EXECUTIVE SUMARY

Subject: Reading in Philippine History

Group: 6st

Title: Muslim in the Philippines

Submitted by:

1. Paul Minh Tri

2. Januario Mendonça de Fátima

3. Francisco Mendes

4. Natalino Ramos

5. Winston Quilaton

Submitted to:

Professor, Dr. James Loreto Piscos

 Reporters:

Francisco Mendes Natalino Ramos

Executive summary& Arriva of Muslim &
America colonization Genealogy of Sulu

Paul Minh Tri Winston Quilaton Januario M. de Fátima

Host Brochure and Trailer Islamic Civilization
Reporting Plan:

Outline

1. The arrival of Muslim in the Philippines

1.1. Arabic Trader
1.2. Spreading of Muslim
1.3. Genealogy of Sulu
2. Islamic Civilization in the Philippines
2.1. Moro
2.2. MIM (Muslim Independence Movement)
2.3. MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front).
2.4. BMA ( Moro National Army)
2.5. Factor that gives rise to Muslim in the Philippines
3. Spanish colonization
3.1. Arrival &
3.2. Political divided
4. America Colonization
4.1. America in Mindanao
4.2. The transition period
4.3. Independence of Philippine
4.4. Peace agreement
5. Figure of Muslim Fighters in the Philippines
6. Muslim Autonomy Region of Mindanao
 Abstract

Philippines are covered with the various history, ethnics, religions and even the long process
of independence. For the history following the Cesar Adib Majul writing, we found the greatest
and longest history of the existence of the Muslim in the Philippines rather than others. The
Muslims in the Philippines called themselves as Moro. However, this name is actually more
political, because in reality Moro consists of many ethno linguistic groups. Therefore, Muslim
after arrived in Philippine, the advent of Islam and Christianity within the broader history of
Southeast Asia in “An Historical Background on the Coming and Spread of Islam and
Christianity in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, there are some Social and Cultural Problems
of the Muslims in the Philippines.

Key words: The arrival of Muslim, Islamic civilization, Spanish colonial, US

Imperialism, Post-independence period and Figures of Islamic Fighters.

Introduction

"So Islam, not just as a religion but as a political force … antedated the Philippines by a
century or more."

"They were an economic superpower; they were wealthy, because of slavery,"

-Yabes says. The entry, growth, and development history of Islam in Southeast Asia,
particularly in the aspects of culture and civilization, is still not fully exposed thoroughly. One of
the reasons is that some studies with various aspects of the history of Islam in Southeast Asia,
especially in the base region of Malay culture, which were conducted by some foreign and native
historians still cannot be formulated concretely – as a historical paradigm that can be used
collectively – with each conclusion is still difficult to be reconciled with one another.

In the criticism we are going to look at the Philippines country which today as a Christian
country, but there is number of the Muslims. It means that through the presence of the Muslim
during the period they conquered, they planted that Religion in this country. However, today the
numbers are getting high.
 There are at least three major theories regarding the origin of the Islam arrival to Southeast
Asia. The first theory states that Islam came directly from Arab (Hadramaut). The second
theory states that Islam came from India, the Gujarat and Malabar, and also from Bengal (now
Bangladesh). The third theory states that Islam came from Persia which is evidenced by the
many traditions and culture of Persian and Shiite which enter our archipelago reflected in the
models of religious ceremonies like the ark in Minangkabau, learning methods such as reading
the Quranusing the Baghdadiyah method (the terms of jabar, pees, jeer, and so on), the terms of
bazaar (market), Mulud Fatimah (the birth of Fatimah), the Ark on 10 Muharram, and so on
(Hafid, 2012and Jalil, 2014).

