It is incorrect to claim, as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has recited like a mantra, that Mindanao, in general, and Davao region, in particular, was already under Islam when the Spaniards took possession of some areas in Southern Philippines.
According to Moro oral and written traditions the Moro forebears reached central Mindanao in around 1500. A simple computation means Islam predates only by as much as three decades the Spaniards arrival in the country in 1521. That disputes the assertion Mindanao, prior to colonial rule, was already a Moro nation.
Going by genetics, the Mamanua of Surigao, the first negridillos (little black people) to arrived in Mindanao via the southern backdoor of Africa, reached Philippine shores via India and Australia carrying their animist practice of worshipping almost anything with direct impact on their lives. That means praying to gods with imaginary control over the fertility of the land, the abundance of the sea, or the brightness of the astronomical bodies.
When Islamic preacher Sharif Kabungsuran and his fellow sailors anchored at Maguindanao in the late 15th century, they were welcomed by friendly natives. American author Emerson B. Christie, who did extensive research in Mindanao sometime in 1900, argued the propagation of Islam was not strictly proselytization but was secondary to the purpose of fishing and trading.
The Islamic preachers apparently came from a region more developed than Mindanao. When they sailed to the South, they carried with them equipment, technology, and goods that looked superior to the natives; these made conversion easier for them.
Fr. Horacio de la Costa, in his Readings in Philippine History (1992) annotated:
“Maguindanao records make mention of a mysterious power which Kabungsuwan and his men possessed of killing someone from a distance by ‘beckoning’ to him. It is quite possible that the strangers brought with them not only a new religion but a new weapon: the gun.”
The whole episode stunned the eyewitnesses and frightened the usually docile natives who were welcomed the visitors openly. This first-hand experience of seeing a person shot from a distance was more mystical than real. De la Costa made a good analysis of the incident:
“The migrants from the Malay Peninsula do not seem to have come in any large numbers; but by virtue of superior weapons and organization they were able to impose on the indigenous population both their religion and their rule. This process, which must have taken several generations to complete, is what is telescoped in story form in the traditions of the Magindanaos.”
If the newcomers brought with them a new weapon of destruction, it is easy to argue that Islamic conversion, like what the Spanish missionaries did with their rifles, partly involved coercion in gaining adherents. Both Islam and Christianity come from regions known for their wars.
Modern scholarship, meanwhile, attributes the entry of Muslim religion in Jolo to Chinese traders who converted to Islam. At the time, Chinese customs officials who converted to Islam were already sailing to Sulu region long before the Malay preachers’ arrival.
Even Zheng He, the greatest Chinese admiral who sailed the oceans in 1421, was a certified Muslim. In retrospect, the monolithic religion that is Islam entered China from Persia (Iran) via its Islamic neighboring countries, the Persian Gulf and Southern India.
Moro influence in many regions outside Maguindanao, Cotabato, Lanao and Sulu did not happen overnight. Davao region, for that matter, was solidly animist territory before the rise of legendary Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat as sultan of Maguindanao (1619-71). If there were tribes who eventually yielded to the Moro invaders, these were the regions that became vassals, and their inhabitants as willing converts.
In Davao region, certain tribes, including the Kalagans, were among the first indigenous groups to embrace Islam. This influence is easy to trace from their oral traditions, especially in regions with strong Islamic heritage. But there were also regions outside the ‘Moro territories’ that were already known to be progressive communities even before the Malay preachers arrived. The growth of these areas can be attributed to their strong trading ties with the Chinese and other merchants from the flourishing neighboring empires.
Predating Islam and Christianity, as a matter of evidence, are beliefs in the complex worship of heavenly bodies, the systematic trading with foreign merchants visiting regularly the Davao Gulf, the intricate jewelry designs reflected in ornaments, native attires and pottery, and, significantly, the existence of social structures that included classes of slaves.
Islamic conversions, as a matter of historical fact, were limited only to regions found along the coastal regions of Mindanao. These areas were sources of military alliance and the perennial victims of Moro piracy and pillage centuries later.
Moreover, an indisputable facet of the prevalence of precolonial animist practices among indigenous tribes can be found in voluminous literatures published in the past century by scholars who personally conducted in-depth interviews with tribal elders whose role in their respective societies was to perpetuate by oral tradition of the practices of their ancestors.
