Sultanate of Maguindanao

Its known historical influence stretches from the peninsula of Zamboanga to bay of Sarangani until Davao Gulf. During the era of European colonization, the sultanate maintained friendly relations with British and Dutch traders.

History

Chinese records

According to the Yuan annals of 1304 in the Nanhai Zhi, a polity known as Wenduling or Bintolang (文杜陵) was once a vassal state of Po-ni. According to Wang Zhenping, Wenduling may have been the predecessor state of Maguindanao. Wenduling was invaded by then Hindu-Buddhist Brunei (Pon-i), until it rebelled and successfully broke away after the Majapahit invasion of the latter. Islamization then happened afterwards. However, other studies, such as an earlier study by Wang Teh-ming (1964), suggest that Wenduling, known in Hokkien reading as Bintolang or 'Mintolong' was none other than Mindoro, and not Maguindanao. The location of Wenduling remains disputed.

Islamization and founding

Two brothers named Mamalu and Tabunaway lived peacefully in the Cotabato Valley on Mindanao and then Sharif Kabungsuwan from Johor in what is now modern day Malaysia, preached Islam in the area in the 16th century, Tabunaway converted, while Mamalu decided to hold fast to their ancestral animist beliefs. The brothers parted ways, with Tabunaway heading to the lowlands and Mamalu to the mountains, but they vowed to honor their kinship, and thus an unwritten pact of peace between Maguindanaons and the Teduray was forged through the two brothers.

Shariff Kabungsuwan preached Islam in the area, which was earlier Hindu-influenced from Srivijaya times, at the end of the 16th century and established himself as Sultan seated in Malabang. He exiled some of his people who apostatised to Cotabato. He subsequently married into the families of local chieftains and established the Sultanate of Maguindanao, with its seat in Slangan (the western part of present-day Cotabato), making him virtually Sultan of the whole island. The sultanate was largely centered around the Cotabato Valley.

Incorporation and secession of Lanao

During a time when Lanao fell under the control of the Maguindanao sultanate, there was centralized sultanate leadership in Lanao and Maguindanao using a rotation technique for leadership between these two regions, ruled by one head of state. When a predecessor sultan came from Maguindanao, then the successor sultan would be from Lanao, and vice versa. This tradition was first introduced during the reign of Sultan Sharīf Kabunsuan. He was then succeeded by a Maranao sultan, Sharīf Makaalang, and continued on with the royals' descendents. In the 17th century, however, Lanao seceded from the Maguindanao sultanate due to Lanao datus' disapproval of Datu Kudarat for becoming sultan.

War with Spain

Sultan Muhammad Kudarat, and whose name as a youth was Ullah Untong, was one of the greatest sultans who controlled Mindanao. In his island sanctuary in Sulu, he was known as Sultan Nasiruddin, and is buried there. His grandson Abd al-Rahman continued increasing the Sultanate's power and influence.

The Maguindanao sultanate also had a close alliance with the Ternate sultanate of the Moluccas region of Indonesia. Ternate regularly sent military reinforcements to Maguindanao during the Spanish-Moro Wars.

Nevertheless, its power was reduced when the Confederate Sultanates of Lanao declared independence from the Maguindanao Sultanate.

During the Spanish colonial period, the Sultanate of Maguindanao was able to defend its territory, preventing the Spaniards from colonizing the entire coastal Mindanao and ceding the island of Palawan to the Spanish government in 1705. The island priory ceded to him by Sulu Sultan Sahabuddin. This was to have help dissuade Spanish encroachments into the island of Maguindanao and Sulu itself.

Chinese gongs, yellow as a color of royalty, and idioms of Chinese origin entered Mindanao culture. Royalty was connected to yellow. The color yellow was used by the Sultan in Mindanao. Chinese tableware and gongs were exported to the Moros.

Merchant Chinese were tranquilly residing alongside the Moros in Maguindanao.

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Government and politics

Similar to neighboring sultanates, Maguindanao was decentralized; every town remained autonomous and ruled by their rajas, datus, etc. However, aspects of centralized authority lay in some sectors of governance absolutely controlled by the sultan. (TBE)

Administration

Diplomacy

Maguindanao maintained close relations with Ternate, Sulu, and Brunei, but developed a rivalry with Buayan. However, Buayan would become a de facto subject state under Sultan Kudarat of Maguindanao. (TBE)

Economy

Since the ratification of a peace treaty between Muslims and Christians in 1645 by Kudarat and Zamboanga governor Francisco de Atienza Ibañez, the following period of relative stability ushered an economic golden age as Maguindanao reopened its harbors to international trade, first based in Kudarat's capital of Simuay (present-day Sultan Mastura).

Maguindanao's economy was principally driven by two sectors: trade exports of raw materials like agricultural and jungle produce, and slave labor; it did not maintain a market large enough for imported spices, gold, silk, and other exotic goods. Consequently, this model largely relied on annual outgoing trade expeditions led by Chinese nakodas accompanying trading chiefs most frequently to Ternate and Manila, and regularly to Amboina, Makassar, Batavia and elsewhere in Java, and around Sumatra.

Within Maguindanao, the sa ilud principalities served as entrepôts for both domestic and foreign trade and the sa raya region as its breadbasket. Several economic reforms were made under Kudarat: wax was monopolized in Sarangani and the Davao Gulf ports, and restricted trade in the former only by permission with a license from the Sultan himself. He also acquired shahbandars to oversee the trade and commodities sectors.

Exports

The most important exports were rice, wax, tobacco, and clove and cinnamon barks, alongside coconut oil, sago, beans, tortoiseshells, bird's nests, and ebony hardwood.