The Muslims in the Philippines constitute the largest ethnic minority, and are estimated to
comprise about 5 percent of the total Philippine population of 103,754,346 as of 2017. This
means there are 5,187,717 Muslim Filipinos, though this number is disputed by some sectors.
The positionality and religious status of Muslims are influential; as they are separate from the
mainstream Catholic nation, which is the first, and largest, Christian community in Southeast
Asia. They have contributed much to the political and economic development of the Philippines.
The Philippine Muslims have a unique history that antedates modern Philippine history by at
least 100 years, based on available historiography centering on the Sulu sultanate as we shall
explain below.

World behind the text

During ancient time, the Arabs of the southeastern part of the Arabian Peninsula were the first
navigators of the Indian Ocean. They had discovered the secret of its monsoons. The Romans
learned of the oceans routes from the Arabs and used them, to be followed by the Sassanian
Persians. But by the 14th century, the Arabs came to monopolize the routes once more. From
India they sailed further east to the Malay Peninsula; and China was not far away. Chinese
records inform us that as early as 300 A.D., long before the advent of Islam, the Arabs (possibly
with Persians) has a counting house in Canton (which they later on called “Khanfu”) where they
met for business transactions which also served as a warehouse for their merchandise. Thus, it
can be said in general that from the 4th century to the 7th century, the sea trade between the Egypt,
Persian and India on one hand, and that of India to Southeast and East Asian on the other hand,
were progressively falling under Arab control. It is certain that the Prophet Muhammad and his
companions knew a lot about China and Hadith or Prophetic tradition attests to this. In addition,
it is highly probable, in spite of the contention of some Western Orientalist, that some of the
Prophet’s companions had gone to and died in China Sea ports.

When the Sung Dynasty came to power in 960, it adopted a policy to encourage the return of
the Muslim traders. In 971, it opened canton to foreign trade. 077, a Chinese ship owned by the
Muslim from canton named P’u Lu-hsieh (Ar. Abu Rashid?) appeared in Borneo to initiate trade.
In this same year, too, Pu Ni (Brunei or Borneo) or a site in it) sent an embassy to China. It was
headed by a Muslim named P’u (Ar. Abu’ Ali). It is probable that the initiative for a Borneo-
carton trade originated from Muslim Merchants domiciled in Canton. In 982, a ship owned by
Muslim carrying goods from Ma-I (Mindoro, the Mayyid of the Arabs) arrived in canton. But the
reopened door to China did not lead to a decline of the flourishing local trade. Actually, it even
further accelerated it, since the enterprising traders now brought more Southeast Asian products
to China as part of their profitable ventures. A new route had emerged: Borneo – Solo –
Palawan – Mindoro - Luzon – Canton. In time, another route would also become frequent, that
is, from China to Java passing by the cost of Champa.

Before the 878 event, there were few Muslim settlements in Southeast Asia and these few were
mainly in the North of Sumatra. But after the development of the local trade, more Muslim
settlements became discernible. By the 13th century, what became noteworthy was the emergence
of port principalities with Muslim at their head, such as that of Samudra-Pasai in Sumatar,
perlak in the Malay Peninsula, etc. by now, Pasai had supplanted Klah as a better center for
trade activities of the Muslim traders. In the first decade of the 14th century, Trengganu in
Eastern Malaysia had a Muslim ruler. In 1414 the ruler of Melaka became a Muslim. Thus was
Islam able to have a religion and political base in the land of the Malays in Southeast Asia.

Al-Quran and al-Hadith as the highest source of Islam much praise to the merchant who could
be trusted. This results in people who work in trading is definitely enamoured with the teachings
of Islam. From then on, Islam continues to expand its influence culturally, that are Historical
Overview and Initiating Historiography of Islam in the Philippines through inter-ethnic marriage
and eventually through the political system. The last track (politics) occurs when the authorities,
especially the king, have embraced Islam.

Arabic influence and the spread of Islam in the Philippines start from Sulu brought by a
sheikh who later married the daughter of the King of Sulu in the early 8th or 14th century.
After that, it was also cited that a descendant of the Arab sheikh named Maldhum Karim
or Tuan Sharif 'Awliya ' arrived in Sulu in the mid-14th century. After that came an Arab
preacher named Sheikh Abu Bakr or sharif al-Hashim from Makkah. Then, he was
inducted as the Sulu sultanate and ruled for 30 years in 1450-1480.

