HISTORY OF MUSLIMS IN THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES

ISLAM INTRODUCED TO THE PHILIPPINES

Sharif ul-Hashim — An Arab missionary from Johor who arrived in Sulu around 1450 — was an important figure in the introduction of Islam to the Philippines; He established the Sultanate of Sulu, helping formalize Islam in the region

Islam came to the southern Philippines in the 15th century from Malaysia and Sumatra via Brunei and Borneo. The religion spread to Palawan and Manila but was halted by the arrival of the Spanish. Islam has endured on the southern island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago between Borneo and Mindanao.

Islam was brought to the Philippines by traders and proselytizers from the Indonesian islands. By 1500 Islam had gained a foothold in much of coastal Philippines and was established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread from there to Mindanao; it had reached the Manila area by 1565. Muslim immigrants introduced a political concept of territorial states ruled by rajas or sultans who exercised suzerainty over the datu. Neither the political state concept of the Muslim rulers nor the limited territorial concept of the sedentary rice farmers of Luzon, however, spread beyond the areas where they originated. When the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, the majority of the estimated 500,000 people in the islands still lived in barangay settlements. *

Philippine Muslims regard themselves as descendants of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu. The Royal Sultanate of Sulu was an Islamic kingdom that ruled the islands and seas in the southern Philippines and northern Borneo long before the arrival of the Spanish. The Muslim sultanate of Brunei was a very powerful kingdom in the16th century. It ruled over all of Sarawak, Sabah and Borneo as well as part of the Sulu Islands and the Philippines.

The Spanish viewed the Muslims as natural enemies, identified with their Muslim rivals at home, the Moors of Morocco. There was some Muslim-Christian elements to the early conflicts with the Spanish. The “Moro Wars” continued off and on for 300 years after the Spanish arrived. The Christian Spanish had drove Muslims off the northern islands by the early 1600s. Later the Spanish attacked Muslim city-states on Mindanao and established a Jesuit base in eastern Mindanao in Zamboanga. The Muslims were excellent boatmen. After declaring “jihad” (holy war) against the Christians, they were able to defend their Islamic territories and raid Christian outposts. It wasn’t until the introduction of steamships in the 1800s that the power of the southern Muslim sultanate was brought under control by the Spanish.

Spain’s Battle with Islam in the Philippines

approximate extents of the Moro Sultanates in Mindanao in the late 19th century, showing the Sultanate of Sulu, Sultanate of Maguindanao, and the Confederation of Sultanates in Lanao

The Spanish were unsuccessful in converting Muslim Sultanates to Christianity, and in fact warred with Muslim Filipinos throughout their 300 year colonial rule from 1521 - 1898. Legaspi conquered a Muslim Filipino settlement in Manila in 1570. Islam had been present in the southern Philippines since some time between the 10th and 12th century. It slowly spread north throughout the archipelago, particularly in coastal areas. Had it not been for Spanish intervention, the Philippines would likely have been a mostly Muslim area. [Source: Professor Susan Russell, Department of Anthropology, Center for Southeast Asian Studies Northern Illinois University, seasite.niu.edu]

According to Lonely Planet: ““The indigenous islanders - who by tradition were loath to work together anyway - were no match for the Spanish and their firearms. Spain's greatest challenge came from an old enemy - Islam. To Spain's horror (having recently booted out the Moors at home), the Muslims had a big head start: Islamic missionaries from Malacca had established towns in Mindoro and Luzon almost a century before the Spanish arrived. Legazpi finally succeeded in taking the strategic Muslim settlement of Maynilad (now Manila) in 1571, hastily proclaiming it the capital and building over the kuta (fort) of Rajah Sulayman. This was eventually to become Fort Santiago. [Source: Lonely Planet =]

So began a 300-year-long religious war that still smoulders in Mindanao, the spiritual home of Islam in the Philippines. The Spanish recruited newly Christianised Filipinos to help fight the Moros (as Muslim Filipinos were dubbed), many of whom earned a violent living as pirates. Meanwhile, Spain was courting the Chinese through trade. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain's galleons - many of them built in Cavite near Manila - also specialised in taking spices, silk, porcelain and gold to the New World, and returning with Mexican silver. Moro pirates dodged many a cannonball to claim a share of these riches. “

Later History of Muslims in the Philippines

Christian Filipinos, who served under the Spanish Army in Mindanao, searching for Moro rebels, 1887

Mindanao and other predominately Muslim islands in the southern Philippines were never conquered during 381 years of Spanish and American rule. One Muslim told the Los Angeles Times, “We do not consider ourselves Filipinos. Filipinos are those who surrendered to the Spaniards. We never surrendered.”

