Civil War in Kelantan in 1839

“The early history of Kelantan is lost in obscurity” wrote Graham in I9O5. Some thirty years later Anker Rentse attempted to dispel some of this obscurity, but was nevertheless constrained to agree that “the early history of Kelantan is still unknown and very few records are available”

Until recently few people would have quarrelled with these findings, except perhaps to observe that the ‘early history of Kelantan’ apparently extended well into the 19th century. It was therefore with considerable interest that I learned of the existence, in the Wachirayan National Library in Bangkok, of a collection of letters written by various Kelantan chiefs during a civil war that took place in the state in the year 1839. 

Monographs of the Malaysian Branch of Royal Asiatic Society.