AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



THE SURAU KHAEK





The Surau Khaek was located off the city island, in the southern part of Ayutthaya, in Samphao Lom Sub-district.


A "surau" is a Malay term for a small Muslim prayer hall or house used for daily prayers. It does not have the same status as the "masjid" (Arabic for "place of prostration") or mosque, which is used for the special Friday prayers. A surau can be upgraded to a mosque, but a mosque can never be downgraded to a surau, even if the Muslim community builds a new mosque. It can be compared with a chapel and a church for Christians.


The prayer house was situated at the entrance to Khlong Khu Cham (1) on its western bank. Behind the prayer house, at the canal's entrance, was one of Ayutthaya's four large water markets. [1]


The earliest indication I could find of a prayer house appears on François Valentyn's map (2), “Groote Siamse Rievier Me-Nam Of Te Moeder Der Wateren In haren loop met de vallende Spruyten Verbeeld", published in his work "Oud en Nieuw Oost Indiën" (1724-26). The map shows a "Moorse Tempel" (Moorish Temple – No 47) on the west bank of the Khu Cham, though it does not seem to be located immediately at the canal's entrance, but rather in the middle of the canal stretch.





(Detail of a map titled “Groote Siamse Rievier Me-Nam Of Te Moeder Der Wateren In haren loop met de vallende Spruyten Verbeeld”, published in the work Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën (1724-26 CE) by François Valentyn, with an indication of the “Moorse Tempel”)





(In the detail of the Moorish Temple, the spire is raised in a tiered, tapering fashion, with a finial resembling a cross or weather vane. The depiction could be an artistic hybrid—part mosque, part European tower—to make it recognisable to European readers. The mismatch between the label and the form could stem from engraver standardisation rather than observation. Valentyn and his contemporaries used “Moorse” broadly for Muslim communities, not specifically North African Moors.)



A 19th-century map shows the prayer house at the entrance to Khlong Khu Cham, opposite Wat Thong.





(Detail of a map drafted in the 19th century by an unknown mapmaker. The map is likely based on the “Description of Ayutthaya”, probably compiled early in the Bangkok era from the memories of people who had lived in Ayutthaya before 1767 CE.)



A hand-drawn Monthon Krung Kao map of 1916 CE shows the indication "Soat Khaek" (สวดแขก) in the same area, but I am not sure whether it refers to the old Surau Khaek or to a post-Ayutthaya Mosque such as the Aliyin Nuroy Mosque.





(Prayer House indicated on the Monthon Krung Kao map of 1916 CE)



In the area around the entrance to Khlong Khu Cham, there are at least two mosques and a prayer house today. On the site of the old Wat Thong stands the Isalam Watthana Mosque. Opposite the road to the latter was the old Muslim cemetery, which was later moved to the present Chao Kun Khu Cham Cemetery (3).


The Surau Khaek was located at approximately the following coordinates: 14° 20' 32.28" N 100° 33' 48.00" E.



Footnotes:


(1) Khlong Khu Cham, or the Cham Watercourse, is an existing canal situated off the city island in the southern area of Ayutthaya, running through the Samphao Lom and Khlong Takhian sub-districts. The canal splits off from the present-day Chao Phraya River about 500 metres east of Wat Phutthaisawan and runs south to join Khlong Takhian, nearly at the latter’s confluence with the Chao Phraya River.

(2) Important historian of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), best known for his encyclopedic illustrated account in five volumes of the Dutch trading empire in Asia, "Oud en Nieuw Oost Indiën" (Amsterdam 1724-1726). Born in Dordrecht in April 1666, Valentyn studied theology and travelled twice to the East Indies, serving as a clergyman. In preparing his "Oud en Nieuw Oost Indiën", Valentyn was granted privileged access to the hitherto secret archives of the Dutch East India Company, which enabled him to provide transcripts and copies of important 17th-century Dutch voyages, accounts, charts and engravings. Valentyn never travelled to Siam, but maintained correspondence with the Director of the VOC station in Ayutthaya, Aarnout Cleur (1703-1712 CE).

(3) A local recounted in April 2016 CE during a visit to the area that quite a bit of human remains was found earlier in the area west of and next to Wat Khok Sung.


References:


[1] Baker, Chris (2011). Before Ayutthaya Fell: Economic Life in an Industrious Society. Markets and Production in the City of Ayutthaya before 1767: Translation and Analysis of Part of the Description of Ayutthaya. Journal of the Siam Society. Vol. 99. p 65.



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(Alexis de Tocqueville)





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