Min Khamaung
Min Khamaung was the king of Mrauk-U Arakan, a former state in Myanmar, from 1612 to 1622.
Early life
The future Arakanese Rakhine king was born to Princess Pyinsala Sanda and Prince Razagyi in Khamaungseit on the bank of headwaters of Lemro River. He had a younger sister who was one year his junior. Khamaung and his sister fell in love after living together alone, and married. They gave birth to a son, Thiri Thudhamma.The king was also known as Hussein Shah by the neighbouring Bengal.
During a war between Taungoo and Arakan, Khamaung was captured by the Portuguese mercenary Filipe de Brito e Nicote and held for ransom in exchange for his independence from the various Burmese kingdoms until 1603. He later managed to escape.
Reign
Min Khamaung succeeded the throne after his father, Min Razagyi, died in 1612. Mrauk-U Arakan had since fallen into chaos due to Portuguese invasions. Razagyi formed a temporary alliance with the Portuguese mercenary captain Sebastian Gonzales Tibao to fend off the Mughals. However, in 1610, Tibao had betrayed the Arakanese and seized their navy. He began using the navy to raid the coast.By 1615, Khamaung was able to subdue Tibao and resolved any tensions caused by the invasions with the Burmese diplomatically. Khamaung then launched a second attack to retake Bhulua from the Mughals. The governor of Bhulua fled, allowing Arakan to occupy the city. Khamaung and his forces followed the Bhulua garrison to the Dakatia River, where the Arakanese forces were defeated and Khamaung was captured. Khamaung negotiated for his freedom, promising not to attack Bhulua again in exchange for various resources such as elephants, equipment and servants.
The subahdar of Bengal, Qasim Khan, found this release humane but unstatesmanlike as it missed an opportunity to subjugate Arakan. Accordingly, Qasim Khan built up an army and sent an expedition in February 1616 to take Chittagong back from Arakan. Khan's forces quickly launched a siege of the city. Superior Mughal siege weaponry and firepower seemed poised to take Chittagong before the Arakanese army could arrive. However, dissent arose amongst the ranks stemming from a personal officer of the subahdar being the commander of mostly imperial forces. The Arakanese renewed their defense with reinforcements of 10,000 men and cut off the besieging army's supply lines.
After successfully defending Chittagong, Min Khamaung capitalized on his renewed strength by capturing Sandwip back from Tibao with the help of Portuguese mercenaries in late 1617. Regaining the lost navy, he began to raid far into Bengal, as far inland as to attack towns on the Meghna River.
Min Kamaung's military repelled and crushed the last of the Portuguese invasion with the aid of Dutch military assistance from the Dutch East India Company VOC in 1625.