Asst. Prof. Dr. Imtiyaz Yusuf
Lecturer and Director Center for Buddhist-Muslim Understanding College of Religious Studies Mahidol University
A Brief History of the Rohingya
I heard about the case of the Arakan Muslims some thirty years ago, when few people knew about them. The first ever well-documented information and research about the Rohingya, who were described as insurgents, was done by an Israeli diplomat named Moshe Yegar. Yegar was posted as the Second Secretary at the Israeli Embassy in Rangoon (Yangon) in 1960s. His two books, titled: Between Integration and Secession: The Muslim Communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma/Myanmar and The Muslims in Burma: A Study of a Minority Group, are indispensible in order to learn and research about the Rohingya and Muslims of Burma, both of whom have different historical trajectories (Yegar 1972).