H3 C05Moro Wars Interlude

The complete abandonment of the Zamboanga fort in 1663 and the withdrawal of Spanish garrisons from other points of Mindanao as well as the earlier pull out from Spanish fortified positions in Jolo, left to their own devices the Muslim sultanates and other lesser principalities in the Muslim south. Few Spanish missions remained in places like Caraga and Dapitan.

Zamboanga reverted to a small fishing settlement, its inhabitants became tributaries of Sultan Qudarat

With the elimination of the Spanish danger, the sultanates began to consolidate further their institutions and territories while directing their efforts at commercial ventures.

In their long struggle against the Spanish attempts to subdue them, hundreds of vessels were destroyed, farms and plantations burned, thousands killed by war and diseases.

The desire of the Maguindanaos to trade freely with other Malaysian islands met the wall of Dutch commercial monopoly. On April 3, 1661,Sultan Qudarat had to write to Governor Hustart in Amboina asking that is vessels be allowed to frequent the island for trade.

In 1666. Maguindanaos were definitely prevented from frequenting Amboina.

The Dutch became very interesting in the wax found in Mindanao. In June 1661, 3 boats arrived in ternate with rice and tobacco but no wax. In 1663, the Dutch had to go to Mindanao to collect 104 lasters of rice which owned by the Sultan. In 1689, Barahaman, was actually threatened by the Dutch governor of Ternate. On Marcch 15, 1666, Sultan Bakhtair wrote to the Dutch Governor General at Batavia offering to trade.

In 1669, people of Makassar lost in a war with the Dutch United Company and Dutch influence became predominant. The Dutch spice monopoly and their attempt to restrict all local trade, served a obstacle to the time-honored commercial activities of the still independent principalities in the area.

The limited trade between the Dutch and Sulu and Maguindanao is that the leading traders in the latter sultanates were the sultans themselves or at least member of the aristocracy.

With the absence of the Spaniards, the Sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao were able to consolidate themselves. The most extensive Sultanate was that under the rule of Qudarat.

Attempts to convert Qudarat to Christianity were fruitless, for he is a pandita and a pious Muslim. At the end of 1671. Sultan Qudarat died. The launching of the Jihad against the Spaniards in 1656 was valid, the war launched was also a defense of Islam. Qudarat was succeeded by his son Datu Dundang Tidulay. He was succeeded by his son Barahaman around 1675. He was known to the English as “ Alma Sabat”, who contacted English traders to come to trade.

In June, another English ship arrived with commercial motives. It was this ship that carried William Dampier.

The motive of the Sultan was clear. He was afraid that the Spaniards would again try to exert their political influence over Maguindanao. He believed that with strong English friends, he might be able to neutralize what he considered threats to his Kingdom.

The tributary domains of Maguindanao began to shrink, too, as evidenced by the fact that on September 10, 1688, entered into a treaty with the Dutch East India Company, giving it some rights in the area of Butuan in exchange for protection.

Sultan Barahaman’s reign was somewhat marred by rivalry with his brother Kuda, whom he suspected of trying to sieze the throne away from him. Sultan Barahaman died on July 6, 1699 and he was succeeded by his brother Kuda.

In 1699 a son of Pangiran Sarikula of Sulu became Rajah Bendahata of the realm, one of the first things he did was to write to the Dutch about his position and how close his late father was to the Dutch and whose advice was always for the Sulus never to forget Dutch friendship.

In the middle of the second half of the seventeenth century that the Sulu Sultanate acquired dominion over the North Borneo territories of the Brunei sultan or what is now called Sabah.

Around 1368, Sulu warriors went as far as to attack Poni, in the northwest of Borneo, retiring only after Madjapahit soldiers came to its sucor.

It was in 1662 C.E.(14 Rabiul Akhir, 1072 A.H.) that an event with significant political results for Brunie and Sulu took place. The Bendahara Abdul Mubin was a nephew of the murdered Sultan as well as grandson of Sultan Hasan. Bendahara proclaimed himself as a sultan. The new Sultan nominated his cousin as bendahara. Sultan Abdul Mubin, fortified himself in Pulao Chermin. The base of Sultan Muaddin was in the town of Brunei and its environs. Thus did Brunei come to have two rajahs.

The Sultan Muaddin sent an envoy to the Sulu Sultan asking his aid in order to stop the war fought between the two rajahs.

