By Aman Ullah
The term Rohingya is widely used by the international
community to identify as a group of Muslims of Arakan. According to Dr.
Ganganath Jha of Jawaharlal Nehru University of India, the term Rohingya is
derived from Rohang the ancient name of Arakan. The Muslims of Arakan called
their country, in their own language, ‘Rohang or Roang’ and called themselves
as Rohangya (Rohang+ya) or Roangya (Roang+ya) means native of Rohang or Roang.
In Burmese it is ‘ရိုဟင္ဂ်ာ’, in
Rakhine’s pronunciation it will read as ‘Rohongya’ but in Burmese pronunciation
it became ‘Rohingya’ and now it’s established as ‘Rohingya’. Like other peoples
of the world, they have needed to identify as Rohingya to some degree for
centuries.
In the work of Arab geographer Rashiduddin (1310 AD)
Arakan appears as ‘Rahan or Raham’. The British travelers Relph Fitch (1586 AD)
referred the name of Arakan as ‘Rocon’. In the Rennell’s map (1771 AD), it is
‘Rassawn’. Tripura Chronicle Rajmala mentions as ‘Roshang’. In the medieval
works of the poets of Arakan and Chittagong, like Quazi Daulat, Mardan, Shamser
Ali, Quraishi Magan, Alaol, Ainuddin, Abdul Ghani and others, they frequently
referred to Arakan as ‘Roshang’, ‘Roshanga’, ‘Roshango Shar’, and ‘Roshango Des’.
Famous European traveller Francis Buchanam (1762-1829 AD) in his accounts
mentioned Arakan as “Rossawn, Rohhawn, Roang, Reng or Rung”. In one of his
accounts, “A Comparative Vocabulary of some of the languages spoken in the
Burman Empire” it was stated that, “The first is that spoken by the
Mohammedans, who have long settled in Arakan, and who call themselves Rooinga,
or natives of Arakan.” . The Persians called it ‘Rekan’.” The Chakmas and Saks
from 18th century called it ‘Roang’. Today the Muslims of Arakan call the
country ‘Rohang’ or Roang’ or ‘Arakan’ and call themselves ‘Rohingya’ or native
of Rohang.