ISLAM AND THE ISLAMIZATION IN THE PHILIPPINES Flashcards
by Peter G. Gowing 1) ARRIVAL OF ISLAM IN THE PHILIPPINES 2) WINNING OF SULU 3) PENETRATION OF MINDANAO
Which regions experienced Islamization alongside the southern Philippines? (4)
- Borneo
- Sulawesi
- Celebes
- Moluccas
When did Muslim Arab traders begin trading in the Philippines?
Likely before the 10th century.
What brought Chinese attention to Borneo and its connection to the Philippines?
Muslim merchants trading in the Malay World.
A sacred grave of a Muslim, dated 1310 AD, and a coronation site for Sulu Sultans.
Bud Dato in Jolo
What does the grave at Bud Dato suggest about early Islam in the Philippines?
A Muslim settlement in Jolo existed by the late 13th or early 14th century.
Who are the predominant group/tribe in Sulu?
Tausug
A foreigner who married a local chieftain’s daughter and raised Muslim children in Jolo.
Tuan Masha’ika
What did Tuan Mashaika’s arrival signify for Jolo?
The beginning of Islamization in Southern Philippines
A holy man who arrived in Sulu in the second half of the 14th century and established a place of worship.
Karim ul Makhdum (also called Tuan Sharief Awliya)
A leader from Sumatra who strengthened Islamic consciousness in Sulu in the late 14th or early 15th century.
Rajah Baguinda
An Arab who married Rajah Baguinda’s daughter and founded the Sultanate of Sulu in the mid-15th century.
Sayyid Abu Bakr
What did Abu Bakr contribute to Islam in Sulu?
He consolidated Islam, shaped political institutions along Islamic lines, and introduced the study of the Qur’an.
What strategy did Abu Bakr use to convert hill people to Islam?
He offered food and clothing instead of fighting, promoting goodwill and understanding.
What dream did Abu Bakr have that led to the conversion of his people?
A dream of living in a beautifully decorated house, interpreted by Abu Bakr as a metaphor for the new religion.
Who is credited with introducing Islam into Mindanao?
Sharief Muhammad Kabungsuan
From where did Sharief Muhammad Kabungsuan come?
Johore
When did Sharief Muhammad Kabungsuan arrive in Mindanao?
In the first quarter of the 16th century.
Who is said to have introduced Islam near present-day Cotabato City?
Sharief Awliya
What is the mythical story associated with Sharief Awliya?
He reportedly came to Mindanao in search of Paradise, married a celestial maiden (houri), and had a daughter named Paramisuli.
Another figure from Johore who is said to have married Paramisuli and arrived in the area of Slangan (Cotabato).
Sharief Maraja
What is the lineage of the dumato clan of Maguindanao?
They trace their line back to Sharief Maraja, rivals of the clans descended from Sharief Kabungsuan.
He is said to be the son of an Arab father and Malay mother and possibly a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
Sharief Muhammad Kabungsuan
What happened to Kabungsuan’s companions during the migration?
They left him behind at Bongo Island, and he became established as a leader in Cotabato.
What political authority did Sayyid Abu Bakr attain after his father-in-law’s death?
He succeeded Rajah Baguinda and founded the Sultanate of Sulu.
What title is Sayyid Abu Bakr known by in Sulu?
Sultan Sharief ul Hashim.
What is uncertain about Sharief Kabungsuan’s settlement?
There is disagreement over whether he settled first among the Llanun people of Illana Bay or near present-day Malabang before moving to Cotabato.
Who claims conversion to Islam through Kabungsuan?
Llanun and Maguindanao peoples.
How is Kabungsuan characterized religiously?
Devout, learned Muslim with proselytizing zeal.
How did Kabungsuan establish power?
Through conquest and diplomacy.
With whom did Kabungsuan form an alliance?
Maguindanaon datus.
Which region did Kabungsuan Islamize?
Buayan
How did Kabungsuan secure his status?
By marrying daughters of local datus.
What political structure did Kabungsuan help create?
The Maguindanaon Sultanate
What titles did Kabungsuan and his successors use?
Shariefs or datus
Who was the first Maguindanao ruler referred to as “Sultan”?
Qudarat
What role did the Sulu Sultanate play in Islamization?
Reinforced Islamization of Maguindanaon and Llanun peoples.
Who helped strengthen Muslim consciousness in Maguindanao?
Religious teachers from Jolo, Brunei, and the Moluccas.
Who ordered the arrest of Islamic preachers from Brunei?
Governor-General de Sande
He reported the Proclamation of the law of Mahoma, mosques built, boys circumcised, schools teaching the Qur’an.
Bishop de Salazar
By the end of the sixteenth century, what status did the Maguindanao achieve?
Incorporated into dar-al-Islam, able to count on military aid from neighboring Muslim states like Ternate.
How did Islam spread from Cotabato and Malabang?
Along the coast and rivers to Sarangani Bay, Gulf of Davao, and Northern Mindanao.
Who may have converted the Maranao people to Islam?
Sharief Kabungsuan, according to some local traditions.
How might the Maranao people have been converted to Islam, aside from Sharief Kabungsuan’s influence?
Through contacts and intermarriages with Lanun and Maguindanao Muslims over time.
What did Spanish missionaries report about the datus of the Lake Lanao area in 1640?
They reported that the datus were Muslims, but not all their followers were.
Why were parts of Lanao considered potentially fruitful fields for Christian missionary work?
Because not all followers of the Muslim datus were Muslims at that time.
Who possibly spread Islam from Cotabato to Bukidnon and Lake Lanao?
Sharief Alawi
When did Islamization in the Maranao area begin?
Late 16th or early 17th century.
Was Islamization completed by the mid-17th century?
No, it completed by the late 19th century.
What do Maranao tarsilas indicate about their ancestry?
Trace lineage to Sharief Kabungsuan.
WHAT initiated the Islamization of the Cotabato area in the middle of the 15th `century?
Arrival of Muslim missionaries, possibly of Arab descent, via the Sulu archipelago.
Who are the legendary figures associated with the first Muslim settlements in the Pulangi River Basin? (2)
Sharief Awliya and Sharief Maraja
What significant event coincided with the arrival of Sharief Muhammad Kabungsuan in the first quarter of the 16th century?
The collapse of the Majapahit empire and the arrival of Europeans in Malaysia.
How did the ruling families of Buayan and Cotabato contribute to Islamization?
They were Muslims who accelerated the process through marriage alliances with neighboring principalities.
What did the arrival of Bornean and Ternatean preachers signify?
Increased religious influence before the end of the 16th century.
It marked a general awareness among Mindanao Muslims of their belonging to a wider dar-al-Islam.
Sultan Qudarat’s reign
How did Islamic attitudes change with Spanish colonization attempts in the early 17th century?
There was a stiffening of Islamic attitudes and an acceleration of Islamization in the Maranao area.