In 1880 Brunei selesilah made public to the English-speaking world by Hugh Low, a British official who spent many years in Malaysia. In 1957 a second version of the selesilah appeared. This other version appears to be mainly based on the selesilah owned by Brunei sultan. In brief, unlike the first version, the second one asserts that the Sulus did not do any fighting and that the artillery they brought with them to Sulu were not given to them but merely appropriated.

Both versions agree that the Sulu Sultan was invited by the Brunei Rajah and offered Sabah should the requested help be given. In the Sulus versions claim that the Sulus did all the fighting, with the Bruneis and their Sultan just standing by.

Sulu oral traditions agree that it was the Rajah at Brunei who requested the Sulu Sultan for aid against his rival at Pulao Chermin. These traditions emphasize the role and fighting qualitites of the Sulu warriors. The two brothers, Nakhoda Sangkalang and Nakhoda Angging, were the naval commander who led 600 warriors into the fray. The two nakhodas were also asserted to have been mantris.

It is understandable why the first of these Brunei versions would try to reduce the fighting role of the Sulu warriors and why the second version should deny it entirely, and why the Sulu traditions would assert that the Sulus did all of the fighting.

According to Alexnder Dalrymple, who was in Sulu in 1761 and 1764 and who had travelled in Borneo, the territory of Sabah passed over to the hands of Sulu as the compensation for its role in the civil war.

The cession of the North Borneo territories to Sulu was unquestioned at the time Sulu took them over, not only because the Sultan was in a desperate position in a civil war, but also because Brunei’s political and economic power was slowly deteriorating by the middle of the seventeenth century. After the cession, it was necessary for the Sulus to demonstrate that they had the effective power to keep the territory tributary to them.

The Selesilah version of Hugh Low stated that “the land from the North as far westward as Kimani should belong to Soolook”. This suggest that not all of the territories of in Borneo which the Sulus had controlled or came to control were necessarily identical to the cession from Brunei. The Sulus sultans claimed that they once even had dominion up to Balikpapan which is much farther than Tanjong Mangkalihat.

Dalrymple divided the Sulu dominions in Borneo into four: Tirun, Mangidara, Malladu and Kinneballu. The first extended from around Tapedurian River to Cape Unsong, the second extended from Unsong to the area of Labuk Bay, the third goes up to Tanjong Sampanmangio, while the fourth extends from this cape to Kimanis River which is a few miles east of Brunei City.

In 1704, the cession of Sabah to Sulu took place. The authors of Sejarah Berunai wrote that the civil war in Brunei ended in 1672. If the authors had made more careful calculation based on their own data, they would have stated 1674 as the date.

In 1662, Sultan Muhammad Ali was killed. The civil between Sultan Muaddin and Sultan Abdul Mubin, according to Selisilah, lasted about ten years. The cession took place before 1690 is confirmed by Spanish report that the Brunei sultan died in 1690. This sultan who died is probably Muaddin who, according to the Brunei Selisilah was succeded by his nephew Nasr ud-Din. It could not have been Abdul Mubin, since, Muaddin, who can be said to have succeeded him, was a cousin.

Another clue that can help in fixing the date is the report of a letter of the Sulu Sultan Jamal ul-Azam to the Spanish Governor General Domingo Moriones dated September 17, 1879.

Sultan Muaddin tried to reestablish relations with the Dutch and Spaniards, probably to recapture part of Brunei’s former commercial prosperity. In October 1682, an embassy from Brunei appeared in Manila offering friendship and the reestablishment of commercial relations. In 1685, the Spanish government in Manila sent a general, Juan de Morales, and a Jesuit, Pedro Vello, to Brunei to finalize the treaty.

Sultan Kahar ud-Din Kuda became sultan there in 1699 and held his court at Simuay. He was once commander of the Maguindao fleet. In one of his letters, he requested to purchase 100 muskets and two artillery pieces of five to six hundred pounds each.

Sultan Kahar ud-Din did not get along well with his nephews, one of them was the late Sultan Barahaman. The sons of his brother left Simuay for Slangan.. The oldest one, Bayanol Anwar, went to Sibugay, where the inhabitants offered him their vassalage. It appears that the Iranuns at the Sabanilla area considered him their ruler.

