Sulu Archipelago
Stretching northeast to southwest from Basilan Island, south of Mindanao's Zamboanga peninsula, to Sabah, Malaysia, the Sulu archipelago exceeds 320 kilometers (200 miles) in length, consists of over 500 islands, and occupies an area of 2,813 square kilometers (1,086 square miles). It is surrounded on the north and west by the Sulu and Mindanao seas and on the south and west by the Celebes Sea.
Islam was first introduced to the Philippines in the Sulu archipelago in the late thirteenth century. A majority of the population (97 percent) is Muslim. Politically the archipelago is comprised of two provinces: Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, with a combined population in 1995 of 787,000. In a 1989 plebiscite Sulu and Tawi-Tawi joined the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Most of the inhabitants of the archipelago belong to one of three ethnic groups: Tausug, Samal, and Bajau. Commercially, numerically, and politically, the Tausug is the dominant group.
Dating back to the Spanish and American colonial periods, the Muslims of the Sulu archipelago have a long history of resistance. In the early 1970s, Nur Misuari, a Tausug, formed the Moro National Liberation Front seeking the secession of Mindanao and Sulu from the Philippines. The ensuing guerrilla war against the Philippine army resulted in 50,000 casualties.
Further Reading
Majul, Cesar Adib. (1985) The Contemporary Muslim Movement in the Philippines. Berkeley, CA: Mizan.
Nimmo, Harry A. (1994) The Songs of Salanda and Other Stories of Sulu. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
Sleeby, Najeeb M. (1908) The History of Sulu. Manila, Philippines: Bureau of Printing.
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