Tag Archives: Sulu Sultanate

The Sulu Sultanate: Foreign Relations, Contacts and Collaboration with other Asian Kingdoms’

Pre-Sultanate Society: Early Social Classes and Community

Understanding the founding of Sulu Sultanate is a matter of understanding the social classes from the age of its conception.In Sulu genealogy, before the sultanate was established, the recognized leaders in the area around Buansa are composed of datus, tuans,sheikhs and orangkayas. The datu was considered to have the highest political stature, followed by the tuan. The sheikh was a religious personage while the orangkaya was a commoner of means (Majul 1999, 378). This political hierarchy also reflected the social classes at that time.

The first class refers to datus, such as the descendants of Raja Sipad and Tuan Mashai’ka; the second class refers to the sayk ( “shiek ” in Arabic); and the third class includes orangkaya such as the Baklaya chiefs. According to Salleby (1963), the datu and orangkaya are considered to be of Malay origin, while Raja and Baguinda (Baginda) are Sanskrit. Baginda (as highest) was also referred to an emperor, while Raja to king.

In pre-sultanate times, Muslim merchants played a pivotal role in the success of Islamic penetration in Sulu. They established close relationships with the chiefs who had absolute authority over their followers. The latter obeyed whatever pleased their masters including conversion to Islam. These prompted the growth of larger communities in Sulu and the Manila Bay area. Trade contacts with the Asian neighbors further developed in the fifteenth and the mid-sixteenth centuries (Jocano 2001, 151) including those in Butuan, Panay, Cebu, Leyte, Manila, Bicol, Laguna Lake, and Pangasinan. Following the growth of barangays in the sixteenth century, Islamic conversion eventually reached Maguindanao. Consequently, territories that were influenced by Islamic teachings and practices were formed under one political system—the Sultanate of Sulu.

Formation of the Sultanate and the Introduction of Islam

Early scholars of Islam believed that Prophet Mohammad is said to be the first Sultan in Mecca and regarded as a messenger of God. This belief has become part of Islamic tradition, which also holds the belief that the sultan is God’s representative on earth—a direct patrilineal descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. The sultan is believed to be the replacement of the prophet–a belief held by all countries under the sultanate system. As sultan, his behavior should ideally live up to the standards expected of a prophet (Kiefer 2003), who, as nabi, is God’s messenger. Accordingly, everyone must be submissive to the sultan who inherits his power from God through Prophet Mohammad. Hence, the latter is considered as the first sultan based on religious context.

The word “sultan,” believed to have been first used in the Ottoman Empire, originated from the Arabic word which signifies power, ruler, or a person with authority over a given territory or dominion. The word “sultanate” refers to the institution or domain ruled by the sultan. Later, the idea of sultanate found itself in the eastern part of Southeast Asia such as Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In the case of the Philippines, various sultanate kingdoms were formed in Mindanao, one of which was the Sultanate of Sulu.

The discovery of Tarsila, (or Sarsilah, Salsilah), associated with the Arabic word Silsilah, meaning chain or linkages, is an important source for the study of the Sulu Sultanate. It is the only primary written material pertaining entirely to the history of the Muslims of Mindanao or the Sultanate in particular, before the arrival of Spanish missionaries in Sulu (Salleby 1963). It provides for example, the genealogical account of royal family members of the Sultanate of Sulu. The Sulu genealogy shows the list of sultans of Sulu where the linkage between one sultan and another can be gleaned. As such, all succeeding sultans descended from the first.

The founding of Islam in Sulu contributed to the rise of the Sulu Sultanate. Without the Islamic religion, it would not have been possible for the sultanate to develop as an institution and as a system. The political basis of the sultanate follows the religious dogmas of Islam since the head of the sultanate is also the head of the Islamic religion in his dominion. All political, social and religious powers vested on the sultan are all covered in accordance with the Islamic law. The power and influence of the sultanate—be it political, trading and social—penetrated Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, China and as far as Saudi Arabia, and later, Britain, France, the Netherlands and Germany. At some point when the sultanate reached its political and economic vitality, it transformed Sulu as one of the most elegant kingdoms in Southeast Asia.

The expansion of the sultanate started along the coasts of Mindanao, spreading into some areas of the Visayas and Luzon (including Palawan). Consequently, Islam spread to other kingdoms in Luzon, as well as in Balayan, Bonbon, Cebu, Oton, and Mindoro. The tribes that accepted Islam were those from the Palawan group of islands and mainland Mindanao.

The ideology of the sultanate was based upon the Tausug understanding of Islamic political ideas unique to it own culture, and upon the conceptions of state and kingship common to Southeast Asia as these had filtered through Malay influence (Kiefer 2003, 12). The sultanate, then, is a form of government for the Tausug, who adheres to the law and worship God as an ibadat (in Arabic, ibadat, meaning duty of worship), in recognition of God’s authority (Kiefer 2003, 13). For all Islamic believers, it is necessary to practice ibadat—a way of submission to Allah. Because the sultan is considered as a representation of God’s authority, to be submissive to God requires that one must also be submissive to the sultan.

The Sulu chiefs were given the title Paduka Batara, which was based on the Ming Annals.4 As part of the divine authority of the sultan, the title Maulana signifies that the first ruler was part of the religious hierarchy (Majul 1999, 378). The sultan constitutes part of dar ul-Islam. As a sultan, he shall take command in times of war or invasion, and protect his kingdom at all cost.

It was believed that without the sultan there could have been no community, nor system nor a Muslim to acknowledge God. It was the sultan who served not just as a political symbol but also as religious icon at that time. In the same way that every Muslim gives importance to God, s/he must acknowledge the sultan accordingly.

The political organization in Sulu was mainly represented by the barangay system based on kinship, with each barangay operating independently of each other and where barangay chiefs were under the jurisdiction of the paramount chief (Jimenez 2004).3 The sultan resides either in Maimbung, Patikul or in Dungan in Tawi-Tawi where he controlled all the datus.

The Muslims who settled in the various islands came to Jolo not only for trade but also for Islamic learning, an indication that the people of Sulu finally embraced Islam as a monotheistic religion.

The Sultan and His Powers

The sultan was considered as “the mother-father of all the people. He would care for all his subjects who are considered his children to be treated equally (sic)” (Tan 2005, 47).5 The sultan, therefore, exercised an almost absolute power over his subjects in all aspects of life as expressed in such specific terms as huduldullah (punishment imposed), piagdatuan (area of jurisdiction), addat sarah (customary law), sapda sin nabi (the prophet seal on him), lambung sin Tuhan (the shadow of God), and ha lupah piagdatuan niya (in the land he rules) (Tan 2005, 47).

