Min Razagyi (Arakanese and , Arakanese pronunciation: , ; c. 1557–1612), also known as Salim Shah, was king of Arakan from 1593 to 1612. His early reign marked the continued ascent of the coastal kingdom, which reached full flight in 1599 by defeating its nemesis Toungoo Dynasty, and temporarily controlling the Bay of Bengal coastline from the Sundarbans to the Gulf of Martaban until 1603. But the second half of his reign saw the limits of his power: he lost the Lower Burmese coastline in 1603 and a large part of Bengal coastline in 1609 due to insurrections by Portuguese mercenaries. He died in 1612 while struggling to deal with Portuguese raids on the Arakan coast itself.
Early life
The future king was born to Princess Saw Mi Taw (စောမိတော်, and Prince Phalaung, governor of Sittantin, in 1557/1558. His parents were half-siblings, both children of King Min Bin. He was likely born in Sittantin where his father was governor from early 1550s to 1572. In 1572, Phalaung succeeded King Sekkya, and made his eldest son Razagyi, only 15, heir-apparent with the style of Thado Dhamma Raza. At the coronation ceremony, Razagyi was married off to Princess Nan Htet Phwa (နန်းထက်ဖွား, ), daughter of Sekkya and his first cousin, once removed.
Heir-apparent
Razagyi loyally served his father for the duration of his father's 21-year reign. His most prominent contribution during this period recorded in the Arakanese chronicles came in 1575 when he led a well armed naval and land forces in an expedition to Tripura. The expedition was a success. The Arakanese forces, aided by Portuguese mercenaries and firearms, easily captured the Tripuri capital, after which Tripura agreed to pay tribute. In the later years, however, Phalaung began relying on his middle son Thado Minsaw, who became the commander-in-chief, for military expeditions, and appointed him king of Bengal. Thado Minsaw, now based out of Chittagong, became Razagyi's main rival to succeed the throne.
Reign
Consolidation
On , King Phalaung died, and Razagyi succeeded without any opposition. The 35-year-old new king took the reign name of Raza in the honor of his great-great-grandfather King Raza I (r. 1502–1513), and also took the Persian title of Salim Shah as sultan of Bengal. All the vassals of the kingdom, including Thado Minsaw, came to the court, and pledged allegiance to the new king. For his part, he re-appointed Thado Minsaw as king of Bengal, essentially the viceroy of northern territories, which included Chittagong, Noakhali and Tippera.
The peace between the brothers did not last. In 1595, Thado Minsaw at Chittagong revolted with support from chiefs of Tripura and other northern districts. But the rest of the country, and the majority of Portuguese mercenaries, remained loyal to Razagyi. (A major component of Arakan's powerful military since the 1530s had been its many Portuguese mercenaries and their firearms.) When Razagyi marched to Chittagong with a massive force after the rainy season, Thado Minsaw lost nerve and submitted without a fight. Razagyi's armies followed up onto northern districts and Tripura, and by February 1596 (Tabodwe 957 ME), had reestablished control.
Victory over Toungoo Empire
Razagyi was now the undisputed leader of a prosperous and militarily powerful kingdom that stretched from the Sundarbans in the northwest to Cape Negrais in the south. The kingdom's relative power greatly improved in the following year, when its nemesis Toungoo Empire, which had tried to conquer the coastal kingdom in (1545–1547) and (1580–1581), was teetering on collapse. King Nanda at Pegu (Bago) now controlled only parts of Lower Burma, and faced rebellions everywhere, including the city of Toungoo, the ancestral home of the Dynasty.
Sensing the weakness, Razagyi readily agreed to an alliance with one of the rebel leaders, Minye Thihathu of Toungoo city in 1597. They agreed to a joint attack on whatever remained of the empire. This was a major departure from the policy of previous Arakanese kings, who since the 1550s had carefully avoided interfering in mainland affairs. He ordered a massive mobilization drive across the entire kingdom, from the Ganges delta and Tripura in the north to Thandwe in the south. By late 1598, he had assembled a massive land and naval invasion force, whose combined strength may have been as high as 30,000 troops.