The Sultanate of Sulu then inherited by at least 32 sultans and the last was Sultan Jumal al-
Karim II (1884-1936). From Sulu, Islam is then spread to Mindanao in the 10th century brought
by 'Ali Zainal Abidin who was also known as "Kabungsuwan" which was a descendant of Syed'
Awlawiyyah who have family ties with relative’s king in Johor. The position and influence of
Kabungsuwan was increasingly powerful that he succeeded to spread Islam to almost all
residents of Mindanao and then initiated a sovereign Islamic kingdom there. The Islamic
kingdom in Mindanao has been inherited by the family who then had expanded the
Kabungsuwan Empire by conquering several other pieces of the Islamic empire, such as the
Kingdom of Mindanao, Buayan kingdom, and the kingdom outside Butig.1

World of the Text

Islam arrived in the Philippines in the 14th century with the arrival of Muslim traders from the
Persian Gulf, southern India, and their followers from various sultanate governments in the
Malaysian archipelago. After arrival, they became a dominant group in this country. They have
500 years of political history, by far the longest political experience of any group in the entire
Philippines. Their culture is a mixture of Islam and adat.

1
The Writings of Cesar Adib Majul, Islman in the Philippines, was updated on June 2015,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318657248_A_Historical_Overview_and_Initiating_Hi
storiography_of_Islam_in_the_Philippines, (access on May 4, 2021)
 Adat is the summation of pre-Islamic culture and Muslim philosophical interpretations of
Islamic teachings. It is itself a lasting contribution of Filipino Muslims to the country's national
political body. However, in order to know the history of Muslims, one must understand the role
of Islam in driving historical development. It was this Islam that actually produced heroic
resistance against Western colonialism. Today's Filipino Muslims have become recognized as a
cultural community due to the fact that their culture has survived foreign hegemonism to this
day.

The Muslims in the Philippines constitute the largest ethnic minority, and are estimated to
comprise about 5 percent of the total Philippine population of 103,754,346 as of 2017. If we look
at the number of the Religions in the Asian countries, Philippine is the first country that covered
with largest number of Christians. The history of the Philippine Muslims is part of the backbone
of the historical development of the whole country. Filipino historians like Dr. Renato
Constantino asserted that no Philippine history can be complete without a study of Muslim
development (1990:29). The Philippines has two lines of historical development. The first line,
which is the older, came to develop in Mindanao and Sulu. And this refers to the Muslim line of
historical development. Had not this line of historical development been disturbed by western
colonialism, Islam might have charted the entire destiny of the Philippine nationhood. External
factors swept into the country and brought the second line. The Hispanized Filipinos were
central to the development of this second line. This is the product of the great historical
experiences of the Filipino people under western rule.2

Colonial penetration in the Philippines starts from 1521 to 1898 When the Spaniards arrived
in the Philippines and continued by America until 1946. Dacwah activities were mostly affected
which led the Islamic identity crisis in the community. Muslims lost their political authorities
known as 'sultanates' governing all their social, economic, religious and political affairs. Muslims
also lost their original land to Philippine Christians known as settlers coming from Luzon and
Visayas Islands (Salem Yunos Lingasa 2007). Consider all the above statements; Islamization is
the key to securing and preserving religion valued by Islam and the land of the Philippine
Muslim.
2
By Annabelle Quince and Patrick Carey, Marawi battle, was updated on Thursday 29 June 2017
at 1:18pm, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-29/fraught-history-of-islam-in-philippines-
began-long-before-marawi/8655306, (access on May 2, 2021).
 EXTERNAL CRITICISM

