Pattani Province 4.02

Pattani is one of the southern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from southeast clockwise) Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkhla.HistoryThe name Pattani is the Thai adaptation of the Malay name Patani (Jawi: ڤتاني), which can mean "this beach" in Patani Malay language. (In standard Malay, this would be pantai ini.) Another suggestion is that it derives from a Sanskrit word pathini, meaning "virgin nymph"; Pathini was the name of a daughter of Merong Mahawangsa, founder of the preceding Langkasuka Empire.Historically, Pattani Province was the centre of the Malay Sultanate of Patani Darul Makrif. For centuries a tributary state of Siam, Pattani has been governed by Siam since its conquest in 1785. Siamese rule was officially acknowledged by the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 negotiated with the British Empire. Both Yala (Jala) and Narathiwat (Menara) were originally part of Patani, but were made provinces of their own during the territorial administrative reform and the creation of a united centralized Siam state.