Based in the capital Mrauk-U, near the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, the kingdom ruled over what is now Rakhine State, Myanmar, and the southern part of Chittagong Division, Bangladesh.

[9][10] Following the collapse of Pagan power and the death of Min Hti, Arakan fell into an interregnum, and constant raids were conducted by both the Burmese and the Talaing.

From the 15th to the 18th centuries, Mrauk U was the capital of the Arakan kingdom, frequently visited by foreign traders (including Portuguese and Dutch).

[citation needed] Father Manrique's vivid account of the coronation of King Thiri Thudhamma in 1635[17] and about the Rakhine Court and intrigues of the Portuguese adventurers fire the imagination of later authors.

[18] Narameikhla was succeeded by his brother, Min Khayi Ali Khan (reigning 1434–59), who annexed Sandoway and Ramu in 1437.

However, in 1531, Minbin took the throne, strengthening the fortifications of Mrauk U and fighting back against coastal raids by pirates.

Minbin was responsible for the construction of the Shwedaung pagoda as well as the Shitthaung, Dukkanthein, and Lemyethna temples in Mrauk U.

[20] However, he was driven back, and upon the Arakanese reclamation of Chittagong, Minbin struck from producing coins with his name that styled him as sultan.

Though historians disagree on the specific cutoffs- the 17th century is both the kingdom's golden age and the turning point towards it relative decline.

In 1597, he joined the First Toungoo Empire in its siege of Pegu and requested the aid of Portuguese captain Felipe de Brito to assist him in it.

[22] Land levies and ships from Chittagong, and the city fell in 1599. de Brito was appointed governor of Syriam by Razagyi.

[25][26] Some of them worked as Arabic, Bengali, and Persian scribes in the Arakanese courts, which, despite remaining mostly Buddhist, adopted Islamic fashions from the neighbouring Sultanate of Bengal.

[21] Historian Jacques Leider ascribes this chain of events as a coup d'état by the Laungkrakca, creating instability within the kingdom[28] After his ascension, the governor of Chittagong rebelled claiming the throne for himself.

The rebellion was quashed, but in December 1643, the new governor of Chittagong rebelled, taking a large group of Portuguese mercenaries with him into Mughal territory.

This effectively destroyed the importance of Chittagong as a trade centre and created deep division in Arakan as the Dutch East India Company and various nobles protested the move.

The sceptics of the king's plan were eventually proven correct as the resettled craftsmen were decimated by a famine in 1645 caused by the sudden change in population, effectively destroying Arakan's textile industry as well.

Arakan lost control of end of western bank of the Naf River in southeast Bengal after the Mughal conquest of Chittagong.

In 1660, Prince Shah Shuja, the governor of Mughal Bengal and a claimant of the Peacock Throne, fled to Arakan with his family after being defeated by his brother Emperor Aurangzeb during the Battle of Khajwa.

In December 1660, the Arakanese king confiscated Shuja's gold and jewelry, leading to an insurrection by the royal Mughal refugees.

However, members of Shuja's entourage remained in Arakan and were recruited by the royal army, including as archers and court guards.

As a prominent capital Mrauk U was carefully built in a strategic location by levelling three small hills.

A British archaeologist, Emil Forchhammer noted that "in durability, architectural skill, and ornamentation the Mrauk-U temples far surpass those on the banks of Irrawaddy.