On the other hand, it was also believed that the sultan was just a datu, like all the rest; however, he holds certain power to maintain order in his territory. Among other powers that he possessed, he had jurisdiction over domestic quarrels such as divorce, marriages, guardianship, dead man’s estate and crimes.

It was also widely practiced that the public would kiss the hand of the sultan as a way of showing homage or respect. Kissing his hand was a form of acknowledging the presence of the nabi or prophet. “It is obligatory for the sultan to nurture the people who know the Koran (Koran/ Quar’ an) and who know the customary law” (Tan 2005, 47). The sultan was, therefore, recognized as an alim or a religious leader.

The sultan had the religious power called barakat (charismatic grace), “his words and his commands (tita) ascended to the heaven where they would be heard by the dead as well as the living” (Kiefer 2003, 14). This took the form of giving blessings and graces received from God. In which case, the sultan played the role of a messenger, or a substitute of Prophet Muhammad.

During Friday’s prayer, the imam (Muslim priest) would offer a prayer for the sultan. This prayer was included in Kutba, which was part of the Friday’s ritual of worship. The written Kutbah’s (or Kutba) of the imam was an important source of information in understanding the life and history of the earliest sultans in Sulu.

In accordance with the divine mandate, the sultan could not give or turn over the sovereignty of his territory: “No transfer or surrender of sovereignty was possible from the Sultan to colonial power, except, to another Muslim” (Tan 2005, xxxiv).

All conversations or communications must pass to the Julbahasa or the interpreters commonly known as speakers before they reach the sultan. The sultan would be so inaccessible he would not even eat with the commoners (Kiefer 2003, 15-16).

In matters of protocol, it is the quadi who is tasked to carry the royal .headgear and regalia. He would then approach and give these symbols of power to the sultan so that the latter could put them on. The Datu Bendahara would then proclaim the sultan but not without some prayers being said first by the quadi (Majul 1999, 394).

When the sultan would travel or perform state visit, he would do so by boat or on horseback. The sultan was escorted by an entourage of followers (tindug) covered by umbrellas. With him were “four bodyguards (munari mukahil) who normally stood next to the sultan in audience. They accompanied him on trips in complete fighting gear, including chain armor, guns, and swords. Ideally, they were younger datus who had houses near the palace” (Kiefer 2003, 16). Male slaves were evident in the palace of the sultan to ensure efficiency of serving him and the immediate members of his family.

The first wife (asawa puun) of the sultan was considered higher than the others, and ideally took the position as the headmistress of the house next to the sultan. She took care of the internal affairs of the house including the hosting of special ceremonies. Interestingly, many of the sultan’s concubines (sandal) were debt slaves; others were regular slaves who had been given to the sultan (Kiefer 2003, 16).

Samuel Tan (2005, 48) writes:
The sultan is free to give honor to anyone, even the small person, if his character and conduct exceed that of a big person; his conscience is always good and worthy emulation. It is proper that he should be included in any affair and be given respect because it is the will of God to express in the Koran wa padhal na, bah dahum, ald pa din da rajat. It means we shall increase half of what they are from half of what we are. That is why the Sultan can interpret the customary law pa-alun limayasa in the community he rules.

The actions and power of the sultan were basically guided by Islamic principles. The imam muwallam halipa was the highest religious title in the state commonly recognized by the sultanate—equivalent to the high priest. The same title was thought to be possessed by the sultan. He was considered as “the Caliphal representative within the community over which he ruled to establish the judgment of the Islamic religion and rightfully the one to govern according to customary law, all his subjects” (Tan 2005, 48). Pardoning was one of the special religious elements of the sultan. As such, he was providing a second chance to his subjects who committed sinful acts. It is a way of portraying God as forgiving.

The sultan has his local headmen appointed to the three lower ranks of the religious hierarchy: Bilal, hatib, and imam.

There was also the so-called regional or community headman that may be viewed as a petty sultan in his own domain. For some scholars, he is equivalent to a lesser sultan, while the real sultan was recognized as a powerful headman.

There was an important group of aristocrats serving as an advisory council of the sultan called the wajil or wajir (wazier). The wajil and the influential dams comprised the advisory assembly called the Duma Bichara (Ruma Bichara) or the house of speech. They literally spoke about potential problems, issues and suggestions including persuading both the sultan and other members of the Duma Bichara (Kiefer 2003, 16). The Ruma Bichara, the highest state council that was composed of the most powerful royal datus, had its share in the taxes imposed on all vessels trading in Jolo. There were the so-called ulama who supported the sultan for the centralization of power in order to ensure that political and military affairs were in good shape. The selection or election for the succession of the sultanate was participated by the Ruma Bichara, the sharifi, panglimas, chiefs of the interior of Jolo, and the most prestigious orangkayas (Majul 1999, 392).

Sara’ (shari’a in Arabic) refers to laws, rules and regulations under the influence of the sultanate. This may refer to a law as a body of legal rules; it may also refer to the officials who enforced the law.

According to Tan (2005), ” [i] t is obligatory for the sultan to order towards the attainment of good, to prevent the work of evil because it is the will of the prophet from the command of God wah mulbil ma’ru wan ha ani munkal was bilalama asabaka in na dalika la min hadz mil umul which means ‘you order to do what is good oh! Muhammad and the omission of what is bad and submit to anything that happens to you.'”

With this power vested upon the sultan, he could command his subjects for the benefit of the entire populace under his jurisdiction. Grievances may be brought to the local headman or any other official. But it was the role of the sultan to mediate if internal feuding could no longer be resolved by a local headman. This indicated that the sultan was given the authority to decide on cases pertaining to his subjects within his dominion.

“The Sultan is the receiver of all his subjects’ concerns including all their business affairs from whatever origins and to take care of them so that they will not be hurt by people” (Tan 2005, 49). It is, therefore, accepted that public properties shall be under his jurisdiction as well.

Meanwhile, the financial resources of the sultanate may come in the form of baytal-mal, sarakka, piracy-slavery and trading. These are the various elements that in most cases supported the internal revenues of the sultanate. As in any other institutions or kingdoms, the sultanate would not survive without financial resources that are used to maintain order and implement policies and functions.

Baytal-mal refers to certain percentages on various fines such as bride wealth payment and divorce fees which were collected by the official in charge of the case. Normally, one-half of these fines and fees would be kept by the local headman, and the other half would either be given directly to the sultan or to a higher headman, who in turn would give a portion to the sultan. “Officials were not required to keep a record of fines, and there was no way for the sultan to know if his subordinates were cheating him or not” (Kiefer 2003, 24).

Additionally, the sultan’s religious status gave him the right and opportunity to receive gifts as a sarakka (voluntary alms). This may be in the form of money, food, cloth, gold or any other objects of great value (Kiefer 2003, 24).

