the land, and a distinct language, culture and history which should now be considered indigenous to the region.