Mohammedan conquests from Arabia reached India and Sumatra about AD 700. Thence the religion spread slowly across the Netherlands East Indies to envelop all of the islands of the East Indian Archipelago. Sumatra was converted by 1200, and Java came under the influence of Islam by 1500.

It appears that in the year 1380 the first Mohammedan missionary, a noted Arabian judge named Makdum introduced the religion to the Philippines. The ruins of the mosque he built at Tubig-Indangan on the island of Simunul are still to be seen.

Later, about 1400, the Rajah Baguinda continued the work of Makdum. The remarkable campaign of this missioner ended on Sibutu Island where he lies buried today in the village of Tandu-Banak. The work of Baguinda appears to have been confined to the islands of the Sulu Archipelago. To Shereef Kabungsuwan is credited the conversion of Mindanao.

  The followers of Mohammed were zealous in spreading the faith. They conquered Asia Minor and Africa. Then the robed priests entered Europe, first by way of Spain and through the Red Sea southward to Madagascar and eastward to India. No hardship was too great, no people too savage. From India, the Star and Crescent were carried to the Malay Archipelago. A Mohammedan settlement was established in Borneo as early as 1400, and Malacca was penetrated in 1276. The Portuguese Moluccas was converted by 1456.

The early Mohammedan missionaries were a sturdy lot. They came into raw countries without ships or armies or governments to back them. They must be numbered among the most sincere disciples that any religious faith has produced. They sought nothing but the privilege of converting the unbeliever. Gold they wanted not. Trade routes were not the object of their search. They came alone into the heart of one of the most savage countries on the globe, buoyed high by a faith which protected them well.

They had all the fanaticism of the Spanish priests without the accompanying greed for gold. They were the most purely altruistic preachers in the world. Their utter sincerity inspired the confidence of their savage hosts. The priests of Mohammed were among the most potent spreaders of civilization in the history of man. Their religion did not tear down and strip and destroy as that of the early Christians. The priests of Mohammed brought culture and writing and the arts, and they added these things to the culture they found in their new lands. They were not destroyers, but were satisfied to improve the old culture.

And so to the island of Simunul came the missionary Makdum in 1380, to land unarmed and unafraid in the group of brown krismen who came down the strip of white beach to meet him. The Moros were puzzled and in awe of this man who came unannounced among them, asking nothing but the privilege of being heard. The iron of the Koran had arrived to fortify the souls of the Moros.

Through the islands spread the word of the man who told of the true God and of the warriors slain on the field of battle, reclining on damask couches with houris with "large black eyes."¹

The Mohammedan missionaries found a receptive field in Mindanao and Sulu. The tenets of the martial religion of Mohammed appealed to the warlike instincts of the Moros. Through the islands sounded the new battle cry, "La ilaha illa'l-lahu." There is no God but Allah.

The year 1450 marked the coming of Abu Bakr. Abu married Paramisuli, the daughter of Baguinda, and upon the death of his father-in-law, Abu succeeded him in authority, later proclaiming himself as the first Sultan of Sulu.

The Sultanese carried on though the years, and it was during the reign of the sixth Sultan that Governor De Sande sent the first expedition to Jolo in 1578.

The attempted Spanish conquest of Mindanao and Sulu was an accident of history. It is doubtful if Spain would have seriously considered the occupation of these islands could they have known the difficulties attendant upon the subjugation of the Mohammedans.

Mohammedanism in the Philippines preceded the Spaniards by only sixty years, and the northern islands were but lightly touched by the priests of Islam. The only conquest effected by the Spanish arms was among the pagan peoples of Luzon, Panay, Cebu and other of the northern islands. The Mohammedans remained unconquered to the end.

When Legaspi blasted the Moro Rajah Soliman from his fortress at Manila in 1571, he destroyed forever the prospect of a united Mohammedan state in the Philippines. With this defeat of Soliman, Catholicism came to the northern islands, accompanied by a great withdrawal of the Mohammedans to their strongholds in the southern islands. Spain's original foothold in the Philippines came through conversion of pagan tribes and not after contact with the Mohammedans. The conversion of the north was a simple matter, and it was accomplished by very little bloodshed. The easy reduction of the pagans inspired by the Spaniards with false confidence when they first began the assault of Mindanao.