Following this part, we will try to examine and loot to the importance of the value area that
Muslim has been contributed to this country. After they arrived in the Philippines, the Sheik
Karimal Makdum Mosque was the first mosque established in the Philippines on Simunul in
Mindanao in the 14th century. Subsequent settlements by Indian Muslim missionaries traveling
to Malaysia and Indonesia helped strengthen Islam in the Philippines and each settlement was
governed by a Datu, Rajah and a Sultan. Islam was introduced by Chinese Muslims, Indian
Muslims, and Persians. Islamic provinces founded in the Philippines included the Sultanate of
Maguindanao, Sultanate of Sulu, Sultanate of Lanao and other parts of the southern Philippines.
They facilitated the formation of the Sultanate and the conquests of Mindanao and Sulu. Those
who converted to Islam came to be known as Moros. Muslim conquests reached the Kingdom of
Tondo, which was replaced by the vassal state of the Kingdom of Brunei Maynila. Muslim
sultanates began to develop in the center of the Philippines in the 16th century, when a Spanish
fleet led by Fernando de Magalhães arrived in the Philippines. The conquest of Spain during the
16th century made Roman Catholicism the dominant religion in much of the Philippines, and
Islam as a minority religion.

Chinese Muslim sailor Zheng He is credited with establishing several Chinese Muslim
communities in Mandaue and along the Lapu-lapu coast, the Bohol peninsula, and the
Philippines during China's early Ming Dynasty. These Muslims are thought to attend the Badjao
School in Chinese. This Chinese Muslim community is led by Hajji Yan Ying Yu, who appealed
to his followers to assimilate and adopt local names.

Moro (derived from the Spanish word for Moor) is a designation inherited from the Spanish
language for Filipino Muslims in Mindanao. The Spaniards distinguished the Moros from the
Indians, who referred to the people who were Christianized in Luzon and Visayas. Islam
continued to spread in Mindanao, from centers like Sulu and Cotabato.

Muslims are trying to establish an independent Islamic province in Mindanao under the name
of Bangsamoro. The term Bangsamoro is a combination of the ancient Malay word, which means
nation or state, with the Spanish word Moro, which means Muslim. A significant Moro rebellion
occurred during the Philippine-American War. Conflicts and upheavals have continued in the
Philippines from pre-colonial times to the present. Another issue related to the separation of
Moro is the dispute over the eastern region of Sabah, Malaysia, which the Sultanate of Sulu
claims as its territory.

Moro has a history of resistance to Spanish, American and Japanese rule for more than 400
years. The violent armed struggle against Spain, America, Japan and the Philippines is
considered by current Moro (Muslim) leaders to be part of the "national liberation movement" of
Bangsamoro (Muslim nation) of the fourth century. The 400 years of resistance against Japan,
the Philippines, America and Spain by the Moros / Muslims persisted and turned into their
current war for independence against the Philippines.

Muslim leaders in Zamboanga petitioned the Ottoman Empire to send representatives to

advise them on religious issues. A scholar from Shaykh al-Islām was sent in response. There is
also a thriving community of Filipinos who convert to Islam, known as Balik Islam (return or
return to Islam), and usually led by former Christian converts.3

Exegesis

The Muslim settlers didn’t just bring their religion and architecture, however—they also
brought their political system, establishing a series of sultanates in the southern Philippines. The
most celebrated of these rulers was the Sultan of Sulu, whose capital was Jolo. The first official
Sultan of Sulu was an Arab from Sumatra named Abu Bakr, who crowned himself around 1450.
(He gained power in part by marrying the daughter of a Malaysian trader named Rajah Baguinda,
who held sway over Sulu although he never gave himself the title of sultan.) Like many other
Arab rulers, he established his dynasty’s legitimacy by claiming to be a direct descendent of
Muhammad.