The sultan is free to do anything he wishes for the community where he rules and even up to the outlying islands that recognize his sovereignty. Nobody can oppose him because he is conferred by the prophet as asultano jullanda fiardi, meaning that the sultan is the Shadow of God in the land that he rules (Tan 2005, 50).

The territories of the sultanate did not have well-defined boundaries. While its sovereignty was recognized beyond its boundaries, it was done only in relation to a center. This means that the power of the sultan was strong in the inner parts of Sulu and gradually decreased in farther places. The farther the place, the lesser was the chance for the power and influence of the sultan to be felt. In Basilan, for instance, it was mainly symbolic, and the Yakans recognized his authority insofar as they felt it vital to maintain their self-image as Muslims. His political power extended as far as North Borneo, Zamboanga, and coastal Basilan (Kiefer 2003, 27). However, such power was said to be symbolic in nature and did not provide a direct effect on the people.

The sultan held the right as the owner of all lands, extending to other lands according to the sound of his gong as he traveled. He was the direct owner, or the tagamustak, of all the lands around the capital.

The founding of the sultanate signifies that the royalty was as influential as the rest of its Southeast Asian counterparts. The sultan did not govern defined territories or population. Instead, he “exercised power based on individual ties with local leaders who, in turn, exercised power in similar but smaller segments of the Sultanate” (Salman 2001, 61). The sultan had charismatic charm that would attract members of his community in order to maintain power and prestige. Politicking was already evident at this point in time—from members of the royal family down to ordinary individuals, as their status would certainly affect their economic enterprise.

The sultan was then accepted as the supreme ruler of the land next to God as he makes the final decision, be it in the fields of politics, civil economics and civic affairs or on moral virtues.

Slavery, Trading, and Taxes in the Sultanate

The presence of slavery in the sultanate was said to be more of political than of religious obligation. It was institutionalized by the sultanate as part of its formative years. Its presence was somehow supported by various sultans because of its beneficial effects to maintain the latter’s supremacy.

Islamic scholars argue that the acceptance of Islam is an acceptance of slavery as provided by the Islamic law, the Sharia’ ah. Slavery was recognized but on a very strict condition. Fatawa Islamiyah (2002, 5 & 97) states: “… [T]hat the basis of slavery is only through prisoners-of-war or captives obtained when fighting jihad against the disbelievers.” However, it was also evident at that time that slavery was already institutionalized in other parts of Southeast Asia, including those in Europe. Slaves were either captives from war, or bought from slave market, from debts, and those convicted of crimes. Slave raids and slavery, including piracy, were practiced by various ethnic groups from the south. Unsurprisingly, they were also evident among Hindu kingdoms in Luzon and the Visayas, as part of the natural order of the social structure.

The practice of slavery and trading provided gigantic opportunity for the sultanate to maintain its operations. Slavery provided human power for various commercial marine centers. Slaves were sold as human capital and women were particularly used as offerings to visitors or as concubines of public officials in the sultanate. The expansion of trading activities of the sultanate provided international linkages. This resulted not in market competitions but higher incidences of slaver aids which were necessary at that time. The stiff market competition also brought to the fore awareness on foreign exchange services and on the production of goods and their role in the economy. Above all, it provided the opportunity to collect taxes from visiting trading vessels in the Sulu Sea.

As regard taxation, taxes collected were used for the maintenance of the sultanate and other necessities. A percentage of the taxes also went to the datus to feed their wives, children, relatives, and paid servants. Other than taxes, it was also doctrinal that their participation in the war in the form of jihad was obligatory to all Muslim to protect the sultanate and, above all, to preserve and protect Islamic religion.

Because of this, Sulu then was at its peak of trading glory. Commercial rivalries and the quest for political and strategic control of the lucrative marine trade encouraged the entry of Spanish, Dutch, French, German and the British traders. This somehow shaped the political, economic and cultural image of the Sulu Sultanate in Southeast Asia.

The sultanate of Sulu dominated the marine trading activities in Sulu, extending as far as the Celebes Sea. The sultan had the sole authority over the islands including the nooks and corners where the mother of pearls were located. The datus did not have the authority on such activities unless granted by the sultan (Tan 2005, 100).

Undeniably, the growth of the economy brought greater demands for labor which resulted in slavery. However, development and infrastructure projects in Sulu would soon decreased, leading to the weakening Sulu’s position in local and international markets, as Zamboanga, Cebu and Manila provided better facilities.

Recorded Contacts with Brunei

In 1369, Raja Narawangsa sacked Brunei and took with him two giant pearls from the kingdom of Brunei (Ututalum and Hedjazi 2002, 45). Decades later, Sultan Mohammad, the first Brunei Sultan, had a daughter but with no male heir. She married Sharif Ali, an Arab missionary from Saudi Arabia, who came to Brunei and established Islam. Shard Ali’s active participation in the internal and external affairs of the sultanate later made him the third Sultan of Brunei with the title Sultan Berkat.7 It was said that Sharif Ali (Sultan Berkat of Brunei) arrived in Sulu, converted the Hindus to Islam, and later died in Jolo (Ututalum and Hedjazi 2002, 55-77).

The conversion of the Hindu Kingdoms to Islam in Sulu ended the reign of these kingdoms, leading to the eventual rise of the sultanate.’ From the founding of the Sultanate of Sulu, other sultanate kingdoms were also established such as in Maguindanao and even as far as Lanao.

When Sultan Bolkia conquered Sulu (as a continuation of Sharif Alih’s mission) during his reign in 1485, he took the ruling family (Alawaddin, his two sons and daughter) to Brunei (Ututalum and Hedjazi 2002, 80). It was during this ruling family’s exile in Brunei that Sultan Bolkiah married Alawaddin’s daughter.

Interestingly, it was also this daughter who told Sultan Bolkiah about the two pearls that her father possessed. The said pearls, taken from Brunei. in’ 1369, were handed down to her father, Alawaddin, by her grandfather Sultan Shariful Hashim during his coronation. Upon knowing this, Sultan Bolkiah ordered the return of the pearls and promised them freedom in Brunei.

After the sultan died, his successor Sultan Abdul-kahar set up a viceroy (an Adipati or Batara), who was stationed in Sulu and who controlled the archipelago.

Recorded Contacts with Indonesia and Malaysia

The Malay tribes were grouped into distinct classes during Spanish colonization. These were the Indios (who have adopted the religion or faith and’ the manner of dressing of the Spaniards) and the Moros (Muslim converts)’ (Aguilar 1994, 4). In 876, thousands of these foreign merchants who were mostly Muslims flocked to Kalah in Malaysia (Majul 1999, 42) resulting 41 the economic growth in the region. Such economic flourishment was not only;’ evident in Kalah but also in the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia in 878. When Islam was established in Aceh in Sumatra (Indonesia), it signaled the rise of Islamic civilization in the region.

