ISLAM AND ISLAMIZATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

by: Peter G. Gowing

Arrival of Islam in the Philippines

The Islamization of the southern Philippines occurred along with the Islamization of
Borneo Sulawesi, Celebes, and the Moluccas. It is likely that Muslim Arab traders had begun
trading in the Philippines long before the Filipinos started to embrace Islam. Scholars today
believe that Muslim merchants, trading profitably in the Malay World brought Borneo to the
attention of the Chinese during the tenth century. This has prompted Dean Majul to comment:

"Since Borneo is close to the Philippines it can be presumed that

Muslim traders had begun to know Suluat least by that time, if not earlier. In
any case, there is evidence that Arabs had reached China from some islands
in the Philippines during the tenth century. "

Majul also points to a venerated grave of a foreign Muslim possibly an Arab, which is
found in a tempat (sacred grave) on Bud Dato, a few miles from Jolo town. It is dated 710 AH.
or 1310 A.D. and has been the site for the coronation of most of the Sultans of Sulu. 'It can be
inferred, says Majul, 'that by the end of the thirteenth century or at the beginning of the
fourteenth century there was already a settlement or colony of foreign Muslims in Jolo Island.'

Winning of Sulu

The Tausug, the predominant group in Sulu, are said to carry themselves a little
straighter than other Moro groups because they were the first to be won to Islam. The
'tarsilas' (geneology) and traditions of Sulu speak of a foreigner who bore the title Tuan
Mashai'ka and who came to Joio long ago, married the daughter of a local chieftain and begot
Muslims — meaning that he raised his children as Muslims. One tarsila mentioned that Tuan
Masha'ika came when the people of Jolo were still worshiping stones and other inanimate
objects. Dean Majul speculates that this person may well have been associated with the
community, which constructed the grave mentioned above, indicating that he may have lived
in Jolo in the early fourteenth century. Islamization, the process of Islam taking root among the
people outlive to Sulu, may well have begun with Tuan Mashai'ka raising Muslim Children by
his Jolo wife.

The tarsilas of Sulu were not written as scientific histories of the archipelago's chief families, so
as documents of their time and place, they contain elements which are patently mythological
and baffling for the present-day reader. Even so, they are important sources for clues as to the
beginning of Islam in the Philippines. They speak of the coming of a certain Karim ul
Makhdum, who was also called Tuan Sharief Awliya, a title given to holy men. Najeeb
Saleeby quotes from one tarsila as follows:

Sometime after that, there came Karim ul Makhdum. He crossed the

sea in a vase or pot of iron and was called 'sarip'. He settled at Bwansa, the
place where the Tagimaha nobles believed. There the people flocked to him
from all directions, and he built a house for worship.

Saleeby believed that the Makhdum (Arabic for Master or Father - a common
designation for Sufi missionaries) arrived in Sulu in the second half of the fourteenth century.
The tarsila does not mention that the Makhdum introduced Islam into Sulu, but the only that
people flocked from everywhere to hear him. The Makhdum's work, therefore, might well have
been that of reinforcing an Islam already present among foreign Muslims and their families and
using their settlement as a base, winning new adherents from among the surrounding local
and older population (Majul). The existence of graves in several places in Sulu which local
residents claim to be the final resting place of the Makhdum suggests the possibility that there
were two or more Makhdumin who contributed to the spread and consolidation of Islam in the
archipelago.
 Sulu tarsilas and traditions also speak of Rajah Baguinda, who late in the fourteenth
or early fifteenth century came to Jolo from the Menangkabaw region of Sumatra at the head
of a small fleet of praus (sail craft) transporting a force of warriors and settlers. It is not clear
whether the Rajah was a native Sumatran prince or a foreign adventurer who had simply
stayed a time in Sumatra. At any rate, he apparently sought to carve a new principality for
himself in Sulu. Supported by his followers, he overcame the initial resistance of the Joloanos,
insinuated himself into Sulu leadership on the basis of his being a Muslim like them, and
married the daughter of a local chieftain. Buansa was the seat of political power: His
significance in the history of Sulu is that, as a powerful foreign Muslim, he strengthened
Islamic consciousness in the area (Saleeby).

The tarsilas and traditions speak further of an Arab, Sayyid Abu Bakr, who came to
Buansa towards the middle of the fifteen century and lived with Rajah Baguinda. He married
the old Rajah's daughter, Paramisuli. After the death of his father in law, Sayyid Abu Bakr
succeeded to the latter's political authority and eventually founded the Sultanate of Sulu
(Saleeby). Abu Bakr is referred to in Sulu as Sultan Sharief ul Hashim and is credited with
having further consolidated Islam in Buansa and shaped political institutions along Islamic
lines. The fact that he was able to do this readily indicates a friendly disposition on the part of
the populace and the native chiefs for a deepening of their Islamization. The Sultan, esteemed
as a descendant of the Prophet, was said to have introduced the study of the Qur'an and to
have converted the hill people of Jolo to Islam (Majul). Hadji Butu, a distinguished Tausug
leader in the early decades of the present century, recorded the tradition of his people
concerning the missionary work of the first Sultan.

