Representations of the Precolonial Order

Two origin myths animate Muslim nationalist politics in Cotabato. The first is an ancient myth that explains social disparity (past and present) among Cotabato Muslims by sanctifying it. This myth of sanctified inequality delineates an aristocracy entitled to rule Cotabato Muslims on the basis of their ancestral ties to the legendary figure who first brought Islam to Cotabato and, through him, to the Prophet Muhammad.^[1] The second is a modern myth about ancient origins. The myth of Morohood is shared widely by Muslim nationalists throughout the Philippines and states that a transcendent Philippine Muslim (or "Moro") identity was uniquely forged among the various Muslim ethnolinguistic groups of the southern Philippines in the course of their struggle (begun more than four hundred years ago) against Spanish attempts to subjugate them. That shared oppositional Islamic identity, together with the tradition of aristocratic rule, is considered to constitute the primordial foundation for the contemporary Muslim separatist movement.

In this chapter and the two that follow I will consider these two myths in their historical contexts. While they tend to be complementary and mutually reinforcing (the anti-Spanish resistance posited in the second myth was inspired and organized by the Muslim nobility constituted by the first), they have not had equal motivational force in the struggle for Muslim separatism. The myth of Morohood is universally embraced by Muslim nationalist ideologues. The myth of sanctified

inequality, on the other hand, has been at least indirectly challenged by some separatists. It has also been appropriated by prominent Muslim opponents of the separatist cause. Nevertheless, the two myths remain securely coupled in nationalist ideology and so will be analyzed in tandem.

The revanchist or revitalistic spirit that publicly motivates most ethnonational movements almost always includes assertions of the preferability of traditional governance. The Muslim separatist movement in the Philippines is no exception to this tendency. While depictions by Muslim nationalist ideologues of the precolonial past have been mostly vague, they invariably extol the moral and material advantages of the premodern order.^[2] Assessing such claims, and the responses of ordinary movement adherents to them, requires the investigation of past political and economic relations. This chapter examines the ideological expression and practical operation of the system of Islamic governance in precolonial Cotabato.^[3]