The Malays who came to the Philippines brought with them the cultural traditions and ways of life of the peoples of the Hindu-Malaysian state.s, which were influenced by the Arab traders and missionaries (Zafra 1974, 5)= Evidence also shows that there were trading activities that occurred in China with the presence of Arabs and Persians. Trading activities in the Visayan with Borneo did not clearly specify Muslim influence among the Visayan- Theirmain activities were purely commercial in nature.

Recorded Contacts with India

The desire for greater wealth such as gold, spices and resources led early Indian’ traders to’ explore Southeast Asia, bringing with them the concepts of religion, culture and governance. The Tamil Indians occupied Java and then took over the Sulu trade and directed the trading activities as far as western Asia, making China as a gateway. Another group of Indians, the Champas, took over the Sulu trade, ushering in the coming of the Srivijayan Empire. Srivijaya became the most powerful empire in Southeast Asia. Incidentally, the first mention of the data system as a title was recorded in this period (Ututalum and Hedjazi 2002, 34-35).

The idea of datuship and rajaship in the Philippines came as early as the tenth century before the founding of the sultanate. Accounts of the popularity of datuship and rajaship were recorded in the seventeenth century. In fact, the datuship (Malay) co-existed simultaneously with the rajaship (Sanskrit) in the same period. Dam was an official Malay tide meaning lord, or a powerful chief who was usually in charge of a region within the state. The title of datu was later used among the Sulu royalties to mean “prince.” Later, the Srivijayan seat of power in Borneo became the Bandjarmasin that introduced kingdoms in the Philippines, and with it came the rajaship and the datuship before the end of the tenth century (Ututalum and Hedjazi 2002, 38).

Because of trade rivalry, a war erupted between the Javanese and the Srivijaya in the tenth century. The withdrawal of Srivijaya prompted the Philippines and Borneo to have a direct trade link with China. During the reign of the Madjapahit Empire from 1049 to 1369, there were no recorded direct contacts among Southeast Asian kingdoms with China. There was however, the establishment of the tributary states of Sulu (Soloo), a region near Lake Lanao and Salurong near Manila Bay.

Recorded Contacts with China

Based on various Chinese annals, the Chinese traders came to the Philippines centuries before the arrival of Islam and Christianity. When settlements were established along the river beds of Mayumbung and Dungun in Tawi-Tawi, there was no mention of any kings except in areas ruled by chiefs based on the Tang Annals. The richness of Sulu, particularly in pearls, attracted the Bandjarmasin and the Champa traders. Indo-China, Ofunan (Cambodia) and Champa (South Vietnam) played an important role in the Sulu trade and the expansion of its commercialization of sea products.

The Ming Annals reported that in 982, an Arab vessel from Mai (Chinesg name for the Philippines) went to China for trade purposes. This gave thqi Chinese the idea of exploring farther the Sulu Seas. “The exploration of the` pearl beds was not open to foreigners in ancient times until again by social contract the sultan and the people granted the first royal permit to a Chinese trader who came to Sulu. The Chinese trader was given surat katarangan certificate aright on the condition that fees were paid to the sultan” (T 2005, xxxvi).

In 1011, Ali Bakhti, an Arab Muslim, went on a tribute mission to China. Sulu sent .a tribute mission to China as well in 1370, and Brunei sent one in 1371 to meet China’s demand for marine and forest products of Sulu and Borneo, respectively. The Chinese food market imported seaweed, shark fins, tortoise seashell, pearls and salt. The forest products included camphor, bird nest, pepper, clove bark, medicinal beetle nuts, rattan, bees wax and lumber,

A group of Chinese traders on board the sampan came to Sulu for trading purposes. They requested for as many mother pearls as possible. “This was the beginning of pearl extraction by the foreigner until nothing was left” (Tan 2005, 107)..11 There was no tribute mission coming from Java to China in 1293-1368. In 1368, the founder of the Ming dynasty sent Hung Wu to, Java, Brunei and Sulu, asking these places to send tribute missions to China. At this time, the Madjapahit already became a tributary to China after the Mongol invasion in 1293.

The Ming Annals (Ututalum and Hedjazi 2002, 42) reported that:
[The] three kings from Sulu went on a tribute mission to China in 1417—Paduka Batala (Sulu east king), Maja Raja Kolamating (Chinese for Kamaluddin) of the West Country, and Paduka Palabu from Duon (Chinese for Dungun) state in Tawi-Tavvi… Kalamuddin was proclaimed by the emperor as king of the west (because he lived in the western part of Jolo islands).

Paduka Batala, king of east Sulu, got sick and died in China. During the Ching dynasty in 1731, his descendants requested to be naturalized. The emperor granted them the family names of Wen and An and they became Chinese citizens (Ututalum and Hedjazi 2002, 42-48).

At any rate, the last tribute to China was sent in 1424, marking the end of the Sulu kingdoms and the beginning of the sultanate.

Recorded Contacts with the Arabs

As early as the seventh century, Muslim Arabs and Persian missionaries introduced Islam in India (Gujerat and Bengal). By the eight century, they set up communities in Guangzhou (Canton) and other coastal cities where many Chinese were converted to Islam and were known as hui. Internal domestic conflict, including their foreign policy, made Arab trading activities difficult in China. The Arabs were forced to shift their trading network to Southeast Asia in 874. Another conflict in India in the tenth century prompted the influx of Arab traders in Southeast Asia.

Tuan Mashai’ka was believed to be the first messenger of Islam to arrive in southern Philippines. He married the daughter of a local chieftain, Rajah Sipad (George 1980, 16-17). A series of conversion drives took place, from Hinduism to Islam. Under the Islamic influence, the Sulu trade expanded as far as China, India, Arabian Peninsula and Morocco. Al Makhdum, whose full name was Makhdum Ibrahim Al-Akbar Bin Malajuddin Al-Hussaini, was the most prominent among all missionaries who made a strong conversion drive. Makhdum was also known as “sharif aw-iya.” He constructed the first and the oldest existing mosque in the Philippines, which is in Tubig Indangan, Simunul Island in Tawi-Tawi. The marker on the mosque and his tomb signify that he arrived in Sulu earlier than Abu Bakr.

The spread of Islam was made possible through trading activities, missionary outreach, marriages, alliances with the royal families and the conversion of local rulers. Contact with the Hindu, Chinese and Arab traders before the arrival of Spain made significant contributions to the development of Southeast Mindanao in the field of economics, governance and cultural enrichment.

