Author: Guo Zhongli (202.77.111.---)
Date: 03-31-02 05:18
CHINESE MING DYNASTY & ISLAMIC INFLUENCES
1368-1644 AD - The period of the Chinese Ming dynasty which brought to fore Islam’s heights in Celestial China under the aegis of her archetypical emperor- Chu Yuan-chang (better known as Hung Wu) who traced his Muslim roots to Madeenah in Saudia.
1372 AD - A Tausug mission was sent to Imperial China that, up to this time, had only received sovereign states; Jolo would send more missions in the years following.
- Sabah Journal reported a Ming envoy, Prince Sahib ul-Kahar Ong Sum-ping to have sailed through the Sulu Archipelago to Kinabatangan in North Borneo and established a permanent Chinese foothold in that vast uninhabited island.
1380 AD - Arab judge-cum-scholar, Sheikh Karim ul-Makdum (Arabic for Afather@), arrived in Sulu from Melaka; He built the first mosque at Tubig Indangan in Simunul Sulu and advanced Islamic teaching to neighboring islands but died at Tandu Banak in Sibutu Sulu without ever returning home.
1386 AD - Admiral Cheng Chi-lung was installed as chief of the the Eastern hemisphere; his son Kuo Hsing-yeh (Koxinga to the Europeans) was better known in tactics and strategy is today revered as national hero in China.
1390 AD - Srivijayan Raja Baguinda, a minor ruler of Minangkabau, arrived in Sulu from Swarna Dwipa and founded the town of Bwansa in Jolo Island; His other compatriots, fleeing incoming Majapahit warriors, settled in Negri Sembilan (a state in present-day Malaysia).
1400-1440 AD – China reportedly sent naval expeditions to the coastal towns of present-day Philippines for forty years to familiarize with Moro piratical activities plying the south China Sea even engaging in desultory conflicts with Japanese corsairs.
1402 AD - Temasek ruler Parameswara, again running from invading Majapahit warriors, moved north to Muar and founded a Melaka settlement; He also embraced Islam on marrying a princess from Samudara Pasai and named himself Sultan Iskandar Shah of the Sultanate of Melaka to honor his ancestor Raja Iskandar Zulkarnain (the Macedonian greatman Alexander the Great).
- Melakan Sultan Shah sent a mission to Imperial China in 1405 for which admiral Chengho returned the courtesy in 1409; Shah himself went to China in 1411 AD - with a retinue of four-hundred-fifty confederates accompanied by Chengho himself.
- Melakan Sultan Shah’s home government reforms included specifying the functions of civil service offices like bendahara" (prime minister), temenggong laksamana" (admiral) and "shabandar" (harbor master) and adopted the custom of having ceremonial "white-and-yellow" umbrellas for royalties; He also laid the foundation of present-day Malay court procedures.
1403 AD - Melakan Sultan Shah was visited by a Chinese envoy Yin Ching, and admiral Chengho who arranged for his 1411 China visit; For this effort, Chengho was revered by the locals as the Venerated Sam-po Kong and built for him a baronial temple in Melaka.
1405-1433 AD - Ming emperor Yung Lo sent for seven naval expeditions from his Yangtze estuary to comb the shores of the Eastern Hemisphere employing 27,800 military crew in 1,180 Asampans@ and commanded by Muslim admiral Chengho; Chengho died in 1433 in Calicut (present-day Calcutta). According to Nichol, about the same period, another Chinese envoy was sent to Sulu corollary to this colossal plan of emperor Yung Lo.
1406 AD - Brunei Sultan Ahmad (a.k.a. Pateh Berbai) sent an envoy to Imperial China which occasion inspired him to change his north Bornean settlement to Brunei from a Sanskrit word Abarunai.
1408 AD - Chinese admiral Pei Pei Hsein, who was originally in the expeditionary fleet of Sam-po Kong that earlier visited Melakan Sultan Shah, was forced to land in Jolo because of monsoon rains and settled for sometime in Maubuh beach where he built a deep-well artesian as a gesture of gratitude for local hospitality.
- Early Jolo Chinese settlers revered him on his death as Poon-tao Kong, Athe Celestial,@ and interred his immortal remains at Jati Tunggal in Indanan Sulu where a memorial tombstone stands today.
- Islam widely spread to the North Borneo island in the Darvel Bay area.
1417 AD - Sulu Eastern Nakura Paduka Batara, together with Western Nakura Maharajah Gemding and Northern Nakura Paduka Balabu, including three-hundred-thirty-four Tausug nobles, visited Dezhou town in Shandong China on invitation of the Ming emperor Yung Lo.
- Nakura Paduka Batara of the northern kingdom, however, fell ill in Dezhou and died, necessitating Emperor Yung Lo to order his ministers to honor the distinguished guest with a funeral befitting a visiting king.
- Other tribute bearing missions were sent between 1420-1454 but contacts abruptly ended in 1473 when the Brunei leaders started to control the foreign policy of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu which is now under their governance.
1433 AD - A Seven-Datu-Council codified the Code of Kalantiaw (by Kalantiaw) and the Maragtas Code (by Sumakwel) for the people of Panay Island; Three Adatus from the original ten who came to Panay left for Batangas and Mindoro; Datu Putih was one of them but eventually returned to North Borneo from where no trace of him was found.
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