European intervention broke the power of the Sulu sultanate. Following the imposition of American colonial ruler in 1899, the sultanates of Sulu and Mindanao were brought under the administration of Manila.

See Insurgent Groups and Terrorists

Americans in Mindanao

The Americans arrived in Mindanao in 1898 and were able to subdue the island within a few years with the last major battle fought in Cotabato in 1905. An uneasy peace prevailed after that. The Americans urged people from other parts of the Philippines to move to Mindanao but at time few took up the offer.

When Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in 1898, General John Pershing was put in charge of the “pacification campaign” to put down rebel movements. It was during this period that Muslim “juramentados”—men who attack American with a sword—were born (see Below). One Philippines professor told the New York Times, “They were considered the original suicide bombers because they won’t hesitate to die as long as they could kill the enemy.”

In 1907 more than a thousand Muslims were killed in what some historians have described as a massacre. More attacks followed and more Muslims died. Many Muslims in southern Philippines are aware of these deaths and feel they have not been avenged and the United States has not paid for them.

In 1912, the American Cornélis De Witt Willcox wrote: “The Moros of Mindanao and Jolo would have resumed their piratical excursions to the northward, burning, killing, and carrying off slaves. If this be questioned, then let us recollect that as recently as 1897 they carried off slaves from the Visayas, a sporadic case, probably, but giving evidence that the disease of piracy is to-day merely latent. Given an opportunity, it will break out again. Under independence, the large, beautiful, and fertile island of Mindanao would be left to its own devices, would be lost to civilization. Upon this point we need have no doubt whatever. The issue of Filipino control of Mindanao was very clearly raised, when Mr. Dickinson, the late Secretary of War, visited Mindanao in August of 1910. [Source:“The Head Hunters of Northern Luzon” by Cornélis De Witt Willcox, Lieutenant-Colonel U.S. Army, Professor United States Military Academy, 1912 ]

American soldiers battling against the Moro rebels, 1902

“Upon this occasion Mr. Dickinson, in response to a Filipino plea for immediate independence, with consequent control of the Moros, made a speech in which he declared the unwillingness of the Government to entrust to the 66,000 Filipinos living in Mindanao the government of the 350,000 Moros of this province.

At the close of this speech, four datus (chiefs), present with 2,000 of their people, and controlling the destinies of 40,000 souls, swore allegiance to the United States; and, requesting that, if the Americans ever withdrew from Mindanao, the Moros should be placed in control, firmly announced, at the same time, their intention to fight if the Americans should ever take their departure.... For the Christianized Filipinos can never hope to cope with the active, warlike pirates of Moroland. So far as this part of the Archipelago is concerned, a grant of independence means the re-establishment of slavery, the recrudescence of piracy, the reincarnation of barbarism. How great a pity this would be may be inferred from the fact that Mindanao forms nearly one-third of the Archipelago in area, and exceeds Java in arable land. Now, Java supports a population of over 25,000,000.”

Juramentado: Filipino Running Amok?