Concluding Note

The formation of the sultanate coincided with the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia, particularly in Mindanao. Islamic dogmas influenced the beginning of the sultanate. Meanwhile, the trading activities, missionary outreach, marriages, alliances with the royal families and the conversion of the local rulers also contributed to the spread of Islam. The acceptance of the sultan as a representation of God’s authority to rule over them helped shaped the institutionalization of the sultanate. Likewise, slavery became part of the natural order present in other parts of Southeast Asia. It provided gigantic opportunity for the maintenance of the sultanate which made it strong enough to resist foreign invasion particularly from Spain in the late fifteenth century. Sulu’s early contacts with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and with the Hindu, Arab and Chinese traders strongly indicated its vitality in Southeast Asia.

The Sulu Sultanate: A Historical Encounter of Islam and Malay Culture

The Moros, known in the academe as the Muslim Filipinos, are going through an identity crisis. Once again they are challenged to define who they are as a people. Are they a people apart from the Philippine nation? Or, are they Malay just like most Filipinos?

Today, the Moros’ Malayness is gradually being eroded as they try to uncritically imitate the Arabs. It is almost as if in their minds, to be a Muslim is to be an Arab. They are doing away with Malay clothes and replacing them with Arab garb. The kopiya, an oval shaped hat similar to that worn in two other Malay nations, Indonesia and Malaysia, was at one point the trademark of the Muslims of Mindanao. Now, it is gradually being replaced by the taqiyah, a Muslim hat worn in Egypt, Sudan, and other African countries. A growing number of Moro women are now wearing the ingab, a black dress worn by Muslim women of the Middle East that completely covers the body, leaving only a small opening for the eyes. The niqab is slowly replacing the malong and patadjong, the traditional Moro dress. The kopiya and the patadjong are, to some extent, the remaining symbols of Moro or Muslim Filipino identity that indicates that they are Malay and definitely’ not Arab.

It is important to understand that Islam can be lived out in different ways in different cultures, and cannot therefore be reduced to one cultural expression. A Malay expression of Islam is as valid as the Arab expression of Islam. One does not have to be Arab to be Muslim. If the Moros are not careful and assertive enough they will easily be over-run by Arab cultural imperialism. The Moros must learn to distinguish the cultural from the religious elements in Islam. The Moro people should strictly follow the main tenets of Islam, e.g., Tawheed (Unity or Oneness of God) and the fire pillars, but at the same time be able to discern which expressions are culturally Arab and which can have an equivalent expression in the Moro-Malay culture.

The Moros have in their tradition a rich cultural heritage. Their indigenous expression of Islam in Mindanao is their soul. This makes them distinct from other Muslim tribes and defines their identity as Muslim Filipinos. The challenge now is to revisit and reexamine the age-old practices, a product of an encounter between Islam and the Moro’s Malay culture.

Islam is established in Sulu

Centuries before the arrival of Islam and Christianity, the Philippines was part of the greater Malay Archipelago that was under the influence of the Hindu-Buddhist traditions in the nineteenth century. The process of Indianization would take deep root in the mainland areas of Southeast Asia through the Srivijaya and Madjapahit Empires. The shift to Islam can be traced back to the Arab trade with South China that expanded during the Sung times [Sing Dynasty] (960-128( CF). As a result of increased contacts between Chinese merchants’ and Arab and Persian traders, the Hindu-Buddhist influence in Southeast Asia gradually shifted to Islam.’ The expansion of trade in Southeast Asia consequently led to the coming of more Arab and Persian traders to Malaysia and Indonesia, North Sumatra, and the Moluccas. The former Hindu-Buddhist Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia would turn Islamic by the thirteenth century (Evangelista 1970). It was via Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra that traders and Muslim missionaries finally reached Sulu.

In 1275-1310 CE (710 A H), Tuhan Masha’ika arrived in jolo. In 1380 CE, Karim ul-Makhdum and his companions arrived and converted a large number of Taosugs to Islam. Karim Makhdum was responsible for the founding of the first mosque in the Philippines at Tubig-Indangan on Simunul Island near job. Najeeb Saleeby (33) recounts from one tarsila as follows: “Some time after there came Karimul Makdum. He crossed the sea in a vase or pot of iron and was called Sarip (Sharif). l le settled at Buwansa, the place where the Tagimaha nobles lived. There the people flocked to him from all directions, and he built a house of worship.” So by the late fourteenth century there were already Muslim settlements in Sulu.

The next important figure to arrive in Sulu was Rajah Baguinda, a prince from Sumatra, who reached Sulu in the early fifteenth century with a group of men knowledgeable about Islam. They settled in Buwansa, which eventually became the first capital of the Sultanate of Sulu.

The Moros needed a sultan who could establish an Islamic state where God’s law and justice would be upheld. That crucial period in Sulu’s history would be realized in 1450 CE with the arrival of Abu Bakr. In the annals of Malacca, it is recorded that Sayyid’ Abu Bakr was regarded as a famous authority on law and religion. His origins, however, remain steeped in mystery. One version of the story claims that he came from Mecca. The other theory states that it was his father, Zaynul Abidin, who came from Mecca and that he was, in fact, born in Malacca. “It is the common belief that Abu Bakr was born in Mecca and that he lived some time at Juhur (or Malacca). Others state that it was his father, Zaynul Abidin, who came from Mecca and that Abu Bakr was born of the daughter of the Sultan of Juhur at Malacca. lie came to Pangutaran first, the narrative continues, then to Zamboanga and Basilan… He remained at Basilan for a short while. Having heard of Abu Bakr, the people of Sulu sent Orankaya Su’il to Basilan to invite him to Buwansa to rule over them. This invitation Was accepted” (Saleeby, 45-46). Abu Bakr settled in Sulu to establish a sultanate, an Islamic system of government, that would help the Moros practice Islam more faithfully. It is through this that the Taosugs (through contacts they made with Muslims from China, India, and Malay Archipelago) attribute their origins as Muslims to the Arabs. Sayyid Abu Bakr was most probably Malay, yet Mows claimed that he was from Arabia and a descendant of Muhammad, thus legitimizing his status as sultan.

As one would expect, the Moros welcomed him with little resistance and invited him to become their sultan. Majul noted that the “majority of traditional accounts precisely suggest that Muslims and not pagans had invited Abu Bakr to come over to Buansa’ and that it was the Islamic consciousness of the people that inclined them to realize the need for a sultan” (383). The smooth transition from the indigenous family-oriented barangay system to a sultanate was possible because even before Abu Bakr arrived in Sulu, the Sulu society had already been transformed into an Islamic society to a certain degree (6). Abu Bakr married Paramisuli, the daughter of Rajah Baguinda, the reigning Rajah of Sulu. When Rajah Baguinda chose Abu Bakr to be his successor, Abu Bakr took the name 20 Sharif ul-Hashim and became the first Sultan of Sulu. The shift of titles and names from Sanskrit to Arabic among the succeeding sultans and Moro constituents of Sulu signifies the gradual process of Islamization from a Hindu-Buddhist culture mixed with the Malay culture. A.C. Milner (1981, 6) has argued that

“… the usage of Arabic titulature in the Malay context is more an aspect of the harmonization of the Islamic regal tradition than the translation of its forms and erasure of existing local structures. All such titles were most likely adopted by the Southeast Asian rulers as part of the continuing process of adhesion to Islam.”