Nature and Functions

In their presence, they named one of their documents which known as Tarsilas or Salislas: are
primarily written genealogical accounts. It accomplished by an introductory legendary or
3
By Federico V. Magdalena, Dirasat, Was updated on November 2017, (PDF Document).
traditional account. Thus, Royal Tarsilas at least have two things in common. The first one is a
geological account where related to the Sultans. Another one is written about the descendants of
the Prophet Muhammad through Sharif who had come to Philippine and established a dynasty.
Hence, the preference for a descendent of the prophet Mohammad to serve as a sultan among the
Sulus and Maguindanaos rather that someone else, is ultimately traceable to a Sunni (orthodox)
doctrine that the Jhalif (successor of the Prophet) or the Imam (religious leader) of the Islamic
community must belongs to the Quraish, that is, the family of the Prophet.

Conclusion

In the conclusion, it will be concluded by the briefly summary that taken from the video. Muslim
in the Philippines was first brought over to the Philippine by Arab Muslim traders in the late 13th
and early 14th centuries. These merchants came from present day Malaysia and Indonesia to the
Sulu Island and Mindanao in the Philippines.

At the time the inhabitants lived in autonomous small communities spread around the many
thousands of Island. The indigenous population quickly embraced Islam, building the Philippines
first Mosque in the town of Simunul in the 1400’s. The Muslim settlers didn’t just bring
architecture, but also brought their culture, values and systems. 50 years later, Islamic influence
rapidly ascended northward reaching as far as Manila of the Island of Luzon.

When the Spanish first arrived in the mid-1500s, they were dismayed to find such as a strong
Muslim presence. They had, after all, only recently expelled the Moors from Spain, after nearly
800 years of conflict. The Spanish nicknamed the Muslim inhabitants as the Moros, a corruption
of the world Moors. The Spanish quickly converted much of the Philippines to Christianity,
using the sword quite liberally. Spain was struggling to push south as the “Moros” fiercely the
Spanish attempts on dominance over sulu and Mindanao. It was not until the mid-1800s that
advancing military technology began to tip the scales in favor of Spain. However local’s
resistance to this matter still cropped up on occasion. It were it not Spanish colonization, what
happened to Muslim in the Philippines?
The United States took control of the Philippines after the Spanish-America war in 1898. The
Moro viewed the new colonialist as no less objectionable than the Spanish. They fiercely resisted
attempts to westernized, Mindanao in Particular. The US military even had to invent a new, more
powerful handgun, the colt M1911, in order to stop Moro insurgents.

The latest wave of Muslim separatism in the nation’s south began in the 1970s. Since the country
became independent the Filipino government has encouraged non-Muslim to move to Mindanao.
The Muslims view this policy as designated to de-Islamize the region and believe the Christians
treat them as second-class citizens.

The Islamic Liberation Front is referred to here as this "Party" Wake up; Determined to build a
peaceful environment and normal living conditions in the Bangsamoro homeland; Reaffirming
the General Cessation of Hostilities dated 18 July 1997 and General Framework Agreement of
Intent signed between the Parties on 27 August 1998, and committing to reach a negotiated
political solution to the Bangsamoro problem and lasting peace and stability in Mindanao;

On December 10, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he will lift martial law
in Mindanao by the end of the year, signalling an end to the controversial order that placed the
entire southern island under military control. Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao in May
2017 after hundreds of fighters from the Maute and Abu Sayyaf armed group.

Resources:

1. Muslim in the Philippines, by Cesar Adib Majul, 1999 Edition University of

the Philippines press, (access on May 20 2021).
2. Achipel Des Sulu, An analysis of the “Genealogy of Sulu” by Cesar Adib
Majur.

3. By Annabelle Quince and Patrick Carey, Marawi battle, was updated on Thursday 29
June 2017 at 1:18pm, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-29/fraught-history-of-islam-
in-philippines-began-long-before-marawi/8655306, (access on May 2, 2021).
4. The Writings of Cesar Adib Majul, Islman in the Philippines, was updated on June 2015,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318657248_A_Historical_Overview_and_Initia
ting_Historiography_of_Islam_in_the_Philippines, (access on May 4, 2021)

5. By Federico V. Magdalena, Dirasat, Was updated on November 2017, (PDF Document)