In the Philippines, amok also means unreasoning murderous rage by an individual. In 1876, the Spanish governor-general of the Philippines José Malcampo coined the term juramentado for the behavior (from juramentar - "to take an oath"), surviving into modern Filipino languages as huramentado. It has historically been linked with the Moro people of Mindanao, particularly in the island of Jolo in connection with societal and cultural pressures. [Source: Wikipedia +]

Juramentado, in Philippine history, refers to a male Moro swordsman who attacked and killed targeted Christian police and soldiers, expecting to be killed himself, the martyrdom undertaken as an unorthodox form of personal jihad. Unlike an amok, who commits acts of random violence against Muslims and non-Muslims alike, a juramentado was a dedicated, premeditated, and sometimes highly skilled killer who prepared himself through a ritual of binding, shaving, and prayer in order to accomplish brazen public religious murder armed only with edged weapons. +

For generations warlike Moro tribes had successfully prevented Spain from fully controlling the areas around Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago, developing a well-earned reputation as notorious seafaring raiders, adept naval tacticians, and ferocious warriors who frequently demonstrated extraordinary personal bravery in combat. While Moro forces could never match opponents' firepower or armor, such bands used intelligence, audacity and mobility to raid strongly defended targets and quickly defeat more vulnerable ones. One extreme asymmetric warfare tactic was the Moro juramentado. +

History of Juramentado

Bud Dajo Massacre: After the Battle at Mount Dajo on Jolo island, Sulu province; March 7, 1906; The Bud Dajo massacre was called "The Battle Above the Clouds"; Moros who opposed the US laws took refuge at the top of Bud Dajo, an extinct volcanic crater on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippines; They built defense cottas or forts; US military under the command of Major General Leonard Wood bombed the stronghold killing over 600 men, women and children; This was one of the military operations conducted against the Moros (Filipino Muslims); US soldiers pose for the camera in the aftermath of the massacre

Juramentado is an archaic term derived from the Spanish word juramentar, meaning one who takes an oath. Some sources link amoks (from the Malayan term for "out of control") and juramentados as similar culture-specific syndromes while others draw distinctions of religious preparation and state of mind. A Moro might be said to have "gone juramentado" or be "running juramentado." [Source: Wikipedia +]

U.S. Army officers who had served in Moroland incorporated the idiom into their own vocabulary, but often simply equated it with the Moro people as a whole. In his memoirs, Army Air Service advocate Benjamin D. Foulois said of volatile rival Army Air Service officer Billy Mitchell, "He had become fanatic much in the way the Moros were in the Philippines. He had become a juramentado and was ready to run amok." +

The term juramentado was coined by José Malcampo, in command during the Spanish occupation of Jolo Island in 1876, but Moros had been making such personal attacks for many years. By the time of the Spanish–American War juramentados were being discussed in the American media, some official sources finding few documented cases. By 1903, local United States Army commander Leonard Wood sent a report to Governor of the Philippines William Howard Taft indicating juramentados were "an oft repeated offense." Almost forty years later, on the eve of the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands beginning the Second World War, Time Magazine was reporting juramentado attacks in Jolo occurring "once every other day". +

The Moro juramentados performed suicide attacks against Japanese troops. The Japanese were among several enemies the Moros juramentados launched suicide attacks against, the others being the Spanish, Americans and Filipinos, while the Moros did not ever attack the Chinese since the Chinese were not considered enemies of the Moro people. The Japanese responded to these suicide attacks by massacring all the relatives of the attacker. +

Juramentado Attacks

Candidates, known as mag-sabil, "who endure the pangs of death," were selected from Muslim youth inspired to martyrdom by the teaching of Imams. Parents were consulted before the young men were permitted by the sultan to undergo training and preparation for Parang-sabil (the path to Paradise). After an oath taken, hand on the Qur'an, the chosen took a ritual bath, all body hair was shaved, and the eyebrows trimmed to resemble "a moon two days old." A strong band was wrapped firmly around the waist, and cords wrapped tightly around the genitals, ankles, knees, upper thighs, wrists, elbows, and shoulders, restricting blood flow and preventing the mag-sabil from losing too much blood from injury before accomplishing his gruesome task. Clad in white robe and turban, the chosen youth would polish and sharpen his weapons before action. [Source: Wikipedia +]

At the moment of attack, the mag-sabil would approach a large group of Christians, shout "La ilaha il-la'l-lahu" ("There is no god but Allah"), draw kris or barong and then rush into the group swinging his sword, killing and maiming as many victims as possible in the time he had left. The true believer, however, faced a theologic conundrum. If the observant Juramentado believed that his murders pleased Allah, he could not admit that the inevitable consequences of his attacks constituted suicide, per se, as their Qur'an forbids it.