Because the Sulu sultanate was distant from the Islamic heartland, the Taosug political ideology of the sultanate was “interwoven and syncretized both with notions unique to the Taosug, as well as conceptions of state and kingship common to Southeast Asia” (Kiefer, 33). The notions had understandably filtered through Malay in influence. Nonetheless, of the sultanates in Mindanao, the Sulu Sultanate had political institutions which were relatively the most centralized. The Moros of Sulu and the succeeding sultans tried to see to it that these institutions would reflect the Tawheed, their belief in one God, and uphold God’s law, the Shariah.

Pre-Islamic barangay system

Before Islam first reached Lupah Sug (Land of Sulu) in the thirteenth century and established a sultanate in the fifteenth century, the people in Sulu, as in the rest of the Philippine archipelago, developed basic units of settlements called banna or barangay. The generally accepted theory is that the Sulu Sultanate appears to have developed from the indigenous barangay system, a native social and political organization based on kinship that expanded loosely beyond family relationships, and was ruled by a datu (Malay) or a rajah (Hindu). These datus ruled as feudal lords of fortified kuta scattered throughout the Sulu archipelago.

A Moro’s primary allegiance was loyalty to his sultan and his immediate dam. William Henry Scott pointed out that loyalty to the leader was a priority, and the number of followers was the primary determination of the datu’s strength: “Generally, society was constituted by the commoners who were joined to the dam, and the slaves” (l.arousse 2001, 32). The primary basis for interpersonal and social relations in the Moro society was the datu-sakop“‘ relationship. What contributed to its strength was that it was mutually beneficial for both sides. A form of mutual obligation developed between the data, who had authority, social status, and wealth and the sakop, who gained a sense of security from his datu’s protection and sustenance. In exchange for his sakops’ loyalty and service, the datu’s primary interest was their economic welfare. The datu-sakop relations may be likened to that of a patron-client. Both benefited economically and politically.

This loyalty to their data was a significant factor of the mass conversion of Moms to Islam. Once the data was converted to Islam, practically everyone in his barangay also converted. Considering the advantages of being a Muslim in a commerce dominated by Muslim Arabs, the data himself may have been motivated by the economic and political reasons to opt for conversion. The sakop followed their datu’s shift in religion out of loyalty and allegiance to him and trust in his goodwill. The introduction of Islam further deepened the bond between the data and sakop by giving it a religious and transcendent dimension. As a consequence, enduring Islamic bonds bound the flatus and their sakop to one another, with the sakop’s loyalty to his data now seen as a religious obligation.

Islam had raised the status of the sultan, the leading data of all flatus, to the level of God’s deputy who was worthy of submission. In fact, Moms were led to believe that the blood of the Prophet Muhammad ran in the sultan’s veins. This inspired the sakop to work and fight for him: “If he was insulted, belittled or injured, so were they—and they would not rest until he was avenged” (Gowing 1988, 48).

This identification of the sultan’s divine entitlement explained the willingness of the Moms to do parrang sabil” to defend their sultan and data. In a situation of war, giving up one’s life for the sultan to gain paradise became more valued. Saleeby was aware of this when he recommended to the American colonial authorities in Sulu that “Islam should be encouraged by colonial authorities because it is which binds the Muslim populace most indelibly to their leaders” (McKenna 1998, 106). Religion now provided the Moros a new motive that far surpassed economic benefits.

One cannot stress enough the powerful and lasting influence that the traditional barangay system of datu-sakop relations had upon the sultanate that replaced it. The Islamization of the barangay system had further consolidated local datus and facilitated political centralization. The datus ruled as feudal pirate lords who formed fortified kutas scattered throughout the Sulu archipelago. Through the establishment of the sultanate, the local datus of various barangays who ruled as feudal lords throughout the Sulu archipelago were united under the sultan and were represented by select datus who comprised a council, the ruma bichara, to advise the sultan on the affairs of the sultanate.

The idea of representation may pass for a democratic system, except that the members of the ruma bichara were not elected but were ex-officio, included by virtue of their status as royal datus. An account of a traveler in Sulu during the late eighteenth century (Forrest 1779, 326) describes how a ruma bichara operates:

“About fifteen Datoos … make the greater part of the legislature … They sit in council with the Sultan. The sultan has two votes in this assembly, and each datu has one. The rajah muda,  …if he sides with the sultan, has two votes; but, if against him, only one. There are two representatives of the people, called mantiris, like the military tribunes of the Romans. The common people of Sooloos… enjoy much real freedom, owing to the above representation.”

From the beginning, the sultan had never acquired absolute power over the datus. When Abu Bakr established the sultanate, he wanted to bring the whole land under his name, or at least subject to his authority. The local datus opposed this because it meant they would lose their authority, since one of their bases of power was actual control of a territory. Abu Bakr and the datus arrived at an agreement, the tartib, which continued the influence of local datus over their respective territories and communities. The tartib indicates that the sultan, however, may send his panglimas (representatives) all over Sulu, thus ensuring links and promoting unity throughout the sultanate.

Segmentary state

According to Kiefer, the segmentary state is the model that best describes the traditional Taosug polity. He understands the segmentary state to be “composed of sub-units which are structurally and functionally equivalent at every level of the political system” (Warren 1998, xxiv). In the case of the Sultanate of Sulu, the sub-units would be the barangays ruled by individual datus. The barangays existed independently of each other, but they were linked to each other to organize trade under the leadership of the sultan.

“In a traditional segmentary state, territorial sovereignty waxed at the centre and waned at the periphery” (Warren, xxiv). The Sulu sultanate was a centralized political system which territorial sovereignty was centered in the Sultan who was based in job. The Moros were loyal to the Sultan as well as to their datus as expression of their fidelity to Allah. Kiefer stressed the importance of seeing the sultan and datus, particularly the royal claws, as mirror images of each other. In fact, the Taosug generally believe that the blood of the Prophet Muhammad ran in their veins.

