Visiting the tomb of a saint, composing and transmitting a genealogy, or copying a manuscript are practices that organize time, society, and territory, in the Muslim Southern Philippines. Based on the local written and oral sources related to the Islamization of the region, this talk presents the emergence of three Islamized political entities - the sultanates of Sulu, Magindanao-Buayan, and the Muslim confederation Pat a pengampong ko Ranao. It focuses on the social and cultural aspects of Islamization and highlights the circulation of a ‘Malay‘ cosmopolitan culture in the Southern Philippines, as well as the local specificities of an indigenized Islam.