The Spanish conquest of the northern islands was a repetition of the conquests of Mexico and Peru. The conquistadores met with little resistance. Legaspi, with four ships and about 600 men, reinforced at times with levies from Mexico, successfully reduced the north in a period of eleven years.

Juan de Salcedo, a valiant gentleman and veteran at the age of twenty-four, successfully explored the island of Luzon (larger than Mindanao) with a force of forty-five men. History has neglected this remarkable soldier, who should take his place alongside Sandoval, the "terrible infant" of Cortez. Salcedo led his tiny company of ill-armed troops through the swamps and jungles of Luzon in safety, to finally die of fever in 1576 at the age of twenty-seven.

In pre-Spanish times the Manila Bay region was known as Lusong and was held by a Mohammedan force under the leadership of Rajah Nicoy. Manila was defended by a cotta, or fort, constructed of nipa and bamboo. The Mohammedans were there as missionaries, their station being surrounded by pagan hill men.

Nicoy was succeeded by Kanduli, who in turn gave way to Lakanduli. Lakanduli claimed descent from Alexander the Great. The ruler at the time of Legapi's conquest was Soliman, who had succeeded Lakanduli. Soliman, a Borneo prince of royal blood, was killed in the unsuccessful defense of the cotta of Lusong. His death destroyed the Mohammedan state in the north.

At Mambarao, on the central island of Mindoro, a Mohammedan pirate stronghold remained so well defended that it survived until the late eighteenth century, to be eventually wiped out by a strong naval flotilla from the base at Cavite. With a few exceptions, however, we find the Moros retreating to the south, where the three strong states of Maguindanao, Sulu and Zamoboanga were established.

On the Sarangani Island, at the extreme southern tip of Mindanao, the Moros built a great slave trading market which supplied the harems of the East. Organized and systematic raids were made upon the northern islands and the Moro buccaneers took captives from the very wharves of Manila.

Shortly before the death of Legaspi in 1572 we see this truculent soldier coming to grips with the Moro corsairs. On one of his expeditions Legaspi surprised and captured a Moro prao after a savage battle. Forty-five Moros defended the prao against an equal number of attacking Spaniards. In the engagement that ensued, the Spanish boat was boarded by the pirates who, kris in hand, defied the arquebuses of the Spaniards. The shattering close-range fire of the Spaniards exterminated the pirates before many could come to close grips with the Spanish soldiers.

After witnessing the ferocity of the Moros' attack, there must have come to the old soldier forebodings of the disasters which were to meet Spanish arms in Mindanao, for we find in Legaspi's official report of the battle the following statement:

"I have been assured that they fought well and bravely in their defense was quite apparent for besides the man they killed, they also wounded more than twenty of our soldiers."

During the early days of the conquest, Spain was in no condition to carry the wars to the Moros in Mindanao. The Moros brought the war to the Spaniards. In 1574 a Moro fleet of one hundred garays and one hundred small praos, manned by more than 8,000 warriors, attacked the city of Manila. All of the resources of Spain were called upon to beat this attacking force, and Manila was saved after a savage defense which cost the lives of many Spaniards. The Moro charge into the cannon fire of the fortified Spaniards resulted in an enormous loss of life before the order was given to return to the pirate ships.

Violent and repeated pirate raids required the attention of the Spanish soldiery, and they were badly pressed by the Moro raids during the consolidation of the northern empire. In spite of these attacks from the Mohammedans, the subjugation of the northern pagans rolled on to a successful conclusion. One by one, the tribes of Luzon and the Visayas fell before the Toledo blades of the Spaniards.

With the conversion of the northern islands complete, and the consequent development of the Missions, a restless desire for expansion came, intensified by the goadings of the militant priests.

In the closing years of the sixteenth century the Spaniards turned confidently to Mindanao and Sulu. The Padres were now eager for martyrdom in Mindanao. The northern islands were conquered, converted and subject to tribute and forced labor.

The time had arrived to teach the Mindanao Moslem a lesson!