As for the sakops, who were mostly the datu’s kinsmen, their primary loyalty was to their immediate datu, rather than to the sultan. If their datu was loyal to the sultan, then they too ought to be loyal to the sultan, according to the degree of loyalty their data had for the sultan. However, some datus were loyal only to gain more prestige and win more concessions from the sultan.” Power remained diffuse within the sultanate as factional politics revolved around the more powerful claws. “[I]t was not uncommon for strong leaders to use raw power in the appropriation of rights theoretically attached to the sultan in order to further their personal interests and prestige” (Warren, xxv). A datu’s power and prestige was based on his personal wealth, the number of sakop who rallied around his leadership, and the number of slaves he owned. The common words for slave in Taosug were Bisaya and banyaga, a proper noun referring to a person from the Visayan islands in central Philippines where most slave raids were carried out. The banyaga or Bisaya not only labored in his house and fields, adding to the datu’s prestige and economic strength, but they sometimes augmented his military force as well (Gowing, 48). The datu’s power depends on how he wielded his authority over his people, and how he could mobilize them for work or war at any given moment.

The Sultanate of Sulu was pyramidal in structure. As one moves from the apex toward the base, one sees the sultan’s power and influence diminish and the datus take over. The Sultan’s power and influence waned as it got farther from the center, and datus at the periphery had more influence and control on the Moros. if the Sultan departs from the ideals of Islam, then a datu or claws would take the responsibility to uphold and defend Islam. The pre-eminent position of the sultan at the apex of this political system was emphasized by certain rites and symbols which validated his authority (Warren, xxvi).

In gatherings, his seat would always be higher than the rest of the datus, symbolizing the dignity of his office. The court ritual was highly elaborate(xxvii): “…all letters, official dispatches, and verbal requests were addressed to the sultan in a special court vocabulary through an interpreter. Richly textured clothing, ceremonial paraphernalia such as umbrellas and weapons, especially ornate kris bronze and brass domestic utensils, and household ornaments were additional evidence of the sultan’s symbolic strength and sacred character.”

Tawheed: Sacralizing the sultan

For the Taosug, the leadership of the community was symbolized in the sultan… Without the sultan, there could be no community, nor men properly claim to be Muslims, for in order to acknowledge the sovereignty and unity of God, it was necessary to give a similar acknowledgement to the sultan.

Thomas Kiefer, 1972

The Qur’an repeatedly emphasizes the Oneness or Divine Unity of God, and this is mirrored in the Islamic doctrine of the Tawheed. The Tawheed is the central article of faith in Islam. As with most Muslims, the Tawheed is central to the Moros.

The Qur’an also explicitly describes God as Ai-Malik. meaning sovereign, and Al-Malik-u/-Mulk, the eternal possessor of sovereignty. These two adjectives are also among the ninety-nine names of God. The Qur’an (51:58) makes it clear beyond any doubt that all power lies in God who is Al-Muqtadir—possessor of all power.

Moros believe that God had exercised his sovereignty by delegating it in the form of human agency, and that this human agent was the sultan. If God is sovereign, then His representative on earth ought to be sovereign, too. In the early Muslim community in Medina, the prophet Muhammad was regarded as God’s human agent. For the Moros, within the context of the Sultanate of Sulu, that human agent was their sultan, who was “the shadow of Allah on Earth” (as-sultan zill Allah fi al-ard), an expression that goes back to the Abbasids (132/749 CE- 656/1258 CE). This approximates the title “vice-regent or deputy of God (khalifat ul-Allah)” on Earth, used by the Umayyad caliphs (41/661 CE-132/749 CE). The sultan as a ruler, however, was a humbler version of the actual Caliph of Islam. Over time, the Moro sultan claimed to be God’s khalifah or local representative. As God’s khalifah, the sultan executed God’s will and sovereignty by implementing what was prescribed in the Shariah.

Furthermore, the Moros also identified their sultan as halip tul rasul (successor of the messenger/prophet). Saleeby (17) observed that the Moros believed that their sultan was of noble birth and the Prophet’s blood runs through his veins. The Moros celebrated this status of the sultan through an annual religious ceremony during Maulud-al-Nabi (birthday of the Prophet). On that day they pay homage to their sultan by kissing his forehead which for them is like kissing the nabi (Kiefer, 34). The participant of this rite was believed to receive the barakat, God’s blessing or grace, because God’s charismatic grace surrounds the person of the sultan.

Kiefer has argued that Sufism contributed to raising the religious status of the sultan to an awe-inspiring level by sacralizing it. Sufism preached that the office of the sultan was shrouded with barakat, a state of religious blessing or grace. When a man was appointed sultan, he was said to acquire more barakat from God, empowering him to embody the ideals of Islam and be the ultimate interpreter of the law. However, the sultan’s judgments were not infallible. He could commit sins and go to hell like any man. Only when he was acting in the ideal manner was God’s will manifested through him (53-54). This was why he consulted with his ruma bichara, his wazir (prime minister), and a kudi (qadi or judge), a judicial advisor trained in the canon law of al-Shafii, who more often than not was a foreigner: Arab, Malay, or Bugis (37).

As Allah’s deputy and as one who replaced the prophet Muhammad, the person of the sultan was so sacred that no man can do him bodily harm without incurring God’s wrath and terrible punishment in this life and in the life to come (Saleeby, 17). His wrath (mulka) was similar to the wrath of God (Kiefer, 35). Moros also believed that at the end of every Moro’s lifetime, the sultan “was said to witness in the afterlife and at the day of judgment to his subjects’ faith in Islam; without the sultan there would be no intermediary between God and man” (35).

The rise of the sultanate: The Sino-Sulu trade

Although Sulu appears in Chinese sources only during the Yuan dynasty (1278-1368 CE) and the subsequent Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE), the Chinese recorded that as early as 982 CE, Mayi ships were repeatedly seen in trading ports in southern China. Quoting Manguin’s Catalogues raissone’ De Loeuvre Peint (1980). Ututalum and Hedjazi also noted that this description fits the boats built in Butuan in northern Mindanao, migrating to Sulu only in the eleventh century, it can be safety surmised that Taosugs owned the trading ships.

By the eighteenth century, the Sultanate of Sulu was one of the most powerful in the Malay region. It was described as the mart of all Moorish kingdoms, strategically located between Mindanao and Borneo, and at the center of trade in the Sulu zone. But what catapulted the sultanate to such glory was its reaction to the growing capitalist economy and rapid advancement of colonialism in Southeast Asia by the end of the eighth century. It would be the Chinese tea trade that demanded a significant labor force. The Sulu Sultanate was in a position to respond to this demand.

Slave raiding was practiced by the Moros long before the 1768 Sulu Sino trade boom in the Sulu zone. In fact, slave raiding even per dated the arrival of the Spanish. Sulu was not densely populated during this period, and capturing people and bringing them to Sulu was a strategy that was often used to augment the population and increase its labor force. Since the power of the Sultan or a datu depended a great deal on the number of his followers, who were comprised of the sakop and the captured banyaga, the datus took their fleet to the northern islands to find slaves to bring back to Sulu province. The sultans also made marital and political alliances with the Iranun tribes that specialized in slave raiding.

