Bangsamoro Diary

Bangsamoro Diary By Abdel Aziz Dimapunong Director, Maranao Arts and Cultural Heritage

The Philippine Muslims’ Diary is a spin off article from “Seven centuries of Muslim identity in the Philippines” by this same author. This has been published in blogosphere, particularly in www dot Dimapunong dot blogspot dot com. I am using it here at esnips.com as a public folder. Admittedly, this needs to be updated regularly. It should need a software program but we don’t have it this time.

For an update, this folder is open for entries for events that are significant to the Philippine Muslim communities, namely: the Maranaos, Iranuns, Maguindanaons, Tausugs, Yakan, Samal, and all those constituting the indigenous Muslims of the Philippines. Please send your proposed entries via email to [email protected]. The entry must have a date in history, the event, and the significance of the entry to the Muslims.

Entries will also be posted for new developments concerning the Muslims of the Philippines. An example of a new entry would be the enactment of a law that declares Eidul Adha and Eidel Firtr as national holidays. This refers to the enactment of a law about the said holidays which was sponsored by former Senator Loren Legarda. Another example was the approval by Congress on final reading about the recognition of Karimul Macdum as the oldest mosque in the Philippines.

The search for historical dates, events and landmarks, if done with honesty, is tantamount to the search for the truth and going out of every hoax. The generation of Muslims today in

the Philippines reject a historical account that Spain discovered the Philippines on March 16, 1521. As we delve into historical and archeological evidences, we find that Islamic civilization had long been here hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spaniards. As Ambeth R. Ocampo, a columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer puts it: “Contrary to popular belief, history can also change, and this act of revisiting and revising the past is a hotly debated part of the historian’s mandate” He also noted that historical markers are not only reminders of historic events, but proof of the development in historical research, interpretation and thinking. There are voluminous historical records on Moro (Muslim) history in the Philippines including that of Dr. Najeeb M. Saleeby (Studies in Moro History, Law and Religion) and Cesar Adib Majul (Muslim in the Philippines), and Peter Gowing. The most relevant here is the coming of Islam to the Philippines by the historian Cesar Adib Majul.

Some historical accounts on Muslims in the Philippines 710 AH = 1310 A.D. Introductory entry The following introductory entry is from the Majul historical account which also cited some notes by Saleeby. BEGIN QUOTE On Bud Dato, a few miles from Jolo town, there is a tomb that has been looked after for more than six hundred years. Without going into details, the tombstone reveals that the deceased was foreign Muslim who died away from his land of origin. The date is 710 A.H. or 1310 A.D. [underscoring mine] By the nature of the care given to the grave and tombstone, and because the tombstone seems to have been imported or constructed in Sulu by Muslims, it can be inferred that by the end of the thirteenth century or at the beginning of the fourteenth century there was already a settlement or colony of foreign Muslims in Jolo island. I would like to speculate that this is the time of the coming of Tuan Masha’ika; although I am not suggesting that the Tuan and the deceased foreign Muslim were one and the same.

The “tarsilas” tell about the coming of a certain Makhdum Karim [underscoring mine] who on account of his saintly qualities was also called Tuan Sharif Awliya, this last term being used for holy men. He is said to have traveled extensively and effected conversions. Najeeb Saleeby, [underscoring mine] a student of Sulu history and the scholar who first published some of the most important “tarsilas”, wrote that the Makhdum must have come in the second half or possibly around the middle of the fourteenth century. And this calculation tallies well with the date usually given for the coming of other makhdumin to java and Balambangan. These makhdumin were probably Sufis with missionary aims. As is well known, the Sufis, (that is, Muslims with certain mystical inclinations and belonging to brotherhoods) had come to the Indonesian Archipelago at around this time to spread Islam, having fled when Baghdad fell to the Mongols in the last half of the thirteenth century. It is not really correct to say that Makhdum Karim was the first man who introduced Islam to Sulu. What probably happened was that he reinforced Islam among the foreign Muslim, or their descendants, and with their help and support and the use of their settlement as a base, he was able to effect conversions among the surrounding local and older population.

Islam must have seen by now fairly well spread among the population around Buansa as evidenced by the narration that when baguinda (prince) coming from Sumatra landed with his courtiers and warriors, the local opposition against him was weakened when some Muslims (among them the grandchildren of Tuan Masha’ika) came to his support. This was at the end of the 14th or early in the 15th century - the date is not certain. Another version has it that the religious men of both factions, that is, the Buansa party and the party of the baguinda, promoted him as ruler in Buansa – his acceptability to the datus of Buansa being induced by the fact that the Sumatran prince was a Muslim. In any case, the coming of the baguinda with learned men in Islam must have contributed to the increasing consciousness of Islam among the people of Jolo, especially those in the area around Buansa.