To reconcile the inconsistency, they fashioned themselves as martyrs of their own making, coaxing their way into Paradise with the spilled blood of numerous enemies of the faith on their hands. In effect, however, the tactic more closely resembles murder/suicide. The Juramentado—acting neither in self-defense nor through selfless altruism—commits to murder, and his own self-destruction, solely for the promise of his perception of personal gain. After death, the mag-sabil's body would be washed and again wrapped in white for burial. In the unlikely event the mag-sabil survived his attack, it was believed his body would ascend to Paradise after 40 years had passed. +

Peter Gowing wrote: “ With the possible exception of Japan's kamikaze pilots in the closing days of World War II, warfare has rarely known a more frightening phenomenon than the juramentados.” The Moros' use of local intelligence to mark target situations, coupled with a keen understanding of the tactical element of surprise made combating juramentado warriors difficult for Spanish troops during its long attempt to occupy the Sulu Archipelago. In an era of warfare where body armor had become anachronistic, an unexpected melee attack with razor-sharp blades was a devastating tactic against veteran soldiers. Even when colonizers had time to draw weapons and fire on the charging attacker, the small caliber weapons commonly in use possessed no stopping power, bullets passing though limbs and torso, the juramentados' ritual binding working as a set of tourniquets to prevent the swordsman from bleeding out from wounds before accomplishing his purpose. +

The phenomenon has been documented as recently as 2011, but the introduction of more potent, higher-caliber cartridges of consequence in the hands of intended victims markedly reduced the allure, and subsequently the incidence, of this peculiar method of self-annihilation. The United States occupation is claimed by some to have seen the use of burial of Juramentados with pig remains as a psychologic deterrent to continued suicidal aggression. This purported action by Americans is apparently thought, by those who hold that Juramentado is a legitimate path to heaven, to be abhorent to the "guardians of heaven."

Dr. Frank E. Vandiver, professor of history at Texas A&M University and author of Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing said about the burial of Juramentados with pig remains that he never found any indication that it was true in extensive research on his Moro experiences. He has also been unable to find any evidence corroborating the claim that Muslims believe that "eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise and doomed to hell." It is true that Islamic dietary restrictions, like those of Judaism, forbid the eating or handling of pork because pigs are considered unclean. But according to Raeed Tayeh of the American Muslim Association in North America, the notion that a Muslim would be denied entrance to heaven for touching a pig is "ridiculous." A statement from the Anti-Defamation League characterizes the claim as an "offensive caricature of Muslim beliefs." +

Juramentado Versus the American Colt 45

Barry C Jacobsen wrote in the deadliestblogpage.wordpress.com: “Some scholars consider the origin of this strange and deadly practice to lie in the Islamic prohibition against suicide. When “dishonored” a Muslim man could regain his honor (manhood!) by going amok, and dying with sword in hand; forcing others to kill him and thus accomplish his suicide. At the turn of the 20th Century in the Philippines, the practice took a new and unique turn; as Moro insurgents against American rule “ran amok”, attacking and assassinating American administrators or army officers. [Source: Barry C Jacobsen, deadliestblogpage.wordpress.com, March 8, 2012 /-/]

“The juramentado would prepare for his mission by having his TESTICLES TIED OFF WITH COPPER WIRE! In a state of intense agony, the juramentado would spend the night working himself into a killing frenzy. By the next day, the juramentado would be in such agony; in such an altered state of consciousness, that his mind would no longer register additional external pain. The juramentado would be led to where his target was expected (usually in public places). Just before being unleashed against the victim, his arms and legs were tied with occluding ligatures; reducing blood loss from expected wounds to these extremities.