Kahar ud-Din asked for aid from the Sulu Sultan Shahab ud-Din. The Sulu Sultan with 75 vessels first went to Sabanilla area and defeated Bayan ul-Anwar. The Sulu fleet proceeded to Simuay. The warriors of Kahar ud-Din blocked the river in the night thus preventing the fleet from leaving the next day. It was reported that the Sulu Sultan in anger struck Maguindanao with his kris. General warfare ensued between Sulus and Maguindanaos with victory eventually going to the Sulus.

The Sulus were complete masters of field, and they stayed ten days in Simuay and then left with the artillery and goods of the late Sultan. It took them at least two months to return to Sulu.

A son of Kahar ud-Din communicated with Spaniards asking their help against the Sulu Sultan but the Spaniards did not desire to embroil themselves in a trouble. Instead they wrote to Sultan Shahab ud-Din asking him to keep the peace with Maguindao. On October 20, 1702, the Sulu Sultan explained to the Spanish Governor General the reason of the trouble with the Maguindanaos. With the death of Kahar ud-Din, Baya ul-Anwar, Jalal ud-Din became the sultan of Maguindao.

In 1703, he wrote to the Spanish Governor General stating that the Sultan of Brunei had some time before given to his older brother one-half of the island of Palawan which now he was giving to the Spaniards. In 1705, the Sulu Sultan Shahab ud-Din offered part of Palawan, as well as the island of Balabak to the Spaniards. The Spaniards failed to avail themselves of the opportunity presented by this offer.

On May 1, 1705, Sultan Kahar ud-Din wrote to the Dutch Governor General asking for two artillery pieces and ammunition to be paid in wax and Spanish reales. In the next two years, Jalal ud-Din was able to make peace with the Sulu Sultan. An open conflict broke out between the followers of Sultan Kahar ud-Din and his brother. About 1710, Ja’far, who was the rajah muda, with 2,000 of his followers, fled to Tamontaka.

Sultans Jalal ud-Din and Ja’far Sadiq had a younger brother called Umarmaya Tubu-Tubu who married a daughted of the Ternate sultan around 1707. The datu of Kabuntalan named Duka had no sons, but one of his daughters married Umarmaya Tubu-Tubu. The son of Umarmaya Tubu-Tubu and the daughter of Daku was the first datu who assumed the title “sultan”. This datu is named Digra Alam.

Mustafas Shafi ud-Din succeeded Sultan Shahab ud-Din of Sulu. Mustafas Shafi ud-Din succeeded by his younger brother,, Badar ud-Din. Before Badar ud-Din ascended to the throne, there was some opposition to him, because his mother did not belong to the Sulu Royal Families. But the majority of the royal datus decided to have Badar ud-Din as sultan. He is remembered as having been a brave man and a “victor in land and sea.” He is known to have married a Tirun lady belonging to a ruling family. Another of his wives was a Bugis lady from Soopeng in the Celebes. In 1718 the Spaniards reoccupied Zamboanga and rebuilt the fort in the following year. The fort was equipped with sixty-one artillery pieces and guarded bya garrison of more than a hundred Spaniards.

Three years after the abandonment of Zamboanga fort in 1663, the Jesuit Procurator General in Madrid was able to bring the problem of its restoration to the Council of the Indies with the result that Maria, the Queen Regent of Spain, issued royal cedula in December 1666 for its restoration. On August 27, 1672, plans were again revived in Madrid to refortify Zamboanga on the ground that it would not only stop alleged Muslim depredation and contain the enemies of the Catholic religion, but it would thwart what was believed to be English and Dutch designs on the Philippines Archipelago as evidenced by their dealings with Maguindanao. In 1703, peace with the Maguindanao sultan was the reason offered by the Spanish government in Manila for not giving its assent to the proposal for the refortification of Zamboanga. In brief, in spite of the willingness of some Jesuits to reopen their mission at Zamboanga without any military protection, the general policy of the government was that if anything were to be established, it was to be both a mission and a garrison. In 1712, King Philip V, on account of Jesuit tenacity, issued another royal cedula, which was complied with in 1718. With the reoccupation and refortification of Zamboanga, the long peace between Spain and the Muslim sultanates of the Philippines was ssom broken. The fifth stage of the Moro Wars then commenced.

Mohammad Nasif B. Saga, Richelle Villanueva and Khaula Moctar