After this time, Islam must have been deep among the datus and chiefs of Jolo in that they were willing to accept as their Sultan a foreign Muslim known as the Sharif-ul-Hashim. This Muslim, purportedly an Arab, did not come and impose Islam or a Sultanate among the People. Rather, by the time of his arrival the datus and mass of the people had become sufficiently sophisticated in their Islamic knowledge and had developed a high enough level of Islamic consciousness that they readily accepted the political institutions required by orthodoxy. The Sharif-ul-Hashim is calculated to have arrived in Buansa around the middle of the fifteenth century. Let me emphasize that this sharif is an historical figure and not the

figment of Tausug imagination. His beautiful tomb still exists on one of the slopes of Mount Tumantangis, the tallest mountain in Jolo. All his titles are inscribed on his tomb for anyone who cares to go up there and read them. It is significant that one of his titles is Maulana, suggesting that he was a guide and teacher. Actually, the conversion of the interior or mountain tribes in Jolo, the Buranuns, is credited to him. In effect, this mean that the coastal peoples of Sulu and the mountain peoples, the later possibly older in the island than he coastal folk, came to share the same faith and submit themselves to one political and spiritual head. As is well known, the sultans of Sulu have all claimed descent from his sharif, called the first sultan. End of quote on Cesar Adib Majul

1521-1898 - The Muslims and the Spaniards in the Philippines

1521. The first Europeans to visit the Philippines were those under the command of Ferdinand Magellan. The Spanish Expedition came on March 16, 1521. Ferdinand Magellan was killed by Lapulapu, chieftain of Filipino natives in the island of Mactan. The coming of the Spaniards was wrongly accounted for by early historians as the discovery of the Philippines. 1542. Another Spanish expedition under the command of Lopez de Villalobos followed in 1542. 1564. The conquest of the Filipinos by Spain began in 1564 when Miguel López de Legaspi arrived in another expedition from New Spain. Spanish leadership was established over some small communities in some of the seven hundred islands in the Philippines. Muslim communities in Sulu, Lanao and Maguindanao were not penetrated by the Spaniards. 1571. In 1571, the Spanish foothold in the Philippines was secured by a conquest of Manila by López de Legaspi when he established the Spanish city of Manila on the site of a Muslim settlement that was previously ruled by Rajah Solaiman and Prince Abdullah (Lakan “Dula” of Tondo). 1589. The Spanish governor made a viceroy in 1589 and ruled with the advice of the royal audiencia. There were so many uprisings by the Muslims who resented the presence of the Spaniards. By the end of the 16th century, Manila had become a leading commercial center of East Asia, carrying on a flourishing trade with China, India, and the East Indies. 1600-1663. The period from 1600 to 1663 was marked by continual wars with Muslims who the Spaniards branded as Moro pirates. This was the

most persistent problem of the Spaniards. Intermittent campaigns were conducted against the Muslims but without conclusive results. July 22, 1878 Last treaty signed by the Sultan Jamalul Alam with Spain after another defeat by Spain in 1876. This treaty had the same translation flaws as the one entered into in 1851, where the Spanish version stated it had sovereignty over Sulu whereas the Tausug version had the description of the relationship as being a protectorate rather than a dependency and Sulu customs, laws, religion were not subject to Spanish jurisdiction. The differences are material and would have repercussions in 1899 in the territories that Spain ceded to the U.S. (Treaties and Other International Acts of USA, edited by Hunter Miller, Vol. 4, 1836-1846, p. 355; also History of Sulu by Najeeb Saleeby, pp.124-129) This treaty made Jolo a sort of protectorate of Spain (Muslim in the Philippines, Cesar Majul, p. 299) while retaining a great deal of autonomy. The Sultan didn't have much interest in Jolo at this point and relocated his seat to Maimbung. 1689. When the Spaniards first explored Ranao in 1689, they found another community of Muslims in Dansalan, the commercial center of Ranao. There were battles between the Muslims and the invading Spaniards.

1898-1946. The Muslims and the Americans in the Philippines

1898. The Americans fought the Spaniards and eventually took over the Philippines after it was surrendered to them by the Spaniards on August 13, 1898. The Philippines was surrendered to the American forces by the Spaniards after a short “little war”. On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris signed over Philippines to the U.S. for $20 million. Spain considered the possibility of withholding Mindanao and Sulu from the treaty by arguing that it did not have sovereignty over those Muslim territories. However, on December 21, 1898, US President William McKinley issued his “Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation”, which declared that USA would assume control and disposition of the government of the Philippines, including Muslim Mindanao and Sulu. May 1, 1899. Spaniards departed Jolo and on same day Americans occupied Jolo.