At that moment the juramentado would charge forward (often out of a crowd) and assault the victim with the distinctive Moro sword, the Kris; or the equally nasty-looking hacking knife, the barong. Despite being shot multiple times by the victim and his escort or comrades-in-arms, the juramentado would not stop hacking till the target was slain. After which, the juramentado would collapse and die; likely contented. /-/

“The problem was exacerbated by the fact that sidearm of the American Army in the PI was a .38 caliber revolver. This small caliber proved utterly incapable of stopping the juramentado. For this reason the US Army adapted the .45 caliber colt pistol: the heavier bullet of the .45 could knock the charging juramentado onto his back, stopping his frenzied “amok” dead! The Colt .45 revolver (not the later automatic pistol) was issued to the Philippine Constabulary (the American-led Philippino force created to fight the Moros and keep the peace throughout the archipeligo) in 1903. It proved much superior to the standard .38 caliber pistols used by the regulary American Army. That, and the Winchester pump-action shotgun, then coming into service in both the Marines and Army, are the weapons that stopped the rampaging Moros! /-/

“There has been much discussion about the veracity of this bit of history; wither or not the .45 caliber could have made a difference. But in his Annual Report of June, 1904, General Leonard Wood (commanding American forces engaged against the Moros in the PI, stated his opinion on the subject: “It is thought that the .45 caliber revolver (Constabulary Model 1902) is the one which should be issued to troops throughout the Army…. Instances have repeatedly been reported during the past year where native have been shot through and through several time with a .38 caliber revolver, and have come on, cutting up the unfortunate individual armed with it… The .45 caliber revolver stops a man in his tracks, usually knocking him down… It is also recommended that each company …. be furnished with … 12-guage Winchester repeating shotguns.. There is no weapon in our possession equal to the shotgun loaded with buckshot.” /-/

Christians Take Over Muslim Land

Until fairly recently Mindanao and other islands in the south were occupied almost completely by Muslims. After World War II, the Muslim-controlled areas of Mindanao were viewed as a frontier that could be settled by Christians from the northern islands. After independence in 1946, Christian settlers from the northern and central islands began migrating to Mindanao . The newly-arrived Christians generally settled where the land was most fertile and became richer while Muslim remained poor.

To end the Huk uprising in the 1950s, President Magsaysay resettled some of the Philippines’ non-Muslim poor on Mindanao and gave them title to the land they settled on. Later more people from the overcrowded islands in the north were resettled on "unused" jungle Mindanao, a move that eventually tipped the balance of landownership and political power in favor of the Christians. Muslims were denied title to land they had occupied for generations. One Muslim told Newsweek, "We became squatters in our own lands." By 1970, immigrants outnumbered local Muslim groups.

Muslim have suffered from neglect and underdevelopment. One Muslim leader told the Los Angeles Times, “Governments have promised us everything. But look around and what is the ‘everything’ they’ve delivered? Do you see roads? Electricity? Economic development? Factories? The everything is nothing.”

Muslim Situation Under Marcos

Under Marcos, timber concession in Mindanao were given to Marcos cronies and foreign companies. Muslim saw little of the money made from these ventures. More Catholics moved in. They were more likely to get jobs in local enterprises than Muslims. Muslims and Christians formed paramilitary groups. As Christians gained more control in the southern provinces in the 1970s, the number of attacks by Muslim groups increased.

A pivotal event in the Muslim struggle occurred in 1968 when at least 28 Muslim terrorist recruits were massacred after they mutinied against officers training a secret Muslim army to invade the neighboring Malaysian state of Sabah. This event inspired the first Muslim insurgents to take up arms against the Philippine government.

In 1970, land disputes escalated to armed conflict around the Cotabato area between Muslims and non-Muslims. Government forces intervened and the conflict grew into civil war that spread across Mindanao and into the Sulu archipelago. The conflict reached its peak in the mid 1970 and resulted in the dislocation of thousands of people. Major fighting ended in the late 1970s but unrest and outbreaks of violence continued to occur.

Libya has traditionally played a roll in training and educating Philippine Islamic militants and has helped negotiate peace agreements. In 1976, Imelda Marcos flew to Libya and meet with Muammar Gaddafi for five hour in his tent and eventually produced a peace agreement called the Tripoli Agreement which granted limited autonomy to Muslims in 13 provinces and 10 cities in the southern Philippines but was ultimately rejected by the the Muslim groups. Malaysia has acted an intermediary in negotiations between the Philippine government and Muslim groups.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993; National Geographic, Live Science, Philippines Department of Tourism, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Natural History magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Times of London, Library of Congress, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated February 2026