Kedah Sultanate

Kedah Protectorate قدح در الامن
Negeri Kedah
Protectorate of the United Kingdom
1909–1941 1945–1946
Flag Coat of arms
Kedah in present-day Malaysia
Capital		Alor Setar1
Languages		Malay2 English Kedah Malay Aslian
Religion		Sunni Islam
Political structure		Protectorate
Monarch
•	1901–1910	Edward VII
•	1936–1952	George VI
Advisor
•	1909–1915; 1918–1919	George Maxwell
Historical era		British Empire
•	Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909	9 July 1909
•	Japanese occupation	1941
•	Annexed by Thailand	18 October 1943
•	Japanese surrender; Returned to United Kingdom	14 August 1945
•	Added into Malayan Union	31 March 1946
Currency		Straits dollar until 1939 Malayan dollar until 1953
Preceded by Succeeded by Rattanakosin Kingdom Syburi Japanese occupation of Malaya Malayan Union
Today part of		Malaysia
1 Remains as capital until today 2 Malay using Jawi (Arabic) script

The Sultanate of Kedah may be the earliest sultanate on the Malay Peninsula and is supposedly one of the oldest Sultanates in the world, allegedly founded in 1136.

The information regarding the formation of this sultanate and the history before and after its creation comes from the "Kedah Annals". The Kedah Annals were written in the eighteenth century, over a millennium after the formation of the Kedah Kingdom. It describes the first king of Kedah as arriving on the shores of Kedah as a result of an attack by a mythical gigantic beast. It states that the nation was founded by the offspring of Alexander the Great; who maintained ties with Rome throughout his reign (oddly two centuries after the decline of the Roman Empire due to sacks by the Visigoths and Vandals in 410 and 455).

The Kedah Annals also provide us with very unreliable information regarding the sultans of Kedah. Listing the first sultan of Kedah as Sultan Mudzafar Shah I centuries before the partitioning of the Arabic Muslim empire into distinct sultanates and almost three centuries prior to the contradictory claims of the Terengganu Inscription Stone. This claim also directly contradicts the fact that the Buddhist Srivijaya kingdom was in direct control of Kedah at the time that Sultan Mudzafar Shah I allegedly converted the region to a sultanate.

Kedah Kingdom (630–1136) was founded by Maharaja Derbar Raja of Gemeron around 630 CE and the Hindu dynasty ended when Phra Ong Mahawangsa converted to Islam.

Around 170 CE a group of native refugees of Hindu faith arrived at Kedah, joining them soon were peoples from nearby islands and from the northern Mon-Khmer region. Ancient Kedah covered the areas of Kuala Bahang, Kuala Bara, Kuala Pila and Merpah, and the inhabitants of Kedah appointed Tun Derma Dewa and Tun Perkasa as their village chiefs.

In 630 CE, Maharaja Derbar Raja of Gemeron (now known as Bandar Abbas) in Persia was defeated in battle and escaped to Sri Lanka, and he was later blown off course by a storm to the remote shores of Kuala Sungai Qilah, Kedah. The inhabitants of Kedah found him to be a valiant and intelligent person, and they made him the king of Kedah. In 634 CE, a new kingdom was formed in Kedah consisting of Persian royalty and native Malay of Hindu faith, the capital was Langkasuka.