"The hill people were still unconverted. The coast people said' let’s
fight the hill people and convert them to Islam". But Abu Bakr would not allow it
and instead told the people to pound rice and make cakes and clothing. Then
the coast people marched inland to a place called Paayan. Abu Bakr sent word
to the headman that he was Arabian who could be spoken to by writing on
paper. The headman, called in those days 'Tomoai', said that he did not want to
see him for he did not want to change the customs of the ancestors. So Abu
Bakr approached and threw cakes and clothing into the houses of the natives.
The children ate, the cakes but the older people thought them poison and gave
them to the dogs. The dogs were not killed and the children went out the camp
of Abu Bakr where they were treated kindly. The two tribes came to an
understanding. That night Abu Bakr slept in the house of the chief. The chief
had a dream that he was living in a large house with beautiful decorations. Abu
Bakr interpreted the dream saying that the new house was the new religion and
the decorations its benefits. The news spread and after much difficulty, the
people were converted".

Penetration of Mindanao

Credit for the introduction of Islam into Mindanao is usually given to Sharief
Muhammad Kabungsuan who came from Johore to the mouth of Pulangi River sometime in
the first quarter of the sixteenth century. It is possible, however, that Muslim missionaries were
at work in Mindanao well before that time, for the traditions of the Maguindanaon speak of a
certain Sharief Awliya who introduced Islam in a place not far from the present-day Cotabato
City. His story is wrapped in myth. He is said to have come to Mindanao in the air in search for
Paradise. While he was looking for it on the hill of Tawantawan, he found a 'houri' (celestial
maiden) who was sent to him from heaven. He married this houri, and she subsequently bore
him a daughter who was called Paramisuli, indicating a princess of royal birth Afterwards, the
Sharief returned to the west, but his wife and child remained behind in Mindanao (Saleeby).
Maguindanaon traditions go on to speak to the later arrival of a Sharief Maraja who came from
Johore to the area of Slangan (Cotabato), on the northern branch of Pulangi River, where he is
said to have married Paramisuli. The dumato clan of Maguindanao, old rivals of the clans
descended from Sharief Kabungsuan, trace their line back to Sharief Maraja (Mastura-1977).
 Despite the possibility of earlier predecessors in Mindanao, Sharief Muhammad
Kabungsuan is regarded as preeminent among the pioneers of Islam on that island. The old
tarsilas of Maguindanao indicate that he was the son of an Arab father and Malay mother. His
father, being a Sharief was or alleged to be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
Maguindanao tradition also declares that Sharief Kabungsuan came to Mindanao with
migration of Muslim Samals. This migration, made up of boatloads of people, reportedly was
dispersed by a storm and the survivors found their way to the various ports in Sumatra, Borneo,
and Sulu and the case of Kabungsuan, as east as Mindanao. This tradition says that
Kabungsuan's Samal companions stopped for a time on Bongo island, not far from the mouth
of the Pulangi River; but eventually, they sailed away to the Gulf of Davao and Sarangani Bay,
leaving Kabungsuan behind. However, by that time, the Sharief had become firmly established
as a leader in Cotabato.

The traditions are not agreed on whether Sharief Kabungsuan might have settled first
among the llanun people of Illana Bay, or near the present-day Malabang, and then moved to
Cotabato, or vice-versa; but in any case, both the llanun and Maguindanao peoples proudly
claim that they were won over to Islam by his influence. He is universally pictured as having
been a devout and learned Muslim, possessed of a rigid attitude towards non-Muslims and full
of proselytizing zeal (Majul). By various means including both conquest and diplomacy,
Kabungsuan established himself as a power-in the Cotabato-Malabang region. He secured an
alliance with the Maguindanaon datus and went about conquering and converting such of the
surrounding tribes and chiefs as he could. He carried Islam to Buayan, up -river from Cotabato,
which was later to develop into an important Moro principality. He is reported to have married
the daughters of local datus and begotten children by them, thus securing his position in the
native aristocracy. He laid the foundations of the Maguindanaon Sultanate, though he and his
immediate successors were content to style themselves merely as Shariefs or datus. It was
Kabungsuan's great great grandson, Qudarat, who is the first Maguindanao ruler spoken of in
the tarsilas as 'Sultan' (Saleeby).