Slavery

Several policies of attraction
- Slave raids across islands and mountains
- Escaped slaves accommodated at Simoay
  - Included Malays, Bugis, Ternatans, Ambonese, Burmese, Makassarese, even from as far as coastal India
  - Only Sultan permits slave sales, otherwise risk beheading
- Pagali method

Culture and society

Demographics

The people of Maguindanao are certainly known under one name, but consist of many different nations.

— Sultan Barahaman in a letter written in 1693 to a Dutch governor in Ternate

At its peak, Maguindanao maintained a diverse mosaic of indigenous ethnicities and communities; besides the Maguindanaon themselves, under various forms of vassalage were Iranun (including Maranao), Sama-Bajau, Subanon, Sarangani, and Kalagan peoples, while in more mutual yet interdependent trade-based relationships were highlander Tirurays and Manobos.

Maguindanao

Iranun

The Iranun peoples settled along the coasts of the entire Illana Bay, including the Pulangi and Simuay deltas and Polloc harbor, and further inland along the shore of Lake Lanao as Maranaos. Although they were autonomously led by their datus, they were vassals of the Sultan from paying tributes and formal acknowledgements. During Barahaman's reign, their population was estimated to be around 90,000-100,000.

Alongside the Bajaus, they were the most important allies of the Maguindanao; the sultanate heavily depended on their vast manpower to maintain the status quo throughout the region. Paradoxically, however, they were also perceived by Maguindanao royalty as the least trustworthy of all groups; they were apparently notorious for rogue activities, and several punitive expeditions were made to quell minor Iranun uprisings. European traders were sometimes advised to sail south of the predominantly Iranun Polloc area into the Simuay River if heading towards the capital for safety, and were denied permanent trading posts for the same reason.

Sama-Bajau

The Sama-Bajau, or simply Badjaos, of Maguindanao were primarily based around the Simuay delta, though they were nomads who lived on the shorelines and did not live in permanent settlements like the Iranun; additionally, they were particularly barred from living within the capital itself, though nearby.

Small in numbers, they were typically fishermen who supplied sea produce for trading vessels and Maguindaon land dwellers, sometimes sailing as far as the Tomini Gulf for catches. However, they were also called upon for a variety of other jobs ranging from supplying boats, joining slave raiding expeditions, and as boat rowing entourage for royalty and other esteemed officials alongside more dangerous jobs as the Sultan's envoys, interpreters, tribute collection from the coastal settlements, and as river guardians.

Subanon

The Subanon peoples of the Zamboanga peninsula were also vassals of the sultanate. Aside from offering manpower, they were entrusted with two main roles: production and trade of local cinnamon (Cinnamomum mindanaense) and maintaining storage networks for the Maguindanao's hardware, especially cannons.

Tiruray

The Tirurays of the southern Tiruray Highlands and its coast held a mutual but interdependent position with the sultanate largely defined by trade. Trade pacts were established between Magindanaon datus and Tiruray neighborhoods through seketas teel ("cutting rattan together"). They largely traded forest and some agricultural produce like wax, tobacco, as well as manpower.

Manobo

Manobos comprise a variety of different highland peoples in the northern and western mountains surrounding the Cotabato Basin, and like the Tirurays, held largely mutual trade relationships with the sultanate. Manobo territories were outside the margins of any Maguindanao control and considered too dangerous. Consequently, trade activity was restricted to only between them and the royal family and principal datus. They mostly traded gold for clothing.

Sarangani

Since its capture in 1625, the people of the Sarangani islands were subjugated by Maguindanao through various enforced trade policies in that area, and may be considered slaves of the sultanate than merely subjects.

Aside from serving as the Sultan's primary warehouse, Kudarat restricted their trading activities with foreigners through his personal permission for a license, except for several Chinese in wax trading. The islands' crossroads position served various professions for the sultanate, from ship repair, agricultural produce, wood, water, and manpower.

Kalagan

Otherwise known in historical accounts as simply peoples of the Davao Gulf area, Kalagans were also subject to similar protectionist trade restrictions by Maguindanao since Kudarat's reign. Maguindanao since shared control of the area with Kandahar (Sangir) until usurpation by the former during Sultan Barahaman's rule.

Probably only the town of present-day Davao and nearby settlements were subjugated and paid tribute. Like Sarangani, they offered manpower and agricultural and forest goods.

Kalanganan, another settlement elsewhere in the region, had its own tributaries inland and did not pay tribute to Maguindanao, but provided food and traded wax and lower prices for visiting Maguindanaon traders.

Architecture

Much of the architecture of the Sultanate is described in an 1683 travel journal written by visiting English explorer and privateer William Dampier. All houses of every social standing were built on posts like elsewhere in Southeast Asia, ranging from 14 to 20 feet high. The ground floor either open-air or enclosed for varying purposes like chicken and duck coops or free space. All roofs were thatched with palm leaves.

During the reign of Sultan Barahaman, the tulugan, or royal palace, of the Sultan was described to be supported by 180 large, thick tree posts and was uniquely served by a broad stairway. The first room upon entering was noted to be flanked by 20 lantakas placed on gun carriages. Like all other houses, however, the tulugan was a single-story complex consisting of many partitioned rooms, yet towered substantially over the rest of town. Facing the entrance from a short distance is a small low-lying reception hall to accommodate foreign ambassadors and merchants.

List of sultans of Maguindanao

Historical records document 24 sultans of Maguindanao.

Pretenders

As of May 2018, there are three major royal families in Maguindanao. Each having an enthroned sultan under the Sultanate of Maguindanao, Kingdom of Buayan, and Domain of Allah Valley.