The Malay Peninsula has been a land of immigration for a long time. Several communities and individuals have left their homeland and migrated there, seeking fortune. Several studies have been conducted on such movements and historical migrations. Some of those migrations are quite well known, but some have attracted less attention from scholars. True, some were not as important in size as the others, but we believe that all communities deserve some kind of historiography. This is the case of the Afghan community which settled in the north-eastern state of Kelantan after World War I; hardly any mention can be found in historical documents either concerning their country of origin or their country of settlement. Hence, this paper tries to unravel the mysterious past of the said community. The paper also presents the reasons for such lack of information as well as a few points regarding the status of the Afghans who came to Kelantan.

Peninsular Malaya has always been a land of immigration since ancient times. One reason could be that it was known as Suvarnabumi (land of gold) or Suvarnadvipa (island or peninsula of gold) in Sanskrit, Chitu (Red earth)² in Chinese and the “Golden Chersonese” in Greek.³ Another reason is that as it was scarcely populated in the past, it was considered as a land of opportunities by migrants who could not stay any longer in their place of origin because of poor living conditions, unemployment, poverty, etc. The third reason could be that the soil of Peninsular Malaya was not suitable for Asia’s main crop—wet-rice cultivation. But it was to become the successor of Brazil in rubber exploitation.⁴ In other words, Peninsular Malaya received boat people not only after the fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh in 1975, but actually long before that time. It is also worth noting that immigrants to Peninsular Malaya came from both the West and the East following the regular monsoons, as the peninsula was well located half way between East and West Asia.

Therefore, many migrants left their place of abode to try their luck on Peninsular Malaya’s shores. This has been well documented in the case of several migration movements in the past.⁵ We know how and when the first Indians came and settled in Kedah,⁶ or when the first Chinese stayed on in Malacca and so on; but some communities have been less researched upon. Probably because their numbers were rather small, and maybe because most researchers paid more attention to the West coast of Peninsular Malaya, neglecting the East coast. Obviously, the Champa community which settled in Kelantan has been the focus of several studies⁷, but what about the Afghan community which was found in Kelantan as well as in Terengganu and Patani in Southern Thailand? Indeed, there are several mentions here and there about foreigners settling on the east coast of Peninsular Malaya but nothing seems to be clear. For instance, the British engineer Carveth Wells mentions one such community and is full of praise for the Afghans whom he met when he lived in Kelantan.⁸

International Relations Journal, The Afghan Community, Kelantan, Preliminary Survey, Darah Keturunan Arab, Arab Origin, Darah Keturunan India, Transmigrasi, Afghan community, South Asians, Punjabis, Bengalis, “Pashtun”, “Paktoon”, “Paxtoon”, Pushtoon”.