August 20, 1899. Sultan Jamalul Kiram II hesitatingly signed the treaty with Gen. J.C. Bates. (Bates Treaty or Senate Document No. 136, 56th Congress, lst Session, Serial 3851). A very critical error of translation exists in this treaty. The Tausug version states "The support, aid, and protection of the Jolo Island and Archipelago are in the American nation, "whereas the English version read: "The sovereignty of the United States over the whole Archipelago of Jolo and its dependencies is declared and acknowledged. The word "sovereignty" was not used anywhere in the Tausug version. (Peter Gowing, Mandate in Moroland. The American Government of Muslim Filipinos 1899-1920, p. 122). It was obvious that the U.S. signed this peace treaty as a way of stemming any resistance to its occupation in the South while it was suppressing the resistance in the north. According to Sixto Orosa, the District Health Officer in Sulu during the American occupation "The people did not wish to come under American sovereignty; but Hadji Butu, 'recognizing the folly of armed resistance,' exerted all his influence to prevent another useless and bloody war." (The Sulu Archipelago and Its People, Sixto Orosa, p. 108-109) June 1, 1903. Moro Province was created under Gen. Leonard Wood, the first governor of that province. Gov. Gen. Wood imposed a head tax of P2 for each person. This created resentment and dissatisfaction among the Tausugs which led to a series of Cotta (trench) wars against the Americans led by Panglima Hassan. (Orosa, p. 37). Among the best known are Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak massacres. 1913. The Department of Mindanao and Sulu was created on July 24, 1913 under the American Regime. 1940. Dansalan, the commercial center of the Maranao Muslims became a city in 1940. The inauguration did not take place because the Second World War intervened. 1946. Philippine sovereignty was handed back to the Filipinos in 1946. This was the end of all foreign incursions in the Philippine Islands. History shows that the Muslims in the Philippines had been freedom fighters for hundreds of years. All throughout Philippine history, they maintained their identity as Muslims.

November 24, 2006, the Philippine Senate, under the sponsorship of Senator Edgardo Angara, approved a bill on final reading that declares the Sheikh Karimul Macdum a national shrine. Based on historical records, this is the oldest mosque in the Philippines. This mosque was built in 1380, or 627 years ago. On further accounts by the historian Dr. Cesar Adib Majul, a tombstone in Bud Dato, Jolo reveals Islamic inscriptions that show a date based on Islamic Hijrah calendar. The date is 710 A.H. corresponding to 1310 A.D. That was 697 years ago. By this account, it is reasonable to infer that Islam was already in Jolo, Philippines for more than 700 years. The Masjid Al Macdum that was declared by law as a National shrine is located in Tubig Indangan, Simunul in the province of Tawi-Tawi, the Southern tip of the Philippines that is just few miles away from the City of Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei Darussalam. The Masjid al Macdum was named after Arabian missionary Sheikh Karim Al Macdum, who was said to have built the mosque in 1380 AD, two hundred years before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines. Senator Edgardo J. Angara is the author of the bill that declares Macdum as a National Shrine. He is chair of the Senate committee on peace, unification and reconciliation. In his press statement on the matter, Angara said the move is an “opportune gesture of friendship to our Muslim brothers.” Until today the four pillars of the mosque are preserved as they were originally built. Macdum himself was believe to have been buried in Tandulbanak Sitangkai, Tawi Tawi., where a simple stone marks his grave. The 626 year old mosque has immense historic and cultural significance for our country. “Its declaration”, said Senator Angara, “as a national shrine makes it a formal part of the country’s national heritage”. Muslim leaders in the Philippines say the declaration is a milestone in Philippine history, recognition to the contribution of Islam in the development of culture and civilization. Senator Angara was also a co-sponsor of a Philippine law that declares Eidul Adha as a National Holiday in the Philippines. The other sponsor was Senator Loren Legarda. Eidul Adha is now among regular holidays under the Administrative Code. Before the law was signed, Eidul Adha used to be just a holiday for the Muslims only. Witnessed by Muslim legislators and diplomatic personalities from the Organization of Islamic Countries, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed the law last November 13, 2002 at Malacanang Palace. The law also proclaims Eidul Fitr as a Muslim regular holiday in the same way as Eidul Adha.

The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) through its Legislative Assembly has already passed a law declaring the inclusion of the Sheikh Makhdum centennial celebration as one of the Islamic events entitled to a special non-working holiday within the five provinces under the ARMM.

To be continued……….. REFERENCES Cesar Adib Majul, Muslims in the Philippines Najeeb Saleeby, Studies in Moro History, Law and Religion

The Philippine Muslims’ Diary is a joint project of the following: 1. Amanah Islamic Bank (Private)

2. Islamic Banking Research Institute, Inc. 3. Muslim Filipino Chamber of Agriculture and Fisheries, Inc. 4. Maranao Arts and Cultural Heritage 5. Rajah Solaiman Multi-Purpose Cooperative 6. Alkhairiya Multi-Purpose Cooperative 7. Masjid Alkhairi Manila