Isabela, Basilan
Isabela, officially the City of Isabela, is a component city and de facto capital of the province of Basilan in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 130,379 people making it the most populous city in the province.
It is also colloquially known as Isabela de Basilan to differentiate the city's name from the province of Isabela in Luzon.
While administratively the island province of Basilan is part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Isabela, which previously served as its capital since the province's creation, itself is not part of this region, being placed instead under the Zamboanga Peninsula region. While the city is still regulated by the Basilan provincial government and provincial services are provided by Basilan, regional services are provided by the Zamboanga Peninsula regional government. The Philippine Statistics Authority lists Isabela as statistically independent from Basilan. This prompted the provincial government to transfer the capital to Lamitan.
Institutionally, the military has played a major part in Isabela's and Basilan's volatile history, due to the ongoing conflicts borne out of the Moro secessionist wars of the 1970s, and more recently, by Al-Qaeda backed Islamic fundamentalist groups fomenting a running gun-battle with the Armed Forces of the Philippines for more than a decade.
Also exerting great influence in everyday life is the Roman Catholic Church and the Islamic mufti and imams, religious scholars and leaders who exercise a moral ascendancy over their respective groups.
Trading and commerce are still predominantly in the hands of the East Asian, aided more so by a recent influx of immigrants from Taiwan and by Koreans as well.
History
Isabela's history is inadvertently intermingled with that of Basilan Island and the Sulu Archipelago, albeit culturally, Isabela is an extension of neighboring Zamboanga City.Precolonial History of Basilan
According to royal genealogical records, colonial accounts, and modern historical research, Basilan, historically known as Taguima, developed as an important regional trade center in the precolonial period, linking the Sulu Archipelago, Borneo, and wider Southeast Asian maritime networks.The authority of Datu Taguima reflects the island’s early political and commercial significance in regional affairs.
The island’s inhabitants, known as the Tagimaha, formed a coastal and inland farming community engaged in trade, seafaring, agriculture, and regional diplomacy. Their activities contributed to Taguima’s role as a center of economic activity, cultural exchange, and early political organization within the Sulu Archipelago.
Champa Trade and Cultural Exchange
By the 7th to 8th centuries, Champa traders from mainland Southeast Asia maintained sustained commercial and social contact with Taguima through regional maritime trade networks. These Cham merchants established trading ties, settlements, and intermarried with local Tagimaha communities, contributing maritime knowledge, boat-building techniques, textile production methods, decorative weaving styles, and social organizational practices. This long-term interaction shaped Tagimaha society into a culturally hybrid community that combined indigenous Basilan traditions with Cham-derived maritime, artistic, and commercial influences, strengthening Basilan’s role as a center of regional trade and cultural exchange in the Sulu Archipelago.Between the 9th and 12th centuries, a violent conflict erupted in Sulu between the Buranun and Champa merchants over trade dominance and economic power. According to historical accounts and Sulu oral traditions, many Orang Dampuan traders were killed in a massacre linked to rising tensions over wealth, commerce, and political influence. Survivors of the violence fled the Sulu mainland, with a significant group seeking refuge in Taguima , where they settled among local Tagimaha communities. This migration created a second wave of Cham-linked settlement in Basilan, reinforcing existing trade networks, cultural exchange, and demographic ties between Champa-origin groups and indigenous Tagimaha society.
By the 10th to 13th centuries, Islamic influence in the Sulu Archipelago and Basilan expanded through Muslim merchants and missionaries, including scholars associated with Champa . These missionaries reinforced earlier Islamic knowledge introduced through trade, teaching religious practices, legal traditions, and communal norms to coastal and inland communities in Taguima . Some Tagimaha groups were among the earliest adopters of Islam in the southern Philippines, predating the formal establishment of the Sulu Sultanate.
Basilan Before the Sultanate
In pursuit of expanded trade routes, territory, and political influence, Tagimaha groups expanded beyond Taguima into Buansa , where they encountered resistance from the indigenous Buranun, regarded in local tradition as the original inhabitants of Sulu. As a result, some Tagimaha groups returned to Taguima, while others remained in Buansa. Royal genealogical records in the Sulu tarsila describe the Tagimaha who stayed in Buansa as early leaders who helped establish local systems of governance that later shaped Sulu political development.In Buansa , Tagimaha leaders are recorded in Sulu genealogical traditions as having supported three important Muslim figures. Karimul Makdum introduced Islam and began early religious teaching in the region, and is traditionally credited with the construction of one of the earliest mosques in Sulu. Tuan Masha’ikha strengthened Islamic influence among local elites. Raja Baguinda later arrived, initially encountering resistance, but eventually became a political leader in Buansa and married into a local ruling family linked in some traditions to Tagimaha lineage. These interactions contributed to the spread of Islam and early political development in Sulu before the establishment of the Sulu Sultanate.
