Ahmad Bin Osman

Philippines: Islam and Malay Influences

Ahmad Bin Osman
Architecture, Heritage & Conservation + Follow
Published Dec 5, 2019

Rethinking Filipino Food by Going to Muslim Mindanao | Fork the System

Came across this amazing video published by Al Jazeera in a new series called Fork The
System, which piqued my curiosity into the lesser known history of the Philippines. While
religion was, as the video described, a huge contention during independence, how did Islam
actually spread there in the first place, and why do their culture and tradition seem so similar
to the Malays? (It’s a whole different discussion to discuss who the Malays are, and if the
Filipinos are a subset of the group, but for purposes of discussion, you know who I’m
Ahmad Bin Osman
referring to)

In as early as the 7th century, the religion has spread to select areas of the Philippines via
trading activities with India and China. However, significant numbers of Muslim minority in
the country has largely been credited to a few key individuals: Tuan Masha’ika (to a lesser
extent, but highly revered by the local community today), Sheik Karim-ul Makhdum, and
Shariff ul-Hashim of Sulu.

In the Sulu and Maguindanao tarsilas/salasilah, Tuan Masha’ika was believed to be one
of the few early foreign Muslims in the Philippines, and he settled firstly in Maimbung,
followed by Jolo. The word masha’ikh itself is an Arabic plural form for shaikh, where it’s
used for pious men and religious leaders, to distinguish themselves from the sayyids and
shariffs, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad ‫ﷺ‬.  The title Tuan itself has also been
attributed to notable Muslim religious leaders and significant individuals throughout the
Malay Archipelago. While there are many fabled stories about his relationship with
Alexander the Great/Iskandar Zulkarnain and also the Sultans of Melaka, unfortunately, not
much else is known about Tuan Masha’ika. In the stories about the coming of Rajah
Baguinda to Buansa from Minangkabau, the Muslim chiefs at Buansa were believed to be
the grandchildren of Tuan Masha’ika.

Sheik Karim-ul Makhdum, an Arab, was a religious figure and trader from Johor, who
came over to the Philippines in 1380 to spread the message of Islam. In Tawi-Tawi stands
Sheik Karimol Makhdum Mosque, the oldest mosque in the Philippines, though the
surviving internal structure only dates back to the 17th century reconstruction of the
mosque. He was later given the title Tuan Sharif Awliya’, though if he was really a shariff
is still debatable. In the Arab land, the term makhdum signifies a master, a person being
served and honored. The term was later on adopted in the Nusantara, referring to teacher or
person of wisdom.

Mindanao was under the influence of two major Sultanates, the Sultanate of Sulu and
largely, the Sultanate of Maguindanao. Shariff ul-Hashim/Sultan Abu Bakar (Sayyed
Shareef Abu Bakr Al-Hasyimi) was the founder of the Sultanate of Sulu, and the first
Sultan of Sulu. He was born in Johor, and was a direct descendent of the Prophet
Muhammad ‫ ﷺ‬through his maternal bloodline, Sayyed Zainul Abidin of Hadhramaut,
Yemen, who belongs to the fourteenth generation of Sayyidina Hussain, the grandson of the
Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. He married Dayang-dayang Paramisuli, the daughter of Rajah Baguinda,
making him the heir to the principality since Rajah Baguinda had no male heir. His reign
as the first Sultan of Sulu began in 1405. He was credited with introducing Islamic political
institutions and the consolidation of Islam as the state religion. In 1480, he was succeeded
by his son, Sultan Kamal ud-Din. The Sultanate of Sulu carried on to rule all the islands in
the Sulu archipelago, as well as parts of Mindanao, Palawan, Sabah and North Kalimantan.
The Sultanate of Maguindanao on the other hand was founded by Shariff Muhammad
Ahmad Bin Osman
Kabungsuwan, named as such (ke-bungsu-an in Malay) as he was the youngest of his
three siblings. He resettled to Mindanao from Johor, and from the Maguindanao genealogy,
his father, an Arab, was a shariff as well, a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad ‫ﷺ‬.
Shariff Kabungsuwan, whose reign began in 1520, is generally regarded as the one who
introduced Islam in the Lanao and Maguindanao areas. He formed alliances with influential
royal families of Sulu, Borneo, and Ternate, and Islam soon became the dominant religion in
the area.

Indeed, kabungsuwan came from the Malay language, and it is of no surprise as Malay
was the lingua franca before the Spanish colonization, and has always been the maritime
trade language of the Nusantara. While Malay might no longer be spoken by the minorities
there, being Austronesian languages, the Malay and Tagalog languages tend to share similar
words. Tagalog and Bisayan was originally derived from Old Malay.

Malay titles of nobility, such as datu and rajah, can still be seen in Maguindanao. If you
observe closely, the chef who was interviewed in Cotabato City is Datu Shariff Pendatun
III. Little did I know that he is a descendant of both the pre-Islamic rajahs of Buayan, and
also a descendant of Shariff Kabungsuwan mentioned above. Cotabato city where they
were in, comes from the Malay phrase kota batu which is translated as “stone fort”. This is
a reference to the stone fort which served as the seat of Sultan Muhammad Dipatun
Kudarat, the 7th sultan of the Sultanate of Maguindanao beginning in 1581.

With such a refreshing video, I felt the strong urge to share to everyone about this lesser
known side of history of the Philippines, which I myself have been oblivious to previously.
Most of the history that we know of comprise the colonization periods, and the Catholicism
of the country. Any and all elements regarding Islam in the Philippines have more often than
not, been portrayed in a negative light. Just like the sad state that Marawi City is in, a huge
irony, for that’s where the Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Arts sits. I believe that today, there
is an increasing discourse in the role of Islam in the Southern Philippines, as well as its
relationship with the rest of the Muslim world. Influential religious figures such as Abdul
Majid al-Mindanawi and Sayyid Tuan Muhammad Said (Kadi Sa Binidayan) are
beginning to get the recognition they deserve, and a deeper dive is being conducted into the
Islamic belief practiced there (influences of Sufism, practicing in the way of the Ahl al-
Sunnah wa al-Jamaah the Shafi’i madhab, studies of the majority of ulama’s in the
region).
May this, in some ways, change the perception of the majority towards the Muslim majority
Ahmad Bin Osman
areas of the Philippines. May this broaden our (the Malay world) horizons regarding our
brothers and sisters there who share the same religion, and to a certain extent, culture,
language and tradition. And may their plight be alleviated one day, insyaAllah.

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