The Islamization of the Maguindanaon and llanun people was doubtless reinforced by
the influence of the Sulu Sultanate to which, in the latter half of the sixteenth century, the
neighboring Zamboanga Peninsula had become tributary. There is evidence that an
occasional religious teacher from Jolo found his way to Maguindanao settlements, helping to
strengthen their Muslim consciousness. Teachers came, too from Brunei. And the Moluccas
late in the same century. In 1578 and 1579, the Spanish Governor-General Francisco de
Sande ordered the commanders of two military expeditions against Maguindanao to arrest
'preachers from Brunei who preach the doctrine of Mahoma' (Blair and Robertson). And in
1588, Bishop Domingo de Salazar of Manila complained to the King of Spain that:

In the island of Mindanao, which is subject to Your Majesty, and for

many years had paid tribute, the law of Mahoma has been publicly proclaimed.
By preachers from Burney and Ternate who have come there... some of them
even, it is believed had come from Mecca. They have erected and are now
building mosques, and the boys are bein3g circumcised, and there is a school
where they are taught the alcoran. '(ibid)

Indeed, Spanish records show that by the end of the sixteenth century, the
Maguindanao had sufficiently incorporated into dar-al-islam (the household of Islam) that they
could count on neighboring Muslim states, notably Ternate, for military aid against Spanish
attacks (Majul, 1973).

From the Cotabato and Malabang areas, Islam spread to other parts of Mindanao,
initially along the coast and up the rivers. It reached Sarangani Bay and the Gulf of Davao and
also touched the shores of northern Mindanao. It penetrated as well the agricultural Maranao
people of Lake Lanao. Some local traditions suggest that Sharief Kabungsuan himself may
have gone to the lake area and converted the Maranao datus. The Maranao tarsilas are silent
on this matter, however, and it is possible that they were converted through contacts and
intermarriages with llanun and Maguindanao Muslims gradually over a period of time. Spanish
missionaries in 1640 reported that the datus of the lake area were Muslims, but not all of their
followers were - hence parts of Lanao were still thought of at that time as potentially fruitful
fields for Christian missionary work (Ibid).

There is also a tradition in Lanao that tells of another Sharief Alawi who came
possibly from Cotabato to the mouth of the Tagoloan River in what today is Misamis Oriental.
From there, it is said that he and his followers carried Islam to Bukidnon and the shores of
Lake Lanao (ibid). As of now, however, the exact provenance, manner, and dates for the
coming of Islam to the Maranao area are still subjects of speculation. What is known is that the
Islamization process, which began late in the sixteenth or early seventeenth century, was by
no means completed by the middle of the seventeenth century when the Spaniards attempted
unsuccessfully to conquer this area. But Islamization was completed by the late nineteenth
century when the Spaniards returned to campaign again. That the tarsilas of Mranao sultans
and datus almost always trace their ancestry back to Sharief Kabungsuan is an indication that
their Islamic faith and Islamic legitimization are derived from alliances and intermarriages with
Maguindanao and llanun aristocratic families.

Once again, we may look to Professor Majul for a summary of what he has perceived
as the main stages of the Islamization of Mindanao.

1. The appearance of Muslim missionaries in the Cotabato area around the middle of
the fifteenth century - possibly Arabs or Arab Descent, and they appear to have come via the
Sulu archipelago on their way to Cotabato. Some settled and raised families while others
stayed for a time and then departed. To them can be attributed the beginning of Muslim
settlements in the area of Pulangi River Basin. To this stage belong the legendary Sharief
Awliya and Sharief Maraja.

2. The immigration of Islamic people and the arrival of Sharief Muhammad

Kabungsuan in the Ilana Bay area in the first quarter of the sixteenth century- this stage
coincides with the few decades following the final collapse of the Majapahit as well as the time
of the arrival of the Europeans in Malaysia. The ruling families of Buayan and Cotabato are
Muslims, and through their efforts, the process of Islamization is accelerated. Muslim marriage
alliances with neighboring small principalities took place.

3. Additional contacts with other Muslim principalities, i.e., Sulu and the Moluccas in
the last quarter of the sixteenth century - marriage alliances between the royal families of Sulu,
Cotabato and Ternate were forged. Bornean and Ternatean preachers as well as itinerant
Arab teachers appeared before the end of the sixteenth.

4. A stiffening of Islamic attitudes in the face of Spanish attempts at colonization and

Christianization around the beginning of the seventeenth century-an acceleration of the
Islamization process in the Maranao area followed. A general awareness among the Muslim
people of Mindanao that they belong to a wider dar-al-Islam became universal, especially
during the reign of Sultan Qudarat.

Source: Muslim Filipinos- Heritage and Horizon Peter G. Gowing, Quezon City, 1979.

Other Suggested Readings:

Ben J. Kadil, Ph.D. History of the Moro and Indigenous Peoples in Minsupala (Philippine
Studies, Culture & Society) Department of History, MSU-Marawi, 2002.