Min Bin (1493–1554) is king of Arakan from 1531 to 1554.
Aided by Portuguese mercenaries and their firearms, his powerful navy and army pushes the boundaries of the kingdom deep into Bengal, where coins bearing his name and styling him sultan are struck, and even interferes in the affairs of mainland Burma.
After his initial military successes against Bengal and Tripura (1532–34), Min Bin begins to regard himself as a great conqueror, and in commemoration of his victory in Bengal he builds the Shitthaung Temple, one of the premier Buddhist pagodas of Mrauk-U.
His expansionist drive is to run into serious obstacles, however.
His control of Bengal beyond Chittagong is largely nominal and he, like the sultans of Bengal before him, never solves Tripuri raids into Bengal.
Moreover, his interference in Lower Burma (1542) against Toungoo provokes Toungoo invasions in (1545–47) that nearly topple his regime.
He survives the invasions and later provides military aid to Ava, hoping to stop Toungoo's advance into Upper Burma.
The king dies in January 1554, and is succeeded by his eldest son and heir apparent Min Dikkha.
His legacy lives on.
The defensive works he had built up throughout the kingdom will deter another Toungoo invasion until 1580.
He is also credited with creating a naval fleet that dominates the Bay of Bengal, which in the following century will enable Arakan to control the entire sixteen hundred-kilometer coastline from the Sundarbans to the Gulf of Martaban.
His twenty-two-year reign transforms Mrauk-U into a major regional power, a status that Mrauk-U will maintain well into the second half of the seventeenth century.
