Note 133 — Chapter XII · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

We have no certain historical evidence as to how long the inhabitants of the Sulu Islands had been Muhammadan, before the arrival of the Spaniards. The annals of Sulu give the name of Sharīf Karīm al-Mak͟hdūm as the first missionary of Islam in these islands. He is said to have been an Arab who went to Malacca about the middle of the fourteenth century and converted Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh and the people of Malacca to Islam. Continuing his journey eastward, he reached Sulu about the year 1380 and settled in Bwansa,133 the old capital of Sulu, where the people built a mosque for him and many of the chiefs accepted his teachings. He is said to have visited almost every island of the Archipelago and to have made converts in many places; his grave is said to be on the island of Sibutu.134 The next missionary is said to have been Abū Bakr, who is also stated to have been an Arab, and to have commenced his missionary labours in Malacca and to have made his way to Palembang and Brunei, and reached Sulu about 1450; he built mosques and carried on a successful propaganda. The Muslim king of Bwansa, Raja Baginda, gave him his daughter in marriage, and appointed him his heir, and Abū Bakr is credited with having organised the government and legislation of Sulu on orthodox Muslim lines as far as local custom would allow.135 Though so long converted, the people of Sulu are far from being rigid Muhammadans, indeed, the influence of the numerous Christian slaves that they carried off from the Philippines in their predatory excursions used to be so great that it was even asserted136 that “they would long ere this have become professed Christians but from the prescience that such a change, by investing a predominating influence in the priesthood, would inevitably undermine their own authority, and pave the way to the transfer of their dominions to the Spanish yoke, an occurrence which fatal experience has too forcibly instructed all the surrounding nations that unwarily embrace the Christian persuasion.” Further, the aggressive behaviour of the Spanish priests who established a mission in Sulu created in the mind of the people a violent antipathy to the foreign religion.137