The Kingdom of Pattani was a Malay state approximately covering the area of the modern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. The kingdom embraced Islam in the 11th century and thereafter enjoying varying degrees of independence until the early 20th century.

Prior to the coming of Islam, Pattani along with other city-states on the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, had become part of the Srivijaya, the Hindu-Buddhist Empire centred in Palembang and a maritime confederation that between the seventh and thirteenth centuries dominated trade on the South China Sea and exacted tolls from all traffic through the Straits of Malacca. While city states like Tambralinga, now Nakhon Sri Thammarat, adopted Buddhism, but farther south many of the Malay city-states converted to Islam, and by the fifteenth century an enduring religious boundary had been established on the isthmus between Buddhist mainland Southeast Asia and Muslim Malaya.

Although the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya conquered the states of the isthmus in the thirteenth century and continued to control them in the modern period, the Malay of the peninsula were never culturally absorbed into the mainstream of Thai society. The Thai kingdom was not a single, unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya. These states were ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya who had their own armies and warred among themselves. The king had to be vigilant to prevent royal princes from combining against him or allying with Ayutthaya's enemies. Whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims. When the Sultanate of Malacca expanded northward, Pattani recognized the overlordship of Malacca. But with the fall of Malacca in 1511, Pattani fought for the supremacy of the Malay Peninsula with Acheh, Johor and the Portuguese in Melaka.

During much of the fifteenth century Ayutthaya's energies were directed toward the Malay Peninsula, where the great trading port of Malacca contested Thai claims to sovereignty. Malacca and other Malay states south of Tambralinga had become Muslim early in the century, and thereafter Islam served as a symbol of Malay solidarity against the Thai. Although the Thai failed to make a vassal state of Malacca, Ayutthaya continued to control the lucrative trade on the isthmus, which attracted Chinese traders of specialty goods for the luxury markets of China.

The sixteenth century witnessed the rise of Burma, which, under an aggressive dynasty, had overrun Chiang Mai and Laos and made war on the Thai. In 1569 Burmese forces, joined by Thai rebels, captured the city of Ayutthaya and carried off the royal family to Burma. Dhammaraja (1569-90), a Thai governor who had aided the Burmese, was installed as vassal king at Ayutthaya. Thai independence was restored by his son, King Naresuan (1590- 1605), who turned on the Burmese and by 1600 had driven them from the country.

Determined to prevent another treason like his father's, Naresuan set about unifying the country's administration directly under the royal court at Ayutthaya. He ended the practice of nominating royal princes to govern Ayutthaya's provinces, assigning instead court officials who were expected to execute policies handed down by the king. Thereafter royal princes were confined to the capital. Their power struggles continued, but at court under the king's watchful eye. Even with Naresuan's reforms, the effectiveness of the royal government over the next 150 years should not be overestimated. Royal power outside the crown lands--although in theory absolute- -was in practice limited by the looseness of the civil administration. The influence of central government ministers was not extensive beyond the capital until the late nineteenth century

However, by the mid-17th century, Pattani had fallen into a gradual decline. This decline prompted Pattani to submit to Siam as a vassal state and send the Bunga Mas to Ayutthaya as a form of submission. Ratu Kuning (the Yellow Queen), the last of four successive ruling queens of Pattani, died without an heir and the city state descended into decades of political chaos and conflict.

Around the same time, Ayutthaya under King Ekatat (Boromaraja V) was busy in fighting the Burmese invasion under King Alaungsaya , culminating in the complete destruction of Ayutthaya in 1767 by King Mongra of Burma.

General Taksin (later King Taksin) managed to drive back the Burmese and reunify the country, and opened the way for the establishment of the Chakri dynasty by King Rama I. A resurgent and much stronger Siam tried to enforce its will upon Pattani: the latter resisted, and there was a war between the two. Siam was led by Prince Surasi , son of Rama I, and Pattani by Sultan Muhammad. The sultan was slain in battle, Pattani was defeated, and the region was gradually absorbed by Siam.

A series of attempted rebellions prompted Bangkok to divide Pattani into seven smaller states during the reign of King Rama II. Yala and Narathiwat remain separate provinces to this day.

In 1909, the British, who had taken over Perak, Pahang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Johore in the peninsula, acquired Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu - the four states which were also claimed by Siam as its protectorates. Siam and Britain came to an agreement fixing the border. The line remains as a border between Thailand and Malaysia to this day.

Further reading

• Ibrahim Syukri. History of the Malay Kingdom of Patani. ISBN 0896801233. Note: the book is partially strongly biased to the Malay POV

Thailand: Country Studies by the Library of Congress, Federal Research Division http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/thtoc.html