Things in Sulu would significantly change in the eighteenth century when tea as a commodity drove the world’s capitalist economy. The fascination for tea, which was cultivated by Chinese peasants int he mountains of Fujian, swept Europe by the late seventeenth century

“Such that by 1700, tea had become, along with coffee and cocoa, one of the ‘great non-alcoholic drinks’ for all those Europeans with a sound grasp of epidemiological principles and fear of water-borne diseases and pestilence” (Hobhouse in Warren, 25). The belief in the medical benefits of tea contributed to the surge in demand for tea in the British Isles and in many parts of the Western world. “By 1820, it is estimated that probably thirty million pounds of the company’s tea was consumed in Britain alone… In 1801, at retail, tea cost importers about two million pounds in China.”

In response to the great European demand for tea, the British discovered that it was more profitable to trade with China for Chinese tea by using products from Southeast Asia as their trading commodity.’ They recognized that the Sulu zone had a seemingly inexhaustible source of marine and forest products that China would be willing to trade for its tea. To cut into the China-Sulu trade, the British opened a new port on the island of Balambangan between Borneo and Palawan. As the middlemen between the Chinese-Sulu trade, the British became part of the profitable trade triangle. By 1772-1775, through the East India Company, the British rapidly gained control of the market in the region by using North Borneo as a springboard.

The British supplied the demand for tea in Europe by trading their modern firearms for the Moms’ tripang and birds’ nest, and they in turn traded these products for China’s tea. This triangular sea trade provided exotic food to satisfy the new eating habits and styles of Chinese cooling, satisfied the desire of the Moros for the latest European firearms, and supplied the demand for tea in Europe. In addition, the British came up with a more sinister plan of using opium to trade with the Moros. But the adverse effect of this new trade triangle which James Warren called the Sulu zone was the resulting demand for a labor force that could harvest the marine and forest products in Sulu.

Thus there was a rising demand for tea in Europe and a concomitant increase in regional-wide slave raiding in Southeast Asia. Taosug claws partially re-patterned the life of particular marine groups to meet the soaring European and Chinese demand, and to gain direct access to western technology and Chinese trade goods. The efforts of ambitious datus to participate in this burgeoning world-capitalist economy, with its extraordinary profits and makers of differential status and prestige, forced the demand for additional labour up and swelled the How of global regional trade. The need for a reliable source of labour power was met by the Iranun and SamalBalangingi, the slave raiders of the Sulu zone (Warren, 39).

Sulu’s entry into the world trade market required bigger prabus to hold more products, and at the same time accomodate more slaves who would provide the much needed labor to harvest the exotic products of Sulu. Mallari (1989) argued that the Moros of Sulu began building bigger prahu ‘because of the increased demand for captives in the slave markets down south.” This coincided with the report of Captain Thomas Forrest, an Englishman, who visited Jolo in 1774 and who wrote that the prahus of Sulu could carry six to forty tons burden, and could still sail well. Another explorer, Henry Keppel (1853, 31) who visited Borneo in 1843, described the prahus to

“… measure ninety feet in length, with a proportionate beam. The usual armament of such a vessel would be one gun- from a six to twelve- pounder- in the bow; … besides about twenty or thirty rifles or muskets. Such boats would pull from sixty to eighty oars, in two  tiers; and her complement of men would be from eighty to one hundred. Over the pullers , and extending the whole length of the vessel, is a light but strong flat roof made of thin strips of bamboo, and covered with matting. This protects their ammunition and provisions from the rain, and serves as a platform on which they mount to fight and from which they fire their muskets or hurl their spears with great precision. The rowers sit cross-legged on a shelf projecting outwards from the bends of the vessel.

The British’s search for commodities to trade with China brought with it significant shifts in trading systems. Along with the rising demand for tea came a parallel demand for labor to work in the fisheries and forests of the Sulu zone. All these powerful economic forces pushed the Moro datus in the direction of acquiring increasing numbers of slaves. It can be said that the success of the trade triangle of China, Britain, and the Sultanate of Sulu was made possible primarily by slave labor.

Land was abundant in Southeast Asia and was therefore not the basis of power. With an economy that was labor intensive, slaves provided the index of wealth and power. In the Philippines, as early as the sixteenth century, Spaniard A. de Morga (trans. Cummins 1971, 274) observed.

“[T] hese slaves constitute the main capital and wealth of the natives of these islands, since they are both very useful and necessary for the workers of the farms. Thus, they are sold, exchanged and traded, just like other article of merchandise, from village to village, from province to province, and indeed from island to island.”

Slave trading was practiced not only in the Philippines but throughout Southeast Asia. In fact, the Moros already practiced slave raiding way before 1768 when the British cut in on the Sulu-Chinese trade.

In the Sulu society, it was not the vast amount of land that determined the strength of the datu. The number of followers was the primary determinant of the datu’s strength. Increasing the population through slave raiding was an accepted practice among the datus. This practice would eventually conflict with the Americans when they established their sovereignty in Sulu at the turn of the twentieth century.

When the Americans landed in Sulu in 1898, they encountered a sultanate that had been in existence for nearly four centuries. However, the Sultanate of Sulu was in decline. It had been losing its prestige as an economic and political force in Asia since 1848 when Spain introduced more powerful steamboats to control the Sulu Sea, effectively blocking the sultanate’s lucrative economic trade with the Dutch, British, and the Chinese (Larousse, 82). By the turn of the twentieth century, the weakened sultanate was vulnerable to the American occupying forces.

It was not an easy transition for the Moros. The sultanate had governed them for three centuries, and the dismantling of this traditional structure brought about a political vacuum in Sulu. As the disarmed Moros were left in their most vulnerable state, the United States transferred the responsibility of governing the Moro people in the hands of the inexperienced Christian Filipinos. Despite protects from the Moro people, the United States declared Philippine Independence in 1946 and annexed Mindanao and Sulu to the new republic. From then on, the integration of the Moros into the national polity has constantly failed. This became severe in the 1960s when fierce political disputes with the Republic of the Philippines became a struggle for an independent Bangsamoro (Moro Nation). As one can see, the failed American policies in Sulu are partly to be blamed for the ongoing Moro Problem today.

At the turn of the twenty-first century the decline of law and order in Sulu has led to its status as the poorest region in the Philippines. There have been many proposals from various sectors to redeem Sulu from its impoverished state. One of these comes from the traditional “royal families” or the claimants to the sultanate. They point to Sulu’s glorious past when Sulu was one of most powerful sultanates in the region. They then propose that through the reestablishment of the sultanate, the Moros can redeem themselves from poverty.