The historical influence of the Tagimaha extended beyond Basilan and Buansa into the long-term political development of the Sulu region. Descendants of Tagimaha elites continued to hold leadership roles in local governance, trade networks, and regional diplomacy. Sulu genealogical records and colonial-era accounts describe Tagimaha families as part of the ruling and noble class that shaped political authority, economic activity, and inter-island relations over time.
Yakan Karajaan of Kumalarang
Records of pre-Hispanic Philippines gleaned from the extensive archives of China's Imperial courts mentions a Kingdom of Kumalarang located in one of the southern islands, whose King sent regular tribute to the Chinese Yongle Emperor through Chinese traders who frequented the place in the 13th and 14th centuries. Local historians attribute this long lost kingdom to modern-day Kumalarang located along the northwestern coast of Basilan island.Specifically, according to the Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty, a report gleaned from the records of Dezhou, Shandong, China : 3 months after the death of Paduka Batara, a High Court Mandarin, Zhan Jian, was ordered to sail to Kumalarang, a vassal state of the Sulu Sultanate located on the northwestern coast of Taguima.
Zhan Jian was received by Lakan Ipentun, presumably a Yakan Prince, who ruled the Kingdom as a vassal to the Sultan of Sulu. The Mandarin official stayed in Kumalarang for two years before returning to China.
He was accompanied by Lakan Ipentun and an entourage of several hundred, composed of his immediate family, minor chieftains, and servants. They were finally given an audience with the Chinese Emperor on November 16, 1420, where he formally asked the latter to proclaim him as a recognized sovereign and vassal to the Dragon Throne.
Lakan Ipentun wrote a missive to the Chinese Emperor on December 28, 1420, complaining about the time it took for the Chinese Emperor to act on his request. The Chinese Emperor received the petition and finally granted Lakan Ipentun with the title of wang. After his request was granted, a satisfied Lakan Ipentun, along with his entire retinue, started for home.
On May 27, 1421, however, unaccustomed to the cold climate of the preceding winter and due to his advancing age, Lakan Ipentun died in Fujian, China, just as they were about to embark on Chinese junks that would have brought them home. His funeral was supervised by Yang Shan, administrator of the temples, and was likewise honored by a eulogy sent by the Chinese Emperor which extolled his virtues of "determination and serenity". His son, Lapi, was then proclaimed as rightful successor to the just bestowed title of wang. Lapi sent one of his father's most trusted officials, Batikisan, to petition for an audience with the Chinese Emperor where he presented a "memorial" in gold plaque on November 3, 1424.
The party, with its newly proclaimed King, eventually returned to Kumalarang, and almost just as promptly faded from the historical records of the period..
Basilan during the Sulu Sultanate Era
As the Sulu Sultanate consolidated power, regional trade became increasingly centered in Jolo, reducing Basilan’s earlier prominence as a maritime trading hub. Over time, Basilan’s economy shifted toward localized production, inland agriculture, and resource-based livelihoods, as reflected in later historical and anthropological accounts. This transition marked Basilan’s changing role from a major regional trade center to a more locally oriented economic landscape.Historical accounts indicate that the authority of the Sulu Sultanate was primarily concentrated in coastal and political centers, while inland communities in Basilan, including the Yakan, retained substantial local autonomy. Ethnographic studies suggest that Yakan communities were not tightly bound to the Sultanate’s administrative or political obligations, instead maintaining their own systems of communal governance, local leadership, and customary law.
During the period of the Sulu Sultanate, communities in Basilan historically associated with the Tagimaha continued to participate in regional trade, agriculture, and local leadership. Although the Tagimaha appear less frequently in later written records, Sulu genealogical traditions and colonial accounts suggest that Basilan-based Tagimaha families maintained influence by serving as local leaders, forming marriage ties with Sulu elites, and participating in regional commerce, allowing their identity and social status to endure over time.
The Tagimaha appear to have followed two historical paths: some became integrated into elite lineages within Sulu’s political sphere, while Tagimaha communities in Basilan gradually evolved into or were absorbed by what is now known as the Yakan population.
Today, Yakan cultural traditions in Basilan show continuity with earlier Tagimaha and Cham influences, especially in weaving traditions, maritime knowledge, settlement patterns, and oral histories connected to precolonial trade networks. These cultural practices reflect long-term continuity shaped by both Cham contact and indigenous Basilan heritage.